Saturday, 17 June 2017
We got underway at 6 AM from good ol’ Clumbus Marina and ran 60 miles
of waterway through four locks to arrive at Midway Marina at 4:30 PM. We did try to race around and ahead of a tug
with eight barges to the last lock, but we could not get far enough ahead of
him to give the lock tender time to get us through and the lock returned to a
ready condition for the tow. So we had
to sulk around for about an hour to get through. It was a tough day heat-utowise because what
little breeze there was came from astern leaving us sweltering in still, muggy,
91F air. I did not run the generator to
get the air conditioning running because of a couple of reasons, one being I
wanted to see how the battery charging system worked out underway. The house bank did not get much charge from the
alternator whose power was run to the main engine starting battery and thence
to an automatic charging relay (ACR), and I think the reason was the high
demand made on it kept its voltage below the level where the ACR would close
and shoot it some charge. Tonight, after
a few hours of ventilation of the engine room, I braved the heat and changed
the alternator output directly to the house battery. We’ll see how this arrangement works out of
our way to Aqua harbor marina at the head of the Tombigbee Waterway where it
tees into the Tennessee River, about 54 miles and three locks away. Now we two live in the house of regret over
the Mexican dinner we scarfed down tonight at Mi Toro in Fulton, MS.
