Hello from Mobile, Alabama

Here we are in Mobile, AL at good ole Dog River Marina waiting to see what Hurricane Ida is going to do. Miss Ida has come calling very late in the season but that does not necessarily make her any less dangerous. Then again the water temperature is cooling and so she may fizzle out before she gets here, time will tell.

We arrived in Mobile last Friday and the wind was blowing from the SE, this meant that the weather was warm and humid and the waves on Mobile Bay would be up, and on our bow. Really we started picking up waves for the last 10-15 miles down the river. The worst part of the trip was on the river due to all of the floating debris (in the form of large logs) which was difficult to see because of the waves. Yes we could have waited a day, but a cold front was forecast to come through overnight and we reasoned that the next day would be just as windy from a different direction (N/NW) and with the wind on our stern we would wallow down the bay in the cold. We opted to travel while it was sunny, dry and warm.

Miss Lauren Grace has been hauled out to have her bottom painted and some new zincs installed, a minor transmission repair and new cutlass bearings will complete her "well baby" check-up.

Since she was lifted out of the water last Monday the painting & zincs are completed; now we are waiting to see what the storm will do before she is disabled (by uncoupling the engine shafts) to fix the cutlass bearings. That is because if Ida heads this way (considered by many to be a slim possibility) we will need to take her back up the river to hide out until the storm passes; if the storm fizzles then she will get her new bearings early next week and we will be on our way East to enjoy the Florida Panhandle.

Our ride down river from Demopolis was mostly uneventful but we did have the most frustrating locking at Demopolis that we have EVER experienced at any lock. Our departure from the marina was seriously delayed due to early morning fog that we thought would never burn off. Quite a number of boats in the marina and a nearby anchorage were calling the lock on both the VHF radio and the phone (which probably ticked him off) and his response was always the same: “I won’t lock anyone until this fog clears” along with the information that he had “a northbound tow in the pit and cannot lock anything until he leaves and I cannot force him to leave until he is ready”. Eventually a Southbound tow moved down to a position above the lock (moving in the fog) and so now there are two tows ahead of all the pleasure craft. Finally about 10:00 am the lock called for all southbound pleasure craft that want to lock down to come and hold above the lock”. Off we go; the southbound tow is already in the lock and he does not have to be split so we expect things to go reasonably quickly. Only it does not. The lockmaster decided to call the boats in one by one and tell them exactly where to tie up and only when a boat was secured did he call for the next boat, it took forever to stack the boats in the lock. Then, just as the last boat was getting secured, two more boats called and ask him to hold the lock. He still had one pin left and he did hold for them which cost us another 15-20 minutes. When the water level in the chamber was down he called us one by one and told us we could untie and exit. Never have we had a locking like this in the U.S. By the time we exited Demopolis lock over 2 1/2 hours had elapsed since he called us down! Needless to say our mileage for the day was disappointing, however I did have plenty of time to take this great shot of the roller dam there.

On the bright side due the delay at Demopolis lock changing the pace of our travel south we found a delightful anchorage that we had never used before. We had not known there was such a pretty little lake just off of the waterway about 64 miles above Mobile. A couple of sources mentioned Three Rivers Lake but others did not, everything I could find was complimentary and so we decided to give it a shot and we are sure glad we did because we enjoyed a restful night and met new friends Sue & Dave aboard "Saltwater Therapy" in the process.

I must say that the homes along the Lower Tenn-Tom are a sore disappointment after the beautiful environs of the Tennessee River.

Along the way we saw a couple of boat names that we particularly appreciated. “Alligator Hilton” was an 80’ houseboat with two satellite antennas (for TV reception) and a hot tub on the top deck. We could only speculate on the origin of the moniker “Locomotive Breath”, on a sailboat no less! And we couldn’t help but chuckle when we saw a big Grand Banks with “Wrong Knee” emblazoned on her stern; yep, it was just what you thought an operation on the wrong knee earned him a new Grand Banks for his pain and suffering!