Unhappy Halloween tricks on the Tombigbee and Mobile River!

Foggy Halloween Morning!

10/31/19  Thursday,  Happy Halloween!  Our friends were certainly on the tricked side!

     We woke up to a rainy morning in our anchorage.  We held firmly through the night.  We got a call first thing from Penny on Southern Cross, saying that their dinghy was gone!  They always drag it behind them so they can take their dog to shore to take care of her business.  They thought it had been stolen and called the local police and coast guard.  Karl and I got our dinghy off our boat to go over to Southern Cross to help in the search and to take the dog to shore!  Karl and Dave cruised up and down the creek to look for the missing dinghy, not finding it.  They were understandably upset, it was a new dinghy bought for the Loop trip.  After reporting it missing and worrying that it had been stolen, and much chatter on the radio, they got a call from a fellow boater.  They had just passed a dinghy about 5 miles downriver that was trapped on the side of the river bank!  Hoping that it was theirs, we quickly brought up our anchors and headed that way.  In the meantime, it had started to storm and really downpour rain!

Dinghy recovery adventure!

      We spotted the dinghy on the side of the shore, but there happened to be two huge tows and barges in the immediate area,  so we passed on by to find a good spot to stop out of their way.  Dave hopped on our dinghy, and worked his way back to the spot where we had seen his dinghy.  Southern Cross and Endorphin Voyager had to hover in the channel of the river to wait in the poring rain with 2 tows in the area, not knowing what was really happening.  It was taking Dave a long time to recover the dinghy and bring it back to the mother ship!  What was going on?  After much worry, we finally spotted 2 little dinghys slowly making their way back to us, in the poring rain!  It amazingly was his dinghy!  He was pulling our dinghy behind him!  The story does not quite end yet!  We found out why it took him so long.  It was because our dinghy had sprung a huge leak!  He had to stop and bale every few minutes to make it to shore for the recovery!  Thank goodness it did not sink!  And thank goodness Dave was a Navy man!  He is a Naval Academy graduate and spent 25 years in the service!

       Karl and Dave spent another good 30 minutes or so, trying to bail enough water out of our dinghy so we could lift it safely with the davit to get it back on board!   All in the pouring down rain and they were soaked through and through and chilled to the bone!  Good news is, they were able to complete "the mission," and we were all thankful to have found their dinghy.  We think someone had stolen it and then abandoned it for some reason, maybe teenagers playing a Halloween prank?
We may never know for sure!

     This all took several hours, but we finally got on our way again.  We followed Southern Cross to Mobile and the rain eventually cleared!  We planned to stop at the Mobile Convention Center, a convenient stop right before we had to enter the Mobile Bay.  This place had no services, no electric, water, etc.  It was just a wall to tie up to, but we were exhausted and ready to be done with the day!

      The adventure continues....The weather was still playing tricks on us, with winds up to 20-25 miles per hour and a river current of about 4 to 5 knots!   Karl had to turn into the wind and current to dock us and it was the hardest dockage he has ever tried!  Fortunately, there was a security guard on duty and he helped catch our lines after many attempts to make it to the wall.  Once he got the lines, we started to quickly go into the dock.  I heard a loud crack, just hoping we hadn't damaged the boat.  It was a harrowing experience!  We tied up, but then had to move our boat back about 50 feet so Southern Cross could get in front of us.  They are a 62 foot Ocean Alexander.  We got secured finally and jumped out in the wind to help them tie up.  They experienced the same awful conditions, and successfully turned into the wind and current and made it safely to the wall!  Both our boats were secured with many fenders and were not damaged!   We were still bouncing around a lot.

     The end of the story....We took the dogs for a walk and Penny and Dave asked us to join them for dinner on their boat!  We had a lovely time, good fellowship, sipping some wine and talking about the events of the day over a delicious barbecue rib dinner cooked in their crock pot!  Good ending to a stressful day and certainly a Halloween to remember!