Causeway to Mobile River 2005 VI
Sunday, September 18, 2005 brint.adams@us.army.mil
With the full moon today, the tides were moving very little. Roland and I showed up at the boat launch before 6:00 AM, along the Causeway between Felix's and the Interstate crossover. Both bleary-eyed, we silently put our boats on the water in the dark, pushing off at 6:06 AM. The temperature was around 78 degrees, no wind and clear skies.
Since there was no current to speak of, the only things we were concerned with were staying out of the river channels on the way up and far enough away from the shoreline to try and keep out of too-shallow water. This time Roland was in his plastic rec boat, so he did not have the advantage. To compensate, he drafted right behind me for as long as he could, on the way up Spanish River. We arrived at our first short rest stop in 1:01:36, where the Pontoon Saloon is normally docked. Predictably, it was not there as I assume it was pulled away to a safe location. The small shore out-building was destroyed and resting in the shallow water next to the damaged wooden pier.
We continued up to the electrical line tower at the intersection with the Mobile River. Our split here for 7 miles was 1:17:08. We were glad to get out of the Spanish River, where up to this point we were fighting the upriver current. Once we turned south and downriver, I headed out for the middle to get the most current push. There were a couple of barges coming upriver which we steered clear of as we came up to the highrise bridge in 1:41:19. So, instead of turning average 5.6 mph miles, we enjoyed hitting average 7.o mph miles. We hid in the shade briefly for a Powerbar break, before hitting it hard again down through the busy downtown industrial area.
There were tugs pushing barges around, large tankers and the empty Holiday cruise ship sitting at the Mobile terminal. We passed the oil rig, back in place to be refurbished, which broke loose from it's mooring during Hurricane Katrina and drifted upriver, crashing into the high rise bridge. The damage was apparent where it obviously whacked the bridge pretty hard. With the sun continuing to rise and heat up, we cruised down this part of the river at a good rate, pausing by the Alabama shipyards in the shade of one of their piers. The river narrows considerably here, so the speed even picks up a little more. Our split here was 2:14:10, hitting 7.2 mph.
After reaching Choctaw Pass on our left, we turned east towards Mobile Bay and back north to the Causeway bridge. Our pace slowed considerably down to 5.3 mph, as we were heading back into the Tensaw River current. We stopped for a quick drink in the shade under the bridge, with a split of 2:42:50. This lifted my spirits to see we were going to easily break 3 hours, unless something unforseen happened. The bay was low, and I headed off-course from the channel for a short ways and almost found that unforseen circumstance. But we paddled back to a little deeper water, which picked our pace back up until we reached the Interstate bridges. This was another welcome site, as this is the home stretch, all in the shade. The final sprint brought us back to the parking lot, where we were forced to look at the stark reality of the clean concrete pad, where a gas station sat, until wiped away by the Katrina storm surge. We reached our destination in a great 2:53:11, for an overall paddle pace of 6.0 mph over the 17.26 mile course. This puts us back on our training track for the Phatwater Race, still on for October 8th.
With the full moon today, the tides were moving very little. Roland and I showed up at the boat launch before 6:00 AM, along the Causeway between Felix's and the Interstate crossover. Both bleary-eyed, we silently put our boats on the water in the dark, pushing off at 6:06 AM. The temperature was around 78 degrees, no wind and clear skies.
Since there was no current to speak of, the only things we were concerned with were staying out of the river channels on the way up and far enough away from the shoreline to try and keep out of too-shallow water. This time Roland was in his plastic rec boat, so he did not have the advantage. To compensate, he drafted right behind me for as long as he could, on the way up Spanish River. We arrived at our first short rest stop in 1:01:36, where the Pontoon Saloon is normally docked. Predictably, it was not there as I assume it was pulled away to a safe location. The small shore out-building was destroyed and resting in the shallow water next to the damaged wooden pier.
We continued up to the electrical line tower at the intersection with the Mobile River. Our split here for 7 miles was 1:17:08. We were glad to get out of the Spanish River, where up to this point we were fighting the upriver current. Once we turned south and downriver, I headed out for the middle to get the most current push. There were a couple of barges coming upriver which we steered clear of as we came up to the highrise bridge in 1:41:19. So, instead of turning average 5.6 mph miles, we enjoyed hitting average 7.o mph miles. We hid in the shade briefly for a Powerbar break, before hitting it hard again down through the busy downtown industrial area.
There were tugs pushing barges around, large tankers and the empty Holiday cruise ship sitting at the Mobile terminal. We passed the oil rig, back in place to be refurbished, which broke loose from it's mooring during Hurricane Katrina and drifted upriver, crashing into the high rise bridge. The damage was apparent where it obviously whacked the bridge pretty hard. With the sun continuing to rise and heat up, we cruised down this part of the river at a good rate, pausing by the Alabama shipyards in the shade of one of their piers. The river narrows considerably here, so the speed even picks up a little more. Our split here was 2:14:10, hitting 7.2 mph.
After reaching Choctaw Pass on our left, we turned east towards Mobile Bay and back north to the Causeway bridge. Our pace slowed considerably down to 5.3 mph, as we were heading back into the Tensaw River current. We stopped for a quick drink in the shade under the bridge, with a split of 2:42:50. This lifted my spirits to see we were going to easily break 3 hours, unless something unforseen happened. The bay was low, and I headed off-course from the channel for a short ways and almost found that unforseen circumstance. But we paddled back to a little deeper water, which picked our pace back up until we reached the Interstate bridges. This was another welcome site, as this is the home stretch, all in the shade. The final sprint brought us back to the parking lot, where we were forced to look at the stark reality of the clean concrete pad, where a gas station sat, until wiped away by the Katrina storm surge. We reached our destination in a great 2:53:11, for an overall paddle pace of 6.0 mph over the 17.26 mile course. This puts us back on our training track for the Phatwater Race, still on for October 8th.
posted by brint @ 9:44 PM
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