On Hurricane Watch at Kingfisher Bay Marina

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 187 - October 4. 2017

We have had weather days before, but none like this one. The weather here is fine, and as far as I can tell, it is probably fine for about the next 200 miles. But nobody is leaving Kingfisher Bay Marina in Demopolis for Mobile just yet.

We arrived here Monday, October 2nd, and Monday evening, as I previously wrote, everyone was glued to the TV in the marina clubhouse as the weather folks were talking about TD (Tropical Depression) 16, and what it might bring.  October 3rd, at 10:00 p.m., Marv's Weather Service published Marv's Tropical Weather Report, predicting that TD 16 would become a named tropical storm, that conditions were right for it to become a hurricane, and that it would make landfall in the U.S. sometime Sunday or Monday, October 8th or 9th, somewhere between Louisiana and Florida. Today the UK hurricane sites are all predicting that tropical storm Nate will become Hurricane Nate, and make landfall just as Marv's tropical weather report forecast.

Had we arrived in Demopolis a day or two earlier than the 2nd, we might well have been on our way to Mobile, which for the geographically challenged is sort of between Louisiana and Florida!  If we had no cell coverage, as we have not had for so much of the Tenn-Tom Waterway, we might have arrived in Mobile on Sunday or Monday, just as Nate was making landfall. The waterway between Demopolis and Mobile is the Black Warrior Tombigbee Waterway, and cell coverage is likely to be somewhere between awful and non-existent, with the smart money betting on the latter.  Text messaging might work when voice and data do not, but that is far from a sure thing, Even if we somehow got word of Nate somewhere after leaving Demopolis, there are no towns or marinas for the entire 216 mile waterway, except Bobby's Fish Camp, more or less halfway to Mobile.  After leaving Bobby's Fish Camp, cruisers pretty much have to anchor at some wide spot in the river and hope they are out of the way of the tows. So I would say we had somewhat of a narrow escape arriving here when we did.

Daydream in her slip at Kingfisher Bay Marina in Demopolis

So we are here with a number of other Loopers on hurricane watch. Many have paid for their slips through the weekend. We are on a day by day basis, but Anna-Marie, the dockmaster, tells us we will not have to leave and can continue on a day by day basis. We anticipate other Loopers on the Tenn-Tom Waterway will be arriving here over the next week. Should make for some good docktail parties!

So what do you do in Demopolis? Kingfisher Bay Marina thankfully has a loaner car that we used yesterday for our shopping trip, and again today for some additional shopping and a tour of Gaineswood, an antebellum mansion that is on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been called one of the three or four most interesting houses in America. I have no idea if that is true, but it was very interesting. I hate to admit this, but I had to look up "antebellum." It means "before the war," and in the U.S., almost always refers to the Civil War. George Gaines built a log cabin on the site in 1821, and in 1843 Gaines sold the property, some 480 acres, to General Nathan Whitfield. Whitfield designed, built, added to and remodeled the mansion over many years. He originally had named it Marlmont, but renamed it Gaineswood in 1856 in honor of George Gaines. The Whitfield family remained its owners until 1923, and it was sold by the subsequent owners to the State of Alabama in 1966. Approximately 80% of the furnishings in the mansion are original and were donated to the State of Alabama by the Whitfield family. You can read all about it here.

Gaineswood mansion in Demopolis 

Pat and Patty touring Gaineswood.
Our tour guide, who took this picture, is great great granddaughter of General Whitfield!

This tour was very worthwhile and we may tour the other three antebellum museum homes here, because there is otherwise not a lot to do in Demopolis!