We are back in our slip at the Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina (G-55 if you all would like to come see us).
Our first experience living full time on the boat in Orange Beach, Alabama was great. We had great boat neighbors, excellent Marina management and of course a wonderful place such as the Orange Beach Marina.
The last couple of legs from Bobby's Fish Camp to Orange Beach were uneventful. The first night was spent anchored on the Tensas River cutoff and the next at Homeport Marina which is home to Lulu's famous restaurant. It was only a two hour boat ride from Homeport and we were docked and secured in our new home for the next several months.
The original plan was to stay in Orange Beach until after the wedding of a very close friend's son and then we would head back (March 5th). Of course we all know what happens to the best laid plans.
Everything was just perfect at our marina... actually too perfect. We decided to stay another month enjoying the liveaboard lifestyle. New plan... leave mid April for our return to Iuka.
The days and weeks past while we approached the new departure date, but Mother Nature had different plans. She thought it should rain, rain and rain some more. Of course all the rain had to go somewhere and it ended up on the Tombigbee Waterway which resulted in very high, very fast and very debris infested water. Not really a good time to travel.
But we had to leave... after all we already had our "Bon Voyage" party and we told everyone good bye. So... let's cast off those lines and head back home. Right??? errr...wrong!!!
I tossed and turned the entire night before leaving, trying to resolve the conflict in my mind of how we are going to do this. The next morning, I was up on the aft deck reviewing my options with my boat neighbor and it finally occurred to me. There is an old saying in my industry; "I had rather be on the ground wishing I was flying, than flying wishing I was on the ground". Well, that sealed the deal. The boat was staying and we were getting in the car for the drive home.
Next opportunity to bring the boat home would now be the end of May, but that is the good deal. Our boat neighbors also had planned to return during the same time and we would now travel together!
Then our world changed.
During our time home we got news our 23 year old son had been diagnosed with Leukemia. Of course our entire world had changed in a blink of an eye.
Jonathan Russell Bliss who is our oldest son and newly hired Emergency Medical Tech was now in the hospital beginning his first round of chemotherapy. The boat trip was a distant thought and our first and foremost concern was the health of our son.
Jonathan entered the hospital on May 11th and the next 20 days was spent in the hospital as Jonathan concluded his 7 continuous days of chemo and recovery.
We have started a website on Caring Bridge and if you would like to follow his recovery. The address is: caringbridge.org/visit/jonathanbliss
But this blog is supposed to be about our boat and it's travels with family and friends and I want to keep it that way as much as I can.
However, this is the best part....Jonathan's doctor recommended, encouraged, suggested, he spend some time rebuilding his strength before the next round of chemotherapy began. We asked about him traveling on a boat for the next several days and the Doctor thought it would be an ideal situation.
Ideal it was... not only for him but also for Kris and I.
We drove down to Orange Beach, re-provisioned the boat and began our trek Northward.
Our days were long and the pace was fast, but the opportunity to spend with your children was priceless. What should have taken 10 days to do, we did in 6 days.
I won't go into the boring details of places we stopped or what we ate or what we saw but I will tell you it was a trip that FAR EXCEEDED all of my expectations. When you are traveling 12 hours a day going 9 miles per hour, you get to spend some quality time with the ones you love the most.
We are now safely back at our homeport; the boat is cleaned and secure and on Monday we travel to Vanderbilt University Hospital to begin the second phase of Jonathan's treatment.
Life is fragile and you never know what God has in store for us. I have relearned to cherish each and every moment with my family.
Tomorrow is Father's Day and I have a very special phone call to make to my Dad.
God Bless
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Demopolis to Bobby's Fish Camp
Whew... what a whirl wind trip back to Somerville to attend to some business and finally returning to the boat on Monday afternoon.
The trip to Somerville was pleasant enough, however the weather was terrible. There were heavy thunderstorms producing a Flash Flood Warning for the Demopolis area when we left. Great... we leave our boat in a flood!
