Swimming in the River, 11-12-2014

Wednesday, 11-12-2014

The day dawned.  There was some sun.  We hoped to get underway about 7:30. We thought we could make some good time and reach our next anchorage about 4. An early day. No locks, no fog, no weather to hold us back.

About 7:15 we started to get ready to get underway. On went the engine, and Kathy started the morning cockpit set up.  All she heard from Tim was “Oh, Oh, this isn’t good.”  Well, and those of you who know Tim well know that there were a few other choice words emanating from the stern.

Apparently, sometime during the night, the stern anchor rode (anchor line) got wrapped around the rudder.  Try as we would, we could not free the rode. The only way to get it free was to dive under the boat, and unwrap it from the rudder. As Kathy was not volunteering, Tim changed into his swimsuit, got the goggles, tied himself to the boat and descended the swim ladder into the water.

Tim coming back aboard after his morning swim

 

By the way, it was 57 degrees, murky icky water…in alligator country. Kathy stayed at the ready with an eye out for alligators, and Tim was back onboard, having fixed the problem.  We turned on the propane heater, dried him off and warmed him up. We left the anchorage at 9:40.  All of a sudden, we knew we would be up against sunset again.

We decided we want a trawler.  A 32 foot Grand Banks.  Generator.  Cappuccino machine.  Room for two barcaloungers.  A real refrigerator.  Wide screen TV. Queen sized bed.

Other than our morning escapade, the day was uneventful.  More river, more barges.  We anchored in the Okatuppa Anchorage, at Mile Marker 123, short of our intended goal at mile 78.  But again, we were fighting sunset.  Tim set the anchors, and while not happy with the result, we had dinner, and fell into bed.

Coffeville lock, the last lock of the river. 11-11-2014

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Coffeeville Lock is  the last of the “Dirty Dozen Locks” on the Tem-Tom. After this lock, there are no more locks until the gulf.  The day was beautiful.  A little fog, but not much, and we headed out at 7 AM with hopes of locking right through the Coffeeville lock,  8.5 miles away. We saw no barges, and about two miles up the river, after repeated efforts to raise the lockmaster by radio, Kathy called lock on her cell, told him our position, and asked about locking through.

No problem, we will be ready for you was the response.  Just radio us when you are about a mile away (at our speed, that is 10 minutes). And so we did.

At that point we were informed that there was a northbound tow in the lock, and we would have to wait until it locked through.  Drat, there goes an hour.

So we took some pictures of the lock, and made lazy circles upriver until it was our turn.

About a half hour later, we hear a southbound tow hailing the lock.  He was two miles away.  We were informed that we would need to wait for that tow to clear the lock. (Commercial boats have precedence over everything except for an emergency boat). Drat!  There goes another hour!

The northbound tow clears the lock, and we hear the Southbound tow telling the northbound tow that he will wait where he is until the southbound tow passes him.  Drat, another ½ hour.  

So for all of our good intentions, we lost 2.5 hours of daylight.  Luckily it was warm, and for once, we started taking off layers of clothes!

We traveled the rest of the distance, tried to enter the anchorages that we had planned on.  It was silted in and we ran aground (or rather, a muck).  Tim backed out the boat, and we headed back to the channel, both of us trying to figure out Plan B. The next anchorage was another 20 miles.  Four hours, and sunset is coming upon us fast.

“Southbound sail boat, southbound sail boat, this is the tow that is about 1 mile behind you.  You plannin’ to anchor in the river tonight, Captain?”

Tim allowed as we didn’t have much choice.

The tow captain responded, “Well Captain, if you look to starboard (right), you can see an indentation that is about 10 feet deep 8 feet from shore.  That’d be a fine place to anchor and be out of the way of the towboats goin’ either north or south.  And then they can see you too.”

Tim and I looked at each other and said, “Hell, these guys are on this river all the time…sounds like good advice to us."  We thanked the tow captain, and headed over that way.

As soon as we got there, the tow captain came on and told us that we were exactly where we needed to be, and to have a good night.  We thanked him and off he went.

We set two anchors, had a chicken and macaroni salad, and went to bed.

 

Onward, 11-10-2014

November 10, Monday

We left Barron’s Landing about 8:20.  The fog was pretty dense but the sun started to burn it off gradually.  We had 48 miles to go, and we got to our anchorage at Okatupppa Creek, mm 123.2. Anchoring was fun!  Actually not very fun at all.  There were a lot of overhanging trees that we didn’t want to snag with the mast.  We finally anchored about 4:40.  These early mornings are getting to us!

