Day 216: - Tenn-Tom Mile 52.8 to Tensaw River Cut-off, AL
Day 216: Monday, November 28th: We awoke to a gloriously clear sky and absolute quiet. The view forward of the boat was devoid of any movement:
Looking aft, it was equally quiet:
We are once again in tidal waters. The water is brackish, although it is a fresh-water river officially. From here onward on our Loop, we have to be concerned about tides and tidal current in our planning.
We had planned a fairly short day so had a leisurely breakfast and reluctantly left the anchorage. Downstream a few miles we finally saw some signs of civilization. This is a dock belonging to Scott Paper Company:
Just past the docks is Nanny Hubbert's Bluff, the last bluff we will see on the river. Red and brown colors were a fitting finale:
The next sight of note is the joining of the Black Warrior and Alabama Rivers. That's the Alabama coming in to our right; we are 45 river miles from Mobile:
Then there was another giant steam generating plant. It seemed rather stark in the otherwise pristine surroundings:
At mile 22, we came upon the Interstate 65 Bridge, nicknamed the "Dolly Parton Bridge" by locals. Can't imagine why..
Today was quite warm, about 81 degrees. We had been listening to NOAA weather radio and they were promising a strong, fast-moving cold front complete with possible severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. In fact, we were under a tornado watch until 6:00pm. About 3:30pm the sky turned nasty, the breeze picked up and the storms started marching across the horizon:
We noticed that the riverbanks were now lined with Saw Palmettos. We pulled over near the bank to get a picture. The water right up to the bank was almost forty feet deep!
We came to the "fourteen mile railroad bridge." We were warned to call the bridge tender on the radio, even if the bridge was swung open, to be sure he wasn't going to close the bridge soon. We never could get a response from him and went on through without a problem:
Pretty soon the dark clouds disappeared, sort of like yesterday. The tornado watch was cancelled; it appeared the worst was over. At mile 12.2 we turned into the Tensaw River Cut-off, then into Big Briar Creek. We moved up the creek about three miles and anchored around a bend past Wind Dreams with whom we'd been playing anchorage tag for several days. This anchorage is well-known as a "hurricane hole" by the locals. While the water is wide and fairly deep, it is protected fairly well from high winds. It was a good spot to weather the approaching cold front:
Position tonight: N30 49.897 W087 56.112
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