Biding Our Time at Kingfisher Bay Marina

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 188 - October 5. 2017

It is sunny and calm here in Demopolis, The birds are chirping and the leaves are barely rustling. Situation normal as we sit here knowing Nate is working its way toward us, having already killed some 22 people in Central America. There is still a great deal of uncertainty about what it will be when it gets here, tropical storm or hurricane - but the maps show it passing right over us as it veers to the northeast. 

Today I fixed a 12 volt socket that had stopped working. It took a little plumber's abrasive sandcloth to clean it and clean the connectors until they were shiny bright, and that did the trick. Then we took the loaner car on a quest to find a new electrical toolbox and some automotive type fuses. Struck out at Walmart, but I got the fuses at Tractor Supply and the toolbox at Hardware Plus, a little hardware store here. Mundane stuff as we are staring in the teeth of the storm.  

Marv's Weather Service, which examines all the hurricane information but favors the European Model, since it has been significantly more accurate historically than the U.S. Model, continues to say Nate will likely hit the mainland as a Cat 1 or 2 hurricane. We are only 140 land miles north of Mobile, and the impacts of the storm are forecast as far north as central and possibly northern Alabama. We are in a covered slip, and I am having nightmarish thoughts  of the winds ripping and twisting the aluminum structure above us and sending it crashing down on all the boats here. 

This evening we had a meeting of most of the Loopers here, ostensibly a "docktail" hour, where Loopers share appetizers and adult beverages, but the TV was on the weather channel, and there was of course only one main topic of conversation. The consensus is that most of the Looper boats want to leave as early as possible Tuesday morning. 

For us, I think we need to see what happens over the weekend before we make any firm plans!!

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!

Port Day at Kingfisher Bay Marina

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 186 - October 3. 2017

Today was a planned port day, but it turned out to be a bit more than that! It was a lazy morning because we did not have anything pressing. We enjoy mornings like this!

We had reserved the courtesy car for a shopping trip, and boy, did we do a shopping trip! First to ABC Liquors to restock the bar supply! Prices are not too bad here, so we think we are good to go down to Mobile and probably farther! Then to Walmart, where we spent WAY more than we thought we would!

When we got back to the marina, everyone was glued to the TV in the marina TV room. The news was about TD (Tropical Depression) 16 and the threat of a tropical storm, or possibly a hurricane, hitting the Gulf Coast somewhere between Louisiana and the Florida panhandle Sunday or Monday.

Mobile is a five day cruise from Demopolis for us, so if we left today, we would arrive in Mobile pretty much when the tropical storm / hurricane would arrive as well.  That did not sound too wonderful, nor did the thought of holing up somewhere between here and Mobile waiting for the storm to pass!

So we extended our stay here for one more day, and will play it on a day by day basis, until we know how this storm will - or won't - develop over the next few days. This is a very nice marina, and relatively inexpensive, so our motto is "Better safe than sorry!"

Kingfisher Marina

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 185 - October 2. 2017

The cruise from Rattlesnake Bend to Demopolis took only an hour or so. On the way between Rattlesnake Bend and Demopolis, we passed the confluence of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers. This marked the end of the Tenn-Tom Waterway and the beginning of the Black Warrior Tombigbee Waterway, which will take us down to Mobile!

I finally had enough cell service to call Demopolis Yacht Basin to inquire about a reservation, and was told two nights would be no problem. I still did not know the relationship between Demopolis Yacht Basin and Kingfisher Marina, because they both have the same telephone number, but was relieved that we now had secured a slip for two nights.

We went into Kingfisher Marina first, but not seeing a fuel dock, we turned around and went back out to the river, and a litte farther downstream to the entrance to the Demopolis Yacht Basin and pulled up to the fuel dock. Patty looked around and said "Something is wrong here." See if you can spot it!

Demopolis Yacht Basin - no boats!

Give yourself 10 points if you said "Where are the boats?"  While we were fueling, Matt, the fuel dock attendant or perhaps harbor master, told us the sad story of the Demopolis Yacht Basin. Over the years, one flood after another had deposited so much silt in the basin that it had shoaled so much most boats could not get in or out! We could have probably in the C-Dory, but Matt said that the Demopolis Yacht Basin is no longer a marina, has no future as a marina, and functions only as a fuel dock. There actually was one sailboat in the marina, and we wondered if it would be there ever after! The fuel dock is set up for towboats to fuel on the outside of the dock and pleasure craft to fuel on the inside.

