Turtles on a log

It was a peaceful night’s sleep again even with the folks that decided to come to the park at 3:00 a.m. and blast some music for a short while.  It was too cool to want to get out of bed though.  Barely 50 degrees this morning.  The anchor was plenty muddy, so we didn’t get rolling out of Old Lock 1 until about six o’clock.  Speed was a little better than yesterday though, so we were to Coffeeville Lock before nine.  “Priorities” had gone ahead, but it didn’t do any good.  There was maintenance being done on the lock and they didn’t get to get though until we did.  The water below the dam was 15 feet higher than normal, so our lift was only about 18 feet in the lock instead of the usual 33.  We were out of there around 9:30 a.m.

Only two down bound tows to pass today.  It took about a half hour less than yesterday to go the same distance, but we also had the lockage.  “Priorities” was way ahead after exiting the lock, but they had never anchored here at Pearson’s Shoal before.  When “Bar-B” arrived, Bob got up in our usual spot despite the red buoys missing.  “Priorities” moved on up behind Bob, we anchored behind but closer to shore than “Priorities”, with “Conched Out Too” behind us.

Everyone stayed aboard their boats since we are just off the channel at anchor in a little current.  We had some fun babbling on the VHF back and forth, watched the sun set, blew the conch shells, and witness the first tow to go by us before we all ducked inside to avoid the bugs.  We’ll see how many more tows disturb us overnight.  Tomorrow will be another early start with Demopolis our planned destination.