FROST!!!

We woke this morning to frost. Not what I wanted to be seeing the first week in November in the Deep South. But there it was, frost.

We have been getting up early, an artifact of going to bed early so the change from Daylight Savings to Standard Time is somewhat of a blessing. So what was sunrise at 6AM is now sunrise at 7AM, a little easier to manage getting off the dock then.

Up, showered and dressed I heard the sailboat on the far side of Mara Beel get ready to leave. I went out to help them out of the slip and fell on the ice. Nice. Our fresh water valve has a slight leak, it was spraying mist all night. Which froze. Ice in Mississippi the first week in November, what a mess.

Got them out of the slip and they headed off. I called the lock master about a 8AM opening and was told the Odd/Even Hour stuff was summer only for the local boaters. Since we were locking through many locks, it was still on demand. Yay!!

Talked to the crew of Mara Beel about going ½ way to Demopolis. They were reticent, since it was cold, but after they talked it over they were in.

Called the lock-master back and we were set, he would turn the lock around and set us up for 7:30. I talked to the crew of Wild Raven the canoe team and Estrellita. At 7:15 we all motored / paddled out of the basin and headed to for the lock. (Just for the record, seeing a canoe with two paddlers digging into the water with a dog in the center at attention is the coolest thing in the morning.)

We got into the lock and were all set. About a mile away a catamaran was coming. The lock-master was cool, we all waited for the boat to show up and get on the wall. Really thinking that Mississippi lock crews should team with Canadian lock crews to teach the Erie and Illinois crews how customer service works.

A side note, the lock was full of floating vegetation, almost like a floating salad. The water roots don’t go down far, so they easily follow the wind as they float along.

At the bottom of the lock we bid fond farewells to Wild Raven and headed south.

Two hours later the next lock was open and we were in and down in less time than it took you to read this.

Three hours later at 3 PM we hit our first snag. We were planning to stay in a nice anchorage, sadly 9 other boats got there before us. We had planned to raft up with Mara Beel, but there was no room. Mara Beel opted to go down the river and through the lock and find an anchorage at the base of the dam. I was worried about changes in the Dam waterflow, so we went back 4 miles and anchored in the Warsaw Cutoff. Deep water, lots of room. Mara Beel and I will exchange notes in the morning on how the anchorages worked for each other.

Susan fished, she had new power bait and a glow in the dark bobber. It lights up and floats gently in the rings of all the other fish jumping around it. Very pretty, but not very effective. She will fish more after dinner to see if that helps.

Dinner was Weenie Beans! My favorite camping out dinner. They were great, she found a German potato salad to pair them with. Yay me!!

We have the generator produce electricity to cook, but to also run a ton of heaters and fans to get the boat up to 72 before we go off to bed. Oh and Hot water for showers. Granted the engine exhaust brings it up to 170F which is plenty hot, but it will cool down overnight and the electric part takes over. We also have all of our little appliance things on charge so they can last overnight.

The day was great, a little chilly to start, warmed up. Not many tows to work with, cloudless blue sky. Dunno, if we were not so far south into Mississippi and Alabama, we “could” give the win to Tennessee for the nicest views.

We’ve acclimated to doing things an hour earlier so that will work with us. Only problem for Monday is the race to the lock to get all of us through first thing.

Only 60 miles to the marina, about a 5.5 hour run. I can easily out pace the sailboats. So given a 6 AM lock, should be eating lunch on the dock at noon.

Unless there is more frost.

Or that fishing goes really well tonight and we need to stay another day.

Burrrrr it’s cold. It went down to 34 last night, we almost had frost this morning.

The wind was still blowing pretty good, so I’m happy that we kept to our plan of making this a rest day. We’ve been doing a little more than our drive two days then a rest day since we left Green Turtle Bay. So a day off and having it be bad weather is a bonus.

But that didn’t stop others from leaving early this morning. One of the more interesting boats that left was a 25′ home made pontoon boat. They left Minneapolis and are traveling down to Florida. They had an easy time on the Mississippi river, they had good weather so the river was pretty calm.

We both did laundry, Susan vacuumed the boat and I did the pump out using the “on the dock” system.

While I was doing my laundry I talked to two canoe boaters. They left Ottawa Canada in their canoe and with their dog in June of 2014 and are working their way around the Great Loop They will complete the loop and then start doing other rivers. All in all they are looking at doing 1000 days of adventure on the water. (Web site is http://www.wildravenadventure.com check it out). This trip is just part of the adventures they have had.

