Bashi Creek to Three Finger Lake

Bashi Creek to Three Finger Lake

Foggy patches in the morning

We left the Bashi Creek anchorage at the very break of dawn and it was beautiful.  About one mile downriver we encountered fog.  It came and went, sometimes making the opposite shore invisible, but fortunately we did not encounter any tow boats today, so we were able to move along with enough visibility for our 8 mile per hour pace. The fog lasted for a couple of hours and then the day warmed and was fine.  We are putting on a lot of miles to make it to Mobile Bay before bad weather sets in a few days from now.  We’d rather not be crossing that heavy traffic area in four foot waves. That motivated us to go 72 miles yesterday and 82 miles today.

Rafted back to back, Eli and Dennis exchanged greetings

So this evening we will anchor out again in a small offset creek. We were able to enter in 6 feet of water and anchor at 8 feet. Anchoring out has always been a favorite thing to do when boating. It’s peaceful, usually scenic, and free.  Many of the people that do the loop need more interaction with others, or worry about their boat staying firmly in place, and prefer marinas. Tonight we anchored again back to back and belly to belly with Always 5 O’clock.  Decktails were in order since we do not have a dock, but none the less a good period of time to unwind and enjoy the company of our fellow boaters. We just climb over the side of one boat and onto the other.   Al and Charli have their grandson with them and he has become an experienced deck hand and pilot in these last two weeks.

Not much commercial traffic today, except when after anchoring we saw a tow with two barges filled with benzene.  For one terrifying second we thought he was headed straight for us, but he made a very tight turn and kept going upriver. This is a beautiful anchorage very still, deep, quiet and tree lined. After locking down the Coffeeville lock and dam we are now at sea level and the water level is tidal, here just under one foot.

The benzene tow rounds the river bend

 

The last, of 150 locks, for Always 5 O'clock