Destination Mobile Bay

Sunday September 29 began with a sunrise departure from Demopolis Yacht Basin to Demopolis L&D. Being a weekend day, there was considerable recreational use occurring on the Tenn-Tom and this slowed Late Date's progress. 

The planned refueling and night stop was to be Bobby's Fish Camp Mile 118.9. There were technical issues with the fueling station that required quite some time to correct. Compounding that frustration, the transient slips were exposed to significant barge wakes. With both issues, Brett, Colin and Bob decided to try an anchorage at Mile Marker 100 instead since they really needed to make Mobile, AL in good time on Monday.Hurrying out of Bobby's, they wanted to get ahead of a large tow pushing coal. They were unsuccessful and had a long wait on this the final lock of the trip to the Gulf. After traversing 50 L&D over the past 20 days and only waiting a total of 3 hours for commercial traffic, the Colin "shamrock" failed. 

Coal Tow

Sites of Mobile Bay, AL

Arriving at Mile 100, the shamrock continued to wilt.  The water was incredibly low and to anchor safely was nearly impossible.  Brett stayed awake all night to watch for tows since Late Date has to have at least 6 feet of water beneath her.  While her lights and ping radar were on, this does not guarantee that a recreational boat on anchor will be seen in time. In total, Brett hailed five passing tows of Late Date's location on his all night vigil. On Monday morning, Brett went to bed while Colin and Bob left anchorage to take Late Date out on her final 100 miles to Mobile Bay. 

Bob, Colin and Brett Dog River Marina, Mobile AL

Arriving finally at Dog River Marina, Mobile, AL,Late Date was using too much gas on the port side. This would make the Gulf run questionable until this is fixed so the decision was made over a hot meal and beer that they all needed a break from Late Date. Brett is heading back to Minnesota and work while Colin and Bob are renting a car and driving to Colin and Paulita's home in Fernandina Beach. The staff and marina at Dog River are good friends of the staff at Bayport Marina so Late Date will be well cared for.  

The next leg of Late Date's journey is to her new port of call and that will involve crossing the Gulf of Mexico to Clearwater FL and then either a short cut through Florida or an adventurous route around the state. Stay tuned for details since there are a few options in terms of Late Date's route and date of departure!