Free, Freedom, FreeBird

Check out the twists and turns in this crazy river! The Tombigbee

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Know matter how you say it, we are free!! Free of locks that are absolutely unpredictable and can totally mess with your state of mind, free of rivers and barges in rivers. We have made it to Mobile. But to back up a few days…

In my last post I was asking for the Lock Ferries to make the end of the rivers more enjoyable. The very next day was a rough one, but- it could have been so much worse, so I have decided they started working then. And after that— life got so much better, but I digress.

We left Bay Springs and went through 3 locks on our way to the Smithville lock where we anchored out, hoping for a 6:00 am lock through. We had 3 locks to go through that day to arrive in Columbus Mississippi.

I called the lock at 5:45am and was told they had maintenace going on and it would be 7:30 so hang tight. We only had 4 boats in this flotilla so it was a small one.

We all agreed to pull up anchor when he called us vs pulling up and circling around for an hour+. It was pouring rain, but I got the dogs to shore- actually at 5;30 am, Mike pulled our stern anchor - in the rain - and fastened down the tender and we waited.

We got the call, pulled up anchor only to find a tree stump - an entire tree stump on our anchor! I’’ve already mentioned the “psych“ aspects of making your lock.

I called Mike up to the bow and was like I can’t get it off!!!! It had literally been pierced by the anchor and was 5’ long. 😬

I was thinking we are going to have pull out the tender to get it off and miss our lock. Can’t miss the stupid lock! Mike got it off though- it cost us a boat hook, but he got that sucker off. He used the hook and kept plunging it back into the water. The power of gravity and force. Whew!!😅

Later, I was told a story where a boat literally kept the tree stump on his anchor until he arrived at his next marina where he could take it off. That must have been a stressful ride. So glad Mike got the thing off!

We made the lock. All the locks were backed up and it was a long day of waiting. We got to the third lock and there was debris and shallow water everywhere. We had a 2+ hour wait. There were very few places deep enough and the 4 of us were all trying to find good places to anchor in between all of this debris.

We hit something while looking (probably another tree stump) and even though we were going super slow and Mike was in neutral as much as he could be, we prepared for the worst. Had we damaged our prop? We had an hour to think about it and then 30 minutes in the lock to think about it. Sitting and thinking can be an anxiety ridden task- especially for me…. 😐 Captain’s note: she was a stress case, almost demoted her to sailor!

After we got through the lock, Mike pulled ahead of everyone and tried MaD out. At 9 knots we started to feel a vibration and really - a wobble- ughh..😔 But it was tolerable and we could continue on- except after about a minute it started to get better- and better- and all good!👍

We must have just had something wrapped around it, and it freed itself. WooHoo! 🎉👏

Off we went to the marina thanking our lucky stars on a crisis diverted. 😎😅🤦‍♀️😃

Photos:

You just have to imagine a tree stump much like this only wet and very muddy attached to our anchor. It was literally pierced all the way through by the point of the anchor. I didn’t even think about a picture- because you know- we had a lock to get through.

The rest of the photos for the day:

• 1 - Our anchorage

• 2- A rainy start to the day. It was very dark. The ramp was just well lit.

• 3-6 Pictures along the way

• 4-8 Debris and shallows at the lock. The rain from the night before may have stirred some of it up as well.

• 9-13. Coming into Demopolis you are met with a one mile stretch of beatiful white cliffs. They are called the Demopolis chalk cliffs and are part of the Selma group. The chalk was deposited along the rivers during the Campanian stage. Beyond that, you will need to look it up if you want to learn more. But they are soooo cool.

The next day, we had another 6:15 am lockthrough from Columbus with about 13 other boats.

It was a little chaotic with so many boats and this isn’t like the Illinois rivers where everything was pre-organized. But we all got in and it went ok.

We were trying to get to Demopolis in one day which was over 100 miles and we had 3 more locks to get through. We were a bit anxious as to how long that would take. We had an anchorage as a back up - but were really trying to make some headway for Thanksgiving.

I should mention the way it works in these locks- up until this point. Locks were within 10 miles of each other, the river was a ditch and there was a fair amount of debris so you didn’t want to run fast.

But equally important, the locks wait- Your first lock of the day, sets your speed. if you go faster than your slowest boat, you just wait at the next lock for that boat to catch up. If you have a boat that does 6 knots, so do you….

