Today was the day to start to cross the north western corner of the Gulf of Mexico. Once outside the breakwater at Ft Walton Beach, we had 310 nautical miles to travel to get to Venice, FL.

We started our 3 hour piloting shifts as we left the dock a little before 6. The wind was nonexistent and the temperature was in the low 60s as we headed out. There was a little fog as we neared the inlet, it dissipated in less than a mile's travel, making for an easy ride under the bridge and out the inlet.

The tide was outgoing, and there were swells entering the inlet, making for some short steep waves as we exited. The sea calmed down some after we got free of the inlet, but remained bouncy for the next couple hours. There were few boats to contend with on the water so the rest of the day went without incident. Rain threatened, but clouds were dissolved by the sun and skies cleared making way for another picture perfect sunset.

The stars from the Gulf on such a clear night were amazing. The wind settled leaving us with a disorganized rolling wave pattern, which smoothed as the night progressed. Lesley decided it was too nice an evening for leftovers, so chicken Alfredo made shift turnover a pleasure. The moon appeared about 2 am, improving visibility of the water's surface. Sunrise came after 7, and made the almost glass calm ride into Venice harbor at 10:00 on the morning of the 27th an enviable experience. We certainly enjoyed seeing the clear water of the Gulf vs what we experienced in the river. It will take a lot of cleaning to get the "ditch mustache" off the bow and waterline of the boat. We did take some time to wash off the boat on arrival, but it will need some real cleaning by Burr Yachts to return to it's normally pristine condition.

Overall, the boat behaved flawlessly; the weather, even with some fog setbacks, was extraordinary; foliage on the Tennessee River in the fall was well worth seeing again; the countless tug captains that shared their limited space with us on the Tombigbee Waterway, and the 18 lock operators that helped our safe passage all made for a great trip. Special thanks to Scott Alexander and the boat owners for allowing us the opportunity to help.

Christmas Day greeted us with blessed weather. It was a clear 62 degree morning with light winds as we headed out a few minutes after 6. We didn’t need to leave that early because we were still shortening our travel day to time the weather for a safe gulf crossing, but early departure habits persist. It also gave us some contingency time to find either a marina to tie up in, or a good anchorage. Phone attempts to marinas the day before went unanswered.

We managed to pass three barges on our easterly course through the ICW. There were only a few recreational boats on the water, which allowed us to maintain a more constant speed of 9.8 knots. Dolphins kept us company most of the way. One jumped so close to the boat Lesley got soaked while taking pictures.

The wind came up in the afternoon as expected. We ended up docking on the fuel dock at Adventure Marina in Ft Walton Beach. The marina is closed, so we called and left a message to ensure they knew we weren’t trying to poach space. The gate on the dock kept us from going anywhere. This put us just a couple miles from the inlet to the Gulf, so we could get out quickly Sunday.

We started fueling about 6:00, by the time we finished adding 800 gallons of fuel and settled up, it was 8:00 when we left Dog River Marina. No fog and temperatures in the high 50s made for an easy start.

The day’s trip was short. With higher winds in the gulf predicted until early the 26th, we wee in a slight holding pattern to time our trip across the gulf. We poked across Mobile Bay and into the ICW. A freighter was well ahead of us as we crossed the bay. Our main company were a couple pelicans and at first two seagulls, then 30 or more. All were following us to capture some small fish in our wake. They had marginal success.

We stopped early afternoon at Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores, AL. The marina staff was off for the holiday, and all was quiet. We did some cleanup and went for a good long walk. Our daughter’s church streamed their Candlelight service, so we got to virtually join her and her kids to celebrate Christmas Eve.

After a delayed start due to fog, we successfully negotiated our final of 18 locks on the trip from Ten Mile, TN very easily. The river then started to take more of a natural, mature river's very windy course.

Some say the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. We have not been doing that. There are 450 nautical miles to cover in the Tombigbee Waterway. As the crow flies, they represent a much shorter distance of 250 miles. The lower portion travelled today had more twists and bends than previous days. It also had more industry, and more barges to pass. We lost count at a dozen or so barges.

