Miss Hattie's Loop: No More Locks

After leaving Demopolis, going through the Demopolis Lock, we went down to the only reasonable looking anchorage on the side of the channel. Rain (2 inches) and wind (tornado watch) had been predicted to begin that evening and we felt secure - except we were at the mouth of a small stream and there was a tree off our stbd bow that looked pretty precarious - oh well, thank goodness the worst part of the storm proceeded north and we just got rain and we left before the stream pushed us out. Remember the definition of "adventure"?: It's "a disaster averted" - in this case, just dumb luck.

The next day we were traveling in the rain for the most part, but it cleared up just in time to pull into our next anchorage at Oktatuppa Lake. We were well off the river, up a 20 yd wide creek and we put our dinghy down to go exploring. We found that a catamaran, Sweet Sensations, had gone farther up around the bend to anchor - it turns out they are 3 Brits, having started "this journey" from Trinidad and Tobego - wow, they make the loop look like a walk in the park. On our dinghy ride we saw some amazing plant life - try a floating island of grass up to 20 X 3 yds; the grass sprang from small eraser-sized leaves that congregate to form the islands (about 8 inches high). In the AM, one of those islands floated by our boat and was trapped in an eddy pool at the mouth of the creek - oh boy!

We wanted to get an early start the next morning because we had one lock - THE LAST LOCK - and 59 miles to go. BUT the river was enshrouded in fog. The Brits came out of the creek, passing us and stopped when they saw the fog. After waiting another 40 min. it was time to go - fog or not. Since we had the radar, they followed us. Navigating down a river by radar and GPS is a new experience and it took a while before our course wasn't just zig zagging down. First Mate Lenore had to stand watch on the bow to point out the floating debris (trees!!!, remember the rain from the night before???). After an hour, we came by a small marina at which 3 other loopers we had met were docked; they saw us going by and decided to jump in line. So Miss Hattie led the flotilla to Coffeeville Lock. We had to wait for a 9-barge tow boat to move away from the lock's wall where he had spent the night. By the time we proceeded, the sun had burnt off the fog. All was well again.
We pulled into Three Rivers for anchorage, Sweet Sensations followed, the others had gone ahead, speeding down river (with a good current push) at the break-neck rate of about 10 mph!

Now we're in the middle of a marsh, just 12 miles from Mobile bay, 27 miles from our Thanksgiving layover destination, Dog River Marina. Yes, we have the bug spray handy to fend off the giant, fast flying mosquitos. We're looking forward to taking a break for the holiday. We hope everyone has a great Turkey Day.