Because of this all boats are generally going to the same place each day. The length of stay may vary and therefore your boat group may vary. But you run with a lot of the same boats each day. We had a good group through a lot of it right up through Aqua Yachts, but then it changed daily after that . We would see people from our original group and then not see them for a few days.

After Columbus, the river opened up, the locks had a 25 mile spread and the debris settled down. This was the first day we could run fast and get to the next lock in enough time to have our own lockage without the whole group. It was also the first warm day where Mike could drive from upstairs, so we were itching to go.

As luck would have it- and this was a true turning point in our “river experience”. There were two other boats that wanted/could to go fast and asked if they were the only two. I chimed in that we were planning on picking up the pace for sure if the river would permit It.

As it turns out both boats had done this before. 1 was a delivery captain (although a very respectful one on the water) and the other was a guy that used to own a Swift 44 and we had met years ago at South Seas in Captiva, FL.

The delivery captain said that if we could run 20 mph he would take us on with their boats. They both have express cruisers, so it was under 10 or greater than 20. Their boats don’t run well in between.

Mike usually runs around 17 or 18mph, but agreed. I will tell you what, MaD purrs like a kitten at 20. We had a great run. The river opened up and was wide and tows were easy to pass. Based on what so many people had told us, we were planning on a 12 hour day, and arriving in the dark. We made it in 8.5 hours. The locks were all ready or almost ready when we arrived so no big slow down with the locks. What a different experience it was.

Demopolis was not what I expected, Pretty small and rural. But we stayed two nights. Mike needed a break. So did the dogs.

I gave MaD a much needed cleaning and got caught up with laundry. Food wasn’t so great in the town, but it was all good and a welcome break from the constant hurry up and wait.

Photos:

• 1-Just like the name of the boat. But look at the size of it…..

• 2-3- Thats a real houseboat with there own golf cart.

• 4-5 Bird hanging out on a log and then taking off

• 5. We had dinner with the delivery captain at the Red Barn and there was this rooster…. It was an interesting place. The food- not so much.

Ok- the white cliffs really belong here- but its too hard to move them on my iPad🤦‍♀️

Our traveling partners continued on and didn’t spend a second day in Demopolis, so we didn’t travel with them again.

Probably just as well. Without us, they travelled 2 locks and 180 miles that day! We couldn’t have kept up with that. They ended out anchoring at a beautiful stop, but with plenty of alligators, so it would have been super hard on the dogs.

One thing about those cruisers though- they needed fuel at that expensive run down dock. If they charged 2.75 a foot for dockage, who knows what fuel cost. Not us, because we didn’t need it! Love our Swifty. 😁

Back to us, we had 10 boats locking through on our day at 6:00 am. Another chaotic morning and there was several flotilla mis-communications, that could have caused us to miss our lock time. We left ahead of the pack.

We did make our lock though and I wish I had gotten a picture of the 100+ bass fishing boats all gathered waiting for their tournament to take off. It was still dark and you just saw of these red and green nav lights with the occasional LED blue stripes. Super cool!

At this point, we learned to get going out of the lock fast, so we did and we had another great run all by ourselves for a change. We made it to Coffeeville around noon which was our last lock.

We could have stayed there on a very expensive rundown dock (they know their audience) or continue on and anchor out.

We wanted to anchor further down the river, but we were told by the lockmaster to wait and for some reason thought we had 3 tows to wait for. That would have taken all of our daylight. Captains Note: another stress point!

After an hour, I was feeling defeated and was calling Bobbies to tell them we would stay there and then we had a ” role reversal”. Mike called the lock to clarify.

I usually call the locks, but this time I thought they had clarified to Mike on the radio that we had 3 tows.

I guess Mike had just thought 3 tows, but wasn’t sure. He really didn’t want to stay at Bobbies so he called and the lockmaster said the tow was leaving the lock and he would get us down in 10 minutes.

For the first time since we have been doing these locks, we were the only boat in the lock. Our last lock was a breeze once we got the go ahead!

WooHoo again!! Our last lock.Yay!!!!!! Free of locks!!!!

Photos

• 1- Our last lock

• 2 and 3 - SEE YA!!!!

We made it another 50 miles or so and anchored out for the night. While there was a great beach for the dogs, we only allowed them out when we anchored at 4:00 pm and once when left at 7:00 am. We were on the main river, so I’m sure not a lot of alligator activity, but…. plus, as soon as it got dark you heard all sorts of things, Coyotes, owls, noises I don’t even know what they were.

