November 2, 2009

Port Departed: Anchorage Chickasaw Bogue
Port Arrived: Anchorage Choctaw Creek
Miles Traveled Today: 68 miles
Total Miles Traveled to Date: 882
Hours Traveled Today: 10.5
Total Hours Traveled: 147

The temperature when I woke up was a brisk 45 degrees. Wanted to make as much distance as possible today because the next anchorage was almost 70 miles. I like to anchor in the little creeks that feed the Tenn-Tom. I have managed to find really nice spots and avoided anchoring in the river proper. Also thought it prudent to anchor off the channel in little creeks because the lights worked sometimes and without an anchor light, I did not want to get run over by a barge in the middle of the night.

Turned out into the main channel about 6:15AM in light fog. As soon as I made the turn, the fog got really dense and it was difficult to see the front of the boat. I flashed back to the fog bank that Paul Hamway and I ran into in Lake Huron. I used the same strategy on the Tenn-Tom that I used in Lake Huron, I went very slow (idle speed) and carefully watched the dept and stayed in 35 feet of water. I also noticed that I was making 5 knots! After about 15 minutes of being in blind fog, I was able to make out the tree line on each shore and steered for the middle. 45 minutes later the fog cleared and I increased the engine to hull speed. That meant with the current I was making almost 9 knots. Not bad considering this old Catalina is only designed to go about 6 knots..

At 8:30AM I took off my winter coat. The rain pants came off at 8:45. By 10AM the sun was out and I put on sun tan lotion as the temp was headed into the 70’s . By 11:00
the iPod was at full volume and I was dancing in the cockpit to the same songs that I listened to while cutting the lawns this past summer.

Made Bobby’s Fish Camp by 3PM. Bobby’s is the last fuel stop on the Tenn-Tom before you get to Mobile and I wanted to make sure that all of the fuel tanks were full. 4 large power boats were tied up at the dock. The gas dock is also the transient dock. I asked the owner of No Problem the boat closest to the gas pump if it would be OK to raft off. He grated his permission. I topped off the fuel tanks. Mike was the owner of No Problem . Donna was his wife. He told me that it would be OK to raft off for the evening, if I did not mind him running his generators from 6 to 11 or 12 PM as he had to charge up his batteries. I thanked him for the offer and then told him that I passed several nice spots to anchor and would spend the night a little further up the river. I don’t know much about power boats but it seems to me that if you are cruising for several hours the batteries should be fully charged from the alternator. I guessed the No Problem did not want me rafting off for the night.

Headed back up the river against the current for 20 minutes and found the Choctaw Creek. Again I backed in and tossed out the anchor. Very nice place! This is a National Wildlife Refuge. At least that is what the sign said on the bank next to the anchorage.

Shane called with and update on the World Series. Philly’s up 6 in the 3rd but were behind 3 games to one.

Just after dark, I was startled by a bright light coming toward me. It was a guy in a skiff with a flood light mounted on a pole. I asked him if he was fishing. He said no, he was hunting. Seems like everyone I met in Alabama is a hunter.