Heading South from Demopolis

Heading south out of Demopolis. and as Kelly McGuire says you just have to remember to keep the Green marks on the Right.

As I expected, commercial tows changed the plan of many of the RV (Recreational Vessels) on the first day of travel (part of it the RVs are to blame). About ½ mile from the marina is the Demopolis lock. As I have explained (bemoaned) before, RVs are very low in the pecking order for lockage. The plan was to depart the marina around 6:15 AM (first light was 6:05 and sunrise 6:30).  At 6:15 the primary contact for the group announced on the radio that he would call the lock at 6:30. Which he did at 6:35.  The lock told him he would have to turn the lock around and to call him back in about 15 minutes. Of course, as soon as that conversation took place over the radio, a tow announce that he was backing off the bank (they run the barges into the river bank when it gets foggy and wait out the fog or I guess if they just want to rest at night since there was no fog).  The tow gave his position as mile marker (MM) 219, which I knew was going to take 45 minutes for him to get to the lock, but I also knew it was too late for us, because he would be added to the que before the RVs, even though there was 6 of us.

It turns out it was a long tow/barge combo that had to be split, so that meant at least an hour to get locked though. So, by the time the RVs got through the Demopolis Lock, it was 8:15.  So, needless to say, I did not make it as far on the first day as I had hoped (I made 51 miles on day 1).

One of the first things on my agenda as I traveled south is spider control. I sprayed for spiders every time I visited Lesson Plan at the dock and apologized to her for all the spiders. You see beside my personal dislike of live spiders, they leave little black marks (poop) all over the boat. Hopefully after a couple of nights at anchor, I will have convinced most of the spiders to abandon ship. Since I am on the water, I use a mix of natural oils to encourage them to abandon ship, rather than the sprays that kill them.  Thankfully I have not seen any on the inside.

Day 2 Started with an hour delay due to fog.  I arose at before first light (6:08 AM), but when I looked out, I could not see the boat anchored on the other side of the river. The lights on the bridge, which was only 100ft in front of me were difficult to see. It was about an hour delay, underway at 7:30.  But today includes another lock. All the way down river I was doing the what if scenarios. If I can maintain this speed (8.3 MPH) then I should reach the Coffeeville lock by 1:30 and if no delays, I could make it to the anchorage at MM 96 very comfortably. This time the delay was only 30 minutes getting into the lock (we had to wait on a tow that was exiting the lock as we were approaching, picked up a fellow RV at the fuel stop just before the lock).

So now the calculations start again. It is 20.6 miles to the MM96 anchorage. It’s 2.5 hours to sunset. After the lock, I am moving at 8.1 MPH.  Hmmm…I picked up to 8.8 MPH.  Oh, crap back to 8.3. Bernoulli’s principle at work again. In areas where the river is sallow, the current is swift. Where it is deep or wide, it slows down. I am traveling down river, so a swift current helps me.  I made it to the anchorage at MM 97, not 100% comfortably. Although sunset was at 4:50 and last light was supposed to be 5:16, I think I have found that does not take in account the river banks and tree lines.  I was kind of counting on having until 5:00 to get to an anchorage, comfortably.  But it was very dim light at 4:40, so I ducked in behind a green channel marker about 4:40 and called it a day.  That was 67.5 miles for today, with one lock, not too bad.

I do all my end of day chores, check the engine, record the hours, add fuel, and straighten up the cockpit (primarily getting all my gloves and jackets inside so they will be warm in the morning). I cooked dinner, ate and showered. I think I am ready to tune into a podcast or two and get ready to turn in for the night. The problem with these early sunsets, I get all this done and it is all of 7:00 PM. I guess I might as well write a blog post.

Lesson Learned; Stay flexible. You can’t control the lockmasters, the fog, or the sunsets. Just figure out how to best use what you have.

Sorry I have no pics (it is too cold). How about a sailing song, one my brother told me about over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Minstrel

Here is the log from Tuesday's travel and Wednesday's travel log.