Happy Birthday, Norm!

Our last night in civilization was spent in Fairhope Alabama, a beautiful small town and suburb of Mobile.  We used the courtesy car at Eastern Shore Marine to explore the town.  Missed out on panninis at Pannini Pete's (reportedly the best in the nation) as they close after lunch. 

Our first anchorage in the Tenn-Tom was the Alabama River Cutoff, a narrow river that required both a bow and stern anchor.  This was the first time we used two anchors and they were tested with a big windy storm late afternoon.  The boat was pushed from one side of the river to the other, but we held!  Leaving the anchorage the next morning was beautiful - the sun rising, mist on the water, and a small alligator swimming across the river.

We went through the first of many locks yesterday - Coffeeville Lock.  Then on to Bobby's Fish Camp where Norm had the best catfish in the universe when doing the Great Circle Route in 2001.  Unfortunately, the restaurant is only open Thursday - Sunday.  We'll have to catch it on the return trip. 
  
We were advised by Hank and Nancy (who are a week or so ahead of us on the river) to get some yellow light bulbs that don't attract bugs for the outside of the boat so that we'll be more visible to tows when we're anchored in the river without ending up with a boat covered in bugs.  Couldn't locate bulbs, but bought yellow cellophane to cover the lenses of our lights.  We'll try them out tonight when anchoring outside Bashi Creek.

Today is Norm's birthday.  Let's hope it's storm-free, bug-free and filled with wonderful birthday surprises.