I always try to get them to go on the boat. I have real plants, I had wood that they peed on on shore— again, no.

They made it 15 hours - their choice. Here is the thing, anyone that knows them, knows that they think our pillars/posts at our houses are perfectly suited to pee on… Ollie spent his whole life in a cage before us. He was peed on , under him, above him, all around him. But no…..

Gizmo was shaking like crazy buy the time he got back to shore… His record is 23 hours waiting for shore though….Silly dogs 🐶🤦‍♀️

Photos:

• 1- anyone want a random boat chair?

• 2. Our anchorage

• 3- Our little beach

• 4-5 getting darker and dark.

• 6-8 beautiful morning with a touch of fog

To give you an idea of how freeing it is to be free of locks, this is what happened about 5:00 am.

• We left the radio on 16 all night in case there was an emergency.

• About 5:00 am I hear an upbound tow come on the radio talking to two other upbound tows. He is just giving them an FYI that there are two boats at the sunflower anchorage.

• That is our anchorage. The very first thing I think is that if we have 3 upbound tows at 5:00 am what is that going to do to our morning lock through. When will they arrive at the lock and how long with the wait be?…

• And then, I remembered- no more locks. I happily rolled over and went back to sleep 💤

Yesterday——days really do run together- I have no idea what day it is anymore. No idea what day we went from point A to point B. Unless, it was yesterday…😂. Several of us have commented on this. It’s crazy.

Yesterday, we left our anchorage around 8:00 am and headed for Mobile. We had another easy run down the last 80 miles of river and then went through the Mobile Shipping Port. It was actually pretty fascinating watching all the little minion tugs do their work. We got to watch them push an ocean liner out into the channel. Very busy but neat to watch.

Photos:

• 1-2. Still pretty rural

• 3- Don’t know what this

• 4- Parked barges

• 5- Still some hidden debris

• 6-7- Starting to get industrial

• 8- Bridge leading into Mobile

• 9-13- The harbour

• 14- Is that a submarine?

• 15. The ocean liner we watched them push into the channel

We made it to our marina uneventfully and then it became eventful. No one was working and there was no room on the wall where we told in advance to put our boat. Boats were too far spaced apart so we had no room.

Some kid came down and helped to tie us up to a wall in the channel outside the marina and then just disappeared….

We absolutely didn’t want to be on the outside dock, unprotected so I went looking for the kid. He definitively didn’t want to work and was gone.

If you remember the guy we traveled with for a day that used to have a swifty, he was on the wall and moved his boat and then one other boat moved forward and made room. We moved to the inside wall.

Great, except the power pedestal didn’t work. We dealt with it and ran our generator off and on. No need for heat or A/C so we could leave it off while sleeping anyway.

Today we were promised that they would fix it, but the electrician spent the day working on the other boat that we knew. Our buddy boat actually lost all of his electronics the day we ran with him. Thankfully, the delivery captain took him under his wing and led the charge down to Mobile.

At 4:00 pm, they moved us for our 3rd time. But, its a pretty protected slip and much easier to take the dogs out. All good….

Photo:

Our movement around the marina.🤦‍♀️

Always something in the boating world. However, we are definitely happy to be almost to the Gulf. Gettting closer to our home waters.

We are heading to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving and will pick everything back up on Monday.

We can taste it though. We can taste that we are almost there. This journey is sooo close. Gotta make the whole thing though and we still need to cross the gulf. That will be our last big adventure before being back in our stomping grounds.

In retrospect, I will say , the Tombigbee river is gorgeous. Rural and lots of birds and other wildlife. I think it would have been a lot less stressful if we had had only the unpredicatable locks or only the crazy amount of boaters that needed constant coordination.

The two combined made it pretty challenging. But it was actually an interesting river system. Even the ditch that connected the The Tennessee to the Tombigbee was somewhat interesting. Mostly in that they spent 2 billion dollars on that ditch hoping the would create a ” second Mississippi for shipping” Alas, they obviously have some shipping, but it is really a route for pleasure boaters to get down the river system.

We haven’t decided where we will leave from to head back to the west coast of FL yet, but really want to to go to Tarpon Springs vs Clearwater and then head down the coast from there.

That’s it for this week. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I hope everyone has a great day and has a plentiful feast.