Great Loop & Cruising Adventure Blog

The next two days we took it a little slower not wanting to hurry through a beautiful cruising area. We only traveled six miles each day. Our first overnight stop was to tie up to the Fort Walton Beach’s free dock. Everything we needed was within walking distance and it was time to get off the boat to stretch our legs. Lisa said it was time to find a hair salon and it was nice to just walk the two blocks into town to find several to choose from.

Lunch was consumed at a cute little Thai restaurant. We had some really hot spicy stir fried food that really hit the spot.

Again we were treated to a long sunset that looked like hot embers in a fire. Who needs to seek out entertainment when nature provides us with endless hours of fascination.

We had a long day traveling the last leg of the River System yesterday. We choose Little Lizzard Creek for the ancorage at the end of a long day. We set our anchors and settled in for a quiet, but cold night. No anchors moved and we slept like babies. We feel contented as we contemplate another completion of eastern America’s amazing river system and are excited as we look forward to approaching Mobile tomorrow.

When we woke in the morning we had to wait a little bit for the fog to dissipate and then we were on our way.

We all left Bashi Creek to more tug traffic on this final stretch of fresh water we’ll travel in for the next year-and-a-half. We also locked through the Coffeeville Lock today, the beginnings of saltwater and our last lock until we head north on the ICW in the spring.

We did it in style locking through with a tug boat and his full load of coal. Hard to believe but this was the first time we have ever locked through with a tug boat.

We dropped anchor early at the Lock One anchorage around 2 PM, 100 river miles north of Mobile Bay.

Another early day as we depart Demopolis at 7 AM to cover 71 miles and one lock on our way to a postage stamp of an anchorage called Bashi Creek. Today, Freedom’s Turn, Our Turn, Roy-El and, of course, Kismet negotiated eleven tug boats with barges mostly on the tight twisting turns of the lower Black Warrior River. We gained another boat in our caravan today, Our Turn shared this anchorage with us tonight and will probably join us the rest of the way to Mobile Bay. The reward tonight was a quiet, calm anchorage with a dark, night sky littered with a ca-zillion bright stars.

42º that was the boat’s interior temperature when we woke up at 6 AM to leave for Demopolis Yacht Basin. We fired up the generator and stoked the furnaces and before we knew it our bones were warm again. The Demopolis stop was the last marina and opportunity to experience any kind of civilization for the next 216 miles. We stopped to recharge, fill up water tanks and reprovision for the final three days of river travel before we reach Mobile Bay and can step on land again in beautiful Fairhope, Alabama.

When we left Pirates Marina Cover we headed to our next anchorage, Sumter Landing. We are traveling with two other boats now. Roy-El caught up to us en route to this anchorage and Freedom’s Turn joined us at the end of the day. We had an impromptu happy hour to review our recent Loop experiences and discuss anchorages and time tables for the next few days.

Pirates Marina Cove in Pickensville, Alabama, was our anchorage on this relatively short twenty-eight-mile day. We dropped our hook in calm waters in this little cove and even threw out a stern line for good measure. Around Midnight a storm came through along with some strong winds and our boat lost its hold.

We pulled the anchor up to reposition the boat and found a big surprise. The anchor had snagged a small tree complete with long roots and an small anchor which was attached along with a lot of odiferous muck. We moved the boat to the end of the small T dock where Jim pulled and tugged until the whole mess fell into the water. We decided to remain on the dock for the rest of the night.

Interrupted sleep aside this little cove had a lot of charm.

Lots of water hyacinth accumulated around the docks in this marina.

When we left Pirates Marina Cove we passed the Tom Beville Visitor’s Center.We had wanted to walk over to it from the marina but found out that it was closed on Saturday.

We are now starting to see white egrets along the shore.