We spent two days docked in Mobile. On Monday mom was going to come so Ray could go back to Murphy. She was driving his truck when it broke down about half way. Thankfully she had AAA and got towed to a garage in Auburn. Not knowing what would happen, Ray got in a rental car and drove to the shop in Auburn. Mom dropped him off via the rental car at a hotel 3.5 miles away as the shop was now closed and the truck was not fixed yet. Mom continued toward Mobile, but gave up about a hundred miles away. I couldn't blame her. It had been a long day for all of us.
Tuesday morning Ray walked to the shop. They had the truck fixed by 11:00 a.m. and he headed on home successfully. Mom took her time and arrived in Mobile around lunch time. We took the rental car to Mellow Mushroom, then returned it.
It was a busy night in the port of Mobile last night. It seemed traffic went by all night. Those that looked at the clock said it died down around 1:30 a.m. Despite all that we were up early and I was the first to pull away from the dock at 6:15 a.m. with assistance from Bob and Bill. I think "The Bar-B" was next, then the Hatteras trawler that was docked behind us, "Hattitude", and "Conched Out Too" got off on their own. We all pretty much caught up to each other at the 14 Mile Railroad Bridge where we had to wait for a fuel truck to get off the track for an opening.
"Hattitude" went on after that which helped in hearing the tows coming down the river. "The Bar-B" was preparing me with the names via his AIS. We passed a total of five today. The last one was in a tight curve where we all had to hold back and wait for it to slide around. It was a great experience for Bill to see why they use that term. Those tows had the current and the wind pushing them today. So you know what that means. It was the opposite for us.
We interrupt this blog to bring you story time. There was an additional used sailboat at Mobile while we were there. Come to find out they just purchased it in Pensacola, Florida and are taking it to Knoxville. They had absolutely no charts. The Coast Guard spent four hours on that boat come to find out because the new owner didn't know anything about what was required. He ended up having to take a taxi to get an additional fire extinguisher. Roger on "Hattitude" was nice enough to give him some charts (and let me borrow a round fender). So today Bob tells us that last night around ten o'clock he notices that the sailboat (which is behind "The Bar-B") is perpendicular to the river. Bob goes out and sees that his two forward lines have come undone. He is now tied to the dock by only one stern line. Thank goodness Bob noticed. He would have been out floating down the river in all that traffic, or would have run into us. Another thankful note is that he'll never be able to catch up to us. What a danger. Back to the regularly scheduled blog.
After all the tows the last of the excitement was spotting a large alligator on the right descending bank. We all got to see it. We said it was so big it was not intimidated by anything. Not even the fishing boat that went flying by close to it.
"The Bar-B" pulled off at the Tensas River about two miles before "Conched Out Too" pulled into David Lake with us. We dropped anchor around 3:00 p.m., making it almost a nine hour day to go 42.6 miles. Bill & Patty came over for a short visit before mom and I had leftover pizza and chuck roast for dinner.
Tomorrow will most likely be a long day, so we're looking forward to a peaceful night's sleep to begin real soon.
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