Day 22 - Fun at the Fish Camp!

It rained last night but today started partly sunny with much less humidity – yay!  The Kingfisher Bay dock was deserted of Loopers by 8 am.  We called the Demopolis Lock and left at 8:17 am as the lockmaster said he was still loading boats and he should be able to take us too.  Another boat, Free at Last, was just ahead of us though, so he got the last lock space.  It appeared to us that the lockmaster, by rafting boats off each other, locked 14 recreational boats thru at the same time.

There were 2 boats behind us that could not safely fit in the lock.  One was Shady Acres, who we had met in Alton and again at Green Turtle Bay.  They are the Long Islanders who sold their house and now live on their boat with their black lab Molly, while doing the loop.  We got in the lock at 9:40 am, dropped 40 feet, and exited at 10 am.  Shady Acres was first out and we followed right behind.

Shady Acres was travelling about 17 knots -- not as fast as our usual speed, but much faster than the other Loopers.  We ended up staying together all day, passing the all the Loopers (except one) from the first lockage.  Passing these slower boats takes time as we have to slow down to a crawl in order not to wake them.  The first 2 were sailboats, Believe and Taino (not sure these were Loopers).  We caught the main Looper group at 11 am, and passed the following boats:  Mistletoe (not sure this is right – very hard to read), Terrapin, Lummiere, Free at Last and Che Nous. We pass the next group, Rock Me Baby, Southern Belle, and Alison Leigh.  It is now 11:50 am and we have passed more than half of the boats that left before us.

 

 As we travelled this section of the Tenn-Tom, we passed another industrial site where they were chopping up pine trees.  We started seeing limestone banks again as well as.  The trees this far south have not turned as much yet.  We are seeing more sandy shores now but have not yet seen any homes on shore.  In addition, there are lots of hairpin turns, ox bows, and switchbacks along this stretch – often we go 5 miles east and west to go less than one mile south.

 

 

 

At noon we start passing the next group:  Once Upon a Time, Lauren Grace and After Taxes.  We were 1,000 nautical miles from home at 12:30 pm.  At 12:50 pm we pass the first residences on shore, some mobile homes.  The banks are not as populated in Alabama as in either Tennessee or Mississippi.  By 2:00 pm we caught up with Sanctuary, the only other Tiara in this bunch.  We had met the owners, Jim and Meg briefly the night before.

 

Shady Acres and Kristin Says arrived at Bobby’s Fish Camp in Silas, AL (population 446), at 3:30 pm.  Success, the boat that Randy’s friend Danny is captaining to Florida, is already there – it is the only boat that locked thru before us and that we did not pass.  Bobby’s dock is only 150 feet long and, since there are already 2 boats tied to it, there is only enough space for one more boat.  We let Shady Acres take that last space on the dock and we raft off of Success.  About an hour later Sanctuary arrives.  By that time, the sail boat on the dock has left so put Sanctuary in that spot.  After Taxes shows up about an hour after that and rafts off of Sanctuary. The rest of the group travels too slow to make it to Bobby’s before dark, so they find an anchorage for the night. 

 

 

Those of us at Bobby’s have an excellent catfish dinner and swap stories.  This place is very well-known for its catfish and will serve 80-100 meals of all you can eat catfish a night when they are open (Thursdays – Saturdays).  There is a birthday party in the back room for an 80 year old and there were 3 homemade cakes, one of which was shared with us.  We felt very welcomed and comfortable here and very much enjoyed ourselves.