We're at Demopolis, AL tonight at the only marina between Mobile Bay and Columbus, MS. We anchored at Bashi Creek last night after another HOT day on the rivers. It was very comfortable on the flybridge in the morning, but by noon it was 94 degrees and probably 94 humidity too, so even with a little breeze from cruising at 10 knots it was hot and sticky. I put root beers in the freezer and drink them when they make a slushy, but that only lasts a few minutes.

The rivers were wide and calm all day for the last 3 days.









We're back to passing occasional huge barge tows on the rivers. This one is mostly wood chips for one of the opaper mills along the rivers here. We frequently saw tree farms along the banks, planted with perfect rows of fast growing pine trees destined for the pulp mills.

The barges were probably headed for one of the paper mills, like this large Boise paper mill on the Tombigbee river. Our friend Tom Drouin is an executive for Boise and had set up a plant visit to this paper mill for us two years ago as we passed by going south, but we passed here on Thanksgiving day and were not able to stop.

In a lot of places, the rivers were completely like glass. No wind and no boat traffic so it's dead calm. Of course, that means the only breeze is the one made by your speed over the water, but that's better than when we had a breeze blowing the same way we were going, which makes it dead calm on the moving boat.

I did see two very large cranes flying south today, identifiable by outstretched necks, unlike the many Great Blue Herons we see. I believe these were either Sandhill Cranes or Whooping Cranes, which is 99.9% likely to be Sandhill Cranes as Whoopers are so scarce.

We also passed the old Rooster Bridge, site of the famous Cahaba towboat incident where pictures circulated on the internet of a towboat that was capsized during a flood and pulled under water under the bridge only to come up on the other side and right itself with the engines still running and all hands survining. There's nothing left of the bridge today except for the handrails high up on the bank visable here, but they'll be invisible soon due to the kudzu overtaking everything.

Tomorrow, we'll go on to a nice anchorage at Sumter Landing, and then on to Columbus, MS.