Today was also Bayliner day at the marina. We were joined by Panacea a very nice 4588. The crew is from California, they had the boat shipped to Texas where they started the loop. They are almost done, they cross their wake at Mobil.

The second is a 4788, Prime Interest II from Florida. Very pretty boat, love the lines. We had met them before on our trip.

We all talked about how we all liked Bayliner boats, how there was a ton of space and we were all pleased with the overall performance. They are spending a rest day on Sunday and will head down again.

Dinner tonight was a “Old Hickory” a steak place in Columbus. We went with the crew of Mara Beel. The place serves steak, just steak, you have a choice of cuts. Baked potatoes and a salad. They are grilled to perfection over a charcoal grill. Not much in the way of decoration, but the food more than makes up for it. Conversation was great, they have had so many cool adventures.

After dinner we did a quick run into Columbus to see what the town looked like (some pretty neat homes, we should have gone before dinner) and a short stop at Michael’s to pick up craft supplies.

Temps are to go to freezing over night and we go back to Central Standard Time. So we will be up with lots of light and a chance to see the frost.

I had met the Captain of the Mara Beel the night before. He was going to leave at first light and head down. Our goal was to make Columbus, MS so we agreed to go together.

We were up at first light (7AM) and ready to go. We watched 4 other boats pull out of the marina, as we backed out and headed for the lock. The lock master had said if we were in by 7:30 AM he would lock us down ahead of an up bound tow, so we did a little hustle to get in and tied off. Success, I was on the wall ready to go at 7:25!

At 7:40 we had dropped 28′ and were leaving the Fulton lock. One down and three to go.

About 9 AM we entered an Eagle sanctuary, one of the many the ACoE has been building. I saw what I thought was a nesting pair in a tree. Before I could get to Susan to get a picture, they had flown off.

We had about a 45 minute wait at the Wilkins lock for a tow to come up. I was pretty good with the wait, it’s one of the shortest we’ve had since leaving Chicago. There were two boats that were much faster than us, they had zoomed to the lock and had to wait 1 ½ hours.

We cleared the Wilkins lock a little after 10 and headed the five miles to the next lock. Lock karma was with us again, the doors were open and we were in and out in under 20 minutes. Yay!!!

I was watching the weather. The forecast was for winds to increase through the day getting up to 20 MPH with gusts to 30. So far it was pretty calm, so we made the decision to pass through the Aberdeen Lock if it was pretty calm and try to make Columbus.

About 3 miles from Aberdeen the wind started to pick up, but we were pretty confident that we would be able to manage it. Our little group of Kindred Spirit, Mara Beel , Quo Vadimus and Miss Ginger entered into the lock. We all got tied off and we noticed that Kindred Spirit was having a little problem with their starboard tie. They made two passes and then the wind kicked up pushing them from behind. The Captain quickly spun the boat around and did a quick tie to the port wall. He was facing us, but was securely on the wall.

With everyone safe, the lock-master lowered us and we were soon out. Because of the way the canal was built, we were pretty shielded from the wind for the next 20 miles.

The canal empties out into a small lake just above Columbus. The wind had been building while we were traveling, so making the trip across the lake was interesting. We got into the dock with some effort. The wind was at our stern so it was fast work to get lines out and get our movement stopped.

The others arrived soon after and we all got settled in. We were just in time, the winds really started to kick up, my little wind gauge got gusts of 25MP+ (as fast as it reads).

We had Docktails with the crew of Mara Beel they have an Ocean Alexander, it was very nice. They have a full recliner, something that both Susan and I covet. We had a great time talking to them and sharing our adventures.

While we were talking the Captain of Onward (the second Camano 31 we’ve seen on the loop) doing a “reverse trick or treat”. He was going from boat to boat passing out candy for Halloween. I had not remembered it was Halloween until then. Time does fly!

Dinner was sausages, kraut and boiled potatoes, just the thing for a blustery day. We did learn that southern kraut has some extra sugar in it, but I thought it was pretty good.

As we got ready for bed the wind was still blowing pretty hard. I did one last check of the extra lines we had out to make sure we would be secure for the evening.

Happy Halloween!!

This morning it was cold, which means fog. Lots and lots of fog. We waited until the fog had burned off on our side of the lock and then I called the lock-master to ask how it was. He said he couldn’t see the RT 4 bridge, which is less than ¼ mile downstream. So we waited.

