Our last day at Safe Harbour was Halloween. I spent a few hours in the morning fixing some caulking in the bathroom, and I also replaced a couple of lights that had burned out. Meanwhile, the looper ladies all met in the Tiki Bar patio on the dock to visit. Rich and I took iFloat over to the gas dock to get fuel and a pump-out, and when we got back to our slip, we then took Jewel on the same errand.
In the afternoon, we took the curtesy car with Wendy and Rick from Salt Nest to pick up a few items, and to have some bbq for lunch. While we were eating, the skies opened up and it began to pour rain. The rain continued for the rest of the day, which kind of wiped out any kind of trick or treating. We put out some cheapo decorations we got at a dollar store, an LED pumpkin and some eyeball string lights. After supper, people got together at the Tiki Bar, but the rain made it kind of cold and wet so we were not there for very long.
We check the national hurricane centre forecast several times a day. This time we found trouble brewing. We made travel plans with built-in plan B's in case this develops further.
When we were out the previous day, we made a quick stop at a dollar store to pick up some ant traps. That morning, we found we had a lot of small ants running around the galley, and they were in other parts of the boat as well. At the same time, Louise picked up a Roach motel, as some other loopers had reported issues with roaches. We will put the motel into storage, and hope we never need to use it.
The next morning we set off down the Tenn-Tom waterway. This is a river system that has been converted to a shipping route by adding a series of canal cuts, locks and levies. Our first day we did not go through any locks, and after about 3 hours pulled off into one of the five-finger anchorages in Bay Springs lake.
As you travel the rivers, you see lots of fishing birds. Many of them, for example cormorants, fish by diving straight down and then go under the water. Others, like osprey or eagles, swoop down and scoop out fish. As we were going along, ahead of us we saw an eagle swooping down over an area of water, so we thought it was hunting fish, but as we got closer, we realized it was hunting a bird, a cormorant or duck, we could not tell. Each time the eagle swooped down the bird would swim under the water. Eventually it had to re-surface, and the eagle was watching and timing its swoops to try to grab it. Louise got this video as we passed of one of the eagle swoops. The eagle was still trying even after we passed, so we don't know the outcome.
Spectacular anchorage in Bay Springs. It was completely protected, the water was like glass. We did not see any other boats the whole time we were here, not even fishing boats.
This is the float we use for our trip line. The line is set up so that it sits over the anchor. This way other boats will know not to anchor over it (assuming the other boaters know something about anchoring), and if we have an issue pulling up the anchor, we can use the attached line to help haul the anchor out.
This anchorage was awesome. Really isolated, protected and quiet. We anchored in fairly deep water and, for the first time this voyage, attached our trip line to the anchor. Other loopers had reported issues with snags on this part of the river, as the lake was actually an old flooded forest. Using a trip line gives you a way to recover your anchor if you get it snagged. Anchors are designed to dig into the bottom like a plow. Sometimes they plow under things like rocks or logs and you cannot retrieve them. A trip line gives you a way to pull the anchor out backwards in the event it gets snagged. I rigged the line with a sliding weight mechanism to keep the line short so that the marker ball stays over the anchor, as in the past we have had issues with marker balls that drift (gets tangled in the boat).
It was pitch-black at night, and super-quiet. The anchorage was in a game preserve and far from any roads or infrastructure. Louise got in touch with some nearby loopers on Nebo, and found out there was a bunch of boats planning to lock-through the next day. One of the boats called the lock, and arranged for all of us to lock down together starting at 8:00 the next morning.
When we raise the anchor, normally Louise handles the anchor duties while I drive the boat. However, sometimes the anchor comes up backwards and so we cannot raise it over the roller. When this happens, I come out and spin the anchor 180 degrees so we can secure it on the roller.
Each time we have anchored with Jewel, we raft up together. One boat sets an anchor, then the second boat ties alongside. Here Jewel is casting off of us before we raise our anchor.
