Later on Friday – UP THE CREEK
Well now we are
LANDLOCKED – we have passed through the first lock at Coffeeville Dam 116 river
miles north of Mobile. We no longer have
unfettered access to the sea, oh my! We
got to the lock at 1 PM and the lock master kindly let us through, even though
he had to lower the water he had been saving in the lock to handle a southbound
barge tow. He figured he had enough time
to spare, and it worked well. We were
free of it by 1345. Whew, one down and
about 19-20 to go.
We arrived here
at Bashi Creek (no cell/hot spot coverage) at 1715 after our 0540 departure
from Three Rivers and were a bit disconcerted to see two larger yachts tied
side by side just inside the entrance, but we talked to them and just eased by them
to move a few hundred feet up into this very narrow creek where we dropped a
bow and stern anchor to hold us in place.
There is enough room for a bass boat to idle past us, barely. We saw a few tows today, very little debris
this side of the lock and maybe a quarter mph of head current.
Tomorrow, we
intend to leave here at MM 145 and proceed to Demopolis at MM 216.to stay in
the marina there for two nights. That
71-mile jaunt includes transiting the Demopolis Lock a couple of miles before
the marina. The main reason we will be
there two nights because we have some items the new owners wish us to place on
the boat one of which is a replacement microwave oven. Mary will be so happy to be able to heat her
coffee water in less than the thirteen minutes it now requires in this dying
nuker.
Speaking of river
miles, the Tombigbee Waterway has a traverse which twists and turns like a
snake with a broken back. So I got on
the computer and measured a straight line from the top of the Tombigbee WW
where it joins the Tennessee River down to Mobile where it starts and got 300
miles. Well, guess what friends, the actual
number of RIVER miles one travels on this wonder from bottom to top is 450! Photo is from my laptop computer's Coastal Explorer navigation software.
