Alabama: Demopolis to Okatuppa Creek Anchorage

Day 137

NM Today: 79

NM Total: 2931 (3373 statute miles)

Locks Today: 1

Locks Total: 101

We had good intentions of leaving Demopolis before 7:00.  The plan was to listen on VHF channel 16 at 6:30 to determine the lock status, and hoping for good news, set out as soon as possible thereafter.  We got up at 6:00 and took our morning walk to the restrooms (head).  On the way back to the boat the folks on Nuclear Fishin’ let us know that someone had already spoken to the lockmaster at 6:15 and found out that a tow was coming down river.  We were told to listen to channel 14, which is the lock’s working channel, for the lockmaster’s go ahead to start towards the lock.  At 7:20 we got the go ahead to start moving, so we quick as anything started our engines and got underway.  The good news was that with the delay, we had time to eat breakfast before getting underway.

I did my morning routine of prepping the upper helm for the captain including wiping off the full-enclosure windows.  All was good until it started to rain!  That turned my drying off the boat rails and the upper helm into a complete and utter waste of time!  After that it continued to rain or mist for most of the day.  I am so tired of the wet weather!

We entered the Demopolis Lock at 7:50 and exited at 8:15. 

Spillway at Demopolis Lock & Dam
Black Warrior River

Fortunately this was the only lock of the day, so the rest of the day was just dreary river travel.  I had on so many layers of clothes to try to keep warm today that I felt like the boy in the movie A Christmas Story with his arms stuck out straight at his sides.

In this weather, we found the interesting sights to be few and far between on this stretch of water, but Clark manages to find objects of interest regardless of the overall tedium.  He always has the camera nearby.

A Lone Pelican Fishing On the Shore

The Old Rooster Bridge
that was removed after the tow went under it
(referred to in yesterday's blog)

Someone added a U.S. Flag to this Buoy
in nowhere land

We read that the Black Warrior River is switchbacks, and that miles of travel would be eliminated if we could travel in a straight line.  The captain took two pictures of the chart plotter at different places along today's route showing the crazy path of the river and, thus, the crazy path we followed today to get to our anchorage.

Note the left panel shows the river path
with multiple odd-shaped switchbacks

At one point another vessel that was several miles behind us radioed us to tell us to look at the chart.  Since we both have AIS, we could see each other on the chart. We were side-by-side on the chart yet miles from each other in terms of river travel.  The radio signal did not last for long since it was traveling over land - just about long enough to say "Will you look at that"!

View of iPAD chart showing the circuitous path
we traveled ... if only we could have gone straight in some of
these places, we would have cut out miles of travel

 Shortly after we left the Demopolis Lock, we heard a report of severe weather predicted for Wednesday when we will arrive in Mobile Bay.  The captain suggested I look at the options for alternate anchorages that might put us further down river.  The popular anchorage of Bashi Creek seemed to be the target spot for the night for several other boats that locked through with us.  The anchorage can only accommodate so many vessels, so that too motivated us to see if there was something else available.  

We averaged between 9.5 and 10 knots today which allowed us a larger selection of anchorages since we could go further than originally anticipated. Captain Clark's original expectation for speed was about 7.5 to 8.5 knots. I read through the anchorages identified on Active Captain and found several options.  

One anchorage in particular sounded good as it was near, but still before, Bobby’s Fish Camp.  We decided that this so-called marina offered nothing of interest to us, and we would pass on staying there on our way to Mobile Bay.  The dock holds three large boats and after that boats are rafted to them to hold up to as many as 15 boats in total.  However, seventeen is apparently the record raft size.  The restaurant is closed on Sunday, so the renowned catfish dinner is not an option.  For the sadly lacking accommodations, the marina charges somewhere around $1.50 per foot of boat which is more than the all-service marina we just left today. Altogether, in foul weather, it did not seem to offer any advantages over anchoring.

We dropped a bow and a stern anchor in Okatuppa Creek which runs alongside the Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge.  In one of the reviews of the anchorage it was suggested that we might hear owls and other wildlife during the night due to its proximity to the refuge.  We dropped two anchors as the creek is too narrow to allow the boat to swing on a single anchor.  We do not want to find ourselves on land during the night.  

We put a “trip line” on the bow anchor to help bring it up in the morning should it snag on something lying under the surface of the water.  A fender is floating over the anchor with the trip line attached to mark where the anchor lies.  Hopefully when we pull up the anchor in the morning, we won’t find any tree stumps attached!  We are the only boat here and are well out of the river.  One tow already passed by and the wake was minimal. Only after we have left here will we be able to rate this anchorage choice.