Sunday - November 14, 2010

lat - 32 50 06; 88 08 21; eng 520.09; fuel 160 ga

It has been suggested that it would be helpful if I mentioned the city we were close to in my blog. Unfortunately, many times we are not near any city but out in the real boonies, like last night. The only reference point is the Stennis lock and I doubt that is on any road map. However we did cross from Mississippi into Alabama back to Mississippi and then back to Alabama as the Tombigbee wound its way south. Having said that tonight we will be in Demopoulis, Alabama, not that we are going into the town as everything is closed - it is Sunday and this is the Bible Belt.

Today we set out about 8:00 and continued down the river. This section of the river reminds me of northern Ontario highways - trees, trees and more trees. However there was an interesting section where there were white cliffs on one side of the river and normal mud on the other. I wonder if under the water there is a magical change from one to the other. It is obvious the level of the river can change dramatically from year to year. As evidenced by the shoreline and the photo above the water was considerably higher. The marina master confirmed that this was a low year, as I found out by trying to enter a few suggested anchorages. I would think in a high year, the river would be a flow a lot faster.

We caught up with some other Loopers, but eventually I had to pass them as they were going a lot slower than what I wanted to do. Not many places to anchor along the river so we pushed on to Demopolis which was described in the boating books as something special and that people stayed for weeks and even years. Truth be told, the only way I would stay for a week is if the boat would not start. It is not an impressive place and we are rafted to another boat that is tied tot he fuel dock. Fortunately, both of us want to leave real early tomorrow morning and get a good start towards Bobby's Fish Camp, the the only other marina on the 215 mile stretch to Mobile. Hopefully, we will make it by the 17th so we can rest for a day. My intentions was to make Mobile by the 20th so we are ahead of schedule, largely because this is not a particularly scenic river.