Checking Out a New River

Ok, so it isn't really a new river, in fact I am certain that it has been here all along, but it is new to us and we were excited to be discovering new places.  This is the first time in a year that we are covering new and unfamiliar territory and it is fun to be exploring with buddy boats Eagle One and Driftwood.

Our first day on the Upper Black Warrior led us about 45 miles upriver to a quiet anchorage just below the first lock (Seldon Lock).  We anchored in an oxbow of the old river below the dam and put the dinghy down to explore.  Here the lock and dam are not together as we usually find them rather they are separated by an island, or at least it is an island today.  The dam is on the old river section and the lock is on what I think is a man-made cut; creating the cut created the island we were anchored behind.  It was a great anchorage, wide and deep (almost too deep), off of the river and safe from barge traffic.  We wouldn't want to be anchored here when the river was rising though because you can see where all kinds of trees and logs that spill through the dam have come to rest. 

When we came back from our dinghy exploration we discovered two new boats had arrived in our anchorage; travelers from Maine and Michigan who are killing some time so as not to arrive in the Gulf before the magic date that their insurance company will allow.

Fortunately for our little travel party this region has been very dry and the river is low, which means that the current is also very slow and there is almost no debris in the water.  The lack of current is nice because it allows us to make good time while conserving fuel, an important consideration because there is no diesel fuel available above Demopolis.

The next day we were not so lucky with our anchorage and had to content ourselves with anchoring off to the side of the channel and hoping that the tows saw us as they came by in the night.  We do not sleep as well when we are anchored in a situation like this, and we certainly don't go out to play in the dinghy.  And so it was a tired group of mariners who arrived at a marina just above Tuscaloosa the next afternoon. 

Our third day of travel on the river began early, which was fine since no one was sleeping well anyway.  We were rewarded for our early start by getting a great lockage at Oliver Lock just below the city.  When we called on the VHF radio the lockmaster told us he had it ready for us and to just come on in, that's what I call southern hospitality of the best kind.  The other two boats did not leave as early as we did and they travel a bit slower so they ended up with a long wait at both Oliver Lock and Holt Lock which is just 10 miles above Oliver.  The city of Tuscaloosa lies between these two locks 

We had heard that we could tie off to an old lock wall in a city park in downtown Tuscaloosa and were sort of hoping that we could find a restaurant.  Upon seeing the wall we could not figure out how we would get off of the boats and so we elected to go on through Holt Lock and head into the marina that Jim had made arrangements with.

When the gates opened on the high side of Holt Lock we were so rewarded for making this trip.  The river is beautiful up here; deeply forested hills drop right into the water which is clear and deep.  There appears to be very little development and we are looking forward to exploring more.