Wednesday dawned bitterly cold. We were determined to leave Demopolis Marina hell or high water. Four days of being detained by the cold weather was enough. The knots in the lines were frozen stiff and John had to use his leatherman to pry them loose. We got underway about 7:30 a.m. and ran for 10 hours until we finally spotted Bobby's Fish Camp. This was our goal for the day, but we both agreed, that we overdid the hours navigating.
We had heard some rather derogatory remarks about Bobby's Fish Camp, but I thought it looked like a little bit of heaven. The dock looked fairly new and certainly secure. No asisstance tieing up tho' so our hands were about frozen when finished. John took Winston up to do his business. Boy was he relieved in more than one way (the dog that is). There was a phone number posted on a tree by the walkway that John called to let someone know we had arrived. A short time later a woman in a pick up truck came down to collect the $44 docking fee. That seems to be the norm on this river, electric or no. We have a Kohler generator that I protested loud and long about buying, but now I thank John (and God) every day that we have this wonderful machine. The space heaters did a fairly good job of keeping up with the cold temps, and hot homemade chili warmed us up as well.
John purchased a plan with Verizon Wireless for 2 droid phones and a MIFI2200 gismo that supplies us with almost constant contact with friends and family. It also allows us to watch Netflix movies even in this remote area. We watched "The Package" and then I headed to bed with flannel sheets and a nice warm comforter.
Thurs: Still chilly, but sunny which lifted our spirits as we set off again. Today we hope to get half the distance to Mobile Bay. We will anchor out tonight. Demopolis Marina gave us a list of safe places to spend overnight.
By the way, I underestimated the number of locks we went through and much to my chagrin, there was one yesterday and another this a.m. John assures me these were definitely the last of them. It's not a big deal, but when the wind's whipping and you're bobbing around trying to lasso a bollard, it's not my favorite activity.
After about an hour of running, there was a loud thump which indicated only one thing: we hit a submerged object. There was nothing visible before or after that we could see. John said usually if something underwater is hit, you can see it bobbing around behind you. He went down below to check for a possible leak, but things seemed intact. He did determine we dinged the starboard prop, so we've slowed down to be kind to it. We had been running around 11+ mph with the current, now down to about 9. Hopefully the rest of the day will be uneventful.
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