When I realized I needed to get back to Somerville from Demopolis, I was confronted with a perplexing transportation problem. Of course there isn't any airline service from the metropolis of Demopolis nor are there rental cars available for hire. So... I called the ol' standby. ENTERPRISE!!! There was an office in Meridian (52 miles away) and they offered to have a car dropped at the marina for me and when I returned... just call them and they would pick it up. I was concerned about the additional charge but when they quoted me a $15 upcharge each way.... I was all over it!!! This agency continues to outperform all of my expectations. I will continue to make them my number one choice as I need transportation.
The evening we left, there was a Flash Flood Warning for the Demopolis area and I wasn't sure what we would find when we returned. The boat came through the flood just fine, but it did create havoc for us as we began our trip anew. The water on the Tombigbee was "smoke'n".... and trash was everywhere.
While we were at Demopolis a commercial tug boat pulled in to refuel. They had "parked" their load up river and just the tug itself was at the dock. Well,... being the curious type, I walked over and struck up a conversation with the deckhands. They both had been doing the job for about 6 years and really loved it. They would work 21 days on and 10 days off. While on the boat, they would work in 6 hour shifts (6 on followed by 6 off).
While talking with the deckhands, the Captain came by and offered a tour of the boat. The engines on those tugs are enormous!!! Just the generators where the size of the engines on large cruising style trawlers. The pilot house was quite large and had all the fancy gadgets that was needed to travel the inland waterways. What it DIDN'T HAVE was a "steering wheel". It had a basic tiller style handle that controlled the directional movement of each rudder. Of course, I played a "thousand questions" and walked away immensely impressed with their job. The Captain was extremely nice and answered all of my silly questions. He himself is a third generation river captain and truly enjoys the job.
Since the water level was up, that translated into a higher speed for us. There were times we were traveling over 12 miles per hour. Now, that doesn't seem like a fast speed, but remember our normal cruise speed is only 9.2 miles per hour.
Because of the higher speed, we were able to make it to Bobby's Fish camp for the overnight which was almost a hundred river miles from Demopolis.
Bobby's Fish camp is basically a small pier along side the river. We were the only ones there that evening and had the dock to ourselves. I tied several lines to the bow from the pier itself since we were alongside the fast moving river. Kris may have thought I was practicing overkill, but the last thing I wanted to do is wake up pinned against some river bank.
Isn’t there an old saying that goes something like this “time flies when you are having fun”? And yes, it has flown by this last year.
When I left you last, I had regained my FAA First Class medical after a bout with cancer. I have returned to the line as a B747-400 Captain for Delta Air Lines.
During this last year I was fortunate to complete a very inspirational trip to Vietnam with my Father, two brothers and my two sons. My other brother, Skip, who has a very demanding job, prevented him from attending the trip with us and he was sorely missed. The trip lasted just over ten days were we spent 6 days in Saigon (HochiMin City), 3 days in Hanoi and 2 days in DaNang before returning to Saigon for our return flight to the States. I could write an entire tome pertaining to this one trip, but that should be for a different blog. To sum it up, the trip was good for everyone traveling; for my Dad, the opportunity to revisit several places that were very special to him in many ways; to his sons, the opportunity to see firsthand the places where our Dad fought for his country and lastly for his grandsons to visit a foreign land that brought so much strife to this country. If you ever have the chance, I would strongly recommend the trip.
Also this year, Kris and I became brand new Grandparents!!! Ha, it is hard to imagine that we are now “Pawpaw and Gammy”, but it is a really cool job! Debra Nelson gave birth to Evey June Nelson on May 30th, 2010. I was somewhere over the North Pacific enroute from Nagoya, Japan when I received the digital data link message from our Dispatcher telling me that I was a new Grandpa! We landed 45 minutes early in Detroit (either good tailwinds or something to do with my “speed control”) thereby allowing me to catch an earlier flight home to Memphis and to see my first granddaughter!
