Lake Forest Yacht Club to Battleship Double Crossing
August 30, 2005 brint.adams@us.army.mil
This morning was a typical beautiful day following one of the most disastrous natural phenomena in U.S. history. Without knowing what lie in store for the paddle, I decided to try to get down to the Lake Forest Yacht Club in north Daphne on D'Olive Bay, which is part of Mobile Bay in the uppermost northeast corner. I put in at 8:11 AM, under partly cloudy skies, 85 degrees and the tide still falling from the record highs of yesterday during Hurricane Katrina.
The water level was only 1'-2' above normal, but there was alot of damage to the piers and boats still in the marina. The grass parking lot was still muddy from being underwater just yesterday. I started off heading west through the cut and across Blakeley River. There was a good current coming down the Blakeley and combined with a southwesterly breeze, made for a healthy 2' chop. When I started, I was not sure just where or how far I was going, but as I paddled further west towards the USS Alabama, I knew I would go all the way.
I came up on Felix's first, to see the restaurant appear to be in fairly good shape, with typical damage on the ramps and stairs leading up to the elevated restaurant. Continuing past, I next came upon the Causeway bridge over the Tensaw. The west side down ramp of the westbound lanes was completely washed away from the concrete bridge making it completely impassible. Across the Tensaw sat the Battleship, with debris littering the grounds including a large sailboat way up on the grass out of place next to some of the artillery fixtures. The concrete runway up to the ship was damaged and it looked like the battleship may have moved some from its original location.
My next stop was on the north side of the Causeway, where I turned towards the backside of the Original Oyster House. The lower level of the Oyster House was a complete blowout, as was the Amoco station out in front of it. There was a large above-ground gas tank about 30 meters out in the bay behind the Oyster House. It was leaking into the water, leaving a sheen and odor for about 100 meters north.
I continued east under the Interstate bridges and turned south towards the public boat launch parking area, where I found the Exxon station completely blown away as well. I took a photo looking through the empty station over to Felix's across the Causeway.
My next stop took me along the north side of the Causeway on my regular workout course until I reached the old Riverdocs parking lot. It was under about one foot of water, so I paddled up into the lot all the way to the roadway. I got out and walked 100 meters east to Ed's Seafood Shed, which looked fair, with no stairs, ramps or outer deck, but the main building was still up on piers. I then continued down Pass Picada, where I could see Drifters and Cock of the Walk still standing, but no such luck when I reached Bluegill's. It was a complete blowout on the one level structure, with the roof even caved in or dropped down a couple of feet on the walls. The Tensaw Delta Tours building next to it was completely blown away. The wooden houseboat, usually right next to Bluegill's was gone, hopefully pulled away to safety, while the large white houseboat was still there intact. Around the corner on the Apalachee River, the house on the corner and Trader's looked pretty good and worthy of putting stairs back in place.
After viewing all of the destruction, it was back down to the bay and a straight shot back to the yacht club. All told, the double crossing paddle was a 14.9 mile trip taking 2:59:55 of paddling time.
This morning was a typical beautiful day following one of the most disastrous natural phenomena in U.S. history. Without knowing what lie in store for the paddle, I decided to try to get down to the Lake Forest Yacht Club in north Daphne on D'Olive Bay, which is part of Mobile Bay in the uppermost northeast corner. I put in at 8:11 AM, under partly cloudy skies, 85 degrees and the tide still falling from the record highs of yesterday during Hurricane Katrina.
The water level was only 1'-2' above normal, but there was alot of damage to the piers and boats still in the marina. The grass parking lot was still muddy from being underwater just yesterday. I started off heading west through the cut and across Blakeley River. There was a good current coming down the Blakeley and combined with a southwesterly breeze, made for a healthy 2' chop. When I started, I was not sure just where or how far I was going, but as I paddled further west towards the USS Alabama, I knew I would go all the way.
I came up on Felix's first, to see the restaurant appear to be in fairly good shape, with typical damage on the ramps and stairs leading up to the elevated restaurant. Continuing past, I next came upon the Causeway bridge over the Tensaw. The west side down ramp of the westbound lanes was completely washed away from the concrete bridge making it completely impassible. Across the Tensaw sat the Battleship, with debris littering the grounds including a large sailboat way up on the grass out of place next to some of the artillery fixtures. The concrete runway up to the ship was damaged and it looked like the battleship may have moved some from its original location.
My next stop was on the north side of the Causeway, where I turned towards the backside of the Original Oyster House. The lower level of the Oyster House was a complete blowout, as was the Amoco station out in front of it. There was a large above-ground gas tank about 30 meters out in the bay behind the Oyster House. It was leaking into the water, leaving a sheen and odor for about 100 meters north.
I continued east under the Interstate bridges and turned south towards the public boat launch parking area, where I found the Exxon station completely blown away as well. I took a photo looking through the empty station over to Felix's across the Causeway.
My next stop took me along the north side of the Causeway on my regular workout course until I reached the old Riverdocs parking lot. It was under about one foot of water, so I paddled up into the lot all the way to the roadway. I got out and walked 100 meters east to Ed's Seafood Shed, which looked fair, with no stairs, ramps or outer deck, but the main building was still up on piers. I then continued down Pass Picada, where I could see Drifters and Cock of the Walk still standing, but no such luck when I reached Bluegill's. It was a complete blowout on the one level structure, with the roof even caved in or dropped down a couple of feet on the walls. The Tensaw Delta Tours building next to it was completely blown away. The wooden houseboat, usually right next to Bluegill's was gone, hopefully pulled away to safety, while the large white houseboat was still there intact. Around the corner on the Apalachee River, the house on the corner and Trader's looked pretty good and worthy of putting stairs back in place.
After viewing all of the destruction, it was back down to the bay and a straight shot back to the yacht club. All told, the double crossing paddle was a 14.9 mile trip taking 2:59:55 of paddling time.
posted by brint @ 9:14 PM
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