November 10 – 14, 2019
Sunday, November 10th we drove from our home near Atlanta to Columbus Marina. The route took us through Tuscaloosa, AL the day after LSU handed the Univ. of Alabama their first defeat of the season. There were a lot of long sad faces at the Publix where we stopped to replenish our provisions, except for the bagger who was an Auburn fan and all smiles.
To get to the next marina along the Tenn-Tom we will need to anchor somewhere halfway. All the talk in the marina is about the arctic blast due to sweep through this area Monday night and all day Tuesday and we don’t need to be at anchor at that time. The consensus is to delay departure until Wednesday. Tuesday morning we awoke to winds blowing 25-30 mph and temps dropping like a rock.
At 6:00am Wednesday we have word from Stennis Lock that they are ready for us. The winds have calmed down but the temperatures are hovering around 19 degrees! After we thaw the dock lines enough to get them loose, we ease out of our slip and meet up with our buddy boats Sam and Rev on ‘Here’s to Us’ and Brian and Michelle on’Kitumba’.
We clear through Stennis and Bevill Locks without delay and arrive at our anchorage, Sumpter Landing at 3:30pm. With just the three of us anchored in this small cove, we have plenty of swing room to stay out of each others way.
The day has warmed nicely, its clear and shore leave seems to be in order. The dinghy is lowered, we load up and head to shore where we walk our furry mates around a deserted state park.
The next morning we all depart at 6:30am and head for our only lock of the day, Hevlin Lock. They give us the green light as we approach and we thank them for the quick passage as we head for Kingfisher Bay Marina at Demopolis, AL.
We arrived at Kingfisher Bay Marina at 3:30pm and stop at the fuel dock first. Some marinas fuel the boat for you, others just hand you the nozzle and you fill it yourself. The latter was the case today. When we finished, I handed the nozzle to the attendant and he said “Yes sir, we have the best gasoline on the river, you’ll really like it”. Oh No! This is a diesel boat. Sure enough it was diesel, green handle. Ok, he got me. He assigned us a covered slip, same price as open. Thankful for that as it began to rain.
Ann Marie, the head dockmaster, guides us in to our slip and sternly instructs us on how things are to be in her marina. Maybe we should refer to her as ‘head drill sergeant’. As we get to know Ann Marie and realize her care for the marina and concern for us transients, her love for her dogs, we see a totally different side of her. We like Ann Marie.
The next section of our river travels is probably the most remote of the entire Great American Loop; Demopolis to Mobile. We typically try to keep our travel distances at 45-50 miles per day, however this next stretch we will need to do 90, 80 and 70 miles each day. That being said, we learn that 12 boats left Kingfisher this morning headed to the next stop, Bobby’s Fish Camp where there is a small dock for 3 boats, all others have to raft up to those three. So the few other Loopers remaining at Kingfisher, four including us, decide to stay put a day and let those who have gone ahead to flush out of the river and hopefully it won’t be so jam packed at Bobby’s or one of the few anchorages. As you will see, this logic paid off nicely.
So for our day off, we join Sam & Rev from ‘Here’s to Us’, take the courtesy car into town for a tour of historic antebellum homes in Demopolis, have lunch at a local restaurant and of course, make a pass through Walmart.