BLACK WARRIOR November 19, 2008

This morning, boat and yacht club walkways had a layer of ice. As Debbie was putting on her last piece of clothing, Tom yelled, "Get up here. We have to leave now." It was only 7:30 and we had planned to have a lazy start. Debbie ran across the Marina to the Yacht Office, found no one there and left the bathroom key with no $5 refund. Then she located Fred who helped us get out. By 8 a.m. we had freed the underwater cable from Catrina and were following a group of boats to the next lock three miles down the river.

Catrina was the last boat to enter the Demopolis Lock. We were instructed to tie off another larger boat on the right side. That's how we met Bill on Tortuga. One of the ten bollards was broken and we were the tenth boat!

Demopolis Lock is the next to last lock of our trip, is our 27 lock to date and has a 40 foot drop. As the level lowered in the closed lock, water began flowing through holes in the upriver door. It looked and sounded like a waterfall!

It was pretty to watch the first 8 boats leave the lock and move into the Black Warrior River. At Mile 217 a few miles above Demopolis, the Black Warrior joined the Tombigbee and the name changed to BWTB. The lower portion of the Waterway to Mobile covers 213 miles. Wide, deep and meandering, this stretch is essentially a natural river and required minimal dredging. The Waterway Guide also states that this run requires self-sufficiency on the part of the boater. There are no marinas along this stretch and only one fuel stop! What the book did not state was that no one took out the curves!

A second deer swam across in front of Catrina as we left the Lock at 9 am. Look carefully!

At Mile 201 we passed the remains of the Old Rooster Bridge. This was the bridge where the tugboat Cahaba capsized and pushed under during a flood in April 1979. The towboat popped up on the other side of the bridge and continued on under its own power (a Video is available on internet).


Captain Tom has been piloting as Debbie records. He said there are frequent curves and the guide book backs him up by saying we will encounter 180 degree switchbacks with too much regularity!

It might be easier to see from above. This is the Rentz Ferry Ox Bow where they did not cut the ox bow but should have!
The continued use of the actual river bed rather than a cut across got us almost dizzy figuring if we were going north, south, east or west. Going around a curve on the left curve on the above GPS picture, Debbie hit the autopilot 10 degree button 12 times or 120 degrees.



A couple other interesting sights: Below is a tree on the shore that looks like a nursery removed it from the ground and it is ready for sale!

Along the banks we see scattered docks. Sometimes we can look into the woods and see a fish camp. We have been warned that the Alabama fishermen feel they control the river and we should be careful when passing them not to make a wake. So far we have not seen a fisherman, just a camp!




We are trying to remember if this was our longest mile day. It definitely was since Kentucky Lake. We covered 71 miles from 7 am to 5 pm (10 hours). When we arrived at Bashi Creek six boats from Demopolis Lock were in residence. They had formed two rafts - three boats tied together. We dropped front and stern anchors just inside the North (I think) entrance of the inlet. When asked where we had been, we suggested that we were the caboose!





Today we were joined by a sailboat skippered by a mother (and 6 year old daughter). They planned to travel only 30 miles today and were joined by Tortuga probably as security.




And lastly Golf Cart (a boat name) dropped anchor right on the river under a bridge at the side of the river. The bridge abutment protected them from passing tows.