At 9 AM I called again, he said the fog had cleared and he was ready for us. So we pushed off the dock and headed to the lock. When we got close, we saw Willow and Half Moon starting to pull up anchors and also head toward the lock.

(We had met Half Moon at the Pickwick Landing Marina, he was one of the boat crews that caught us that evening. Charlie is a solo sailor going down the river to South America. We passed Willow yesterday on our way to Bay Spring Maria. You should check out their blog at svwillow.com )

Witten lock is the highest with an 84′ lift, one of the highest on the East coast. Willow and Quo Vadimus cruised into the lock.

While in Bay Spring, we were told about one of the lock-master’s at Witten Lock. He was on duty and we chatted while waiting for Willow to get tied off. Once they were set the lock doors closed.

A few moments later the doors re-opened to let Half Moon in. Nice work by the lock-master, we’ve met others that wouldn’t have bothered and made the boat wait. So it looks like the guys on the Tenn-Tom are much nicer than we met on the Illinois. Doors closed again and we dropped down. At 10AM we headed down river. Since it was going to be a short day for us of three locks and 18 miles we cruised down the river at sailboat speed, about 5 knots.

It was a beautiful day, very calm and pretty nice. We saw lots of Heron’s again and an eagle. They have been setting up eagles here for the last 10 years, they are finally catching on, and we see them on a more regular basis.

About 11 AM we made it to the Montgomery lock and our locking karma held. The chamber doors were open and we settled into the lock. A quick drop of 28 feet and we were on our way.

At 1 PM we cleared the third and final lock, Rankin Lock. We said bye to our sailboat friends and headed to Midway Marina in Fulton, MS

We got docked and were in the loaner car by 2PM. Goals were simple, some food shopping, pick up some fabric notions for the quilt that Susan is making and then CHINESE FOOD!! Good Chinese food has been elusive on the trip, our last successful meal was in Milwaukee.

Because there were a large number of boaters coming in we were asked to return the car as soon as possible. So we got our food to-go and had it for dinner. House special lo-mien, orange chicken, shrimp rolls and boneless spare ribs. It was very good and if you are in Fulton, MS it’s a good choice for dinner.

Ithaka had landed while we were out, so I went down and talked to them for awhile. We have met lots of interesting boaters and I’ve enjoyed talking to them.

Entertainment for the evening was getting caught up on Nurse Jackie. We are behind a few season, but with the Netflix DVD’s we can watch episodes now and again.

While we were watching, another 5 boats came into the marina. It was a very busy place!!!

We bundled up for the evening, since the temperature was going to drop. Hoping that the fog wasn’t going to be bad in the morning.

Overnight we had gotten a pretty good rainstorm. The upper helm door has a small leak that we put a tub and a towel under to catch the rain. I had remembered to do that, but what I had missed was the door was not fully locked. So in the morning I had a sopping wet towel and a ½ full tub. Sigh

We waited for the wispy fog to rise off the river and then shoved off about 8:40AM. There is very little current and we are running with it.

We went through Pickwick lake which looks like Canada with all the cottages and boat docks surrounding it. There is an island to one side that we could see fishermen on the back corner trying their luck.

We passed the tow “Sportster” pushing two barges. Couldn’t raise the Captain, but the mate gave us a friendly wave as we drove by.

Next was the “Divide Cut”. It is a 25 mile long canal that took 6 years to dig by 7 different contractors. It is one of the Army Core of Engineer’s largest projects. It has a number of straight sections, but also has a number of turns in it to help slow the water flow during storms. Streams that come in from the side come down sluices that have concrete blocks in them. Picture a giant Pachinko machine with water bouncing from brick to brick slowing the passage rate and smoothing the flow out.

We only saw one other boat, a sail boat from Hawaii. He had it shipped to the upper part of the Mississippi and was heading down to Florida.

The Divide Cut enters into Bay Springs, what had been a small lake in the 50′s became a pretty big lake in the 60′s when the Bay Springs Lock (now called the Jamie Whitten Lock) had dammed up the river.

Just about 1 PM we docked at Bay Springs marina and had lunch.

After lunch Susan started cutting out the rest of the fabric for the quilt that she is making. I headed off to wash the towels from last night and to see the Bay Springs Visitor Center.