After we fueled, Matt assigned us our slip at Kingfisher and called Anna-Marie on the VHF to tell her we would be coming into Kingfisher Marina in about 10 minutes. No response, so he called her on the phone. Seems the battery in her handheld VHF was dead.  We paid for the fuel and dockage at Demopolis Yacht Basin and headed over to Kingfisher, which is just a few hundred yards back upstream.

Anna-Marie was there at slip A-8 to catch our lines. The wind was blowing and I got blown past the slip on the first try, so I backed up far enough for another try, and got in OK with Anna-Marie and Larry Crowder, the owner of LiLa Blue, a very nice 1989 Krogen Manatee in the next slip, to help us get in and tied up!  

The Kingfisher Marina is a very nice marina! It has mostly covered slips that serve mainly permanent slip holders and long-term transients, but they also accept short term transients as well. 

Covered slips at Kingfisher Marina

Kingfisher Marina entrance with tow passing on Black Warrior Tombigbee Waterway outside entrance

Now here is your history lesson for the day! When we had been in Athens in 1969 on one of our vacations while we were in the Peace Corps in Turkey, we toured the Acropolis. We both have a very fond recollection of our tour guide explaining, with her delightful Greek accent, that "Acro" means "hill" and "polis" means "city," so the Acropolis was a "City on the Hill." Demopolis seems to have something in common with Acropolis. I found when I Googled it that according to Wikipedia, the name "Demopolis" means in Greek "the People's City" or "City of the People." The name was chosen to honor the democratic ideals of the French expatriates who founded the city. First settled in 1817, it is one of the oldest continuous settlements in Alabama. 

We arranged with Anna-Marie for the loaner car tomorrow, and spent pretty much the rest of the afternoon in some serious deferred boat cleaning, washing her as best we could. I also tried the FSR (Fiberglass Stain Remover) on the area of the bow by the windlass - the result was amazing! I figure several hundreds of dollars worth of FSR followed by Shurehold Buff Magic and Pro Polish and Sealer, and we'll have her looking good again! But the big job will have to wait until we are back in Birch Bay!

After cleaning the boat, we cleaned ourselves! The showers here at Kingfisher Marina, which is a new marina, are very nice, and the marina staff is justly proud of them! A shave, shower and clean clothes were just what the doctor ordered for me after so many nights on the hook!

After sundowners, Patty humored me and we had a great ribeye steak and baked potato with butter, sour cream and bacon bits dinner. Not her favorite but a ribeye done to rare perfection on the Magma and sliced across the grain is just one of my favorites, and she tolerates it!

Tomorrow we will take the loaner car to do some shopping, Patty will do the laundry, and I will try to write one more blog entry, since I fear that once we leave Demopolis we will be entering the Valley of Cell Signal Death most of the way to Mobile. This is a 212 mile stretch with no towns along the way, so it is hard to imagine the cell carriers building towers just so Loopers can stay in touch! So, if you do not see any new blog posts after tomorrow, be assured I am still writing them daily but simply cannot post them until we are back in civilization!

Rattlesnake Bend

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 184 - October 1. 2017

When I went to bed last night at Sumter Recreation Area, we had a minor crisis in the cabin! Patty was still up and heard a noise, and it did not register what it was until she realized that her feet were getting wet! So she shut off the fresh water pump, and we did our best to use towels to soak up the water! This morning it was my first order of business (after putting the coffee water on from the 7 gallon Aquatainer!) to figure out what had happened.

The fresh water pump is under the rear passenger seat on the port side. I removed the seat cushion and the stuff that was in the storage area in front of the pump. I had feared that perhaps the plastic "L" fitting that goes into the pump had broken, and was very relieved to find it was only a hose clamp that had come loose and allowed the hose to slip off the "L" fitting,  As they say, if these things didn't happen, it wouldn't be a boat!

