DAY 51 - November 21, 2023

We began our day with a walk on the beach at Gulf Shores, Alabama. We made sure to honor the prohibition against fishing for sharks.

“The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli.”     - George Costanza

Beauty and the Beasts

While in Gulf Shores, we met up with my brother-in-law Ronnie West, his wife Ellen, their son Jared and his wife, plus three grandchildren. We ate at a restaurant Ronnie recommended, the Original Oyster House. The food was excellent. After our meal we went back to Ronnies and Ellen's house where this photo was taken.

Ronnie shared his model train layout. It's in a building separate from the house and really amazing!

After leaving Gulf Shores we headed for home in a rental car. We'll be home for Thanksgiving with my brother and his wife. This coming weekend we'll be heading back to Mobile with a truck and our boat trailer. We'll be bringing the boat back home for repairs and storage during the winter months before restarting our loop in March.

DAY 50 - November 20, 2023

From the beginning of this adventure our plan has always been to stop somewhere around Mobile Bay and leave our boat at a marina for three months, then resume our loop in March. HOWEVER, we've had several systems on the boat break down and in need of repair. Therefore it would probably be less expensive if we take the boat home for the winter and do the repairs myself. That way we avoid marina storage fees and the expense of paying someone to do the repairs.

So, our boat is tied up at Dog River Marina in Mobile, Alabama. We have a rental car and will be returning home tomorrow. Sunday we'll return with our trailer. We've contracted to have the boat lifted out of the water and set on the trailer on Monday. Then we'll take a couple of days to bring the boat back home.

Early this morning we saw a shrimp boat pulling out of the harbor to go to work. While this was going on we were trying to locate a rental car. Do you know how hard it is to get a rental car for a one way trip the week of Thanksgiving? It's hard!

After picking up the rental car we secured our boat to the dock. There is rough weather coming in tonight so we had to do an extra good job of getting it tied. Once we left the boat we traveled to Gulf Shores, Alabama where we're going to meet my brother-in-law and his wife for lunch tomorrow. On the way we saw a Buc-ee's. Neither of us have been to a Buc-ee's before, do we stopped to check the place out.

This evening we ate dinner at Lulu's. This is a well know stop for loopers and we happened to see some of them there. Formerly owned by Jimmy Buffet, Lulu's is now owned and operated by Jimmy's sister, Lucy.

DAY 49 - November 19, 2023

We were moving on the river by 6:00 in the morning.

As the sun rose it began to slowing burn off the fog.

We saw lots of bird activity along the last section of the Mobile River.

At one point we had to call and request a railroad lift bridge be raised.

As the waters opened up into Mobile Bay we began seeing larger ships.

Ships like tanker ships....

military ships....

cruise ships....

hospital ships....

and container ships.

We also passed by Downtown Mobile. 

Tonight we're tide up at Dog River Marina off of Mobile Bay.

DAY 48 - November 18, 2023

Yesterday evening we had a little celebration of my birthday. My birthday cake was a mini pecan pie and my ice cream was from a dollar store. You gotta make compromises when traveling on a boat.

While most of the leaves have fallen from the trees back home (Cincinnati) many of the trees here are just getting around to dropping their leaves.

While waiting for a lock to open, we had an opportunity to tie up to a community dock at a park and stretch our legs. Another boat pulled in behind us and we chatted with them for a while. They're from Canada and have already done the loop in a sailboat. No they're doing it in a trawler.

While at the park Denise stepped on a dirt mound of ants and got bitten by a bunch of them.

We saw lots of shore bird activity as we traveled south.

This is a screen shot from a program we have running on our iPad. The magenta color line is the path we follow. This is a good example of why we have to travel a long distance on the path the river takes, to travel a short distance as the crow flies.

Once again we saw several alligators along the shore. In this case we saw two at once.

Last week we shared a photo of a phone booth set up in the woods along the edge of the river. Today we saw something similar in the form of a barber chair in an equally obscure location.

We have a device on our boat called a chart plotter. The captain is supposed to keep the little boat in the river channel on a dashed line called a sail line.

However, sometimes the little boat is out of the channel, on a beach or in the woods. That's why it pays to have multiple navigation devices, as well as keeping both eyes on the river.

We saw a family of deer getting drinks. They didn't;t seem to mind us passing by.

This evening we anchored in a creek along with another looper whose boat is named Paradise. They have a YouTube channel we watch. The rope in the photo is from us tying the back of our boat to a tree, while the front of the boat is secured to our anchor. This configuration prevents us from swinging around during the night.

Today we passed the 1,000 total miles point and we also set a new record for miles covered in one day at 71.3 miles. 

DAY 47 - November 17, 2023

 

We departed Kingfisher Bay Marina at Demopolis, Alabama in the dark at 5:30 this morning. Three miles later we entered a lock with eight other boats to drop about forty feet.

After leaving the lock we passed a waterfall on the river. The only other place I've seen a waterfall on a river is on the Ohio River at Louisville.

The rock formations along the river bank and the Spanish moss hanging from the trees is a reminder that we're in the southern part of the United States.

We passed under this railroad lift bridge. The center section lowers when trains are ready to pass through.

We passed through miles and miles of natural river and forest. We saw no litter, no people and hardly any animals. However..........

We saw three alligators along the river bank. These three pictures are all of one alligator. The captain of one boat thought they were steering to avoid a log before realizing it was an alligator in the river.

Tonight we're anchored in the middle of Bashi Creek off of the Tombigbi River. There are very few places to anchor over the two hundred mile stretch we're on now. In this photo you can see the anchor line attached to our boat.

To keep from swinging into the river bank, we did a stern-tie to some solid debris in the middle of the river. This is the first time we've used this technique and it seems to be working pretty well.