Good Morning!  3 miles down the road is the only lock for the day.  Demopolis Lock.  Of course!  The rain missed us and we are ready to go as soon as the Lock Master tells us.  Clear and sunny forecast with little fog.   Depending on passing through the Demopolis Lock will determine the length of our day.  We are targeting an anchorage at Bashi Creek a long 71.2 miles down the river.

(By the way, the Skipper Bob cruising guides have mile markers indicated for many of these major stopovers, anchorages, and marinas. Simple math and you know the distance between locations.)

Early morning at Kingfisher/Demopolis Yacht Basin

Sunrise over Kingfisher/Demopolis Yacht Basin

The Kingfisher Marina is a new facility adjacent to the Demopolis Yacht Basin.  Very nice marina.  Too bad we couldn’t stay longer.  Weather window says…beautiful sunshine and gorgeous skies await us on the river.

7:30am Leaving Kingfisher:Demopolis Yacht Basin

One of the Loopers called and if we get down to the lock in a half hour, we should be able to go through with no problems.

Demopolis Yacht Basin early in the morning

We rounded the bend and took our time.   It turns out the tow that was in the lock was getting “groceries”.  As soon as they loaded up and moved out of the way, the 5 of us Pleasure crafts could go down.  Groceries??  We hadn’t heard that one before.  We did see the red crane move some items from the lock area to the tow.  We had to wait for the groceries to be loaded, unpacked, and stowed apparently.  It took the whole process more than the expected 30 minutes.

Tow now full of ‘groceries’ is on the right – we head in

Looking forward inside the Demopolis Lock

Demopolis Lock doors opening after we went down 40 feet

As I looked back, I saw this lone white heron on the back doors looking for breakfast within the door slats.  Cute.

Demopolis Dam – waterfall

Follow the blue line which is the Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway from Demopolis to our anchorage for the night.  Definitely not a straight line!

Today’s trip – Demopolis to Bashi Creek

The numbers on the map below indicate potential anchorages.  #1 is the “overflow” anchorage if there isn’t room in the #2 Bashi creek itself.  The creek opening is large enough for several boats to be rafted together.  There was room for one or two boats that could go back into the creek 50 yards before the water got too shallow.  The farther away from the opening, the less wind and waves from passing tows affect you.

Bashi Creek Anchorage – Thomasville, AL

After we successfully rafted to fellow Loopers “Lorelie IV”, two tows came across the Bashi Creek opening.  One going north.  One tow going south.  We hadn’t experienced that before.  With both tows and their barges passing at the same time, they really would have made the #1 anchorage spot uncomfortable.  We were glad there was room for us 3 pleasure craft within the creek on the other side of the waterway.

Passing Tows and Lorelei IV crew in their dinghy

Bashi Creek has a boat ramp and park like setting right near Always Home.  Very nice.

Boat ramp at Bashi Creek

We spotted spanish moss on several trees near the anchorage.  We must be in the South!!

Lorelei IV and Always Home rafted together in the small creek opening.  Each of us put out a bow anchor.  In this way, no stern anchor was needed to keep us from swinging.  Pretty neat.  Thank you to the crew of Lorelei IV for this picture.

Lorelie IV and Always Home rafted together

Evening at Bashi Creek