Brooke Razzaghi gave birth to Suri Razzaghi on August 26th 2010 in San Francisco, CA. We got the phone call shortly after midnight from Brooke telling us they were enroute to the hospital. We were at our home in Pickwick so we loaded up the car and drove to Somerville were we got a fresh set of clothes and then off to the airport! We arrived at the hospital just minutes after she gave birth to Suri! This was our first Christmas with grandchildren and we are looking forward to many many more!
Last summer, I approached Kris with the idea of moving our boat to the Gulf Coast and spend the harsher parts of the winter months in warmer climes! This idea was met with mild to moderate enthusiasm but we needed to do several things to the boat before we wanted to undertake such a long journey.
We needed some Isinglass to protect us from the brisk/biting wind that we experienced when we brought our boat up the river. We also wanted to install some sort of Marine Sanitation Device (Type I MSD) to eliminate those nasty trips to the “pump out” station to rid your boat of waste. I searched around the Pickwick area for different bids for the Isinglass and proudly opted to go with our home port Aqua Yacht Harbor.
Let me put in a plug for these guys… they are GREAT! Gary is the canvas guy that did our Isinglass and it was done correctly, on time, on budget and looks super. I tried to install the Type I MSD with a new toilet but ran out of time and patience (actually ran out of quarters for the “cuss jar”) so I left it in the competent hands of David and Tom at Aqua Yacht.
We also knew we wanted a different dinghy than the Boston Whaler that was on the boat when we bought her. First, there is NOTHING wrong with the Whaler, but we felt it was a little too cumbersome launching and recovering due to its significant weight. We found a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) in the Tampa area on Craigslist and we made the deal to purchase it. The previous owner just happened to be traveling to Ohio for the Christmas holidays and was gracious enough to deliver it to us in Atlanta.
Well, now with new Isinglass, new toilet, new Marine Sanitation Device and a new dinghy we are all set to head south for the winter!
We picked the departure date of December 27th to cast off our lines and begin the trip with our two sons! We left our slip at Aqua Yacht at 0945 with our marina neighbors Ken and Irene seeing us off. Our first stop was to get fuel at Grand Harbor Marina. We would have preferred to refuel at our home port, but Aqua Yacht allows their team to spend the entire last week of the year with family and friends, so they were closed from December 23rd.
After refueling, we began our trip in earnest at 1045 (mile marker 449) under calm winds and crystal clear but very cold skies. Our destination would be Bay Springs Marina, Bay Springs, Mississippi. As we were refueling, we noticed a nice looking Viking Sportfisher alongside the dock and I asked Barry, the dock manager, who and what was that boat doing. He told me new owners had just purchased her from someone in Savannah, TN and they had hired a crew to take them to their destination which was Houston, Texas. We knew we would once again see them as we traveled south but we didn’t think it would be an experience we wouldn’t soon forget.
As we were traveling down the “ditch” between Pickwick and Bay Springs, I noticed the “Charlotte Two” approaching from the rear at a very high rate of speed and making a HUGE WAKE behind her. As per the “Rules of the Road”, I slowed down to an idle speed and expected to hear a radio call from them indicating which side they would be passing us and of course anticipating a reduced speed and wake. Well, we got NEITHER! They “blew by us” and I have never experienced such violent rolls as we transited their wake. Once we had established some resemblance of control, Kris was up on the Bridge wanting to know “what had just happened”! I told her who had “waked” us and she insisted I view the damage that occurred in the salon area. We had overturned plants, broken bowls, broken glass and a broken lamp. It looked as if we had just come through a hurricane. It was a mess!
I got on the radio and called several times to the Charlotte Two and only after the 5th or 6th call did they answer. I explained to the Captain what he had done to us was rude, inconsiderate, and dangerous; that he had caused considerable damage to my boat and her contents. He apologized and said he didn’t realize the extent of the wake this new boat puts out and put the blame on his brother who he says was at the helm during our overtaking.