It was an uneventful day.  I think we are getting weary of trees, and blue heron.  We are getting weary of the river.

Leaving Demopolis

November 9, Sunday. Leaving Demopolis

We rose at 4:45.  Tim was not certain if he even wanted check the motor.  No leak, some water but not much, and we were leaving come hell or high water (literally).There was some fog, but we figured that the power boats would wisk it away for us

We left the marina with six other boats, locked right through and cleared the Demopolis lock at 6:53 in the morning.  YAHOO.

The guidebooks suggested that we look back at the dam, Water from the spillway rushes over ancient granite rocks.  and it is the prettiest dam we have seen.  I



Demopolis Dam

The sun started to come out, the fog has dissipated, and the sun makes all the difference.





Kathy at Barron's Landing



We anchored at Barron’s Landing.  It is actually just an indent in the river, but tucked away enough to keep us out of the channel, and away from harm. About 47 miles, and about 8 hours of river time.

Our unplanned vacation stay at Demopolis, 11-4-2014 thro 11-8-2014

Tuesday, November 4 through Saturday, November 8

Kingfisher Bay Marina is a very new marina and still under construction. The old part of the marina still exists, and houses the ship’s store, the repair facility, and a restaurant. And they are still dredging for more expansion!  This marina is significant in the journey because every boat heading down the Tenn-Tom has to stop here.   It is the last stop for fuel, pump outs and supplies before Mobile, some 217 miles away. So they are adding to their facilities to accommodate the snow birds heading south.

Kathy headed down to Kingfisher Bay Marina

Ongoing dredging efforts will greatly increase the space available.  The existing marina is seen in the background.

In order to use the courtesy car, one takes a golf cart about a half a mile to the ship’s store, picks up the car, and hopefully, if there are two folks doing this, one person drives the golf cart back to the new side of the marina, the other person drives the car back and the whole procedure is reversed on the return trip.

Kingfisher Marina is very nice, but is very large.  From the transient dock, it was 2 blocks or so to the marina bathrooms and laundry.  It is the nicest laundry/shower area in a marina so far.  Imagine, four washers, four dryers, three showers for each of the men's and women's area…and a big screen TV.  And rocking chairs as well as a “Take a book, leave a book” library.  Who would have thought that Kathy would start to rate marina laundry/shower areas! 

When we exclaimed about how nice it was, we were told by the owner that his wife designed it.  Darn good job she did.  It sounds silly, I know, but on an extended trip, those niceties make the days so much better.

Tuesday the 4th was a pretty morning, but we decided to sleep in…until 7 or so, to celebrate our arrival at the halfway-point to Mobile. 

The agenda for the day was full.  At the top of Kathy’s list was grocery shopping. Tim’s consisted of getting the mildew off the ceiling and the other surfaces of the v-berth.  It is an icky job, but one that made us both breathe and sleep better.

Shopping when travelling by boat is not like heading to your favorite hometown store.  You have to schedule a courtesy car, locate the store, and finally find the items you need in the store. And lately, it has been a Walmart. 

Elizabeth and Daniel, from Brisa, and Kathy tag-teamed the courtesy car.  Typically, a courtesy car is borrowed for two hours per boat.  By going together, the courtesy-car time increases to four hours.  That’s enough to get to a Walmart, stop at another grocery (looking for Jiffy Pop), get Daniel’s haircut, etc. etc. 

Tim did a yeoman’s job of getting the mildew off the ceiling and the other surfaces of the v-berth, a task that didn’t get done in our flurry of activity to leave Minnesota. 

Despite our efforts, there were still things to do by day’s end. Our traveling buddies on Brisa made the decision to leave the next day.  We decided to stay and finish up tasks.

Wednesday the 5^th started with a sad note.  We saw Brisa off. We had been traveling with them since October 21^st ; that’s six marinas, and 10 locks! Apparently Dany, the five year old, upon learning that we weren’t leaving with them told his Mom that Tim had to leave with them.  He just HAD to!  We know that we will see them in Bradenton, FL, where we will dock for some time.  That is their home base. And the home of our friends, the Finneys. 

So we helped them out, took pictures, did hugs and wished them good journey.



