EllisIslandLoop

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

November 3 - 1st Alligator Sighting

Boats started leaving Bobby's Fish Camp about 7:00 in order to make it through the Coffeeville Lock in the first group. We needed gas, so we let them all take off and hung back with Way 2 Much, Carol and Jim's boat. They had some engine trouble yesterday and thought it was from gas that came from the bottom of the tank at the last marina. The pumps were REALLY slow (we are at a fish camp, remember?) so it took a while to gas up our two boats.

We locked through Coffeeville Lock and continued down the Tombigbee. Carol and Jim took off at their usual 25 mph, we kept at 10 mph! The scenery and vegetation has changed, making this stretch more interesting. We saw huge sand bars, and there were lots of curves. The only birds we saw for a long time were white herons sitting on the shore at intervals. Then all of a sudden we had a flock of seagulls following our boat. They must have thought we had food! I took some great videos for the grandkids. Danny saw the first alligator but I missed it.

Our anchorage for the night was an indentation on the river bank. I was a little anxious, but Danny assured me we were out of the way of the tows and barges. It was peaceful and lovely, but he didn't catch any fish.

Monday, November 7, 2016

November 2 - Bobby's Fish Camp

Danny requested that the lockmaster put us toward the front of the Demopolis Lock. We were going to be a "fast boat" today. Our friends Carol and Jim always ran their Carver fast, about 25 mph, but we had stayed around 8 mph which is considered Looping speed since that's how fast trawlers can go. After the mechanic told Danny we should run fast sometime, and Jim seconding the notion, we toook off! Twenty mph after weeks of 8 mph was crazy! We never planed, which was bad for comfort and gas consumption! Driving was more intense, but not bad. After a couple of hours, we were ready to pull it down. We found that 10 mph was a comfortable speed for us. Slow enough to take in everything, but fast enough to not feel like we were dragging.

Thanks to the race pace in the morning, we arrived at Bobby's Fish Camp shortly after lunch. Jim and Carol beat us there, of course, and I blamed Jim for being a bad influence on Danny!

We had read about and heard about Bobby's since we first considered the Loop. It is the last place to get gas before Mobile Bay, making that stretch one of the longest on the entire Loop. It is also said to have the best fried catfish anywhere. Notice the name is Bobby's FISH CAMP, not MARINA. There is one long dock, 140 feet, running parallel to the shore, with a gas dock at the end. No water hook-up, but they did add electricity when they replaced the old wooden dock. There is no protection, you're just on the side of the river. Three other boats were along the dock, so we tied to Carol and Jim. The owner came down to direct the docking process as other boats arrived, then she left and we were on our own! There were 12 boats, all 40 feet or longer, three abreast. A couple of other boats came by after we were all in place, but they kept going!

The famous catfish restaurant is open Thursday through Sunday, but since there were so many boats that day, they opened just for us. Danny and I decided to try the showers while we waited. BIG mistake! The bath house was a storage shed with fixtures stuck in. It was hot and not very clean, but we survived. Since there were no water hookups, we didn't want to use the water in our tank for a shower, it is still a long way to Mobilie and the next chance to fill our water tank.

Remember I said this is a fish camp, not a marina. Well, I love fishcamps. I know that's weird, but some of my fondest childhood memories are of vacations at fishcamps with. My Daddy LOVED to fish, so we all went fishing. Most of the time we were at Lake George on the St Johns River, and aunts and uncles and cousins would join us. This fishcamp brought back those memories! It was a happy place for me. Dinner was delicious and we crawled over boats to get to ours and called it a day! Another wonderful day on The Loop. We are so blessed to be able to undertake this adventure.

October 30 - November 1 - Demopolis, AL

We spent three nights at Demopolis Yacht Basin, Kingfisher Marina. Danny wanted to have someone look at the loud noise coming from the mufflers and this would be the last repair facility until Mobile. Several things impressed me about the place. First, the guy at the gas dock hooked our rope to the deck cleat by throwing and whipping it around, he never used his hands, even for the final backward loop. I was in awe! Second, the restrooms, showers and laundry facilities were remarkable. Spacious, clean, FOUR washers and dryers. Third, they had golf carts for us to ride from the marina to the boat yard. I love golf carts. OK, I'm through counting. We had docktails on the upper level one night and a Halloween party the next night. They had a marina car we could sign out, and a mini bus came to take people downtown, to WalMart, and to dinner both nights.

The boat repair was not as extensive as we had feared. They changed spark plugs, then pulled the boat to check the muffler and baffles. Everything looked fine. The mechanic told Danny that the loud engine sounded like it was supposed to, the other one was too quiet. He also told him we needed to run faster a little while each day to keep the motors running well. More about that in the next post.

A real treat for us was a visit from Danny's best friend from high school, David Enfinger and his wife Linda. They live in Birmingham and drove over to visit and take us to dinner. I love to hear the two of them laugh when they are together. We hope they can meet us again while we are on the panhandle.

Several Loopers that we recognized were at the marina, and we had a wonderful time getting to know them better. Danny saw one of these looper ladies tie her ropes to the rail very neatly and efficiently. He asked her what the knot was, but only understood "cow." We tried to invent a knot but were unsuccessful.

We were only a mile upriver from the Demopolis Lock and there were 13 - 15 boats that would need to go through the lock. The lockmaster asked the harbor master to coordinate departures so everyone would arrive at the same time and have one lock-through. So we made plans at the "Captain's Meeting." We started pulling out about 6:30 and it was quite a parade! The lockmaster called us one by one, and we pulled in and tied off until we were out of bollards. Then boats tied to each other. Everything went smoothly thanks to the good nature of most boaters and the efficiency of the lock master!

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

October 28-29 -Owl Concert

I am tempted to call this post "more of the same." The scenery does change, but subtly, and not many distinguishing landmarks. We did see cultivated land Friday, the first of the trip, I think! And Saturday we saw the cliffs of Eppes, tall white cliffs. At the tops were trees with the only color we have seen. The white dirt somehow makes red leaves.

We anchored out both nights, there really wasn't much option. Danny has been listening for owls the entire trip. Saturday night, he was rewarded. We were sitting on the back of the boat reading with our headlamps, and heard a creepy/scream, then lots of other owl noises. There were several owls involved, spaced out in the woods around us. We were both in awe!