Tenn-Tom to Panama City

We stayed at Fosque Creek for 6 days waiting out the weather from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ida.  The day before we left we hiked down to a spot below the lock at Demopolis and watched Martha Ann come through the lock.  With the amount of water flowing over and rejoining the turbulance was fairly high at the lock exit. 

Stacy took a picture of our boats anchored as we walked back and we determined that the next day would be our day of departure before the crush of boats from the marinas upstream started down and we were all jockeying for space at the few anchorages available below this point. 

As we headed through the lock we saw the amount of water heading over the dam.  Demopolis is not a flood control dam in that they do not control the water flow but just let it flow over the dam when it gets high. 

We still had lots of debris in the river and had to keep a constant lookout to steer through it .  Some of the channel markers were also under water or almost so.  The current was running about 3 mph so we were able to make better than normal time. 

We anchored at Okatuppa Creek and Bates Lake and left early for our run to Mobile.  We had a beautiful sunrise as we headed out.

We came through the "Mile 14" railroad bridge and then started seeing the industrial parts of Mobile, Alabama.  Mobile is a very industrial and busy seaport.  It has been awhile since we have traveled with the large cargo ships.

We took advantage of an offer by Dog River Marina for a free night stay with a fill up of fuel.  Since we would be buying fuel anyway and the price was competitive we opted to stay for the night.  Our car had been delivered there from the rendezvous at Wheeler so Just Us used it to go to the grocery store.  Ken & Darcy also had a client there so we went to dinner with them.

The next day was a perfectly calm day for crossing Mobile bay so we struck out as soon as the fog lifted enough to see.  We started seeing the sights of salt water as we traveled and we anchored in Ingram Bayou. I took the opportunity to dive on the boats to check the bottom paint condition and add new zincs to my shafts while Stacy and Darcy took off in the dinghy to check out the bayou just east of us.  They found a great little place called Pirate's Cove and planned for us to stop there for lunch the next day.

The next day we headed for Big Lagoon after stopping at Pirate's Cove for lunch and anchored at Redfish Point.  This was near the Naval Air Station at Pensacola and we thought we were sleeping on an aircraft carrier with all of the planes coming over us.  On the way there we officially entered Florida.

At Redfish Point we dinghied to shore and walked a sandy beach for the first time in a long while. 

While at Redfish we had the opportunity to have more planes fly over from Eglin Air Force Base.  A unique plane (an Osprey) flew over a couple of times.  These planes take off and land vertically and then rotate the engines forward to fly conventionally.

We crossed Choctawhatchee Bay the next day and went in to Bay Point Marina in Panama City.  Along the way we saw a tow pushing two tugs and were greeted again by dolphins playing in our bow wake. 

We arrived at Bay Point Marina and got settled in to our slip.  We were greeted by Roy & Elvie Short who were already there and we had dinner on their boat that first night.

The next two days were spent getting everything settled and relaxing before driving home to Athens for Thanksgiving.

We will be in Athens for a week or so and then return to SEASEA and enjoy the cruising around the panhandle.