November 15-16

November 15 Tensaw cut off AnchorageThe storm front moved through quickly and we arose to a cloudless but chilly sky. The wind was still blowing. Since it was not raining we engaged plan A and that was to move on down the River to a great anchorage at mm12. After we pulled our anchor Tunaki radioed us and said his stern anchor was fast and he could not pull it loose. I asked him what I could do to help knowing there wasn't much i could do, but he said he would work at it for awhile before getting out the knife. Our stern anchors are usually quite a bit lighter and has a rope for an anchor line rather than a chain. Also we have what we call a trip line attached to the anchor. It is another line that is attached to the tip of the anchor and tied to a float in the water. Its purpose is that if your anchor gets fast under a rock or log you can pull it backwards and free it. Richard was able to grab the trip line and fasten it to the bow of the boat and free the anchor, so his trip line freed the anchor. He was not far behind us after his anchor decided to join him on the journey down the river. Our first alligator sighting sunning himself at mm43. Don thinks it was put there by the Chamber of Commerce but I don't think there are any Chambers anywhere in this low Country! The River is very wide as we approach Mobile. At mm22 we pass under the I-65 bridge. Could there be civilization, and Internet, and phone?. There appears to be all three! The girls go below and download the email and make telephone calls. We get spoiled again quickly, but that soon would pass as all this fades into the distance several miles downriver. Another obstacle, besides the many tows in this section of the River, is a swing railroad bridge. It is open as we approach about a 1/2 mile ahead. The bridge operator calls out to me "Captain kick in the turbochargers and get your boat through this bridge as I have a train coming" I gladly obliged and proceed at full throttle--20mph. It turns out that would be the last opening for a couple of hours--the bridge would not open again until they called in the repairman and Tunaki was stuck waiting for the Bridge to open!. The wind was gusting to 35mmph out of the North. It turns out our anchorage at Tensaw cutoff was protected form the East or West winds. I first let out 80' of chain but Silver Foxes would howl and resist the tug of the anchor but drag slightly, so I let out another 20' of chain--100' and now we are holding anchorage and it also helped that the wind started dying down around 5pm. Tunaki finally made it through the RR swingbridge and arrived before darkness set in. The Tidal current caused us to swing in the other direction during the night as the wind died down, but by morning we were right with the world again and very little wind. You would think--only 12 miles from Mobile that the Verizon Internet Lords would provide phone and internet service. No phone service and internet service in very brief moments. Lots of good meals on the grill lately. The freezer is slowly being emptied as planned.

November 16 --Dog River Marina--Tanuki was headed for a different port (Fairhope) in Mobile. So we said our goodbyes as they departed the anchorage. We were having a leisurely morning after several hard days of travel. Only 12 miles to Mobile. That only gets you to downtown Mobile and the start of Mobile bay. All the Marinas are at least 12 miles beyond mile zero. Our Plan A was to stop at mile zero and dock at the convention center and visit the downtown area. Unfortunately a cruise ship had taken up the dock spaces. We tied to some broken lamp posts but when I called security they said that was a no-no so we moved on to Plan B. We had planned to arrive at Dog River Marina on Sunday November 18th-a quick telephone call said no problem we have room. So off we went through a beautifully calm Mobile Bay. The picture is of a ship in the very commercialised port of Mobile. We are so used to looking at tows, we were in awe of the massive container ships that populate the port of Mobile. We arrived at Dog River marina about 1pm.