Bates Lake to Mobile (54 miles following the river,92 miles after dodging logs)

We have invented a new short form for texting. LFL (looking for logs). This is the section of river that slows down as we near the ocean. All the debris that has come down the river from halfway up into Alabama settles here before it sinks or just floats over against the shore. No danger of boredom today as we weave our way back and forth across this minefield of logs, branches and some stuff that has started to grow in mats.

We asked one tow pushing 4 barges if we should pass him and he said ok so he slowed down a little and we started our pass which took a long time at 7 knots. We felt like the little train that could as we gained on him foot by foot. He called back on the radio "Is that all you got". I let Cheryl answer "yes". Not a comfortable thing for a man to admit. The day before I had asked a tow captan how many horsepower he was controlling. He said a measly 2,000 but earlier in his career he had driven them as high as 6,000 horsepower. I asked "What will you do when you retire, buy a boat"? He answered"Iam agoona set on my porch and watch the grass grow" nine days from today! We congratulated him and wished him well.

We entered Mobile Bay around 2pm and motored about five miles to the Convention Center where they let us tie up for free along the shoreline at the dock used for Cruise boats. A little bumpy due to traffic but not bad. Still no showers for 5 nights. I washed my feet in the toilet bowl. Cheryl said thanks. The boat is getting a little small.

This is our first taste of tide activity. Information for these is readily available on the internet. Yesterday afternoon was high tide and last night at around 4am was low tide. It rises and falls about 1.2 feet here. You can't tie up very snug if your water level is going to fall.

Today the mini me mast comes down at Dog River and tomorrow the bid guy goes back up! She is going to be a sailboat again!

Today we will be saying goodbye to our friends on Amalia. Just like those other Trawler people on Yesterdays Dream and Selah they make great travelling companions. Even though I am always having to slow down so they can keep up it is nice to meet people like these. None of them have seen the last of Surona. In the famous words of Steve Franco "You can run but you can't hide".

We are off to Dog River Marina it is 8:45 am.

Pete and Cheryl and Surona