Day 140 Monday November 7, 2022
Kingfisher Bay Demopolis Alabama MM216 to Bashi Creek Anchorage MM145
Up at 5am!! UGH...... Coffee, bagels. We need to be at the Demopolis Lock (4miles away) at 6:30. Day light savings time will really affect our travel. It's tough to see floating debris and buoys in the dark but we need to take advantage of as much daylight as possible. A flotilla of boats including Branch Office, Blue Moose, Arion, Grand Wazoo, Eric's Inheritance and a sport fish arrived at the lock. We were through the lock at 6:35.
Arion and Blue Moose 
Waiting for breakfast
Rapids after Demopolis Lock 
At 6:45 we met our second tow at MM199, a very narrow portion of the river, and the location where The Perch hit a rock while moving over for a tow. The Tenn-Tom Waterway is very bendy with multiple S turns. The barges need the whole width of the channel to make the turns. We waited for the tow "Navigator" to make his way around a double bend area. When we were able to pass him he radioed "thank you for your patience".
The scenery continues to change as we travel along the river. We are starting to see Spanish moss on the trees and more marshy type areas. We also saw deer. Arion had an alligator swim across in front of them.
We only had one lock for the day but traveled 71 miles -- another 9 1/2 hour day.
Day 141 Tuesday November 8, 2022
Bashi Creek MM145 to Upper Sunflower East Anchorage MM78.7
We spent a quiet night at anchor with Grand Wazoo, Arion and Blue Moose. There wasn't any tows passing during the night. A call to a passing tow last evening confirmed that we anchored in a safe location.
We finally pulled anchor at 6:55 when the fog cleared. Twenty minutes later we hit something, a thump and an immediate vibration. Jerry backed off the throttle and then slowly sped up. As we moved on there didn't seem to be any issues. Whatever it was hopefully it had minimal impact.
Today we would have our LAST lock on the inland river system! The Coffeeville Lock is at MM116.6. Up again at 5am to the dreaded fog. We waited out the fog while we watched 2 tows coming on AIS. AIS (Automatic Identification System) transmits and receives a signal that shows the name and position of other vessels with AIS. All of the tows have AIS allowing them to see us and us them. It has been very helpful, especially on the winding river. Tow captains actually call boats by name on the radio and understand our location when directing us when to wait or pass.
Seeing sandy "beaches", the first since the Mississippi.
Bobby's Fish Camp, necessary fuel stop for many boaters. The famous restaurant is now closed.
We met 9 tows. I often write their names down to see if we meet them again. Some are memorable because of their professionalism and courtesy, like Navigator yesterday. Today the captain of Callie Duval was memorable because of his attitude. Contacted to make sure we were in a safe spot as we met he communicated poorly and when asked for clarification he started ranting and bad mouthing "you PCs who don't listen and don't understand how hard it is to drive a tow." He wasn't going to loose his license because of recreational boats that don't listen and on and on... even though we had already stopped where he told us to. Another tow chimed in in agreement. Finally a 3rd captain told us where we should move to. We turned around and moved 2 miles back and quietly waited for him to pass. Not a highlight of the day.
Our anchorage behind the dredge.
Finally at our planned anchorage we found a dredge operation. A call to the dredge and we had permission to anchor behind him. A great spot as any passing boat traffic needed to steer wide of us to clear the dredge. We were in 17 feet of water, 30-40 feet away from shore.
Good end to another 10 hour travel day.
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