DAY 30

DAY 30! Yay! One full month of living on the rivers

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

Well, 1,058nm (1217 miles to you land lubbers) and 30 days later here we are anchored at Mile Marker 80 on the Tombigbee River, Mobile is MM 0. Even after 30 days the hardest part of this trip was still leaving the dock in Chicago. Have I planned enough? Do I have enough supplies? Will I have enough fuel? Do I have enough money? What happens if my engine fails? Do we have enough dog food? These questions and 1,000 more make you second guess leaving. But eventually you have to cast off the lines and go. (Hey Chuck Nevel where is that video of me leaving?)

As the crow flies, I’m 51nm to Mobile Yacht Club where I can step my mast (FINALLY)

Started early this AM, left the Bashi Creek anchorage by 6:15 am as I was the last boat in so I had to be the first one out. Had a nice sunrise behind us.

Originally was only going to run 27 miles to Bobby’s Fish Camp, but the weather was so nice I decided to keep going. Just past Bobby’s is the last lock on the rivers before Brackish Tidal waters, the Coffeville Lock. As I came around the corner I found 7 other loopers waiting, they had to wait almost an hour, but by the time I showed up the lock was ready and we rolled right in. Sometimes it pays to be the slow boat.

After getting out of the lock we pushed on another 35 miles to Mile Marker 80 and found a nice little nook to anchor in. The weather hit 70 degrees here today! Was wonderful!

There are no or real proper anchorages between Bobby’s and Mobile, so that’s 118 miles to cover or find somewhere to hide outside of the channel. Barge traffic runs 24/7 so you have to find a spot outside of the navigational channel to drop the hook. The other loopers are faster, so they made it a bit farther. I found a nice anchorage sized just right for one 34’ sailboat, even though we are about 5ft from shore, the stern is in 5ft of water, the bow is in 15. We set a bow and stern anchors to keep us out of the channel, then took the dinghy a whole 5 ft to shore for our evening walk.

The plan is to get up EAAARLY tomorrow, like 5am early and push the last 80 miles. It’s supposed to rain in the afternoon so if I’m feeling wimpy maybe I’ll call it early.

Either way we are 80 miles till freedom from these stupid windy rivers!