We spent one night at Grand Mariner and then crossed the Dog River to get gas at  Dog River Marina and spent two nights there.

Here’s a view of the Dog River Bridge at sun rise,

Here’s the view of Grand Mariner Marina Friday night, with one boat all decorated for Christmas.  Speaking of Christmas- I heard my first Christmas song on the radio on Nov 25th– that’s a little too early.

Here’s  a 112 foot yacht at Dog River, which was just down the dock from us.

and more birds.  I  beginning to think the Herons are following us.

On Black Friday we went to West Marine and bought more charts and ropes. We went to Walmart on Saturday for groceries.

We plan to pull out of here by 10:00 and cross Mobile Bay  (~ 30 miles in open water) .

Update of November 24, 25   and 26

Due to a fog delay, we didn’t get through the Demopolis Lock until 8:35, a 2 ½ hour delay as we had hoped to lock through at 6:00.  There were 6 powerboats (Adiamo, Hop on Board, India Jayne, Touch of Class, Longfellow and a sail boat- Beluga locking down.  Following the lock the boats spread out depending on how fast they travelled.  We had planned to stay with “Touch of Class”, so we followed him for most of the day at a more leisurely pace.  At mile point 173, we passed the James River Paper Mill, which Andy recalls his dad going there as a troubleshooter  back in the 1970’s.

We ended up anchoring at mile 145, Bashi creek, in about 11 feet of water, there was lots of debris and branches when we entered, but we went slow- 2 anchors were set and then “Touch of Class” rafted to us and set another anchor. We weighed anchor at 6:02,

and continued down the Tombigbee-Black Warrior River.  We cruised by “Bobby’s Fish Camp”, where many of the faster boats from yesterday had spent the night tied up to his dock.  Didn’t look like we missed much, although there was a damaged boat on the shore- not sure how long it had been there.

We arrived at Coffeeville Dam, mile 116.6  – our last lock until  Florida–  just before 9:00, however the lockmaster had the lock set up for a northbound tow, so we waited an hour and ½ to lock through. Saw lots of herons/cranes and a few pelicans while we waited.

  In the lock, we were joined by “Touch of Class “and “Beluga”.  The river meandered back and forth —in several places if the river had a straight cut through the bush, many miles could be shaved off the trip.  I saw a drawbridge, that looked like it was still in operation.There was a lot more tows on the river than we’d seen in the last few days.  One tow was moving some dredging equipment and was over ¼ mile long, with a couple of auxillery tugs to help steer it.    We kept in contact with “Touch of Class” throughout the day and had decided to go to Three rivers Lake at mile 64, we anticipated arriving there at 15:30,  so we changed the anchorage to the Alabama cut-off at mile 52.8.  We arrived there at 16:30 and set our anchor,  but with over 100 feet of chain we didn’t feel too secure as there was a 5 knot current in the river.   We weighed the anchor and went back to Bates Lake at mile 53.8, it was just becoming dark at 17:00 when we set our two anchors  in 13.0 feet. “ Touch of Class”- Jaime and Connie arrived about 15 minutes later.     Andy called and confirmed that we had three nights of dockage at Grand Mariner marina near Dog River.  I guess we’ll be spending American Thanksgiving and Black Friday in Mobile Alabama on the Gulf Coast.

We left at  6:15, as we had  54 miles to Mobile and then another 12 to the marina.

It started out as a nice sunny day with hardly a breeze, but the wind picked up as we got closer to Mobile.

At mile 45 the Alabama River joined into the Black Warrior-TomBigbee River; and the river was re-named to the Mobile River—it’s hard to keep score- and know where we really are.  At Mile 10 we left the Mobile River, I think,  took a cut off  channel, only to rejoin the Mobile river at Mile 7.  Once we got to  the bridge downtown we were then at Mile 0, and now on the Mobile Harbour/Shipping  Channel-we followed this to  Red Marker 65 and then turned right to get to our Marina on the Dog River, ( we’re far from Saskatchewan- so not that Dog River)

Once we got into Mobile Bay there were some 2 – 3 foot waves peaking at 4 that rocked the boat a fair bit.  I was happy to turn west to get out of the pounding waves- it was too rough for me to take pictures- so you have to trust me that it was bad.

We went through several industrial areas, with paper plants and a steam plant.   I saw some big equipment “mighty machines”, and took a picture of these for Jack, as one had his Mom’s name on it.

Here’s my first glimpse of  Mobile,there were many things to see along the river and I took pictures of many ships, and even found a few birds that didn’t look like Herons.

We’re at Grand Mariner Marina, and will be here for a couple days.