We got up in the morning, had our coffee and breakfast and got underway by 7:00. After travelling about 40 minutes to the lock, we got set in and ready to lock down with a group of other looper boats (total 10). Mary, on Legacy, took charge and led us through all the various locks.
Jewel was the first boat out of the lock and so Melanie got a shot of the convoy exiting. We were not the first boat in the lock, but the first boat to go in stopped at the second bollard from the front, so both Jewel and iFloat passed them to tie up at the front bollard, and so Jewel ended up being first in line to leave the lock.
Jewel tied up in the lock.
The looper fleet all tied up in the lock. We were a group of 10 boats all locking through together, and we spent the day travelling together. The lock had 10 floating bollards to use, so each of us got our own tie-up and we did not need to raft.
Locking went fairly smoothly through three locks that were placed about 10 km apart, and then we all pulled in to Midway marina. The dockmaster here was really good. He found spaces for all 10 of us, plus 8 more boats that were coming behind us. Many other marinas we have been to do not try as hard to wedge everyone in. Nice to see this guy play Tetris and get everyone set.
There were a couple of POS sailboats at this marina. They have been sitting in their slips neglected for quite a while. The sail bag on this one was completely covered in lichen. We saw one other on shore that had sunk and been raised, but forgot to get a photo. At every marina everywhere, there are one or two boats that are never used. They sit there rotting away and depreciating. We do not understand why someone would spend tens or hundreds of thousands on a boat and just let it rot, but it is a thing. Many marinas will force the owners to get rid of these eyesores, but I guess some of the smaller places need the business.
This home-made houseboat looked like it had been made from a shipping container. In fact, the dockmaster called it the shipping container.
Monster dock spider. The body on this thing was 3 inches long! Hope we don't pick up any riders like this guy.
Boat yoga to do an engine check.
We had access to a curtesy car, which we used to visit Tupelo Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis. There was a small museum there beside his father's house. We did not visit the museum, but just walked around outside. The house he was born in was pretty small, about 400 square feet. There were a few things on display, such as the car he used to leave Tupelo and move to Memphis.
Birthplace of the king.
Elvis' first car. Apparently he used it to travel to Memphis to begin his career.
The house Elvis was born in was about the size of the old sleep-camp at my parents camp on the French river.
The house was about the size of a one-car garage.
Had no idea Elvis was a twin.
Back at the marina, the local harbour host had organized a docktails for all the loopers at the marina. We spent a couple of hours meeting some people who we had seen on Nebo or AIS, but not yet met in person. We then went for dinner with the crews of Soulshine and Schuyler. Back on the boat, we watched an episode of Territory before turning in for the evening.
We were up at 4:30 the next morning as it was the fall time change. It would be light enough to start moving at 6:00, so we wanted some time to have coffee and get ready. We left the dock with 5 other boats and headed off down the Tenn-Tom, passing three locks on the way to an anchorage at the roundhouse branch cutoff. This was another great anchorage, which was nice because it was pretty windy and was also forecast to be pretty windy overnight. As it was in a stream, there was supposed to be a slight current, which we were hoping would keep us in place, but when the wind died down at sunset, we discovered there was no current and we were spinning around on the anchor. Luckily we had anchored into the wind, as we had chosen a spot that aligned with the forecast winds for that night. We were a bit nervous when the boat swung almost into shore, so Louise asked me to check the depth. Using a boat hook, we found that the water was more than 10 feet deep at the stern, about 5 feet from the bank, so we were OK.
This place was a lot like the Wendover anchorage on the Ottawa river, the banks were very steep, and we saw lots of depth, even when we were close enough to shore to touch the trees.
It got dark pretty fast after the sun went down. Louise made tika masela for dinner and we ate together over on Jewel. Just after dinner, a mystery boat came in behind us and anchored in the channel. It had some strange lights on. In addition to running lights, there were two orange lights at the front and a kind of triangular shape on the bow. After getting their anchor set, the crew of the mystery boat went below and we did not see them after that.
