After a couple of days of iffy weather we finally headed down the Tenn-Tom to Mobile. We traveled with Summertime who were doing their second loop so it gave us a little more confidence to be with experienced loopers. We entered our first lock only 3 miles from our marina and since we hadn't locked in over 20 months, we had a little trepidation that we wouldn't remember how to do it. Flint made the approach a little fast and one of the lines attached to our looping hose broke and we had to scramble to get another line tied onto it. Most boats can loop onto the floating bollard from a cleat in the middle of their boat, but our cleats are more fore and aft and we have to tie one to each side. It can cause a problem if there is a lot of wind or current as the bow or the stern can move out from the wall more and put pressure on your line. We got through the lock fine once we were fully attached. There is not much excitement on the river as it is pretty desolate and there are very few homes along the waterway. We encountered many tows and barges along the way, but they were very responsive to our radio calls and told us to either pass them on the "1", which is to the right or on the "2", which is to the left.
Our first anchorage that night was Bashi Creek, which was a narrow little creek that allowed us to get off the waterway and away from the barge traffic. It was necessary to drop both bow and stern anchors so that we wouldn't swing into the shore. It was the first time we had to do that so it took a little maneuvering to get them set properly. We slept well and wanted to get an early strart in the morning, but Summertime had a little trouble with their generator and we didn't get away until almost 8. We went through our second lock this day and we had a very difficult time with our stern moving away from the wall, pushing our bow into the wall because the wind and current were very strong. We were very glad when we were all the way down and the gate opened. I think we used every muscle in our bodies and we were very sore the next day. We had a ten hour trip to our anchorage and it was beginning to get dark when we got there. We don't like to cut it so close because traveling after dark on the river can be very dangerous. The second anchorage was a little wider than the first one, but we still set a stern anchor just to be safe. The next morning it was so foggy that we couldn't leave until the fog lifted. It looked very eerie to see our partner boat anchored in the fog.
We finally left at 8 and headed for our final anchorage of the trip which was in the Tenesaw Cut, only 12 miles from Mobile. As we got closer to it we were hailed on the radio by two other boats who were anchored in there already. They invited us to join them on their boat, after we got anchored, to watch the LSU football game on their Dish TV. We dropped our dinghy and picked up Ray and Linda from Summertime and took them over with us. We had a fun time getting to know each other and sharing snacks.
We only had 12 miles to travel today so we didn't leave until about 9. Our first view of Mobile was the skyscrapers rising in the distance. Mobile is a huge seaport and we passed many ships from all over the world. There must be a significant repair business there because we saw many boats in drydock.
We were finally in Mobile bay and we separated from Summertime to go east to Fairhope as they were going west to Dog River to get some repairs done. We had heard that Fairhope was a beautiful little town with quaint shops. We were staying at the Fairhope Yacht Club, which was charging us only $10 a night with an electric hookup. What a deal!! When we arrived they invited us to their Sunday brunch and it was absolutely delicious. We were finally on our way and were thrilled to be back on the water again. Join us next time for our trip across the panhandle of Florida. We will leave you with a spectacular sunset across Mobile Bay.
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