It was a short run from Sumter to the Howell Hefflin Lock, our only lock today. When we got there, the lock master hailed us as the  "southbound RV," a term which we had never heard applied to boats before! We refer to ourselves as a "pleasure craft," not an "RV"! He told us he had to lock a tow down, and he would turn it around as quickly as he could, but we would probably have an hour's wait. He was exactly right, and we treaded water for about an hour. We heard him conversing with the tow captain about how both his land line and cell phone were out, and all he had for communication was the VHF. When we exited the lock, he asked us to pass that information on to any other northbound "RVs" we might see on the river. We didn't see any northbound "RVs" or plesaure craft either, for that matter!

Anyway, we had intended to set out for Demopolis today, but we had no cell connection at all from Sumter to Rattlesnake Bend, and so we would not have had a reservation at Demopolis. We were also kind of confused by both what Skipper Bob and Active Captain had to say about the two marinas in Demopolis, Demopolis Yacht Basin and Kingfisher Marina. Finally, it looked like we would have arrived after closing or right about closing time, so we decided to stop at Rattlesnake Bend.

This was a good choice! This is a significant old channel that shallows up a little ways upstream to a depth that barges cannot use it, and the shoreline has some spots where I could land Baxter - not a lot of room for him to run around a bunch, but enough to do his business! Plus, it was sandy rather than muddy, and I already have enough mud from the other rivers embedded in my pores so I was not anxious to deal with yet another muddy landing! 

We had a quiet evening on this channel off the river, with maybe four small outboard boats passing us, two of which even slowed down so as not to wake us! Once again, we were treated to an absolutely spectacular sunset"

Rattlesnake Bend sunset!

We only have a short distance to get to Demopolis tomorrow, where we plan to stay two nights. Time to clean the boat, hit the showers, do some laundry and go shopping!

Sumter Recreation Area

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 183 - September 30, 2017

We arrived at Waverly Recreation Area yesterday not knowing just how far we would need to go to find a decent anchorage today. We always figure out the next day each evening. Yesterday was a tough evening!  We try to go at least 40 miles a day and if we can help it not more than 50 miles. We had looked through Skipper Bob and traced the Tombigbee River mile by mile for Active Captain anchorages starting at Waverly at Mile 337. The dog friendly anchorages at Mile 309, 308 and 307 were all too close. The first one we found that seemed to have any shore access at all that was at least 40 miles away, as amazing as it may sound, it was the Sumter Recreation Area, another Corps of Engineers boat ramp and recreation area, 67 miles downstream at Mile 270. So we decided to suck it up and take a long run today! The things we do for the dog!

How do you spell trouble? B - A - X -T-  E - R! Just kidding, we cannot imagine cruising without our furry friends!

Equal time for Lucy, who it turns out is no trouble at all!

We got an early start to get to the Columbus (Stennis) Lock for its 8 a.m. opening - according to Skipper Bob this lock only opens every two hours on the even hours between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. We got there at 7:45 a.m. and the lock master called us right in! 

At Mile 313 we crossed into Alabama! We left Kentucky on the 21st, were in Tennessee on the 22nd, in Mississippi on the 25th, and in Alabama on the 30th. Mobile is Mile 0, so we are 313 miles from Mobile. We will be be in Alabama now until we cross into Florida on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. 

The next lock along the way was the Tom Bevill Lock at Mile 306, and as we approached once again the lock master called us right in. We were the only boat in each of the locks we transited today.

The 36 miles from Mile 306 to Mile 270 was easy cruising on a peaceful river. I think if we had been here a few weeks later, we would have been treated to some awesome fall colors, but the shoreline is very nicely wooded.

Tombigbee River shoreline

We got to the Sumter Recreation Area in just under nine hours, arriving before 4:00 p.m., which is still a long day, but we were able to maintain 7.5 mph almost the entire distance at our normal 2,200 RPMs, and we took alternating two hour shifts at the helm. The Sumter Recreation Area is on a small basin off the river, and there is a well marked channel into it. We found a good spot to drop the hook in about ten feet in the basin outside the entrance channel to the boat ramp. I neglected to get a screenshot of the anchorage, but it was well protected from the tows in the river.