We got to Bay Springs just before 3pm and who do we see anchored in one of the fingers of the lake but the Charlotte Two! The next morning we locked through the Whitten Lock together and nary were a word spoken between the two of us. Now those of you familiar with this stretch of the river will realize there are several locks located within about 5 to 7 miles of each other. The lockmaster has no intentions of locking through a single boat when another is just minutes behind. Well, the Charlotte Two would “race” to the next lock while we would calmly and efficiently proceed to the very same lock. Once we were secure, then only the lockmaster would begin the process of “locking us through” by lowering the water level. Yes, there is justice in this world to those who have patience!! During the second lock, the Captain of Charlotte Two approached our boat with an apology offering. He delivered what he said were the very best breakfast burritos his cook could make and both my son’s tended to agree, they were pretty good. The Captain realizing what he had done to us was very unprofessional offered to repair or reimburse us for any damages. The items broken were more of a sentimental value and could be easily replaced at a fine furniture store so I decided it was best to accept his apology with the condition he pay better attention to the “little guy”. After the 4th lock we bid our adieus and he throttled up to race to the next lock 14 miles away. As we were slowly chugging along, I noticed a small jon boat containing 3 duck hunters near the shore. I certainly didn’t want to “wake them”, so I slowed down to just above an idle speed and as we became abeam them, I asked if they had any problems with the previous boat traveling southbound. Well…. to say they weren’t happy was an understatement. Obviously they had been the recipient of the larger wake from the Charlotte Two which nearly swamped them. I guess some people never learn!
Our first night at Bay Springs was great. This is a great little marina with very little traffic during the weekdays. The people who manage this marina are very hospitable and the marina has some nice facilities as well. Knowing we had several locks to transit the next day, we chose to get away at “first light”. Of course what is it they say about Murphy and its laws?? We had a little trouble with batteries on the first day, but I attributed that to sitting idle for the last several months. When I went to start the engines they were very sluggish. Hmmmm, what could it be that would cause both engines the reluctance to start? The only common system is the battery charger, so I take a quick look to see “what’s up”. For some reason, the battery charger plug had vibrated out of its holding and thereby rendering this system useless. A quick push of the plug and we are operational once again!
The weather was very cold (17 degrees) and we had frost on the inside of our Isinglass, so we decided to drive from below until the weather warmed up. Once the weather got above 32 degrees, the bridge became a comfortable place to drive the boat from. We did use a small space heater to take the chill off, but we were mostly comfortable the entire time to the Aberdeen Marina.
The approach to the Aberdeen Marina is like nothing we have done before. It is a very narrow passage marked by red and green buoys with only about 6 feet of water depth. Now keep in mind that we “draw” a depth of 4’6”, so there is very little room under our keel. The marina and people there were very nice and we used the courtesy car (huge Lincoln Town Car) to make the mandatory run to “wally world” for items we had over looked.
The next day we got to sleep in and left somewhere around 9am for Pirates Cove Marina. The reviews from ActiveCaptain and other sources indicated this Marina is in need of some TLC, but the crew managing the operation was very accommodating. As we entered their harbor, we were assisted by two dock hands that helped us tie off our lines and make sure we had everything we needed. After a quick trip to the Marina office to settle our account we relaxed as Kris began to prepare another gourmet meal. The food on this trip has been nothing short of wonderful, from the French Toast breakfast’s to the Quesadilla’s for lunch and the stuffed chicken breast grilled to perfection by our expert griller Jonathan.
Our departure from Pirates Cove Marina was even later than the two previous days. We managed to toss the lines at 0930 but to only wait for 30 minutes as a commercial tow was locking Northbound through the lock. Kris has been driving the boat into the last several locks and is doing a pretty darn good job. It isn’t an over challenging task, but something that has the potential to go bad quickly if you aren’t watching everything. As you “lock down”, you can get involved with some funky winds when they begin to swirl around inside the cavern of the lock itself.
