Cady Girl

We left a serene morning on the Tensaw River and headed south to Mobile. 54 miles later we docked at the Dog River Marina in Mobile.  Along the way we definitely were in the bayou, had to hail a bridge tender to open the 14 Mile railroad bridge and then entered Mobile Bay - a very busy industrial bay! Don was jazzed to see an Austal Plant.  Austal is a ship builder specializing in government contracts to the Navy.  A short way down the bay we spied the SS United States.  It is a retired and soon to be scraped ocean liner that was built during 1950 and 1951 and is the largest ocean liner to be entirely constructed in the US.  She also is the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic Ocean and that title remains uncontested. Next up was the US Naval Hospital Ship, "Comfort." It is a 1,000-bed Mercy-class hospital ship that provides emergency care for deployed combatant forces and hospital services for humanitarian operations and disaster relief. It was commissione...

Today was a beautiful day and we traveled 88 miles to anchor on the Tensaw River.  We said goodbye to the locks for a while.  Our next lock will be in Florida on the Okeechobee Waterway! We are now in tidal water and will soon see the "Gulf of Wigglesworth," says Donald. The most exciting part of today's trip for me was that we passed a tug named The Captain Kenny Cady!  I never run into anyone named Cady!  Kenny hails from Slidell Louisiana, so I'll guess I will have to see if we are related somehow. We both waved at each other as we passed. Cady for me, is like Parker for Don (mom's maiden names). And I learned something new today! When we radioed one of the captains, requesting what side to pass him on, he said "the one to one." Don knew what that meant but I did not.  So, here's your history lesson: Whistle signals were developed before the advent of VHF radios for communication between two passing vessels. Port to Port passing is 1 whistle and S...

The past two days have been long ones!   Our first trip was 70 miles on Thursday to the Kingfisher Bay Marina in Demopolis. We saw our first Spanish Moss - so we are clearly in the South. We passed through just one lock but also passed the White Cliffs of Epes.  The White Cliffs of Epes are a striking geological formation formed from ancient marine algae shells from the Cretaceous Period and are often compared to England's White Cliffs of Dover. Demopolis is a historic city founded in 1817 by French refugees.  It is known for its antebellum architecture, Greek Revival homes like Bluff Hall and its origins as a French expatriate settlement. You can tell that Demopolis is rebuilding as you see, warehouse building, old buildings like the "whistle stop cafe" in Fried Green Tomatoes as well as revitalization of the downtown core. On Friday, we motored almost 100 miles to just above what will be our last lock on the Tenn-Tom. Today, Don saw our first alligator - I missed i...

Wednesday We woke up late and walked over to the Columbus marina office. For all you fishermen/women out there, it just so happened that the marina was hosting a 2026 Elite Series Bassmaster Tournament. The marina owner, Mike explained that they had hosted in 2024 and were delighted to have it again.  They even had County trustees (we call them inmates) there helping to set up - we thought they were in pajamas, originally! Only in Mississippi. Anyhow, we left Columbus and sailed through two locks with ease.  On the 2nd lock we had a surprise visitor (see video below).  Thank God it was in the water! Looked like a Water Moccasin (also known as a cottonmouth) to us & he was about 5 feet long.  A very venomous snake.  I am not going in this water!  And we thought we only had to worry about alligators! We continued on and crossed the Alabama border at 1:25 pm, actually crisscrossed back and forth between Mississippi and Alabama for quite a while We spent th...

We got an earlier start than usual, as we had a long "unknown" day ahead of us - 4 locks! As it turned out the gods were with us, because we zipped through all 4 without any delays!  Yippee - it's the little things in life. We did encounter one large barge, however, but sailed by it too! (see photo below). We saw lots of hawks and nests today, but the region is very rural - so not much else to look at.  We did see our 1st Palmetto tree, so perhaps we are in the SOUTH. Docked at the Columbus Marina which has a very friendly and informative owner and staff! There is big fishing tournament tomorrow, so we'll probably be up early! Highlight of the day was dinner at Proffitts Porch!  Cajun food - yum.  Very chatty owner who told us lots of history of the location.  The area was originally made into a beach to entertain the officers of the local air force base and has been in business as a restaurant since 1985. Our Uber driver was a nice young Chaplain at the local h...

What a day! Woke up to a blustery day with not having gotten much sleep!  Anyhow, we got through the Montgomery Lock which we were anchored near, with no delay or problems. Next up John Rankin Lock & Dam.  That was a different story! We went a total of 8.3 miles in 5 hours and 16 minutes - but who was counting.  The dam was under repair, and there were 2 tugs with cargo ahead of us.  To kill time, we circled around Beaver Lake, had lunch and waited!  Not my idea of Fun! Anyhow, we made it to Midway Marina, docked for the night, borrowed the loaner car and proceeded to make the most of it!  Since Tupelo Mississippi is just 24 miles from Fulton, and who wouldn't want to see the birthplace of ELVIS, we drove over there.  The park was a beautiful spot with lots of history about the KING, His home was a two-room shotgun home.  A shotgun house is a narrow, rectangular home typically one room wide, with a hall-less layout where rooms connect directly...