Tombigbee Anchorage

 We had an early start to our day and by that I mean we left our slip in the marina just before 6 am and sunrise isn’t until 7 am.  The Demopolis lock was scheduled to close today at 8 am for repairs and we needed to get through it before then, so the 9 boats leaving the marina coordinated with the lock master for a 6:30 am lock through. We have navigation lights and a spotlight up on the bow, but nothing prepares you for leaving a marina and traveling 15 minutes down river in the pitch black….  I never want to do it again and I was not a fan! We literally could see nothing, so Tom navigated according to his charts and I was out on the bow looking for anything we might run into.  Yuk! We made it into the lock without incident and the sun came up as we were making our 30 ft. drop. Only one more lock to go on this river odessy and I am so relieved.

This section of the Tombigbee river is very windy and narrow in a lot of spots with shoaling on each bank, so driving the boat down the river is like threading a needle much of the time.  To complicate matters, we met at least 3 tows/barges and passed a huge dredging operation. I made Tom drive during that mess.  LOL. We arrived at our anchorage just past noon due to our early start and we are in a cove-like wide spot on the river, rafted to our friend’s boat as usual. We put out our stern anchor to minimize the swinging due to the strong current here, but seem to be quite secure.

Madison continues to enjoy her dingy rides to potty and there is a boat ramp and park across the river here so no mud tracked back onto the boat this time! Steve and Kathy had us over for dinner and now it’s time to get tucked in for another day on the river. The good news is I seem to have cell service here so I’m a happy camper!

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