Our destination for the fourth overnight was Sumter’s Landing at mile marker 270. We haven’t ever stayed there, however it comes highly recommended by friends who have recently made this trip. It has been advertised as a really quite cove off the river that is protected at the entrance by a shallow sand bar. We cautiously made our approach into the small opening and we experienced water depths as shallow as 4.5 feet deep as we crossed the entrance to the anchorage. Our depth gauge is calibrated to indicate 3.6 feet of water and we will “touch” bottom, so 4.5 feet on the gauge pretty much gives us less than a foot clearance. Once inside the anchorage the water depth goes to 8 feet plus and we found the ideal location to drop our anchor.
This was the first time we had the opportunity to use our new RIB. It was much easier launching and considerably easier to control once in the water because of the deep V hull. After the trip to shore for the dogs, the boys took the dinghy and went exploring with a fishing rod.
Well, that is all from Sumter’s Landing. We hope to get an early start tomorrow so we can beat the weather arriving in Demopolis. Once there, we will be leaving the boat for the weekend as we return to Somerville to attend some business Monday. Of course we will be rooting for our Mississippi State Bulldogs as they play in the Gator Bowl.
When I left you last, I had regained my FAA First Class medical after a bout with cancer. I have returned to the line as a B747-400 Captain for Delta Air Lines.
During this last year I was fortunate to complete a very inspirational trip to Vietnam with my Father, two brothers and my two sons. My other brother, Skip, who has a very demanding job, prevented him from attending the trip with us and he was sorely missed. The trip lasted just over ten days were we spent 6 days in Saigon (HochiMin City), 3 days in Hanoi and 2 days in DaNang before returning to Saigon for our return flight to the States. I could write an entire tome pertaining to this one trip, but that should be for a different blog. To sum it up, the trip was good for everyone traveling; for my Dad, the opportunity to revisit several places that were very special to him in many ways; to his sons, the opportunity to see firsthand the places where our Dad fought for his country and lastly for his grandsons to visit a foreign land that brought so much strife to this country. If you ever have the chance, I would strongly recommend the trip.
Also this year, Kris and I became brand new Grandparents!!! Ha, it is hard to imagine that we are now “Pawpaw and Gammy”, but it is a really cool job! Debra Nelson gave birth to Evey June Nelson on May 30th, 2010. I was somewhere over the North Pacific enroute from Nagoya, Japan when I received the digital data link message from our Dispatcher telling me that I was a new Grandpa! We landed 45 minutes early in Detroit (either good tailwinds or something to do with my “speed control”) thereby allowing me to catch an earlier flight home to Memphis and to see my first granddaughter!
Brooke Razzaghi gave birth to Suri Razzaghi on August 26th 2010 in San Francisco, CA. We got the phone call shortly after midnight from Brooke telling us they were enroute to the hospital. We were at our home in Pickwick so we loaded up the car and drove to Somerville were we got a fresh set of clothes and then off to the airport! We arrived at the hospital just minutes after she gave birth to Suri! This was our first Christmas with grandchildren and we are looking forward to many many more!
Last summer, I approached Kris with the idea of moving our boat to the Gulf Coast and spend the harsher parts of the winter months in warmer climes! This idea was met with mild to moderate enthusiasm but we needed to do several things to the boat before we wanted to undertake such a long journey.
We needed some Isinglass to protect us from the brisk/biting wind that we experienced when we brought our boat up the river. We also wanted to install some sort of Marine Sanitation Device (Type I MSD) to eliminate those nasty trips to the “pump out” station to rid your boat of waste. I searched around the Pickwick area for different bids for the Isinglass and proudly opted to go with our home port Aqua Yacht Harbor.
