Day 50 – November 8 - Big Bayou Canot

The three larger boats all scooted around us very early in the morning in order to make Mobile Bay by day’s end. These boats were all larger and faster than the Lolligag. We knew that we did not want to travel the remaining 53 miles in one day, so we went back to sleep and waited for the fog to lift before starting our day a couple of hours later.

As we made our way south, Heart’s Desire and Always Saturday soon caught up with us. They left the anchorage at Three Rivers very very early that morning and did not have any difficulty reaching the river as the tidal waters were in their favor. With the Lolligag as the lead boat, we once again traveled caravan style to our destination of Big Bayou Canot.


At approximately mile marker 45, the river starts to change dramatically. If I thought I had seen bayous previously, I was only being teased by Mother Nature. The river becomes very wide, more marsh-like and less like rivers that we have seen before. Now the cypress trees, the Spanish moss and the spooky-movie landscape are everywhere. You just know that the Creature from the Deep Lagoon is lurking just around the next bend…This area is teeming with alligators. We only saw the one but our companion boats had multiple gator sightings.


We also had a really serious towboat/barge encounter. We were approaching a sharp bend in the river and could not see around the curve. Just as we started to make the turn, we spotted what looked like the front of barge coming directly at us. I immediately hailed the towboat captain to let him know our location, that there were now four boats in our convoy and ask how he wanted us to proceed. For the first time since making this trip, I heard a hint of panic in this towboat captain’s reply and there was certainly reason for concern. It turned out that one pusher with eight barges was in the processing of overtaking another pusher with six barges. Both vessels were at that time in the bend of the river and the overtaking vessel was booking at an unbelievable speed. This meant that there was no place for us (the four boats) to go without going out of the channel. The Lolligag was the only boat in immediate danger as the other pleasure boats were about a half mile behind us. He told us to get as close to the port shore as possible and stay put until these two tows/barges had cleared the bend. This we did and we just prayed that the wake from the two barge configurations would not push us into the shallow water at the shore. We were very fortunate in that we were able to maintain our location while the two barges passed. Then just as we caught our breath and started back to the middle of the channel, another pusher with ten barges appeared. I hailed this captain to alert him to our location. He replied with instructions and then told us that another pusher with six barges was immediately behind him. I must say that Captain Mark did an excellent job maintaining a cool head and maneuvering from one shore to the next during this river exchange. This is the type of piloting that shows the true skill of a captain and Mark totally rose to the occasion.

Just a few miles before reaching our destination, we saw a most heart-warming sight: the I-65 Bridge. Interstate 65 dissects Indiana, so in a small way we felt a twinge of comfort in coming upon this landmark. On a humorous note, the locals of the area refer to the bridge as the “Dolly Parton Bridge”. There does seem to be a close resemblance…








We reached the Big Bayou Canot with several hours of daylight left. This anchorage was just like being on the set of a scary movie. I had Goosebumps and the willies for the duration of our stay here. It was a narrow deeply winding creek complete with swamp huts, haunting bird sounds and the splash of alligators entering the water around us. After the four boats got settled in, Mark and I decided that we would explore the area.



As we explored, Mark rocked the dinghy to tease me…I just knew that I was going to fall into the water to then be eaten by gators. Now for the really unbelievable thing about this location is that we had excellent cellular and wireless Internet signals for the first time since leaving Demopolis – go figure!

Hours on the water: 4.5
Nautical miles traveled: 33.0
Number of locks: 0
Time spent waiting at locks: 0
Tomorrow's Destination: Dog River Marina in Mobile Bay
What we're listening to: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
What we watched: The sunset
Lesson for the day: When in a crisis, trust your instincts and your training
Obligatory knitting report: Mittens for Wunder Kids