Brisa off to new adventures

Meanwhile, a sailboat came into the marina, and docked behind our boat. It looked familiar, and sure enough we heard a knock on our boat.  The single hander (meaning that the captain and crew are one person), Captain Charley, was from our home marina in Lake City, as well as from our same dock.  And he owned Half Moon…a boat that our friends, the Macks, had owned.

Kathy stands next to Half Moon, a boat that left our home marina in Lake City three weeks after us.

We did chores, and determined that we would set out the next morning, early, with whatever flotilla was leaving.

November 6, Thursday
Part of Kathy’s job while at the marina is to “work the docks”.  It doesn’t sound as tawdry as you might think! She wanders from dock to dock trying to figure out what boats are leaving the next morning, and how we can all move out together. 

The locks, especially those that are within a few miles of a marina, prefer that the flotilla of folks leaving a marina “lock through together”.  So departing times are set, if possible, the night before.  Kathy has the fun job, because there are usually several parties going on!!  So last night, 8 boats agreed that the departing time for this morning was 7:45 AM

We were up at 4:30.  Tim started and checked the engine.  OH NO!!  He found the engine now leaked fuel in two places. 

After much discussion, we decided to be prudent, and to not leave with the flotilla.  The next leg of the journey would be long with no marinas or services.  It was just too risky when we had questions about the reliability of the engine. Tim worked most of the day on the engine, all to no avail.

Discouraged, we decided to call in the mechanics from the shop right away on Friday morning, knowing that the shop will be closed over the weekend.  We went to bed wondering if we would ever get to Mobile.

November 7,^. Friday, another flotilla, including Charley on Half Moon, took off to head south.  We headed to the marina shop via golf cart to schedule a mechanic's visit for later that day.

Sure enough, the mechanic showed up, they fixed the problem, and we were good to go the next morning.

Kathy walked the docks to determine the morning departure time.  She was invited to have a glass of wine with Anne and Lou aboard their boat, Annie’s Song.  We had met Anne and Lou several times, at different marinas.  As a matter of fact, they were  one of the two other couples with whom we visited the Civil War Interpretive Center in Corinth, MS.

They live aboard their boat, and it was a sweet one.  Lou reminded Kathy that it is always a bad idea to look at boats bigger than yours!  I think he was right. The big screen TV and the recliners swept her away.

Anyway, times had been set to leave at 7:45 the next morning.

November 8, Saturday
As we were waking up, Tim shared that his concern for the day was that he discovered he didn’t have an extra engine fan belt.  Tim is the king of spare parts, and so for him to not have a spare fan belt was pretty upsetting to Kathy.  We again made the decision to not leave Demopolis, and concentrate on finding a spare.  Remember, the shop is closed.  We could wait until Monday, when the shop opened, or try to find an adequate substitute. 

After several hours of research, Tim discovered that the local O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store had one that fit the bill.  We called for the courtesy car, were told we could have the car for an hour from 12-1, we jumped on the golf cart, raced to the ship's store, jumped in the F-10 pick up and headed to O’Reilly’s.  Picked up the belt, grabbed a bite at MacDonald's, raced back to drop off the car, walked back to "our side" of the marina. 


Demopolis Yacht Basin fuel dock and ship's store. The large supports are for mooring tow boats

 And went to the boat to test the belt.

It was too short.

Called the ships store, said we only needed the car for an hour.  Did the whole process again.  Left the golf cart there, and when we came back, went to the boat first, and Tim thought he had hit pay dirt.  Seemed like this belt would do the trick.

Took the car back, got on the golf cart, back to the boat.  Tim fitted it again.  It was too wide.

(Is this starting to sound like a modern day marina adaption of Goldilocks and the three bears?)

This time, Kathy was dispatched to head back to O’Reily’s while Tim worked a bit on the water leak that had appeared…oh, did we forget to mention that?

Kathy called about the courtesy car, walked up to the golf cart parking area…but no golf carts were to be had.   Some folks from a neighboring boat were headed out, and they had a rental car, and graciously took Kathy to the courtesy car.  This time, she had the old fan belt as well as the belt to return.

On the way down the ramp, in the dark, Kathy caught her foot on one of the dock grates, and came down hard.  Both knees were scraped up pretty badley, and she finally succumbed to tears.  Limped down to the ships store, the store guy gave her some peroxide for her wounds, and she went off, for the 3^rd time to O’Reilly’s.

