At 6:15 am CT Thursday, June 29th, Lollipop was underway following Steve and Carol on JADIP, a Great Harbour N37, up the Mobile River. Bronson and I took turns running Lollipop while we kept a lookout for floating logs, trees, stumps, etc. The river was still in a low flood stage and required lots of dodging of the trash. By 6 pm CT, we all had had enough and anchored in Bates Lake for the night. I admit to being tired and slept very well, knowing the anchor alarm was watching over us.
Friday, June 30th, found us underway at 6 am CT, still dodging the trash in the river. As the day progressed, we noticed less and less trash, and at 4:15 pm CT, we entered the Coffeeville lock, my first lock ever. Less than a half-hour later, we were underway again. Anchorages are almost non-existent on this section of the river. About 6 pm CT, JADIP pulled over to the inside of a curve and dropped anchor. We passed them for the first time during the trip and continued looking for a place we could call home for the night. About half an hour later, at the exact moment, Bronson and I both pointed to a small area in the river and, in short order, was anchored at Quinns Landing. The clock read 7:45 pm CT, so another typical day, running 14 hours. Unfortunately, our anchorage that night had no cell service, so we could not tell Steve and Carol on JADIP where we were.
On Saturday, July 1, as usual, just after daylight, we were underway for our seventy-mile push to Demopolis. During the morning, we got cell service back and received several texts from JADIP saying the first anchorage did not work and they had moved up the river, still behind us but closer. During the day, they throttled up slightly to catch us and by mid-afternoon passed us to resume the lead.
Just after 5 pm CT, we both entered the Demopolis Lock, and in short order, we were underway again to Kingfisher Bay Marina in the Demopolis Yacht Basin. Around 6 pm CT, we arrived and got settled into a slip (my first time docking Lollipop in a slip), got checked in, and signed out the marina loaner car for a trip for a farewell dinner with Steve and Carol. They were staying at Kingfisher Bay Marina for several days to celebrate the 4th of July. We also ran to Walmart for some food items.
My overall thoughts of the trip so far, I’m tired. Fourteen-hour days running and multiple days on the boat have taken the fun out of the trip. The Mobile River is nothing to write home about, just lots of winding curves. At times we traveled almost an hour to find ourselves only a couple of hundred yards through the wood from where we were an hour ago. On the bright side, Lollipop had no problems, she had won me over, and I have great faith in her. My captain skills are impressing me. In my head, when I am approaching a dock or lock wall, I constantly hear,” Never go faster than you are willing to hit something,” and with Lollipop, that is not a problem as she is a slow trawler.
