October 10, 2015
I thought I might have a more leisurely morning for some
reason, so I sat in bed, working on the blog entry for yesterday. We seem to wake up by 5 a.m. no matter what, so
Rob usually checks the engines and then makes breakfast. If we are docked somewhere, I take Sasha out
to walk and play even if it’s a little dark out, but if we are anchored, we
have to wait until it is light enough to take the dinghy to shore.
This morning since I was working on the blog, Rob took Sasha
on her walk. On his way back to the
boat, he was told by one of the other boaters that the lock was ready for
anyone headed south. He started the
engines as soon as he got back to the boat, so there went my leisurely morning! Time to get out of bed.
We wanted to go about 68 miles and through 3 locks, so an
early start is always best. It was a
cooler, overcast day with a high of 69, so it was perfect traveling
weather. The first lock, Stennis Lock,
was right by Columbus Marina. In fact, you make your turn to the marina right before the lock wall. There was another power boat, Lauren Grace,
and then the sailboat, Mistral, who locked through with us.
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| Tow turning barge around so we waited for the way to be clear |
We cruised at about 9 mph at 1100 rpm’s which is a
comfortable speed for us. We enjoyed the
scenery and took pictures of interesting sights.
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| Scrap metal loader off-loading a barge |
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| Loading metal into waiting trucks parked under a large funnel |
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| Going back for the next load (look how big the jaws are!) |
Since it was about 28 miles to the next lock, Bevill Lock,
we and Lauren Grace arrived at least an hour and a half before Mistral
–sailboats have small engines so cruise at slower speeds than power boats. The lock was ready for us when we arrived,
so the two of us locked through and were quickly on our way to Heflin Lock,
which was about 40 miles away.
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| Meeting a tow "on the 1" in a tight turn |
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| If all our electronics fail us, thank goodness there is one of these close by |
It was a very nice cruising day. Lauren Grace turned off at Sumter Landing, MM
270.6, to anchor for the night while we went on to Heflin Lock. Once again, the lock was waiting for us when
we arrived. Rob had noticed some metal
blocks with a length of line attached that sat along the lock wall in a number
of the locks, so he asked the lockmaster what they were for. She told him that sometimes the tow workers
fall off barges while in the locks, so they throw the metal block in the water
to create a space between the barge and the lock wall. Otherwise, the worker would get crushed!
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| Metal block which is thrown in if a worker falls off a barge to keep barge away from wall |
Once we got through the lock, we turned into our planned
anchorage, the Tombigbee Ox Bow, MM 265.8, which is actually the spillway for
the dam. The lockmaster told us that
there was a light current which was not expected to increase unless there were
big rains upstream. She also told us
that she would let her replacement for the night know that we were anchored
there, and if we monitored VHF Ch 16, he would let us know if conditions were
expected to change. For the most part,
the lockmasters have all been nice, professional, and helpful, which does make
things less stressful.
We stayed in the center of the spillway and anchored about
0.4 miles in. There was 14-16 ft at the
entry, then dropped to almost 30 ft for a ways until it started getting
shallower again, leveling off at 16.5 ft where we anchored. There was plenty of room to swing but the
light current held us pretty straight. There
was a public access boat ramp on the Ox Bow about 0.3 miles from where we
anchored, so it was perfect for all of us!
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| Rob going to check out the boat ramp access |
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