The boys at O’Reilly’s took pity on Kathy (well, she was bleeding, after all), and they measured the belt, found one that they thought would work.  Back to the ships store, the store guy offered to give her a ride back to the boat.

Three was the charm.

We are leaving Sunday morning, as soon as light will let us.   Finally.

On to Kingfisher Bay Marina...half way down the Tenn-Tom 11-3

November 3, Monday

We awoke once again to fog on the river. The mass exodus left the anchorage about 7:45.  Our goal today was Kingfisher Bay Marina in Demopolis, 54 miles and 1 lock, the Howell Heflin, down the river.

For us, 54 miles makes for a very long day.  Adding a lock and a late start to the trip increased the uncertainty that we would get to Kingfisher Marina before sunset.   

The most beautiful part of the trip was the White Cliffs at Eppes, AL.  The rock is the same type of rock found in the white cliffs of Dover, England.  They stand in stark contrast to the tree-lined river up until then.

Fall color on the Cliffs of Eppes

Brisa at the Cliffs of Eppes

Brisa and Sea Fever pushed along the whole day and got a lucky break at the lock. We finally reached Kingfisher Marina in the Demopolis Yacht Basin at 5:15, a half hour after sunset. We skipped pumping out the holding tank and filling up with fuel. Even so, by the time we docked the boats, and walked to the office to register, it was dark. Very dark.

We had been on the river for 9 hours and 45 minutes. 

We made ourselves sandwiches, and crawled into bed.

Leaving Pirates's Cove, 11-2-2014

November 2, Sunday

Today we began the third month of our journey.

So far we have: 

• Locked through 34 locks
• Stayed at 22 marinas
• Anchored in 5 anchorages
• Traveled 1159.6 miles

Time to leave Pirates Cove

We woke up about 4:30, hoping to get an early start.  Since we were the only ones up, we headed up to use the facilities, and nearly slid down the dock ramp. It was 27 degrees and very icy.  Fog covered the entrance to the marina, so we could not see the river.

While 27 degrees might not seem cold by Minnesota standards, it is pretty darn cold on the water.  Sea Fever has a couple of heat sources.  When we are at a marina, and have shore power, we have a small electric space heater that heats the boat.  It is the kind you might put under your desk at work.

We also have a propane heater for when we are at anchor, or while we are underway.  But propane is a labor intensive commodity so we use it sparingly.  We can’t just use it up, pick up the propane tank, toss it in the car and swap it out at the filling station.  We need to schedule a courtesy car, find a propane dealer who actually fills tanks (ours is a non-standard 10 lb. tank), take the car to the propane dealer, fill the tank, drag it down the dock and hook it back up.
 
Because the temperature was too low to head out for a day’s boat ride (open cockpit) we decided to wait for Mother Nature to warm things up before we left.

Lest you think that we waited in silence, we didn’t!  Captains and crews cautiously gathered on the slippery dock to exchange thoughts on how long it would take for the fog to lift and to comment on the weather.

The frost made patterns on the sail covers, dingy cover, and the cushions.  Tim got some photos.  It was pretty, but difficult to enjoy because we were so darn cold.

Frost on the dingy cover



Frosted boat cushions



In the meantime, Kathy took some pix of the pirate statue, and a placard that seemed to sum up Pirates Cove rather succinctly.

 

The Pirate Cove pirate
 

We think it was too late!

 

 



After adding even more layers of clothes, our little flotilla left Pirate’s Cove at 7:45 AM to head through Tom Belvill Lock & Dam, where we saw the visitor’s center from the water.

We were on our way. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Cold enough for you?



We hadn’t seen many critters on the shore until Tim got a glimpse of something moving into the water, and we grabbed the camera.  There was a herd of deer swimming across the creek…we didn’t know deer could swim!




Deer crossing the creek

We headed to an anchorage called Sumter Landing, some 37 miles down-river.  And, no locks today.  YES!

Sumter landing is a lovely cove formed by a creek.  When we arrived, 5 boats were already anchored there. As each new boat arrived, the current residents shouted encouragement and advice to the newcomers. We rafted up with Brisa on a single anchor and shared dinner. By the sunset there were 9 boats anchored in the cove.

We headed back to our boat, and fell asleep.

Thanks for reading.