Halloween at Pirates Cove, 10-31-2014

Friday, October 31^st.

While the day dawned cool, it promised to warm up and be sunny.  It was 39 degrees when we woke up, and would warm to 66 degrees for the high. We hunched in the cabin, waiting for more hospitable weather, trying to catch up on photos, and blog entries.  About noon, we emerged and talked to the crew of Brisa about the afternoon’s activities. It was determined that a trip to the snag boat Montgomery was in order.  So we bustled around, went to get the courtesy van to start on our escapade, and Jeff got the lowdown on the intricate workings of the van.

> Push the brakes to the floor when hoping to stop

> Slow down when going over bumps or the van will hit bottom

> Sometimes the engine slows down, so just pull over to the side, turn the engine off and restart it.  Apparently this behavior exhibits itself mostly while using cruise control. So we didn’t use cruise control

Actually, we didn’t need cruise control to keep from speeding.  Jeff discovered that going more than 45 caused the van to shimmy.  So while tooling around at 45 mph, we discovered another interesting thing about the stretch of road.  Apparently solid yellow lines must have been painted on the road because they had extra paint, not because it was a no passing zone, because pass they did. Regardless of the solid yellow lines!

We made our way to the Bevill lock and dam, the home of the snag boat Montgomery. The first thing that we see is a beautiful, antebellum home.  It was movie material!

Looks like a home, not a visitor's center

 As we entered the home, we discovered that it was built in 1985, and designed to depict the time period between 1830 and 1860.  It was beautiful.  It was filled with antiques and reproductions of antiques, and was quite gracious.




Bevill Visitor's Center parlor

The second floor was filled with history exhibits, and a display filled with wildlife intrinsic to Alabama.

All of the intrepid, non-acrophobic folks mounted the stairs to the cupola.  That did not include Kathy.  Her aversion to heights is second only to her dislike of reptiles.

We took some photos of the Brisa crew, and they took some of us, in the garden.
 



Jeff, Elizabeth and Daniel

Tim and Daniel

 We then headed down to the snag boat Montgomery.  It is massive. Its purpose was to remove tree stumps and other impediments to navigation from the bottom of the channel.  It often, when active, traveled with a tow boat and a barge attached.  It would remove the silt and the debris from the river and deposit it on the barge.  Then, the tow would move the barge to a disposal site and bring an empty barge back.  For more information and pictures, click here.

On the way back to the car, and while taking more pictures of the 1985 antebellum building, Tim stepped on an ant hill.  Boy Oh Boy, they liked him.  We pulled over, and Tim valiantly, with the help of some baby wipes furnished by Elizabeth, tried to wipe them off his legs.  This time, when the van stopped, it was not to deal with the engine, but to get the ants out of the truck.

Rumor had it that Piggly Wiggly stocked Jiffy Pop.  So we stopped there to check.  No Jiffy Pop.  As a matter of fact, they had discontinued it 2 weeks before. Drat! Drat! Drat! (This has the potential to become a Kathy Kwest)

The weather was still nasty so we decided to stay another day in Pirates Cove until it improves.  Then, on Sunday, we to begin the march to Demopolis. Getting there requires two, 10-hour days of motoring. Because there are no marinas between here and Demopolis, we will anchor out in a cove along the way.

Demopolis, AL is an important point in the journey thanks, in part, to the insurance industry. Hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico isn't the insurance company's favorite time of year. So they charge more for boats that hang around the Gulf from May through October. To get a lower rate, many insurers require boats to remain north of 32 degrees latitude until November 1.

Demopolis is located at 33 degrees latitude. So that’s where lots of folks gather waiting for November 1 so they can head further south to Mobile and beyond. When we last checked, Demopolis Marina was pretty much full. We hope to arrive there on Monday, November 3 in hopes that enough folks have left so there will be room for us.

In addition, Demopolis is the last marina (and city) before Mobile, AL some 217 miles away down river.

We packed it in for the night, but not before Tim shot some pictures of the sunset.



Sunset at Pirates Cove

Thanks for reading.