November 9, 2019 – Around the Great Loop on the Answer

Week Twenty-One: No movement from Demopolis due to weather

Our plan was to stay in Demopolis two days and leave on Friday, October 25th. We knew rain was expected but didn’t anticipate a major storm. That meant we needed to postpone our departure until Monday. As the days went on, things were not looking positive. There was tremendous rain and that caused flooding on the river and much debris…..lots of logs floating down river. To add to this, more rain was expected for at least three more days so that meant we would be here at least a week.

For the first time since we owned the boat, we had a leak in the saloon. It appears that the rain came into the pilot house via the canvas and traveled into the air conditioner and leaked through the vent over our table. We used a bucket and by morning had collected about 5 inches. There was also a small leak in the stateroom at the head of the bed. There was a drip from some of the bolts on the bow – we believe it was the windlass but these type of leaks find their own path so it could also have been from the cleats. Fortunately, a small towel absorbed the drips and that was sufficient. My hope is that the next round of rain will be more manageable – no flooding and no leaks.

While we were safe in the marina, had access to a courtesy car and their boaters lounge for WiFi, there is little to do in town. We are also too far to do any major sightseeing without renting a car, something we did not want to do since we watched weather daily and planned to leave as soon as we could. I cannot tell you how much reading we have been doing this week. I am so thankful for the Libby App that allows me to connect my three library cards (local, Jersey Shore, and NYPL), to download multiple ebooks for both of us. In addition to reading, we have spent time learning Farkel, a dice game that has multiple versions for various ages. We spent a few hours one rainy day on our boat playing the game. It’s one more of those good travel games that are not only easy to learn but take up no space to store on the boat. We all had a few laughs as we tried to plan our strategy to win.

In addition to wanting to move, we had also hoped to be ahead of some of the crowds of boats coming down the river. Spaces at marinas tend to shrink with too many boats traveling at the same time. From Demopolis, there is really only one place to stop and tie up and it is not really a marina. It is another long dock similar to Hoppies and Riverwalk on the Mississippi. Places that you would prefer to skip but the only place to stop unless you want to anchor on the side of the river. On the other hand, these are places that are “looper legends” so you almost feel compelled to stay there even though you would not miss anything if you opted to skip them.

The flood levels continued for the next few days and we were hoping for a window to leave. Every day we met above the boater’s lounge for an update on the water levels and waited for the river to crest. During this time, another ten+ boats came down from Columbus so that would make leaving even more difficult. To stop at the one available dock, we all needed to be aware of the maximum number of boats – even though they will raft a large number – that would safely fit. Since many of the boats are large, only three-four boats would fit on this 150′ dock and that includes the fuel dock. Generally there are 3-4 boats rafted to the boats on the dock that are usually the largest/heaviest. The boat on the dock will have access to power and perhaps a few of the first rafted if they had a long enough power cord.

The daily updates seem to have the earliest date to leave as Thursday. Most of us do not like the projection and figure Friday would be the earliest we would feel is safe. In the meantime, we will continue to stay put and find a few places in town for lunch or dinner that are not a fast food eatery. You know that you are in one place too long when you need to provision a second time before you can leave.