The center showcase is a 25′ long diorama of the Tenn-Tom waterway from Yellow Creek to Demopilis. It shows how the watershed now looks and talks about the dams that were created. It’s primary purpose was to reduce the amount of time to move goods into the Gulf of Mexico. For goods coming from Chattanooga, it reduces the trip from over 1000 miles going down the Mississippi by 400 miles. There are a number of companies that have barge facilities along the path, but the biggest winner was the residents of the area, they picked up 16 million acres of lakes and lots of shoreline for water based recreation.

The government when it bought the land also purchased land on both sides so there are a number of large state parks for hunting and camping.

The nearest town is Tupelo MS, about 35 miles away. While I had the marina van, I felt guilty about driving that far. But I did take a short detour to Natchez Trace. The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 444-mile trip through exceptional scenery and is the route that the Indians and early settlers took to get from Northern Tennessee to Tupelo MS. It’s now mostly paved and restricted to car traffic only. I took it for about 8 miles and marveled at the deep wilderness it was cutting through.

When I got back the Day-Lea-”G” II was docked in front of us. We had seen and chatted with them a few times. The Admiral had helped us dock at night at the Pickwick State Park.

Later on the crew of Elbrenda came over in their dink. They are residents of the marina. We chatted for awhile and they gave us the tip that it would be foggy in the morning and that it would be foggy for longer going down so be careful when leaving. A great tip! We were also told to ask for Cecil the lock master and pass on their regards.

Dinner was chicken and zucchini noodles and the baked potato left over from last nights dinner. It was very good, Susan makes some great dinners on the boat. The chicken had been cooked in a mushroom gravy that gave it lots of richness.

Tomorrow hopefully will be an easy day with three locks and 20 miles. Hope we get our lock karma back.

Today was our second rest day. We did a tour of the Shilo Battlefield with the Captain of the Ithaka (It has it’s own post under Shilo Battlefield). On the way back we stopped at a store to get some more food supplies.

The rest of the day was taken up by me visiting other Looper boats that had arrived. I also got us pumped out and fuel loaded so we would be set for our next set of travels. We both got short naps in to help with the relaxing part of the day.

Dinner was at “Freddy T’s”. With Grand Harbor being a resort area and not a lot of places to eat, two local guys have set up a shuttle service. We got picked up at the end of the Grand Harbor dock and delivered 10 mins later. Our driver explained that we were on the corner of Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi, “the center of the Tri-State area”)

Part of the restaurant is the upstairs, we had burgers at the “Rooftop” for lunch the day before. Tonight would be the more formal dining area.

First thing you come to is a glass enclosed room that is the wine cellar. There are over a thousand bottles on display in neat, ordered racks. It was a suprise, the last thing I expected to see in such a small place was a comprehensive wine selection.

The main dining area is full of sea memorabilia, there are antique powerboats and jetskis, mounted fish, etc. They even had a giant Sponge Bob for the kids.

I had the “Bang’n Shrimp”, they were lightly dipped in flour and then fried. Very good, with just the right level of spice. Susan had the salmon, I had a taste it was very good. The menu is pretty extensive, so if you are there for a few days there is lots to try.

We are set to leave in the morning to head down river, our Tenn-Tom adventure is about to start.

We got up very late today, with the high stress levels from yesterday we both needed the extra rest. We were excited according to the info on line there was a little restaurant at the Marina Lodge.

Not true. Sigh.

So we packed our lines and headed out at 9:45 to go to Grand Harbor. We picked our way out of Pickwick Landing, it looks much different and prettier in the daylight.

The trip down the Tennessee and the turn into the Tenn-Tom went pretty quickly. Getting into our slip was a little tricky, so it’s good that we didn’t try it last night.

By 11:30 we were in the loaner van and headed to the nearest place to eat, the Rooftop. On the way we were passed by a number of trucks carrying pulp logs to a nearby pulp/cardboard mill. And passed by more empty trucks going the other way.

As advertised the Rooftop was over Freddy T’s restaurant. Two of the sides are garage doors that roll up to let the air and the sunshine in. It’s primary menu is burgers and dogs with fries. We both had double cheeseburgers with the works. The fries were great, they were seasoned with white and black pepper along with salt. Very good.

We went about 2 miles further down the road to see if there was a town. There was not, just an unending stream of pulp wood. We turned around, got back into the wood convoy and went back to the marina.

