Sumpter Recreation Area Anchorage, Alabama

Day 188 … Wed, Oct 25, 2017 … 28.44 miles, 1 lock & 3:40 hours
Pickensville Anchorage, AL to Sumpter Recreation Area Anchorage, AL
After coffee, breakfast for us and a trip to shore for Cally, it was time to call the lock master. He recommended getting there sooner rather than later as he knew 2 tows were headed his way. We needed either go NOW, or potentially wait a couple hours for those 2 to lock down and then us. So? Off the 3 boats, Longer Days (a young couple with 2 small kids) & fellow Loopers on Soulstice, went.

I CANNOT image cruising, much less locking, with little ones onboard. They even had baked cinnamon rolls this morning and offered one (some?) to the lockmaster. Boy, was he happy.

No problem, the lock was ready (green light & open doors) for us. That is the nice thing about anchoring by the lock you will transit the next morning … timing is much easier.
Sights along the way …

Looks nice out, right? Well, it was a great day to travel. Sun was out, no clouds, calm water and COOL. We woke to 40 degrees out; Rip turned on the diesel heat to take the chill out of the boat.

Soulstice came into the same anchorage as us tonight. Longer Days kept going. After shore dooty & showers, it was time for docktails on Soulstice, a Canadian flagged PDQ Catamaran. Don & Lesli are a fun couple. Rip & Don knew alot of the same sailing guys from Annapolis; Don spent many a night at Rip’s Dad’s bar, Marmadukes, in Annapolis when racing in Annapolis. Lesli is very talented. Among other things she whittles  (while they travel down the river) small pieces of wood into figures. I wish I had taken a picture. And, the cheese puffs she baked were amazing!

We are right off the river … see the red & green buoys marking the entrance where the Tug & Barge are passing!!!

Tonight’s anchorage is a small bay with a park and boat ramp. Trash cans, too!

Tomorrow is the last lock of the Tenn-Tom. Then, we will be on the Black Warrior/Tombigbee River to Mobile. 2 more locks on that river, then we will be back in tidal water. We have not been in tidal water since we left the Hudson at the Erie Canal back in early June.

Pickensville Anchorage

Day 187 … Tues, Oct 24, 2017 … 28.4 miles; 3:40 hours; 1 Lock

It was great fun seeing Firestorm, Gypsies Palace, One Eye Dog, Shell Belle, Thisle and Unruly again last night. They, plus a couple Loopers new to us, came into the marina yesterday mid afternoon. Most are leaving this morning; but a good chance to catch up with everyone. All the dogs got a chance to play together too, it’s been a while.

Once underway, GP, OED & Firestorm will travel faster and further than us … we will lose touch with them again until we get to Orange Beach, AL. 7 more days and we should be there … weather dependent of course.

One group of boat left the marina for the first lock early, about 7 am. Our group of OED, GP & Firestorm entered the lock about 8:30am.

Once out of the lock, OED, GP & Firestorm headed off into the sun.

Our anchorage tonight is only 2 miles above the next lock. Our 3 buddy boats went on through that lock and anchored south of us. Soulstice, a PDQ power catamaran that had anchored (below our first lock) in an oxbow that winds along downtown Columbus (this route is not used by tugs), caught up to us not far out of the first lock this morning and followed our slow cruise to the anchorage.

There are actually 5 or 6 docks that access the park. Lots of space for Cally to walk and play. There is a beach at one end, but too chilly for us to let her swim … we’d have to wait outside with her for hours to dry enough to come inside.

On our way back from the first shore dooty run, we stopped by to chat with Don & Lesli. We also coordinated heading out to the lock together in the am.

The more boats, the faster you get locked through. Lock masters like to have as many pleasure boats as possible go through at the same time. They will wait for boats that are a couple miles out so they don’t have to raise and lower the water twice. We should be the only two in the area tomorrow morning. So, if no commercial traffic, we will be good to go. If commercial tows are up or down bound and near … we will be held to wait for them to pass through first.

 Rip picked another great anchorage for us … wonder what tomorrow’s anchorage will be like??

