We were both sound asleep at 4:30 AM when the alarm went off. Our electric cabin heater was barely keeping up with the 33F outside temperatures as we got dressed and prepared Dragonfly for an early departure. We left in the dark with four other boats staying at Kingfisher Bay Marina (three of them from Saturday’s game night). Our first stop was Demopolis Lock, three miles downriver, and their preferred lockage times for pleasure craft are 6:00 AM and 8:00 AM. We chose the earlier time because we had a long way to go to our destination. This would be our fourth 70-mile travel day on our Loop, today necessitated by a shortage of decent anchorages on this stretch of waterway. Our goal was to get to Bashi Creek, one of the few off-river places to spend the night out of harm’s way from late-night tow boats. Dawn was breaking as we waited for a tug to lock through, then the five of us dropped 40 feet into the Coffeeville Pool, our last dammed-up section of water before reaching sea level. While going down, a small congregation of white egrets caught fish like crazy inside the lock as the water level fell. As we exited, fog descended upon us and put up a fight before yielding to the rising sun about an hour later.
Today we weren’t the slowest boat in our group—that (dis)honor went to the two traditional sailboats in our flotilla, both crewed by couples under 30. We arrived at Bashi Creek after a 10-hour day and were safely anchored, bow and stern, in 9 feet of water in the narrow creek before sundown. One of the sailboats arrived at dusk and the other well after dark. Tonight’s low is going to be 30F, and our Little Buddy heater is keeping us cozy this evening and we have a new comforter from the Demopolis Walmart to help keep warm tonight.
Fun fact: Today we crossed the 32nd parallel, above which many marine insurers consider safe from tropical hurricanes. We’re going the other way…
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