Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving to all. Since the last post a lot has happened, and we have seen some wish list items.

When I last posted we had arrived at Kingfisher Bay marina in Demopolis AL. We spent two nights there and had the opportunity to stock the boat up for a couple nights on the hook or wall with no services.

Pano view of the marina from the boater lounge deck.

Leaving Kingfisher Bay Marina as the sun is coming up.

Traveled through the only lock of the day with 8 boats.

We left Demopolis at 6:40am to make another lock and ran 96.6 miles to Bobby’s Fish Camp. This is a famous Looper stop, not sure why. The restaurant is closed, and the dock is a 140′ strip along the shore. We arrived at 3:45pm with a storm approaching.

We thought about setting the hook for the night, but with the storm coming we decided to head to Bobby’s. We ended up being the last boat to arrive and rafted off two other boats for the night. Not terrible, but some of the boats were nervous the dock would break free from the shore with all the weight. It did not!

Yes we are tied to a 37′ boat for the night!

As you can see, not much here!

We are now running the last 120 miles of the Tombigbee, which is flat and not much to see. Also did not have cell coverage for much of the time.

Listed as the last hill we will see for a long time!

When NEBO does not follow us, we do not have cell service.

We did get 2″ of rain through the night, which put a lot of debris in the river for the next day of running.

We left Bobby’s Fish Camp at 6:42am to make a run through our LAST lock for many months. This is the Coffeeville AL lock.

And yes, we ran in the rain for most of the day.

Goal for Tuesday was to run as far as possible with good light so we could get to a good anchor hole.

Tuesday was our first spotting of an alligator in the river. Yes, we are in alligator country now. Sorry, I did not get a picture, but it was swimming across the river in front of the boat and I thought is was another large log. (Until it moved and went under)

Not crazy about taking Memphis out on the banks of the river in the dark, but she does have to go! While it was light out, we ran two miles back upriver to a boat launch to avoid the shore!

Later that night we did go ashore with her and boy did that make a muddy mess out of the dinghy, Amy, and boat!

We are now to Wednesday 11/22/23. The plan was to move 50 miles to Fairhope AL and stay at the Fairhope Yacht Club. We called Monday to confirm a spot for us, then called to confirm this morning and were told they were full. Remember, all plans on this trip are SOFT!

Plan B, called Homeport Marina (Lulu’s) in Gulf Shores to see if we could come in a day early. We were very happy when they said yes!!

The last 200 miles of the river system are very windy. Felt like we were next to ourselves most of the day. (As you can tell by the screens!)

We arrived in Mobile late morning but had just added another 40+ miles to our day.

Downtown Mobile on the right and the shipyards on the left. There is a lot of ship building and industry on the Mobile River.

Always neat to see a ship in dry dock. It amazes me how they fill the tube with air and the entire ship is lifted out of the water.

By the way, COVID must be over, as one of the hospital ships is here being worked on.

We are now leaving the rivers and pulling into Mobile Bay, part of the Gulf of Mexico!

Leaving Mobile behind!

Mobile Bay!

We were not happy to run the extra 40 miles today as the winds picked up all day. 20+MPH and the Bay will get rough today. Slow running is over for us today so we don’t get knocked around in the waves.

Another highlight for us today was spotting dolphins playing around the boat. Then they started swimming along the bow of the boat. No pictures yet, but we will get better at sharing and not just enjoying!!

As we got 20 miles offshore, we started to see a lot of oil rigs. Almost felt like we were running through a Star Wars movie seen!

30 miles down and then a left turn into the beginning of the Intra Coastal Waterway. That’s correct, Intra is on the Gulf side and Inter is on the Atlantic side. We will be in this waterway until Carabelle FL.

That stick with the green marker on it is the beginning of the waterway for us. We are in 12′ of water and if you go to the right of this marker, you will run aground!

Arriving at what I expected to see as the waterway, and promptly greeted by another barge.

We arrived at the harbor at 3:10pm and began to wash all the salt grime off the boat. This will become something we have to do on all moving days. Also have to flush the dinghy motor each day with fresh water when used.

We will be here at Homeport/Lulu’s, for 9 nights. Taking a moving break and getting some maintenance done on the engines before moving on.

I will try to post as we have fun here in Gulf Shores over the next week.

Hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends. Amy and I will be here with a couple other loopers enjoying a down scaled feast!