This is Good News coming by some of the white cliffs on the Tom-Bigbee
More shots of the cliffs
The water plants that are everywhere
You can see that the water hyacints surrounded us in our anchorage at Sumter Landing
Typical foggy morning on the river...almost every day was like this when we left our marina
Deb in our dinghy as we go through the channel at 3 Rivers Lake
Our 3 Rivers Lake anchorage
Typical river banks along the southern waters of the Tom-Bigbee
A shot of our chart plotter that shows just how much the river winds around on the lower Tom-bigbee
Log 62
Day 169
Thursday, November 06, 2008
6:15 AM CST
Location: Dog River Marina, on the west side of Mobile Bay
Weather: 56 and partly cloudy...forecasted to be 78 and sunny.
It’s warm enough for me to sit on the back deck and write this log this morning...it’s great to be back out here. It starts to get light out about 5:30, and the sunrise is 6:04, so I am really enjoying this time zone. In a couple of days we will work our way across the panhandle and into the eastern time zone...neither Deb or I are looking forward to going back to Eastern time.
This morning there are a few puffy clouds in the sky, but the sun is a huge ball in the eastern sky and it looks like it will be a great day. We will be crossing the Mobile Bay this morning, so I have listened to the weather and it says 78* with winds light and variable out of the NE, and Bay waters will be smooth to a light chop. It’s going to be a great day.
We have a decent internet connection, so I have put quite a few pictures on the log. It’s too hard to arrange them exactly as they happened (or at least too hard for me) so I just put them in random order...but they sure do help with the story of our trip the last few days.
On my last log we were sitting in the fog in 3 Rivers Lake. It took a while for the fog to lift, and then (although forecasted to be 78 and sunny) the day turned out to be overcast and so damp there was a light mist in the air. The last 65 miles of the Tom-Bigbee, which ends at Mobile Bay, was like a lot of rivers in the US. It actually reminded me of the rivers in Georgia...with low banks and swampy areas. Pretty...but nothing special. The last few miles became much busier with lots of barge traffic, and then very busy with big ships in the Mobile River and Mobile Bay. To get to our marina we had to travel south about 7 miles down the ship channel in Mobile Bay before turning west, and then going about 3 miles to Dog River...a fairly wide and deep river on the western edge of Mobile Bay. Our marina is nothing special...except for the fact is has a West Marina on site...I was there 4 times yesterday!
Today...is actually kind of a sad day for Deb and I. After traveling for several days with Andy and Mary on Good News, we will be leaving them here at Dog River. A few days ago when Good News was passing a barge they hit something under the water, and has had a vibration they needed to get checked. After they pulled the boat yesterday they found out the prop was bent, and also they had cracked the shaft. So they will be here for a few days getting that fixed. We will miss being with them. While we have met many folks along the waterway, we have never traveled with anyone for a few days...Good News was the first. They are great people and a lot of fun to be around. We’ll look forward to seeing them later on our trip. Once we leave Dog River we’ll head across Mobile Bay and join the Gulf Intracoastal Water Way (GIWW). I have planned a route in my chart plotter to join the waterway at MM 145 and then we will follow the GIWW all the way across the panhandle to Carrabelle, FL...which is MM 380...so about 235 miles. Our destination today is MM 159 in Orange Beach, AL. We have reservations for at least 2 nights at Marina on the Wharf...a high rent marina that is supposed to be very nice. We’ll see.
I’ll keep you posted.
Bob
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