Watch out for that barge, I mean tree, I mean fishing boat.

Life on the river is grand most of the time. As you travel down the river the scenery is ever changing. Right after you leave a lock and dam area where you are heading down river, the current is a little swifter and in most cases the banks are a little steeper (especially when you drop down 40’ or more).   After being left behind by our new trawler friends, we are heading down the river solo (we felt like the little brother who was left behind to find his own friends). But that was okay, we are just poking along at our own pace of 6 kn.  Life is grand.

As we approach a really winding part of the river we are keeping an eye on the AIS (Automatic Identification System) for approaching barges. A tow boat can be pushing as many as 15 barges (3 wide and 5 long) on the Tombigbee River (on bigger rivers they push even more).  Most of the ones we have seen so far have been nine barges (3x3). There are some pretty sharp 90 degree turns in this part of the river and we have already seen how much room they need to maneuver around the sharp bends, so we give them plenty of room.  As we were approaching a horseshoe bend, we saw a tow approaching the bend on the other end. We called up the tow captain on the VHF and asked which side he would like us on. (Since we were the down-bound vessel, we actually had the right to determine how we pass. But sometimes it’s best to apply the rule of tonnage, the barged wins.) The tow captain said he would see us on the one whistle, which means we turn our boat to starboard and we pass port to port (left to left).
We dutifully moved over to the outside of the bend and started cautiously making our way around the bend. As we neared the end of the bend we could see him coming, it was three wide and four long. For this narrow part of the river that is a mammoth.  And just for a little extra challenge, there is a fishing boat sitting right on the edge of the channel. So, we move over as much as we thought was safe and were prepared for the turbulence we might get from the tow props, when we hit a submerged log that had to be 25 yards from the shore in 10 feet of water. The keel jumped over, what I suspect is a fallen tree. We pulled back the throttle, but it was too late, the rudder struck the submerged tree. The rudder was now stuck in about a 40 degree turn position. We were slowly turning into the river with a barge coming right at us. We pushed the throttle forward and let Lesson Plan make full 360 degree turn and then pulled her back to neutral. We dropped the anchor and assessed the situation.

The rudder was stuck, and we had no steerage. We were able to get the rudder back to the center position, but we couldn’t turn it. Okay so at least when we get a tow, we won’t have to fight a crabbing boat. Next we called Tow Boat US.  I got the gold membership before I started on the trip for unlimited towing. After being on the phone for a while with Tow Boat US, I found out that all to the tow operators in the area have taken their boats out for the winter and already winterized them. Come on people we are in Northern Alabama, not North Dakota.

Alright, now what. We have the dinghy and its 2.3 HP motor. We launch the dinghy. Now mind you that I only tested the dinghy engine in Beaufort for a short, and I mean very short run. So, I am hoping a praying the whole time we are letting it down and getting ready to start the engine, that it even starts. It starts up on the second pull. Halleluiah!!! I take her for a spin and come back to tie a bridle from Lesson Plan to the dinghy. We can still use Lesson Plans engine (Genny) for the main propulsion, we are just going to use the dinghy to pull the nose around for steerage. We fought that for the next few hours. It’s hard to push/pull the nose of a moving sailboat around.

Is that three moons?

We anchored for the night in a nice anchorage behind a bridge pillar. It was a peaceful night. While we played cards that night we discussed some better options for steerage. A boat steers like a forklift, you move the back end to change direction. We decided that we are pushing the wrong end with the dinghy, we need to push the back end around.  We came up with a few options. One option was inspired by a story when fellow POYC members Kevin and Denise Klarer were on Lake Charlevoix with Frank and Carol. Kevin and Denise lost their rudder and Kevin had to sit on the back of the boat to turn the motor by hand. So, we went to bed to sleep on the options.

Gena working hard at her new post.

The next morning, I was ready to hoof it into Aliceville (about 5 miles away) to get some lumber to rig something to attach the dinghy motor to the transom of the boat. I was ready to drill some holes in the boat, if need be. Before I left for town, I looked at the transom. There are two handles on the transom for the swim ladder. It looked like a 2 X 4 would slide right in there and we could mount the little motor on the 2 X 4. It worked. We mounted dinghy engine (Gena, Genny’s little sister) on the back of Lesson Plan and off we went. Necessity is the mother of ingenuity, as well as invention.

It took a little while to get the hang of our new system, but by the time we made it around a few bends in the river, we had it down very well. That day we made 7 to 8 MPH most of the day, so we didn’t lose much speed at all. The day before the rudder “incident” we made 57 miles. The day we fashioned our new rudder engine, we made 52 miles.
I am happy to report that we made it Demopolis, AL. Genny and Gena are working together like only sisters could.  Four more days to Mobile.

Kevin and Denise made get the award for the most harrowing used of a small motor as a rudder, but we get the longest traveled award.

Another shot of Gena on the back of Lesson Plan

We are Living Well

The Alligator Hilton
(at least that's what it said on the side of the boat)

Lessons Learned: If you keep thinking of solutions you can overcome most problems. If you concentrate on problems, you will only see problems. Think about solutions.

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