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.