Alabama River Cutoff

Hello,

Just as the title of this update eludes to, we made the Alabama River Cutoff somewhere around 3pm. The pace has been relaxing but the commercial traffic on the river has picked up a bit.

One of the negative aspects of this particular anchorage is the lack of adequate "dog friendly" facilities nearby. We anchored a few hundred yards off the river on this cutoff between the Tombigbee River and the Alabama River, (hence the name Alabama River Cutoff). The banks of the river contained trees right up to the edge of the water and there was no "user friendly" place to walk your four legged travelers. Also, as we get further south and the ambient air/water temperature increases, the likely hood of encountering alligators improves. Therefore, we need to take extra precaution in selecting the areas for our dogs to run.

Before entering the cut, we noticed a large sandy beach along the Tombigbee and decided this would be the place for our dogs. After getting secure, we loaded up all three boats worth of dogs (2 LARGE Chocolate Labs, 1 Doberman and our mix breed) and head to the beach for some exercise and bathroom breaks. Hey.. no problem in the daytime, but that night was a different situation.

After eating and before our Looper's midnight, we took our animals out for one last time before retiring for the night.

We successfully navigated to our selected beach but the return was exciting! Just as we loaded up the dogs and began our trip back, we noticed very bright search lights coming from BOTH directions on the river. Wouldn't you know it, there were TWO towboats with their loads coming and it appeared they would meet at the same place we are now located in our tiny dingy with 3 adults and 4 dogs! No problem, we can move......except when things go wrong, they usually go wrong big time.

At the most inopportune time  and while we were in the middle of the channel returning to our boats, the tiny little engine decides to quit! DANG!!! Towboats coming from both directions and we are now driftwood in the middle of the river!

I brought along a 2 million candle power Q Beam and Bob has his handheld radio. We announce our position on the radio to the oncoming tows and I begin to shine my Q Beam at the nearest tow. Meanwhile, Bob is desperately trying to restart the engine. Lady Luck stays with us and the motor restarts but would not go above an idle speed. We point the sharp end of the boat to the nearest shore and pray like heck we get there before the tows gets us.

The northbound tow is the first to arrive as we are hugging the shoreline making our way back to the entrance of our cutoff. You know.... that entrance seemed to be further away than I remember, but we do find it and with it the safety of the narrow channel. Whew!!!

During the night, we hear from Doug and Betty Turner on Seabiscuit. They are anchored at Briar Creek awaiting Mobile Bay to calm down for their crossing. Who knows...  they may still be there when we get there tomorrow.

Thanks for checking in on us. Tomorrow we are headed for Briar Creek, just off the Tensas Cut. Another short day!

Rusty