Wednesday, May 31 2017
We got underway from Jim’s pier at 0707 and arrived at The
Wharf fuel pier at 0830. There we
executed what had to be one of the fastest refuelings ever. I had previously polished as much fuel from
port tank to starboard as would squeeze into the stbd tank. Thus we ran with a list of a few degrees for
that first leg. So I had room for about
100 gallons in the port tank, which took all of 15 minutes to pump.
I was glad to be moving again so quickly because afternoon
storms were predicted to move across Mobile Bay. With an 8-mile per hour boat, we would be
hard pressed to escape an oncoming storm.
As it was there was a marine warning issued for our area as we neared
the mid-point of our four-hour transit of the bay, and we watched as the
horizon to the southwest darkened and began to rain on us. I veered out of the 13-foot water which
covers most of the bay an into the ship channel so as to be in deep water if we
got hit with the strongest winds predicted.
Shallow water heaps up fast and dangerously in strong winds.
By the time we were closing the industrial waterfront where
the channel narrows, I was having to hand steer because the winds from astern
were heaping up the water to 2-3 foot waves making it difficult for the
autopilot to keep up.
At 1617, we made our first day’s goal of an anchorage in
Briar Creek off the Tennsaw cutoff which in turn is about a mile off the
Tombigbee waterway. It is rather exotic
here with swamp all around and some strange vee-tailed birds I have never seen
before. We get some TV but not enough
connectivity to get a mobile hotspot on the phone for internet. Guess this will go out later.
Thursday,
June 1, 2017
First Full day of the Tombigbee - Briar
Creek to Three Rivers
Well, what a fine day to wake up on my birthday in a well-found
vessel in the middle of the swamps of Alabama!
And happy birthday to Glenn, pathfinder’s previous owner.
I got us underway at 0600 in order to get to the next anchorage
early in the day to avold being underway when the predicted thunder storms
roll up for the Gulf. After shutting
down the generator and all the lovely air conditioning, we found the air coming
through the opened windows much more pleasant than we expected.
