Underway Day 89:

Yesterday it rained non-stop so we hunkered down, did some laundry, and I got caught up on some work. Today after breakfast on our new camp stove, we topped off the fuel tanks and followed 3 other boats to Fulton Lock. It was overcast and cool, so we were just happy it wasn’t another scorching hot day. Mary and I listened to the Kavanaugh hearings all day, and respectfully discussed current events.

We cruised the beautiful winding river. We locked down Wilkins, Amory, Aberdeen, Columbus, Bevil, and Howell Heflin Locks. Each was around a 30’ drop. After all the rains, the river was full of debris. The water was no longer clear and fresh, but a muddy brown, like the Colorado River. It was like a game of frogger, dodging giant logs, branches, foam, and dead heads. Not the Grateful Dead kind, but submerged vertical logs that rip the bottom out of your boat. Many of the buoys were off station and some were on shore. It was mostly just us, flotsam, jetsam, and the commercial tows and barges.

At 28 knots, it is scary to know that one submerged object, among many, is enough to ruin your day, or your entire voyage. We bumped a few big sticks, but nothing major.

I decided to stop early for the night to let the river flush out a bit, because the current and debris was so fast and dangerous. After Heflin Lock, I talked to the lock master. He also manages the dam and is responsible for dumping the excess rain water. He told me that he had been dumping heavy water all day and that as long as it didn’t rain anymore, he wasn’t planning to dump much more. I told him we were considering anchoring in a popular spot below the sluiceway in the Oxbow. He said he though it would be a good spot and that he would let us know if they were going to dump more water but to let out extra chain just in case. If he needed to let water go it would raise us 12 feet!

So we anchored in the current of the oxbow with extra chain as he said. Over the next three hours the current subsided from three knots when we set the hook with 150’ of chain. Now it’s only one knot and I can sleep easy.

These lock masters are good people and are your best resource for information when you want to know if a spot is safe for the night. They are like river gods. They can decide when the floods come. They managed the current perfectly. Just enough to keep us well dug in, yet not enough to tear us loose. This is another beautiful anchorage, and we enjoyed the night, sleeping outside on a managed waterway. The river gods are now our friends.