As always, I got the kayak down and took Baxter to shore. The  Sumter Recreation Area was, to put it simply, not up to the standards of the Wilkins Lock or the Waverly recreation areas. Those both had nice concrete boat ramps and nicely kept grounds. At Sumter the ramp was a two lane asphalt ramp that was badly cracked, and the grounds did not appear to have had any maintenance for a long time. This did not really matter too much to us, since I only have to go ashore once today and once tomorrow morning, and Baxter is not all that fussy! There was a trash can but I did not see a restroom. 

The worst part was that Sumter's ramp, and indeed the entire basin, was severely clogged with water hyacinths. They extended in a thick mat maybe 50 feet out from the end of the boat ramp, and I had to paddle the kayak through them to land. No boats launched or retrieved while we were there. The water hyacinths at Waverly were similar but not 1/10th as bad!

Water hyacinths at Sumter Recreation Area basin next to boat.
 The approach to boat ramp was completely blocked with a thick mat of them.

It has typically been hot during the days but cool in the evenings, and this evening was no exception. No need for the air conditioner!  Tomorrow we may reach Demopolis, we may not. After today, we are not inclined to do another long run! 

We have started looking at the 216 miles from Demopolis to Mobile, a run with no towns and no marinas except Bobby's Fish Camp, which only marginally qualifies as a marina. It looks to be a challenge!

Waverly Recreation Area, Columbus

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 182 - September 29, 2017

We left our anchorage in the Wilkens Lock Boat Ramp pool right after coffee and toast, and got right through the Wilkens Lock. A few miles later, we were at Amory Lock, and got right through that one too. The final lock for the day was the Aberdeen Lock, and likewise, no waiting. We have encountered very few tows, and none that interfered with our ability to lock right through these locks!

We are getting quite proficient at these Tenn-Tom locks! They all have floating bollards. The natural tendency of the driver is to want to get close to the bollard, but that is not necessary! With a boat hook, I can drop the line around the bollard from three feet out. The critical factor is speed - the boat has to be going dead slow, or ideally, stopped adjacent to the bollard. If the boat is moving too fast when the line is dropped around the bollard, it tends to jerk the bow in and crash against the lock wall. Not good! Like I say, we are gaining proficiency here!

Our destination for the day was the Waverly Ferry Recreation Area, another COE recreation area with a boat ramp. When you have a dog, you are always trying to ensure that you can get him (or her) to shore. Boat ramps are always your best bet! They are public, which means landing is legal, and you can paddle right up the ramp! Baxter is always flying through the air before the bow hits the ramp! This was a fine recreation area, with all the amenities, but the approach to the boat ramp was choked with water hyacinths! The boats going in and out had to cut their way through it, and it was very interesting for me in the kayak!

Waverly Recreation Area boat ramp

We were anchored off an abandoned railroad bridge - according to Active Captain, on the wrong side of it, as you can see from the screenshot! I was driving, and had not read that the preferred approach was to enter from the south end of the island, so naturally, I entered from the north end! We passed over a very shallow spot, about four feet, but anchored in about sixteen feet, and were much closer to the boat ramp than if we had gone around to enter from the south end! We would have been more protected behind the island, but we were not bothered by any wakes, so this worked out fine. This is just another very cool anchorage on the Tenn-Tom Waterway!

Waverly Recreation Area anchorage - on wrong side of RR bridge per Active Captain but closer to boat ramp!

Abandoned railroad bridge to nowhere!

We have not written much about our meals on-board, but suffice it to say, we very rarely eat out, just like we rarely stay in marinas! We have some favorites, but tonight we had absolutely delicious fish tacos! We had bought a two pound bag of frozen cod fillets individually vacuum sealed at the Walmart in Alton. Patty Googled a fish taco recipe, and found that it called for coriander and cumin to season the fish - bingo! We have a favorite Eygptian spice called dukkah, which contains coriander, cumin, fennel, ground hazelnuts and salt. We brought a big bag of homemade dukkah with us. So we baked the fish in the Magma seasoned with dukkah, and made fish tacos with flour tortillas, chopped lettuce, the baked fish and a fabulous crema made from sour cream, lime juice, salt and lime zest.  I don't care how much you pay, you are not going to be able to get a better fish taco than we make on Daydream!

Fish taco with sour cream lime crema - we eat pretty well on Daydream!

Tomorrow we have a couple more locks, and are not really sure how far we will go! There do not seem to be a lot of great options for anchoring with a dog, and so we will just have to see how it plays out!