3 Day Trip Saga Down the Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile

The following events happened between December 10 - 13, 2019

After our First Mate had an emergency appendectomy that prohibited her from returning to Columbus to move on to Mobile, a dear friend agreed to help us move on down the river.

We flew into a cold, windy, rainy situation in Columbus and spent the balance of the day obtaining provisions and preparing for an early departure.

We were at the fuel dock about 7:00 A.M. where we got fueled up, while negotiating ice on all the docks and ramp. A great experience there with Steve and Jimmy’s assistance at Columbus Marina. A typical winters day in Alabama.

Soon we noticed that the hand held radio was missing.

When we got to the lock we found that the earphone walkie talkies only worked a minute or so and then they quit.

Neither of the above were mission critical.

That day was beautiful most of the day, other than some episodes of logs and debris in the river. We passed the White Cliffs of Epes in the afternoon so they were in the shade. We passed in the afternoon so they were in shade. Morning sun would have been a lot better.

As we approached Demopolis, Al, we found there was so much debris at the fuel dock that we decided not to try and get in.

The dockmaster at Kingfisher Bay Marina was great! We had gotten through all locks uneventfully to this point. We had an uneventful stay there and made an early departure when I overheard a conversation between a boat and the next lock master and found out they would hold the lock for us.

The planned stop at Bobby’s Fish Camp was a disappointment. We arrived about 2:15 and had decided to try and make the lock just south of there and spend the night in a anchorage about 12 miles below the lock, this was to give us about a 19 mile head start on our final day. When we arrived at Bobby’s, the current was swift, rain was threatening, there was no one visible so we approached and got tied up before we ever saw anyone. There was a fuel pump but no meter and no fuel. A guy who lives in a trailer there finally appeared and told us that the restaurant did not open until 3:00 and the fuel would be available then when someone came in. The fuel pump and meter was in reality about 300 yards up the hill where the restaurant was. We eventually got our fuel, had our “world’s best catfish” and were able to get on our way. The diesel fuel worked well. The catfish were greasy but tasty. World’s best, NO. Nice people though.

Decided to get through the lock and anchor at Old Lock # 1 about 10 miles south of the lock. I called ahead and the lock master was ready for us and we got right through as it began to rain. ☹ Rain persisted, fog and darkness descended upon us as we approached the anchorage. The plotter said there was only 1 foot of water at the entrance. That obviously would not work or so we thought until we found out the next day that the water level was up 14 feet.

We had little choice but to head on down the river but traversing this winding river in the dark for several hours until we could get to documented anchorages was not feasible.

We got the night vision going which worked well other than water on the lens limiting viewing space. We began looking for a wide spot in the river to anchor overnight.

The first one that looked feasible was a few miles downstream. When we tried to anchor we had an educational experience while we drifted for about a mile.

• In the dark you cannot tell where the shore is. When it’s raining you can’t count on night vision because water gets on the lens and obliterates the view.

• A spotlight would be very helpful if controlled from the helm. Jimmy did the best he could with a handheld light to help us identify the trees/shore.

• When you are not underway, you cannot tell where the shore is because the plotter does not know where the bow is.

• In a winding river you have no idea where the shore is in the dark without a good light AND night vision.

• You need a lit compass but even that is of little help on a winding river.

• You need to know where the breakers are for your Windlass. When we tried to put the anchor down the Windlass did not work. Fortunately, someone had warned me about that if I needed to know, so I found the breaker, flipped it and Jimmy did a fine job of getting us anchored behind a green buoy. As it turned out we were almost exactly half way between the buoy and shore. The boat stabilized in the swift current and we stayed that way until the tide changed in the pre-dawn hours which reversed our position but we were just fine.

• When you anchor in a flooded river and have limbs, logs, and debris hitting your boat all night long you may get debris in your props or rudders if you have them.

We settled in for a restless night’s sleep after “dining” on the boat. We had all lights on to make ourselves very visible to any possible boats passing by. If they stayed in the channel on the other side of the green marker we would be fine. The closest settlement of any kind was Leroy, AL.

About 1:30 A. M. I was awakened by flood lights shining at us. I didn’t know if it was a sinister boater about to board and rob us, the Coast Guard or a Tow pushing barges. I got on the radio and talked to the captain who was on a tow. He asked how close we were to the green marker and I told him I thought 50-100 feet. He said okay and said “I have seven barges coming at you.” He backed and moved forward for over an hour and eventually made the bend with his barges. As it turned out this was just the beginning. There were at least three tows with barges going both North and South.

The generator quit about 3:00 A.M. which meant we would have no heat and batteries would begin to weaken. Thankfully, I was able to restart it and it kept going just fine.

When we woke up it was still dark but dawn came soon and showed we were well positioned between the green marker and the trees. Thankfully, it was plenty deep up close to the beginning of the trees.

Jimmy did a great job with the anchor. All chain and about 20 feet of rode was out. There was debris around the anchor line and when I started the engines all kinds of trash, limbs, etc. came from under the boat. The starboard engine immediately sounded a warning buzzer and stopped. Nothing we tried would get it going again. We even tried shutting the port engine down, leaving us adrift which has worked in the past but nothing worked. We decided to head downstream with only the port engine. We were about to make about 10.5 mph for awhile then the tide changed and it dropped to 8.5 mph for the duration of the trip.

I called a friend who knows his engines and he walked me through some things to try including going into the engine room, uncovering the batteries while working inches from pulleys and belts on the port engine as Jimmy steered and taking the battery control panel apart to check for lose connections. Mike was convinced it was electrical. (which it turned out to be with a lose wire to the starboard starter)

It was a slow, debris filled trip of about 105.5 miles punctuated by intermittent rain (sometimes so intense you could barely see the bow of the boat) and fog. As we approached Mobile, we came upon a railroad bridge which we had no chance of going under. From what I had read there was supposed to be no bridges with less than 15 feet clearance all the way to Mobile Bay.

What we had not thought about was the 14 foot of flooding that was present.

Thankfully, hailing the bridge tender was fruitful and after waiting about 30 minutes for a train to pass, the bridge tender raised the bridge. As we went under he suggested some anchorage downstream saying we would not make it to Mobile Bay before dark. That was very true and apparent since it was already getting dark and we had several miles to go. We went for it anyway.

As we approached Mobile commercial traffic increased. Rain, fog, darkness was upon us. Thankfully, the night vision worked great and Jimmy got on the bow with a flashlight to help spot markers.

For some reason, a couple miles out of Mobile, the night vision turned to snow and was worse than useless because it was bright complicating my vision.

We made our way right through downtown Mobile with Jimmy guiding the way and me trying to stay in the middle of the channel based on the plotter.

As we entered Mobile Bay our plotter screen added a red background and all depth, markers, channels were not visible. Shoreline and rivers were there but we had no idea which way to go since we were admonished to stay in the shipping channel. We slowly moved into Mobile Bay trying to figure out which way to go. Depths were descending the way we thought we should go eventually reaching as little as 1.7 feet. We stopped at times trying to decide where a channel might be since there were none on our plotter and no apparent lit markers. There are a few lit towers in the bay and fortunately we were able to miss them.

We muddled our way along and eventually got the night watchman on the phone at Dog River Marina who helped Jimmy navigate our way to Dog River and the marina.

I have never been so glad to see a dock. There were two guys there to help us tie up.

After securing the boat Jimmy and I agreed that we were going to a hotel and taking no chance that we could not find a ride to our 5:15 A.M. flight.

Thankfully, we got a hotel, had dinner at the Olive Garden and got some sleep before boarding a plane that morning.