HIGHER GROUND: Our Journey: On to Mobile! Dec 11

From Columbus we immediately passed through the Stennis Lock and then the Bevill Lock. Mississippi and Alabama had been receiving heavy rain for much of the last week. The streams were full and raised the water level in the Tombigbee over 15 feet. Flow over the dams was high creating a fierce turbulence around the dams and high currents downstream. This picture of the Bevill Dam shows the turbulence.

Fortunately, the current was behind us heading south so we picked up additional speed and which should have shortened our time to Mobile if we had not hit fog later.

The white cliffs of Epes get even more dramatic the closer you are to them. At this point we are 25 miles above a point halfway down the Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile.

Our last lock on the rivers and our 159th lockage since we started in April was at the Coffeeville Lock. We had fog on the river for three days. The day before we had to delay our start by four hours and only made about 20 miles from one anchorage to another. This day was partially foggy all day.

This was our view as we prepared to come out of the Coffeeville lock. On days like this I use radar, our two chartplotters to watch for other boats and to keep on course. Also the Automatic Identification System (AIS) that I have tied into the chart plotting software on my laptop displays location, speed, direction, and boat name of any large boat (>100ft) or commercial vessel within about 3 - 4 miles. I am able to see a tow coming before it shows up on radar or am able to visually see it. This has been invaluable in the fog.

The finale set of bluffs along the waterway are these called Nanny Hubbert's Bluff.

The Black Warrior River is in the lower part of the waterway. The river level had exceeded its banks all the way from above Demopolis down to Mobile.

The first view of the city of Mobile is this bridge.

Mobile has a thriving shipbuilding industry. This ship, the USS Independence was constructed at the General Dynamic shipyard in Mobile. It is the second of a modern class of ships called Littoral Combat Ships or Freedom Class. The Independence LCS2 is of an Australian Austral company trimaran design and on Dec. 18 the Navy accepted delivery of this ship two days after this picture was taken. The design is a 417 foot long high-speed (over 40 knots) aluminum trimaran designed to be able to work close to shore or counter threats such as mines, quiet diesel engine subs, or fast surface craft. It has only a three meter draft but the helicopter deck of any US warship. The Navy wants a total of 55 LCS class ships.