Last of the Inland Rivers and start of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (Demopolis to Gulf Shores)

Smiling as we near the end of the Inland Rivers!

We left Kingfisher Marina in Demopolis Friday, February 1st and made our way to the lock. After a little wait, we made our way in and transited down. We hoped we would have a few good days weather wise as we planned to anchor out a few times before we made it to Mobile Bay. The first night we anchored at Bashi Creek. It was our first time anchoring in such a narrow creek.

Waiting at Demopolis Lock

Bashi Creek

The following day we stopped at the popular "Bobby's Fish Camp" where we had supper and bought fuel for the boat. It was a short ride the next morning to transit the very last lock of the Inland Rivers. Yay!!! The lockage went really smooth and we thought we would have another great day. The weather had warmed up, but not the water... as a result we hit fog on the river. So, we found another anchorage (mile 100, old lock wall) not to far and waited it out the fog a good two hours...

Bobby's Fish Camp

Bobby's Fish Camp

Last lock!!! Coffeeville

Fog as we exited the lock

Waiting it out at the old lock

Most of these last anchorages have been accessed by narrow creeks

The next two days, were repetitions with fog lasting late in the morning and starting early in the afternoons. It made for much shorter travel days than we had planned on. We stopped at mile 64, Three Rivers anchorage and then mile 16.7, Big Bayou Canot. All the anchorages we found were nice and safe, but the river was still at flood stage so we did play "dodge the logs" quite a bit, and had a few "bumps" during the night.

We had to wait for this bridge to lift... 

We finally made it to Mobile Bay, where we had planned to cross over and go to Fairhope. However, there was a heavy fog advisory in the bay... which we confirmed before turning around and going to the Mobile Convention Center Dock. (A cement wall, with no services...) Even though our plans changed, we made the most out of our time in Mobile. Mobile is an interesting city which we got to know a bit.

We played tourist!

  

We arrived in Dog River, west side of Mobile Bay, exactly one week after we left Demopolis. We really needed gas, a pumpout and fresh water, all of which we got! The marina there is a working boat yard, so no resort like accommodations - but after the rivers and the dock wall... it was a perfect place to rest up a couple days before we continued on.

We officially started the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway (GICW). We were scared we would need to turn around, because when we left the west side of Mobile Bay to cross over to the entrance on the east side, we could see some haze - we really did not want to navigate through fog. It was "cloudy with a fine mist"... we could go with that. At one point shortly after in got into the GICW, Papi notice two fins in the water - yup... we saw our first daulphins. (very briefly, but it counts!!)

We stopped at Homeport Marina at Gulf Shores, still in Alabama - soon we'll be in Florida and be able to head south (because, we're heading east now)

We had to change our short term plans a bit, but our long range goals haven't changed. Life is an adventure!

Tina & Papi

"In life, it's not where you go, it's who you travel with" 

– Charles Schultz