This catamaran was headed south and anchored behind us in the pitch black.
Back on our boat, Louise baked a cake. The next day was Melanie's birthday, so the last time we were shopping Louise picked up a cake mix and some candles. She made the cake in the air fryer, then stored the pieces in the microwave to prevent them flying around if the boat rolled.
We were woken up at 4:00 by Eevee who was meowing for attention. I got up to feed her and made coffee, while Louise slept a bit more. Our plan was to leave at 6:00 when it got light enough to see, so around 5:40 I fired up all the electronics to get ready to go. Once the AIS was running, I scanned for any tows that were in the area, as we had one lock to go through today, and tows are the major time factor for that. Turned out there was one tow headed south, about half way between us and the lock. Rich and I discussed options, and then Rich called the lock to see what was happening. It turned out that once the tow arrived at the lock, it would take about an hour for him to lock down. Our anchorage was about an hour away from the lock, and we calculated that if we left at 6 as planned, we would arrive at the lock at the same time as the tow, and so would have to wait for an hour, in windy conditions, for the lock. So, we decided to stay at the anchorage for another hour. That way, we would arrive at the lock as the tow was leaving, and would not have to hover outside in windy conditions.
Once it got light we could see the mystery boat was a catamaran sailboat. We called them on VHF and discovered that they were leaving soon to go to the lock. We passed on our intel about the tow, and the sailboat decided to leave, as he would travel much slower than us, and so would need extra time to get to the lock.
Around 7 we fired up engines and got underway. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and most of the way we were running into it. There was lots of debris in the water, mostly floating weeds. Seemed like the windy conditions had broken up some swamp weeds. Some of them formed large weed rafts, and we had to keep our eyes open for junk in the river. We passed lots of deadheads as well, many of them in the middle of the channel. The river is shallow, and the tugs constantly stir them up. We arrived at the lock an hour later, and only had to wait about 10 minutes for entry. Luckily we had decided to wait, as the wind was pretty strong, and keeping station outside the narrow lock entrance was quite a chore.
Eevee snooping outside while we lock through.
We bought a cheapo cat bed at a discount store. Gives her a place to hide out during the day.
After we got through the lock, we then had to overtake the tow ahead of us. As we came up behind him, Rich hailed him on VHF and the tow told us to come ahead on whatever side we wanted. Since there was a curve coming up, Rich chose the inside track, as this usually gives the least amount of turbulence for the prop wash when passing tows going the opposite way. Overtaking was going to be slow, as we were going about 15 kmph, while the tow was moving at 7 kmph.
Overtaking a tow always involves some pucker factor. You cannot follow them directly behind because of the crap they stir up from the bottom, and so you have to run to the side near the shore. This is also sketchy, as it gets shallow the further you go from the centre channel. When we approached the tow, he stared going around a curve, so we started to pass on the inside of the curve. We quickly ran out of space between the barge and the shore. When we were about half-way past the tow, the barges were right there on the starboard side, while we had tree branches close on the port side. To make matters worse, the depth sounder was rapidly showing shallower water. At about 7 feet of depth I hit maximum pucker factor. If we grounded out we could be disabled, while passing a huge tow of barges that were just a few feet away. The tug wouldn't even feel it if we got smashed under.
Luckily the shallow part passed quickly, and we got back to deeper water was we passed the front barges, but this only reduced the pucker, as for the next 15 minutes or so, we were followed at an uncomfortable distance by this massive raft of barges that would not be able to stop in time if something happened to our engine or rudder.
Once we were clear, Rich called on the radio to say that that experience was "interesting". I replied that my heart rate had not slowed down yet. We agreed that if we ever have to overtake a tow again, that we would wait and do so on a straight section, and avoid passing on curves.