Let me put in a plug for these guys… they are GREAT! Gary is the canvas guy that did our Isinglass and it was done correctly, on time, on budget and looks super. I tried to install the Type I MSD with a new toilet but ran out of time and patience (actually ran out of quarters for the “cuss jar”) so I left it in the competent hands of David and Tom at Aqua Yacht.
We also knew we wanted a different dinghy than the Boston Whaler that was on the boat when we bought her. First, there is NOTHING wrong with the Whaler, but we felt it was a little too cumbersome launching and recovering due to its significant weight. We found a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) in the Tampa area on Craigslist and we made the deal to purchase it. The previous owner just happened to be traveling to Ohio for the Christmas holidays and was gracious enough to deliver it to us in Atlanta.
Well, now with new Isinglass, new toilet, new Marine Sanitation Device and a new dinghy we are all set to head south for the winter!
We picked the departure date of December 27th to cast off our lines and begin the trip with our two sons! We left our slip at Aqua Yacht at 0945 with our marina neighbors Ken and Irene seeing us off. Our first stop was to get fuel at Grand Harbor Marina. We would have preferred to refuel at our home port, but Aqua Yacht allows their team to spend the entire last week of the year with family and friends, so they were closed from December 23rd.
After refueling, we began our trip in earnest at 1045 (mile marker 449) under calm winds and crystal clear but very cold skies. Our destination would be Bay Springs Marina, Bay Springs, Mississippi. As we were refueling, we noticed a nice looking Viking Sportfisher alongside the dock and I asked Barry, the dock manager, who and what was that boat doing. He told me new owners had just purchased her from someone in Savannah, TN and they had hired a crew to take them to their destination which was Houston, Texas. We knew we would once again see them as we traveled south but we didn’t think it would be an experience we wouldn’t soon forget.
As we were traveling down the “ditch” between Pickwick and Bay Springs, I noticed the “Charlotte Two” approaching from the rear at a very high rate of speed and making a HUGE WAKE behind her. As per the “Rules of the Road”, I slowed down to an idle speed and expected to hear a radio call from them indicating which side they would be passing us and of course anticipating a reduced speed and wake. Well, we got NEITHER! They “blew by us” and I have never experienced such violent rolls as we transited their wake. Once we had established some resemblance of control, Kris was up on the Bridge wanting to know “what had just happened”! I told her who had “waked” us and she insisted I view the damage that occurred in the salon area. We had overturned plants, broken bowls, broken glass and a broken lamp. It looked as if we had just come through a hurricane. It was a mess!
I got on the radio and called several times to the Charlotte Two and only after the 5th or 6th call did they answer. I explained to the Captain what he had done to us was rude, inconsiderate, and dangerous; that he had caused considerable damage to my boat and her contents. He apologized and said he didn’t realize the extent of the wake this new boat puts out and put the blame on his brother who he says was at the helm during our overtaking.
We got to Bay Springs just before 3pm and who do we see anchored in one of the fingers of the lake but the Charlotte Two! The next morning we locked through the Whitten Lock together and nary were a word spoken between the two of us. Now those of you familiar with this stretch of the river will realize there are several locks located within about 5 to 7 miles of each other. The lockmaster has no intentions of locking through a single boat when another is just minutes behind. Well, the Charlotte Two would “race” to the next lock while we would calmly and efficiently proceed to the very same lock. Once we were secure, then only the lockmaster would begin the process of “locking us through” by lowering the water level. Yes, there is justice in this world to those who have patience!! During the second lock, the Captain of Charlotte Two approached our boat with an apology offering. He delivered what he said were the very best breakfast burritos his cook could make and both my son’s tended to agree, they were pretty good. The Captain realizing what he had done to us was very unprofessional offered to repair or reimburse us for any damages. The items broken were more of a sentimental value and could be easily replaced at a fine furniture store so I decided it was best to accept his apology with the condition he pay better attention to the “little guy”. After the 4th lock we bid our adieus and he throttled up to race to the next lock 14 miles away. As we were slowly chugging along, I noticed a small jon boat containing 3 duck hunters near the shore. I certainly didn’t want to “wake them”, so I slowed down to just above an idle speed and as we became abeam them, I asked if they had any problems with the previous boat traveling southbound. Well…. to say they weren’t happy was an understatement. Obviously they had been the recipient of the larger wake from the Charlotte Two which nearly swamped them. I guess some people never learn!