On to Columbus Marina (Columbus, MS) for a week to relax

Day 180 … Tues, Oct 17, 2017 … 24 miles; 3:20 hours

Blue Bluff Anchorage to Columbus Marina

It’s been 180 days or 6 months on the boat full time. WOW, not sure where the time has gone. Doesn’t seem like that long.

Today is a relatively short day, only 1 lock and it is right by the anchorage. the 3 boats plan to pull anchor around 8:30 if the lock is ready for us. One quick call and the lock says come on over. HOWEVER, we get there and wait & wait & wait. The doors are open, but the RED light is lit. Lock doesn’t answer calls to them on VHF. Finally they call us in. I guess it wasn’t a long wait, maybe 15 mins, but when the doors are open and no one answers … it seems like forever.

Sights along the way today …

Days 181-186 … Wed-Mon, Oct 18-23, 2017

A Week at Columbus Marina / 00 miles

Traveling every day and anchoring out is fun, but tiring and leaves no time for chores. It’s travel, anchor & get the boat set, get Cally to shore, dinner, get Cally to shore again, sleep. SO … we are staying a week to get chores done without rushing and going to enjoy a little down time in-between chores.

My phone was not keeping a signal (cell or data) when Rip’s phone was (both Android, Samsung; but, Rip’s is newer model). One of the first priorities was to get a new phone for me and have time to get it set up and running correctly before we moved on the water again. This time, I stepped to the dark side and got an iPhone!!! I love my iPad; time for an iPhone.

Otherwise, we will do the normal marina stuff again – laundry, groceries, Rip cleaning and fine tuning our route (with plan A, B & C, etc.) for our next travel segment.

3 More Locks to Blue Bluff, a Great Anchorage

Day 179 … Mon, Oct 16, 2017 … 37.3 miles; 6:30 hours

Midway Marina to Blue Bluff Anchorage

Sometimes boats coordinate leaving, especially when the 1st lock, Fulton, is less than 3 miles away. One group left at the crack of dawn. We were basically ready when the next group started leaving; I was walking Cally. She was quick to do her morning business so I could get back to the boat. We were off fast and in line with the other boats. The lock was open and ready, but we waited for more boats to join us. Ended up with 8 boats,making for a full lock.

Interesting, this  was a first … a guy stood on top of the dam doors after they closed behind us. He gave hand signals to the lock operator for a couple minutes, then gave the thumbs up. Glad for the that signal.

All 3 locks were open and ready for us today! WOW, that has never happened and made the days travel so much easier and not so long of a day. However, waiting for boats to catch up so we can all lock together each time did take a lot time.

By the 2nd lock, Wilkens, another boat joined our parade making for 9 boats. One sail boat rafted to a trawler (Darak) as no one wanted to go to the forward pin on either side. Lockmaster couldn't tell us the distance between the pin and the gate opening position … it looked too short for any of us. Lockmaster tried to get a delivery captain on a Selene to move up, but he refused saying there wasn’t room. he was probably right.

By the 3rd lock, Amory, we were the last power boat (only ahead of the 2 sailboats who are slower than us) and 1 of the pins wasn’t in operating condition, so we were invited to raft to Keokuk. The smaller sailboat went forward (and fit). again, a full lock!!

We tried the Canal Cutoff Anchorage first. No luck there, the water was too high. All the beaches for Cally to go to shore were under water … so we moved on to the anchorage the sailboats were going to use tonight. The other, faster, 6 boats kept moving and went thru at least one more lock, if not two.

As it turns out, really happy the first anchorage didn’t work out. Blue Bluff was fabulous. The sailboats took the two spots on the FREE town dock (they offered one to us) and we anchored right behind them. A small sandy landing beach by the dock for the dinghy and Cally to get to shore where we had an expansive grassy park for her to play off leash AND a trash can!! I like anchorages with trash cans.

There were reports of the entrance to this anchorage being too shallow and boats grounded trying to get to it. Frist, Rip believed with the last anchorage beaches being under water, we would have enough water here to get over the “hump” at the entrance AND … the sailboats went first!! All was good with a minimum of over 6’ depth. We need 4’ of water.