Jones Creek

Last night we talked about leaving early enough so that Coast Guard boat would not mess up our timing at Gunterville Lock.  We pulled out of Ditto Landing shortly before 7:00 a.m. to find them already gone.  A while later we heard them call Guntersville Lock on the VHF radio.  The lock master had a commercial tow in the lock, that we heard had greenhorn deck hands on board, so the Coast Guard would have to wait until they were through, about an hour and a half.  Perfect timing.  That's just about when we would get there.  At 9:50 a.m. we were tied in Guntersville Lock with the Coast Guard buoy tender "Ouachita" out of Chattanooga.  They had some trouble with the wind in the lock.  They were supposed to tie port side and the lock master instructed us to tie all the way forward starboard side because we would go out first.  Starboard side was our planned tie up anyway because of the wind.  After holding back while "Ouachita" was trying to tie off, they finally opted for starboard side also.  We got permission to tie starboard side behind them as we told them we would have the same wind problems, but we would still have to exit first by going around them.  All went well, and they left us in their wake shortly after exiting.  We saw them a couple more times during the day tending to buoys, but we never did catch up to them again as they rounded the curve beyond Jones Creek where we have anchored for the night. 

Ditto Landing

It was another peaceful anchorage overnight.  Last evening we kind of wondered when the wind picked up for a little while, of course in the direction straight into the anchorage.  Just enough to keep the bugs away and the temperature down though.  We lifted anchor out of there just before 6:30 this morning.  A virtually uneventful day.  No locks.  Just the fairly open water of Wheeler Lake with a southeast wind making it a little choppy in places.  Talking to the Decatur, Alabama bridge tender and watching the turtles were about all of today's traveling activities.  Speaking of Alabama though, I think I forgot to mention that we arrived back in Alabama about a half hour into our trip yesterday, leaving Mississippi behind until the fall again.
Fifty seven miles and just over nine hours later, we were pulled in to dock at Ditto Landing where Linda promised Ray a lasagne dinner since we would be plugged into shore power for the first time since Sunday morning.  Once the boat was cleaned up and dinner was in the oven, we took a walk around the campground here, trying to stay in the shade.  Amazing how much different the wind is when you are on the water.  We got back to the boat just in time to take dinner out and let it rest.  Right about that time we saw a tow out in the river coming close to shore, then it backed up and things were said over the intercom.  Linda's curiosity finally got the better of Ray and convinced him to walk over to the bike path to check it out.  Come to find out it was a U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender boat anchoring/tying to shore for the night presumably.  We waved to them, checked out their apparatuses, and headed back to the boat for that dinner Ray was waiting for.

Decatur

This is kind of a practice for Patty.  They were definitely making cat food today and the wind was blowing the smell our direction.  I went down below to see if Spike was smelling it.  He had his head poking out before I even got down there.

Second Creek

After getting the dinghy back on board and the anchor off the peninsula, we backed on off the "beach" to head east around 7:30 a.m.  A wide open Tennessee River was pretty much all there was to see except for a few tows pushing more barges than they do on the Tombigbee, but it sure is beautiful scenery no matter how many times you do it.  At 2:45 we were in Wilson Lock for a 93 foot lift.  Originally we planned to stop at Six Mile Creek, but again we felt it was early enough and it wasn't one of our more favorable anchorages in the fall.  It just worked then to brace for the storm.  Continuing on, we had a slight delay at Wheeler Lock because an up bound tow was just pushing out as we arrived, but we were in and going up by 5:30.  Just beyond the lock after our 48 foot lift, "The Second Noelle" anchored in Second Creek after a 57 mile day of travel.  Our anchorage greeters consisted of a beaver and a couple turtles.

