The End of the Rivers

We snaked our way along in and out of Mississippi and Alabama. One morning we left anchor and after traveling close to five miles realized we were less than a mile (as the crow flys) from where we left. The scenery was beautiful and wildlife still in abundance. We were fortunate enough to see a coyote getting a drink at the side of the river, a eagle regally sitting in a tree observing us, raccoons, armadillos and tons of turtles. Expecting some mail, we stayed in the marina at Demopolis, AL. It was a good chance to reprovision and just relax. Two of our three packages arrived, but the third got delayed, so after four days we decided to leave and have it forwarded to Naples. From Demopolis to Mobile was a fairly long stretch with nothing but a little “fish camp” in between to stop at. We were able to find several very nice spots to anchor and enjoyed the solitude. One night we were all tucked in to a little bayou and about 1 a.m. a tugboat shown his search light on us. He was planning on bringing a barge in and spending the night. We were glad he could see us and moved on.

As we approached Mobile, I got excited seeing brown pelicans, smelling salt water, even the sight of palmetto bushes were pleasantly familiar. The entrance into Mobile Bay was extremely busy with commercial traffic, very big container ships and tugs with barges. Clay enjoyed pointing out all the different types of ships and their uses to me. I was at the helm and just wanted to concentrate on staying out of their way! We have spent several days here in Mobile getting our mast put back up. The Mobile Yacht Club allowed us to use their jin-pole which made it interesting, but we were able to do it ourselves with the help of two other loopers. The next day we helped one of those loopers step his mast using the same idea, just a different type of mast.

We are heading out this morning across Mobile Bay into the intra-coastal waterway again. We should get into Florida but this afternoon. How exciting!
Until next time….