A geologist friend told me the rock ledges we passed in prior days were made of Selma rock, which is from the upper Cretaceous period (end of dinosaur time, 145-66 million years ago). The banks in the lower portion of the river started as sand/mud levies, then gave way to lower grass and marsh as we got close to Mobile.

Upon arrival to Mobile, things were busy and a great contrast from the wilderness we travelled through. Hundreds of barges lined the shore, then shipbuilding, then ships and freighters, and a couple floating oil rigs. We followed one large freighter into Mobile Bay, and another departed a pier as we passed and followed us. We reached the bay as the sun was nearing the horizon, making for a great sunset just before we entered the Dog River to spend the night.

We figured the two tugs with barges we passed the day before would be approaching the lock just below Demopolis just about the time we would. We departed an hour earlier in the dark to ensure we locked through before being delayed by the barges.

Fog just on the surface of the water grew as sunrise approached. We entered our only lock of the day in the dark before 6:00. By the time exited at 6:30, the sky was starting to brighten, which also dropped the temperature, generating more fog. We spent the next couple of hours of travel creeping through thick fog. By 8:20 the fog dissipated and we started making better headway to our next planned stop, "Bobby's Fish Camp."

Most of the rock ledges we'd seen upriver gave way to lower, gradual shorelines of mud and sand. Much erosion, probably from spring flooding could be seen in many spots. We passed 6 tugs with as many as 9 barges each each, but did not see any downbound barges.

Bobby's Fish Camp doesn't take reservations, although there was room for us on arrival. We had a safe place tied off at the side of the waterway for the night.

The anchor came up with a lot of black muck at 6:30. The anchor alarm showed the boat only swung about four feet in the calmness overnight. One barge passed by at 4:00 and barely rocked the boat.

We caught to the barge that passed at 4:00 right at our first of two locks for the day. The barge was already in the lock and doors were closed as we pulled up. After a 90 minute wait, it was our turn in the Tom Beville lock. This lock was the one that was struck by a barge in the spring, and was closed for several weeks.

Tom Beville lock is also home to a museum about the Tombigbee Waterway, which includes the snag steamboat, paddle wheel vessel "Montgomery." The historic snagboat was built in Charleston for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1926. For nearly sixty years it worked to keep the channels of a number of Southern rivers free from snags and debris. By the time the Montgomery was retired in 1982, it was one of the last original paddlewheel steamboats of its kind in the United States.
In 1984, after its days of use as a snagboat were over, the Montgomery doubled as a Mississippi riverboat in the made for tv movie Louisiana.

We made it to the second lock just as an upbound tug pushing 9 barges was departing the lock. After just a ten minute wait it was our turn and we locked through easily.

The trip was unremarkable, although there was a variety of novel sights to see along the shoreline. We were entertained by things like a phone booth; many herons; various rock, mud and sand formations; and wood pellet/chip processors.

We finished our day in Demopolis, AL at Kingfisher Marina, where we took on fuel and water. The marina was in a nice calm basin with well maintained floating docks.

Docks, decks and lines all had a heavy coat of frost for our departure at 6:25. There were two other boats on the dock that saw us prepping to leave and wanted to follow. One travelled a little slower than us, so we moved a little slower today. With five locks to go through and not enough distance to create a large separation between us and the slow boat, we'd end up just waiting at each lock. We used less fuel today traveling at nine knots, so a plus there.

Each lock we travelled through on the Tombigbee Waterway, other than the first one with the 84' drop, are very similar. After the first couple of the day, it was more like "Groundhog Day." Our lock throughs were all very smooth, with no delays, each lock dropping us between 25 and 35'; until we arrived at our last lock in Columbus. A fuel barge we passed a few miles before the lock took priority, we both waited for some minor lock maintenance to be completed, the fuel barge took priority and locked down first. Because the barge carried benzene, we could not lock down at the same time. After that, a tug with two barges was locked up. Overall, about a 2 hour and 45 minute delay. Not bad, but it did use valuable daylight.

The marina in Columbus was about the right distance for a stop, but the marina channel was shoaled in by a storm, and could only handle boats with less than a 4' draft. We spent the night in a previously used "safe anchorage" for the night about 16 miles south of the lock. Just about the time the anchor caught bottom, darkness of night swallowed us up. Lesley fixed a good meal and all was calm and quiet for the night.