What had happened to us is that the charts showed good depth all the way around the curve. However, the way water flows, any silt in the water tends to build up on the inside of a curve, creating shallow spots. Generally deeper water is found on the outside of a curve. Turned out we had encountered such a sandbar in our adventure of passing the tow. The thing is, passing a tow on the outside of a curve is nasty because the wash from the tug gets directed outwards. On the larger rivers, there was always lots of space for both us and tows, but the Tenn-Tom is narrower and so we were forced over closer to shore than normal. Anyways, another learning experience enhanced with lots of adrenaline.
Around this time, Louise frosted the birthday cake for Melanie, and got everything set up. We had planned to go out for dinner with Rich and Melanie for her birthday, then come back to our boat for surprise birthday cake.
Baking cake on a boat! The air fryer is freakin awesome.
Side-benefit from baking on the boat, we got to lick the bowl.
The reservoirs created flooded areas. This "forest" was just at water level.
When we arrived at Columbus marina it was still pretty windy, but as we entered the harbour it turned out the wind actually helped us and we both nailed our docking. There were lots of loopers on the docks watching us which made this especially nice. Boo-yeah!
We had not done laundry for a while, so the girls immediately set out to commandeer the washing machines and do laundry, while I installed a new switch on our bow thruster. When we had the stern thruster issue a few week ago, I realized that we did not have a separate cut-off switch for the bow thruster. This thruster and the engine were on the same switch. If I even needed to isolate one, I could not do so without deactivating the other, so I bought a new cut-off switch for the bow thruster and installed it.
Mary from Legacy organized docktails on the dock directly behind our boat, so Louise decided to give Melanie her birthday cake at docktails. It was still windy, so the candles would not stay lit, but a nice surprise for Melanie. Melanie cut the cake and passed pieces around for everyone.
Birthday girl Melanie. Happy 60th!
Cutting the cake for her Birthday.
Loopers at docktails. The couple across from us are Canadian, Mike and Pam on Thyme Away. They are from Peterborough, and started their loop in August.
More loopers on the docks. Crews of Iris Mist, Cavalier, Legacy, Solstice and La Gypsie.
After it got dark, we took the curtesy car to go for dinner at a local steak house that was suggested by the marina staff. We enjoyed a nice birthday dinner, then went for a bit of a drive through the town as it was all lit up with Christmas lights.
Waking up that morning we got some news, hurricane Rafael had formed and was moving towards us. We were still fairly far north, but we were only booked for two nights at this marina. After an analysis of the various forecasts and some distance measurements, Rich and I decided we should stay as far north as possible. We did not think there would be any issue here with winds or rain given the predicted track, but wanted to err on the side of caution.
Time for plan B. Hurricane Rafael formed and was heading for Mobile, Alabama. Trouble for us, as we were also headed there in about 2 weeks. Yikes.
At 8:00 when the marina opened, Melanie and Louise went up to the marina office to see if we could extend our stay. Turned out we were not the only ones looking at the weather, as all the other loopers were also wanting to stay a couple of extra days. The marina manager told us he did not have space, as he was expecting lots of boats to arrive over the next couple of days, but he told us he would see what he could do.
After a bit of a delay we found out we were out of luck and would have to leave the following morning. As soon as word got out, four other looper boats fired up their engines and headed out. Melanie got on the phone to our next planned marina to see if we could extend our stay there. She was told that they would make the call when we got there. We all decided to head there and then see, as that marina was also well north of the predicted track, and we had lots of options to hide out.
With all that drama done we broke out the cleaning tools and cleaned the outside of the boat. Last time we scrubbed her was back in lake Michigan, so she was starting to look a bit like a floating-homeless boat. Louise and I spent the rest of the morning scrubbing down the decks and all the outside surfaces. Even using a pressure washer and power scrub brush, there were a few stains we could not get off. Some were fender marks which will require acetone to remove. These we will deal with after we finish locking, as we will just get some more at every lock we go through. A few other dirt spots will need some heavy duty cleaner, but we did not feel like doing it today, so will try to knock it out at our next marina stay.
Boat name of the day: S. S. Minnow
