Slogging up the River

I have been running long days, 6:30 to 7:30. By the time I anchor, do engine checks, and make supper, I am ready for bed, so I haven't done much blogging. 

Although, I do have to report that I went swimming after a stop at Bobby’s Fish Camp for fuel. Unlike my swimming incident on the Erie Canal, I actually did this one on purpose, sort of. It was not my intention that morning to go swimming sometime during the day, but circumstances dictated my need to swim (well actually it wasn’t exactly swimming). 

I slogged my way up the Mobile river to the first lock, fighting a strong current all the way. Most of the trip to the Coffeeville lock was at 5.5 MPH. With the temps in the 90s during the day and the nighttime lows dipping down to 77/78, it was a fun few days. 

Once I was lifted up 35 ft to the next river level, the current seemed to decrease and my speed picked up (8 MPH). Until I got 500 yards upstream. At this point you leave the lock canal and join back into the main river channel, back down to 6 MPH. I wanted to stop a Bobby’s Fish Camp for fuel. I wanted to stop for the night and have the catfish dinner, but it was only 10:00, I didn’t want to lose that much travel time this early in the trip. 

By the time I finished fueling, there was a lot of debris around Lesson Plan (did I mention I have been dodging debris all the way up the river?). I had a plan to clear the debris without getting any into the prop and causing damage to it. I started the engine, but left it in neutral. I pushed the bow out and left the current carry her off the fuel dock. I watched all the debris float away. I am a genius, well almost. I put her in gear and heard tap, tap, tap on the hull from under the boat. Either someone is under the boat or I have a stick in the prop. I tried reverse, that didn’t clear it. I could see the sticks trailing behind the boat, it appears there are two of them. So the only option is to get in the water and clear it myself. 

Now this is not as simple as jumping in and yanking the sticks out and jumping back aboard. First you have to put the anchor out to stop the boat, remember the current is running about 1.8 MPH. So I get the anchor out and then prepare to get in the water. I am a pretty good swimmer, but I am concerned that if I lose a grip on the boat, I am not sure if I could fight the current to get back to the boat. So, I use my tether line (normally use to clip to your life vest in rough seas to make sure you can’t fall completely out of the boat). I attach one end of the line to my belt and the other to the stern handhold. I am all set. I lower myself in the water, actually kind of refreshing. I find out it is not two sticks, but one gnarly branch forked around the rudder with section sticking back hitting the prop. After a couple of minutes wrestling with it and breaking it where I could, I finally freed it and sent it on it’s way. Later I thought, I should have kept that piece. I could have fashioned a noose and hung it from the bow as a warning to all the other floating debris in the river. 

On to Demopolis, AL., the next Lock (2 days away).

Lesson Learned

Not only can the debris in the river get while you are underway, it can also get you while you are at the dock.