So close, yet so far

Posted bykurthermann 1 Comment on So close, yet so far

We’re so close to finishing the river system as we’re less than 20 miles from Mobile Bay and we’re held up at anchor. There are small craft advisories on Mobile Bay and without my mast and sails, it’s a little too much for us to handle. So, here we sit with several other looper boats waiting for the weather to change.

For those following, you might have noticed that it’s taking hours to make just a bit of progress. The southern part of the river system is meander after meander. The joke is they started building the Tenn-Tom waterway up north and straightened out the meanders. As they worked their way south, they started running low on money and left it as is. Check the pictures and I’ll show a few examples.

Cutting canals to bypass meanders also leaves part of the old river for us to pull over at night and anchor safely out of the main channel. Since we don’t have that, we have to find small nooks or creeks to try and get out of the channel. This also requires setting two anchors, one off the bow and one off the stern, to make sure you don’t drift into the channel if the wind changes or picks up.

Tomorrow, we’re making way to Mobile and a marina for a couple of days. I have several orders from Amazon being shipped and we need to hit the grocery store again. Saturday we start heading to Pensacola and hopefully, we’ll have our mast back Monday or Tuesday.

All the meanders in the river are slowing down our progress. We have to travel 5 miles to make 1 mile of progress.
Here is one of the nooks in the river I anchored in. I dropped the bow anchor and then used the dinghy to drop a stern anchor in the nook to pull Odyssey in. Northbound tows look like they’re going to run you over but end up turning at the last minute. I did check with a North bound and South bound captain to make sure I’m in a safe spot.
Here is a small but deep creek that I pulling into for the night. There were 2 other boats anchored in there with us. Again, had to use two anchors to make sure we didn’t drift aground when the wind changes.
Bugs can be a big problem when we’re anchored in creeks, especially at dusk. Fortunately, Sue’s cousin Laura gifted us with a couple of electric bug zappers after her last visit. My advice, don’t go grilling without them.
No leaves changing color here. Everything is still green.
Making our way down a foggy river. We couldn’t wait for it to burn off because of the distance we needed to cover that day.

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  1. Thanks for your candid comments on your journey. Hope you both are bearing with the less enjoyable parts and looking forward to fun times ahead.

    PeteSchleck

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