We spent a couple of days here in Demopolis, but the plan is to leave early tomorrow.  We hope to  go  over 90 miles to Bobby’s Fish Camp, which is the next place with a dock that we can tie up to.  With the river running high and swift, we’d like to be somewhere secure or in a good anchorage.  We only have a single lock to go through and that is about 3 miles from our present location.    We will be traveling with “Touch of Class” and “Longfellow”,  two boats that travel at about the same speed as us.   There are now about  6 or 7 other looper boats  here in Demopolis,  4 of them arrived today- everyone is in a hurry to get down to the Gulf for Thanksgiving, so I expect the river will be busy tomorrow.

We have a flock of Canada geese  hanging out at the Marina- so we feel right at home- just like Boundary Creek. With the cold weather the last few days the trees are quickly changing to more familiar autumn colours,  but very few of the trees have completely lost their leaves.

We won’t have internet until we get to Mobile- so there won’t be updates until the end of the week.

This is the same view from the port window, two days apart.  Yesterday it was extremely foggy here and no one considered leaving until after 8:00,   when we  finally went to start the engines to pull out, the Starboard would not start.  We called for a maintenance person to come take a look, but they are unavailable until Monday. So we are still at Midway Marina in Fulton MS.

Andy cleaned all the battery terminals and topped up the water, he suspects the starter is jammed.

Yesterday as the Admiral, I volunteered to scrub the decks– it was a lovely day and I was out there in shorts.  So far today I’ve defrosted the freezer and will do some more cleaning and possibly laundry.  Not sure how long we’ll be here, but at least there isn’t snow on the ground!

We got off to an early start, leaving the Marina at about 6:30 we went  back to Dave and Kathy’s house so we could take a picture of it from the water and to our surprise Dave was up and taking a picture of us. Here’s Dave’s picture,

and here’s mine…..  When Kathy sent the picture- she said it was rare for him to be up that early.  Great picture thanks for sharing.

We continued on down the Tennessee River and saw a number of  towns and campgrounds.  I think we met 3   tows today, but saw a number of  boats with people fishing.    Here’s what the weekend homes look like along the river, all the Rv’s seemed  to be covered by metal clad roofs which we suspect must be needed to provide shade.  Houses were built on stilts in the event of flooding.

We made it to Pickwick Lock and Dam   just after noon, and were able to lock right through.  With the current, wind  and 55 foot rise it was tough securing the boat to the lock wall and both of us had our hands full.    We then crossed Pickwick lake, to the  start of the Tenn-Tomthis waterway  was completed in 1985 and  connects the Tennessee river with the Tombigbee River in Demopolis Alabama.  We now have approximately 450 miles, and 341 feet of elevation to go down ( this means lots more locks- Yipee!!) until we reach Mobile Bay.  I’ve include a map and factsheet.

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Tenn-Tom Quick Facts

We’re spending the night at Grand Harbour Marina, and once again are planning an early start as we’d like to tackle a few of the locks tomorrow, and get into a marina as the weather man is calling for a “FREEZE WATCH”  over the mid- south which means that the sub-freezing temperatures will kill crops and vegetation!  It’s got to be true I heard it on the radio!

We left Cuba Landing after having paid for our nights lodging,  here’s some views of this marina. 

    There was  a little mist as we left the Marina,A relatively uneventful day on the river,  the water was like glass when we started out, but the winds picked up as the day progressed.   I started learning the memory work that I will need to know for Installation in May.  Only a 2 tow day.  Saw some interesting houses and rocks.We arrived in Riverstone Marina at 14:15, and parked beside another Canadian boat that had been here for several months.  We met a couple of guys, when we first docked, Dave and Walt.  Dave was quite interested in the great loop, and we gave him a  boat tour, and offered to show his wife the boat as well.  He later brought her by for a tour and docktails.  We were then invited back to their custom built country home on the hill overlooking the river.  Walt and his wife Kathy came over and we had “Rocktails” on their patio carved out of limestone as we watched the river flow by.  What a great evening!We hope to get an early start in the morning and get to the Tennessee/Mississippi border.

After our previous night in an anchorage, we slept well tied up in Paris, although a little apprehensive about what the mechanic might tell us in the morning. Justin arrived just before 9:00, and it didn’t take him long to diagnose the problem—which was some loose wires to the Port cranking battery.  He went on his way and we walked up to the Paris Landing state park Inn for a late breakfast.    We then filled up the water tank, and left at 11:40.   We saw some interesting sights….

 These are referred to as federal moorings.An old bridge Our plan was to go to Cuba…..Cuba Landing Marina at mile 115.  We arrived just as the sun was going down at 16:45, a rather uneventful trip as we did not meet a single tow today, only some fishing boats and some birds.