Back in Salt Water

After a visit to the pump-out station, we moved "Life's2Short" over to the fuel dock Monday afternoon, November 26th, to fuel up in preparation for an early departure Tuesday morning. That evening we had a final gathering of our Yacht Basin friends at the New Orleans Bar & Grill and said our good-byes. Fred even stopped by and had a drink with us on his way home from an earlier commitment.

We were up and on our way by 6:45 Tuesday morning. Rick & Peggy came over to the fuel dock to see us off as we began the 71-mile journey through the Demopolis Lock and on to Bashi Creek (MM 145), our intended anchorage for the evening. As we entered Bashi Creek and tried to position the boat to anchor it, we decided we didn't like the way the wind was blowing us around in the narrow creek, so we went across the river to anchor along the shore opposite the entrance to Bashi Creek. We were secure in our anchorage by 3:00 p.m. and enjoyed the sun on the sundeck until it went behind the trees about an hour later. We were both tired and went to bed really early, even for us!

We woke up to heavy fog Wednesday morning and finally pulled anchor about 8:00 a.m. We had planned to go 67 miles to Sunflower Bend Cut-off (MM 78.6), but the Captain discovered a fuel leak on the port engine shortly after noon so we shut down the port engine and went in to Old Lock #1 (MM 100) about 1:30 p.m. After a little investigation, Todd discovered that the fuel pump was bad so we were down to one engine until we reached Dog River Marina in Mobile where a new pump was being sent.

Since we had lost several miles on Wednesday due to the late start and the leaking fuel pump, we were up and pulling anchor by 6:00 a.m. Thursday. There was a little fog on the water when we headed out, as there had been on Wednesday, but rather than clearing off as it had the day before, we got totally socked in by fog less than ten miles downriver and were dead in the water for about 45 minutes until it appeared to be clearing up enough for us to move on. We made it about a mile and the fog once again closed in around us, so we sat for another 45 minutes and were finally able to continue downriver about 8:45 a.m. So much for our plan to make it to Big Bayou Canot that evening, a 90-mile run from Old Lock #1, or about eleven hours depending on river current/engine speed.

We ended up anchoring at David Lake (MM 42) about 3:00 p.m., which was still a long day (58 miles/9 hours) with the fog delay and associated stress. There was no fog Friday morning and we were on our way to Dog River Marina (53 miles) by 6:45. We arrived about 1:30 p.m. to find the new fuel pump waiting for us at the dock. After we topped off with fuel and got tied up for the evening, Todd spent the rest of the afternoon installing the new pump while I fixed dinner. Mike & Mary stopped by briefly on the way back to their boat, "WhatDazeIt?," at the Grand Mariner Marina where they have been staying the past few weeks. Mike then drove back over that evening to pick us up so we could spend a few hours visiting with them on their boat.

Ricky at the Dog River Marina fuel dock, feeding his ducks.


Quite the ugly duckling, wouldn't you say?


You can see the Grand Mariner dock across Dog River. "WhatDazeIt?" is the first boat on the left.


By Saturday we had decided to stay at the marina another night to watch the Dog River Christmas parade. After a quiet, lazy morning we made a quick run to the grocery store and then I did some laundry while Todd caught up on e-mail. Mike came over and picked us up in a borrowed dinghy late that afternoon and took us over to "WhatDazeIt?" to watch the boat parade with several of their local friends. The parade featured 20+ boats of various shapes and sizes all decked out with lights and lots of other decorations with the passengers throwing beads and candy at the audience as they passed by. It was quite a show and we collected lots of beads by the time it was over!

Here is a sampling of the many beautifully decorated boats in the Dog River Christmas parade.










We left Dog River Marina around 10:00 Sunday morning and had an uneventful Mobile Bay crossing with southeast winds causing a light to medium chop on the water. We arrived at Ingram Bayou about 3:00 p.m. and spent the next hour-and-a-half trying to anchor! We had moved to the northern end of the anchorage seeking protection from the north winds that were forecast for Monday but just couldn't get the anchor to hold when we backed down on it. After numerous unsuccessful attempts, we finally we gave up and moved to the south a bit where we were anchored in no time. What a frustrating ordeal that was!

The north winds hit about 5:00 a.m. Monday morning and our anchor held just fine, even though we had turned 180 degrees due to the wind shift. We will stay in Ingram Bayou again today and plan to head to Pensacola tomorrow to meet up with Dave Henderson who we met the summer of 2006 in Demopolis.

In the meantime, I am getting caught up on the blog while the Captain is out fishing.  When we first came in to this anchorage in April 2006, we met a gentleman named John Loftis (a friend of Mike & Mary) who was telling us about the sea trout he had caught while anchored here in his sailboat, so maybe Todd can catch a few for us before we leave. He has already caught a nice redfish and we've seen some porpoises chasing fish, so there is definite potential to add more fresh fish to the menu!