AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Grand Harbor Marina MS to Sumter Landing Anchorage on the Tombigbee

Oct 22^nd – It was a cool and sunny day. A number of Loopers pulled into the marina that we met at the AGLCA Rendezvous. Mike (Boat Daddy) and Lois invited us to breakfast this morning and drove us via their golf cart and then by car. After breakfast I cleaned the outside of the boat while Maria did some laundry. I noticed that our propane was getting low thus Boat Daddy told me they had exchange tanks available thus the marina swapped out our tank for a full one. Once our jobs were done we sat by the waterfront with Mike and Lois enjoying the sun and the view. Later they joined us for a spaghetti dinner on our boat with Maria’s freshly baked cheese and onion bread. We were listening to a number of songs that we’ve been introduced to like “Who the f@#k is Alice” by Smokie as well as songs by MacLean and MacLean and we all laughed while Mike also introduced us to some new songs.

Oct 23^rd – It was a warm and sunny day. We said good to Boat Daddy (Mike) and Lois from Inch-N-Along today and tried to convince them to carry on with a 2^nd loop … you never know, they may decide to start again to avoid the Looper withdrawls that they are starting to go through. We left Grand Harbor Marina this morning and headed south on the Tombigbee River going through 3 locks and traveling 55 miles to Midway Marina in Fulton Mississippi. We travelled with 4 other Looper boats through the locks and arrived at our destination at about 5pm. We plan to leave at 7am tomorrow morning for another long run thus we’ve decided to just relax on board tonight.

Oct 24^th – It was a warm and sunny day. 5 Looper boats left the Midway marina at 7am this morning and travelled 53 miles through 4 locks on the Tombigbee river and 3 boats anchored in Fletcher Anchorage at mile marker 340.3 and the other 2 boats went to Columbus Marina. It is a beautiful anchorage directly across from a park. I was thinking about going for a swim, however I was told that alligators have been seen in the area thus I quickly changed my mind. We just relaxed in this very peaceful anchorage and enjoyed the moment. We plan to leave at 7am again tomorrow morning for another long run thus I’m sure it will be an early night tonight.

Oct 25^th – It was a hot and sunny day. 3 boats left our Fletcher anchorage this morning at 7am and travelled through 2 locks together, however 2 of the boats decided to go to a different anchorage since they were afraid they couldn’t get in to the Sumter Landing anchorage which was 69 miles away from our last anchorage. As we creeped in the anchorage we saw 1.5 feet on our depth sounder … a little too shallow for our liking, however we made it in successfully. The other 2 boats had deeper drafts thus they decided to go to an alternate anchorage. Maria had the crock pot going all day which has been making me very hungry. The anchorage is beautiful and well protected and we have the bay all to ourselves. I’m hoping the cell signal is good enough to post a blog entry tonight … I’ll soon find out. We’re hoping to catch up with Valentine plus others tomorrow at a marina which is 70 miles away thus we’re planning to leave extra early tomorrow … first light seems to be at 6:45am.