Gravine Island

We are back in tidal water and encountered our first brown pelican in months today. Warmer temps this morning meant little fog and an early start. We got off the looper path today coming down the Tensaw instead of the Mobile River. Apparently Navionics has been routing people that way and they find it too shallow and turn around. Someone on nebo sent us a message saying ‘Your going the wrong way!!’ The Mobile is the preferred route… but we went this way on purpose. James wanted to avoid the commercial traffic and I was hoping to visit Bottle Creek Indian Mound. We had success with his wish but when we got close to mine we saw too many hunting boats on shore. I’m not that brave and don’t want to be in the way of hunters. Along the Tensaw and Middle River we found depths between 3.9’ and 96’. The 3.9’ quickly rose to over 10’ when we moved towards the outer bank. The dicey spot for large boats would surely be the 11’ railroad bridge that requires 10 hours notice for an opening. We cruised right under with the antenna down. Tonight we are at anchor at Gravine Island where there’s a huge sand deposit at the north end. We are still in the Tensaw but very close to Mobile Bay. This is a local hotspot. Moki enjoyed a romp with some local dogs this evening. We also saw three looper boats who are at anchor inside the Mobile Tensaw cutoff channel nearby. One of them ran aground but has since gotten free.Read more