BlissFull Adventures: Tensas River Cutoff

Hello,

We left the Alabama Cutoff right on time and began our trek Southward. The commercial traffic has increased quite abit and our AIS has really been handy! The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is much like the transponders on the airplane I fly. It identifies your vessel name, course and speed and sends this information out to others. If there is a conflict with another ship, it will notify you and give you an estimated time before your paths would cross. Really a MUST HAVE on the river with all of the hair pin twists and turns.

When Kris and I first brought our boat to Tennessee, there was a massive construction project going on along the river just miles north of Mobile. They were building a steel plant and as you can see, the plant is now in full operation. I don't know much about the plant or it's owners, but I am sure it has provided many good jobs to the area.


Kris driving with Nayla trying to keep her nose warm.

The southbound trip was pretty much uneventful, meaning peaceful and relaxing. The weather was beginning to warm up a bit thus making the trip even more enjoyable. Kris and I have anchored at the Tensas River cut before, but never at Briar Creek. Briar Creek is just a few hundreds yards further downstream and actually a better anchorage. However, Briar Creek is a little more open than any of the previous nights anchorages and doesn't provide nearly the wind protection of our previously narrow anchorages. Fortunately, the winds remained calm and our anchorage was peaceful except for an occasionally boater going by.

Wonder dog retriever

I really need some sunglasses Dad!!

Our three boats rafted up together once again and we are getting pretty proficient coming together is such a tight spot. Fortunately this anchorage was near a huge area of sand from dredging the river. It must have been almost a mile long and 500 yards wide. We drove our dingy right up to the beach and let Nayla out to do her business and romp in the sand. She loves to chase her ball and swimming seems second nature to her

Our plan was to leave early the next morning so we can make our new winter destination of Orange Beach. The forecast for the Mobile Bay was a "light chop" which is certainly comfortable for our boats. The stars were lining up for a successful completion of our trip.

When we woke up to prepare our boats for departure, a thick fog began to roll in and covered up the boats like a heavy blanket.

Since we would be transitioning one of the busiest ports in the Southeast, we decided to hang tight until we had better visibility. This was a good decision since at one time, I counted 68 different AIS targets in a two mile radius. Talk about a "traffic jam", it would have been exciting trying to avoid all that commercial traffic in the fog.

As we entered Mobile Bay, we reconfigured our communication radios to monitor both channels 16 and 13. Channel 13 is used primarily between ships in the harbor while channel 16 is more of common ship to ship frequency. Al Barr took the lead, Bob was next with his Skipperliner and I was tail end charlie. The harbor is the home of several ship building yards and repair facilities. The Navy has contracted a firm to build some new boats for them, and if you recall, we crossed one of these earlier in our travels.

This boat is completely out of the water having some scheduled maintenance done. As you can see, the design is for the "dock" to sink while the boat is secured to the edges. Then the water is removed from the entire dock and it begins to rise leaving the boat free and clear to complete the necessary maintenance.There were several boats on "dry dock" having their hulls repainted.

The weather crossing the Bay was very mild and the winds from the North provided us with a "following sea" which is very comfortable. Fortunately our boat is equipped with Niaid Stabilizers which provide protection to the rolling capabilities of a trawler but they weren't needed today. Once we turned them off in rough seas just to see if we could tell the difference.... yep, yes sir, it was very noticeable!

Even Nayla was bored with the three hour crossing of Mobile Bay. She misses her beach and is looking forward to getting back into the water.

Because we were delayed in fog this morning, we will not beable to reach our final destination. We had to chose between Homeport Marina or The Wharf. Both are within two miles as the crow flies to Orange Beach, but via the Waterway, it was another 3 hours.

The crew opted for The Wharf, so we arrived just as the sun was setting and spent our first night in a marina in 4 days.

Having never been into this marina, I was a little apprehensive while Kris drove the boat into our slip. It was "tight"... only enough room between the piers for Kris to spin the boat around to drive into our slip. She did a marvelous job, even wisely ignoring my "barking" directions from the aft deck.

Thanks for checking in on us. Tomorrow we travel the short three hours to Orange Beach Marina and settle in for the winter.

Rusty and Kris
m/v "BLISS"

P.S. Here are some extra pictures.