November 13-14

November 13--Oh I forgot to tell you about the marvelous sights of the white cliffs of Epes pictured above @ mm248 on our journey to Demopolis. Truly magnificent and picturesque. Today was a first at the Demopolis lock. We got to ride down with a 2x3 tow. Tanuki called the lock at 5:45 am. The lockmaster said he had room for the two of us. Another boat called at 6am but he told him we had called first and there was only room for the two of us. After the tow Biloxi snuggled into the lock, the lockmaster called us into the lock and our boats used the last floating bollard on each side of the lock behind the tow. We had a smooth ride down. When the Biloxi left the lock, he gently nudged his barges along and did not rock us. After the tow was well out of the lock, the lockmaster gave us permission to leave. The tow permitted us to pass him and we were once again gliding down the River, the only sound being the gentle parting of the water by the Silver Foxes. At one point we saw a deer (buck) swimming across the river in front of us. Apparently for the deer, the grass must be greener on the other side of the River because this was the third sighting we had of deer swimming across the River. The only plausible anchorage to be reached before dark was an anchorage @mm 145, a distance of 71 miles from Demopolis. The Bashi creek anchorage was again tentative but it turned out there was plenty of water depth. However it was very narrow. I put out a bow and stern anchor. The slight current in the creek kept Silver Foxes and Tunaki in the center of the Creek but a strong wind would have swung us into the creek bank without an anchor. A pleasant and peaceful night at anchorage. Another long day planned for tomorrow. No internet or phone service

November 14 First light to travel by occurs about 6am. Our plan was to pull anchor and be on the River by 6am. As we finished pulling anchor the fog rolled in on the River. Richard said he would lead the way down the River and I readily agreed. Visibility was limited to about 100 yards and it was difficult seeing the banks of the River on either side. We both had radar and our gps depicted the River very well. The GPS charts show a "sailing line" on the river which gives an indication of the route to follow for the deepest water. We slowly made our way along the sailing line at about 4mph. I utilized the automatic fog horn on my Radio hailer. It sounds a fog signal through an external hailer speaker every 2 minutes as required by maritime rules for a vessel underway during fog conditions. After about an hour the fog lifted and normal speed resumed. There are no marinas in this section of the River until we reach Mobile except for Bobby's fish Camp @ mm118 which is almost a psuedo marina but somewhat a legend. But it is a legend in my opinion worth passing up. At the most it would hold 2 boats on a rickety dock exposed to River traffic. Silver Foxes slipped on by Bobby's without saying hello. Our next obstacle was Coffeeville Lock @mm116. We knew we were in trouble when we passed a tow at about mm120. Tows come first so we had to wait our turn at the lock, but luckily we got out of the lock about 1pm. 36 miles to go to our only possible anchorage and darkness falls about 5pm. No problem for us because I can pour on the coal but Tunaki is limited in speed. I go ahead and speed up a little but I knew our eta would be about 4:30 pm and Tunaki would not be far behind. The anchorage was behind the red buoys at mm79. Out of the path of the tows and our anchor lights would be clearly visible for some distance. Richard called the first southbound and north bound tow to let them know we were located here and to ask them to pass the word on to other traffic in the area that we were located there. They did that. Our anchors were set so that we bowed into the current and facing north. A cold front with thunderstorms was coming through in the night bringing strong northwest winds. The weatherman was right. About 1 am the wind whipped up, and brought a short lived storm, but the wind continued to blow. I got up and made sure the anchor alarm was set on the gps and observed the movement of the boat and soon became confident the anchor was holding so after about an hour, off to bed again, only to be awakened by the wind whipping up again. Another gps observation and watching for awhile and a determination the Delta anchor and 80' of 5/16 anchor chain I had let out was doing its job. Oh by the way Coffeville was the last of 12 locks we had negotiated and Silver Foxes was back in salt water again since for the first time since she left her home in Oxford MD. Well not quite salt water, it is brackish water which is a mixture of salt water and fresh water and subject to tides. Again no internet or phone service.