Our first night at Bay Springs was great. This is a great little marina with very little traffic during the weekdays. The people who manage this marina are very hospitable and the marina has some nice facilities as well. Knowing we had several locks to transit the next day, we chose to get away at “first light”. Of course what is it they say about Murphy and its laws?? We had a little trouble with batteries on the first day, but I attributed that to sitting idle for the last several months. When I went to start the engines they were very sluggish. Hmmmm, what could it be that would cause both engines the reluctance to start? The only common system is the battery charger, so I take a quick look to see “what’s up”. For some reason, the battery charger plug had vibrated out of its holding and thereby rendering this system useless. A quick push of the plug and we are operational once again!
The weather was very cold (17 degrees) and we had frost on the inside of our Isinglass, so we decided to drive from below until the weather warmed up. Once the weather got above 32 degrees, the bridge became a comfortable place to drive the boat from. We did use a small space heater to take the chill off, but we were mostly comfortable the entire time to the Aberdeen Marina.
The approach to the Aberdeen Marina is like nothing we have done before. It is a very narrow passage marked by red and green buoys with only about 6 feet of water depth. Now keep in mind that we “draw” a depth of 4’6”, so there is very little room under our keel. The marina and people there were very nice and we used the courtesy car (huge Lincoln Town Car) to make the mandatory run to “wally world” for items we had over looked.
The next day we got to sleep in and left somewhere around 9am for Pirates Cove Marina. The reviews from ActiveCaptain and other sources indicated this Marina is in need of some TLC, but the crew managing the operation was very accommodating. As we entered their harbor, we were assisted by two dock hands that helped us tie off our lines and make sure we had everything we needed. After a quick trip to the Marina office to settle our account we relaxed as Kris began to prepare another gourmet meal. The food on this trip has been nothing short of wonderful, from the French Toast breakfast’s to the Quesadilla’s for lunch and the stuffed chicken breast grilled to perfection by our expert griller Jonathan.
Our departure from Pirates Cove Marina was even later than the two previous days. We managed to toss the lines at 0930 but to only wait for 30 minutes as a commercial tow was locking Northbound through the lock. Kris has been driving the boat into the last several locks and is doing a pretty darn good job. It isn’t an over challenging task, but something that has the potential to go bad quickly if you aren’t watching everything. As you “lock down”, you can get involved with some funky winds when they begin to swirl around inside the cavern of the lock itself.
Our destination for the fourth overnight was Sumter’s Landing at mile marker 270. We haven’t ever stayed there, however it comes highly recommended by friends who have recently made this trip. It has been advertised as a really quite cove off the river that is protected at the entrance by a shallow sand bar. We cautiously made our approach into the small opening and we experienced water depths as shallow as 4.5 feet deep as we crossed the entrance to the anchorage. Our depth gauge is calibrated to indicate 3.6 feet of water and we will “touch” bottom, so 4.5 feet on the gauge pretty much gives us less than a foot clearance. Once inside the anchorage the water depth goes to 8 feet plus and we found the ideal location to drop our anchor.
This was the first time we had the opportunity to use our new RIB. It was much easier launching and considerably easier to control once in the water because of the deep V hull. After the trip to shore for the dogs, the boys took the dinghy and went exploring with a fishing rod.
Well, that is all from Sumter’s Landing. We hope to get an early start tomorrow so we can beat the weather arriving in Demopolis. Once there, we will be leaving the boat for the weekend as we return to Somerville to attend some business Monday. Of course we will be rooting for our Mississippi State Bulldogs as they play in the Gator Bowl.
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