Grand Harbor is a huge marina with two condo towers near by. Most of the residents are summer only. A large number travel three hours each way to get here. It is an ideal boating area, they have the Tennessee River and the lake that is formed by Pickwick Dam. Lots of fishing, coves to hang out in.

The marina also has a pool, tennis courts, a salon, etc. So it’s pretty much everything you need for the summer. There are a few places to eat nearby and there is a shuttle company with two vans that moves everyone around.

Along the dock that runs along the Tenn-Tom is a series of gliders. Think of a picnic table that had facing seats and a canvas roof that swings very slowly back and forth. Very nice, we spent part of the afternoon that was not filled with a nap sitting and watching the boats go by. I think that the South has it right, there is nothing like an afternoon on a porch swing or a glider.

There were a large number of Looper boats there. Our friends on Seas the Day had come in the night before and had left first thing in the morning. They wanted to get 40 miles down the river to Midway Marina in Fulton.

I spent lots of time talking to a number of boats, hearing their stories and their adventures. One boat Sage is crewed by 4 friends of the owner. He needed to move the boat down for a few days and they said “Sure, pick us!!” They were having a great time.

Dinner was rib-eye steaks from Clinton. We ate on the dock in our little glider watching the last of the sunset. A nice way to relax on the loop!

We left Clifton Marina first thing in the morning. The early fog had lifted and we could see out into the river and the far shore. So we would be good to go. We checked with our dock mate Seas the Day and they seemed to think we would also be good to go. So we headed out of the lagoon through the wall and into the river.

We traveled south about a mile and the fog came rolling back in. Both boats had RADAR running and our eyes open as we slid along in the fog bank at 7kts. We went almost an hour before the sun heated the fog enough to got it to dissipate. We were then back up to 8.5 kts about 10 miles an hour.

It was pretty uneventful, lots of pretty scenery, lots of birds, tons of herons, a few eagles. Susan got a number of good shots of the eagles in the air. Very impressive. This section of the river is pretty, still having a tough battle passing the beauty of the Canadian North Channel.

The current coming up river was very strong, about a 3 knot current against us. We passed a fully loaded tow Lisa Marie that was running wide open and going about a foot per minute. We heard the Captain ask a number of times about when they would turn the flow rate down. “Soon” was always the answer.

We got to Pickwick lock and were told that they had one tow to lift and we would be next. The tow was a double, so it would take two lifts to get both ½s of the tow processed. We tied off to the lock wall at 3PM and figured with an hour per cycle, we should get in the lock about 5, plenty of time to get out before sunset.

Seas the Day and Quo Vadimus were joined by two other boats, one was a trawler, the other was a catamaran. After another hour a small 18′ foot fishing boat joined us on the wall.

At 5:50 PM we were told to get into position along the lock wall, we were next.

We still had some hope, there is about 30 mins of twilight we could still make it to the marina.

At 6:08 the sun sets.

6:25 the siren that signifies the start of dumping the lock goes off. We know that dumping the lock takes at least 25 minutes. We no have no hope of getting through in daylight and are sort of stuck. Our new plan B is to go to the Pickwick Landing State Park and either find a slip in the dark or just anchor out.

Lock doors open at 6:50 and we all go in to get settled. By 7:05 we are in and set. Doors close and the fill process takes place. At 7:25 PM in total darkness we slowly file out of the lock.

In our case both GPS displays are on and the radars is doing the best it can. Susan is out on the bow doing sweeps with her flashlights looking for markers or snags. I had to move to the flybridge since the glare on the glass in the pilot house made it almost impossible to see.

Using the GPS as directions, with glances at the RADAR looking for boats / land masses. We came around the corner safely and into the channel for Pickwick Landing Park. Susan was on the bow and sent commands back up to me. Lucky for me the most recent chart had a pretty good drawing on the park layout.

We were able to turn the corner and go along the sail boat docks to make it to an empty slip. The two boats that were following me also were able to get into slips.

We had some help, there was a sailboat Half Moon on the dock, and the crew from another boat helped us get tied off. So by 9PM all the boats were safe for the evening.

We heard again from the Lisa Marie she had made it up only a mile in the last 10 hours. So she was going to anchor and wait for the flow to drop so she could make progress. I looked the next day, she locked up at 1 AM. Another good reason to NOT be a tow operator.

Dinner was scrambled eggs and toast. We were both pretty fried for the day, so an easy quick meal was the way to go.

Short trip for tomorrow, Grand Harbor Marina