Cady Girl

We spent Monday at Dog River Marina so Captain Don could change the oil in the engines and the generator - 19 gallons - 1/2 a barrel - cha ching $$$$.  And yes, he recycled the old oil.  He did it faster than the last time, so that's a good thing.  Jean, on the other hand, washed windows, swabbed the deck and went grocery shopping. What a fun day, but someone's got to do it!  We topped the day off by going to Felix's Fish Camp.  Had to go there for Ernie & family.  It was delicious - red fish, shrimp, crab cakes and fried green tomatoes! And music while we dined!  Oh yes, and a "Swamp Rita" to drink, fresh from the bayou. Speaking of bayou, we were actually really close to Bayou La Batre - where Forest Gump made his millions $$$$.😂 Today we took a leisurely cruise across Mobile Bay to Fairhope. The Bay is really quite shallow except for the shipping lane - ergo, the leisurely pace.  Fairhope was one of Jimmy Buffett's childhood homes and is a...

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...