Waterfall

Monday night was a nice quiet anchorage in Fulton, Mississippi once it got dark and the local skiers went home.  We departed there Tuesday morning at seven o'clock along with "Byrd Ketcher" and "Vela Narcosis" so that we would not mess each other up in the locks leaving at different times.  An hour later we were in Rankin Lock for a 30 foot lift.  We had a short delay at Montgomery Lock for another 30 foot lift, then had to wait about 20 minutes in Whitten Lock for "Mystique" to catch us for an 84 foot lift.  Once we were out of there we bumped up our RPMs a little bit, wanting to get to our favorite anchorage, and getting almost nine miles per hour at times.  We even overtook a tow for the first time since having the new engines.  I think that was our fastest speed since then too.  We also left "Byrd Ketcher" and "Vela Narcosis" behind a little bit.  We always say not to tell anyone about our favorite anchorage, but we invited them to join us since they invited us to anchor with them the night before.
Once they arrived Ray dinghied to them rafted together and took a long line to shore to secure them from swinging in the small anchorage.  Shortly thereafter Kurt and Sharon from "Byrd Ketcher" swam to shore with their little dog Bart on a throw cushion.  Bart and Sharon were shivering from the cold water and Wanda from "Vela Narcosis" said it was too cold to swim over after only getting one ladder rung into the water.  So Linda dinghied over to pick her up.  Her husband Dennis stayed aboard to have a couple of drinks, maybe to get the courage, before swimming over.  When he did, he dove in with a plastic baggie in his hand that none of us could figure out the contents of.  He arrived with wine in a tonic water bottle and a plastic cup, so proud that it didn't even get wet.
We had fun telling stories, some on shore, then we moved onto their boats once the air cooled and the bugs started coming out, making a few trips with all of us by dinghy.  No one was brave enough to swim back.
This morning Ray got their line off shore for them and said good-byes for us as they are heading downstream on the Tennessee River, and we're heading up.  Yes, we made it to the Tennessee River at 4:20 yesterday afternoon. 

Fulton

What a fulfilling day on the water.  We called Stennis Lock before lifting anchor at 5:45 this morning to make sure there was not any commercial traffic to hinder our timing.  That didn't seem to do us much good, as we didn't get into the lock until seven o'clock for no apparent reason.  Four hours later we got into Aberdeen Lock just in time to catch "Byrd Ketcher" and "Vela Narcosis", a couple of sailboats that were at Demopolis when we were and we locked through with them a couple days ago.  Two and a half hours after that the three of us got a 30 foot lift from Amory Lock, then an hour later another 25 foot lift from Wilkins Lock.  We originally planned to anchor just north of there near Smithville, but since it was so early we decided to move on.  So just before 5:00 p.m. we were in our fifth lock of the day, Fulton, still with the other two sailboats.  Not too long after that we anchored behind them near Fulton, Mississippi, just off the Tenn-Tom in a place we have never dared anchor before.  It is pretty open and exposed, but the winds are supposed to be pretty light again tonight.
A lot of our entertainment comes from nature, and today was no exception.  Before we even pulled out of the river where we anchored we saw either a beaver or otter swimming.  Next we saw a raccoon at the first lock.  We're not exactly sure how he got over on the dam side, and he looked like he didn't either, even finding himself balanced on top of a door.After that it was an alligator.  We wonder how far north they do get.  Baby loons were so cute.  Even smaller than ducklings.  Fortunately and unfortunately we saw a dead decaying dog floating down the river.  Fortunately it was not a human body like it looked like at times.  A snake,bald eagle and some goslings were just a few more of the things we got to witness in what turned out to be almost a 12 hour travel day.

Columbus

We thought we were in no rush today so we didn't roll ourselves out of bed in time to depart Sumter Recreation Area until about 7:45 this morning.  The plan was to make it to Pickensville Recreation Area.  We got through Bevill Lock with perfect timing as we heard a tow in it headed north earlier, then a pleasure craft headed south.  So the doors were open for us with giving him a 15 minute warning.  A few miles after the lock was our intended destination for the day, but it was covered up in holiday weekend warrior boaters, and it was early so we decided to push on.  Besides, "The Bar-B" did not leave Demopolis today, so they will never catch up to us anyway.
Starting at about 2:15 p.m. we were skirting back and forth over the Alabama and Mississippi border for about a half hour until we stayed in Mississippi where we will do so until just after we turn onto the Tennessee River.
Shortly after five o'clock we turned off the Tombigbee River into a cutoff river near Columbus.  We have anchored in this river a few years ago, but have never been on the north side of the bridges closer to town.  It took almost 45 minutes of slow going, but decided to anchor about a half mile northwest of the Highway 45 & 82 bridge.
We were settled in for a little while when Ray decided we had a beer emergency after restocking the cooler.  He said "I don't know what I was thinking when I estimated enough beer for the rest of the trip.". Maybe he was going by how much we drank out of it lately with all of the landfall we have made to drink in those establishments.  Now that we will be at anchor until we arrive in Chattanooga it is a little different.  So we decided to hop in the dinghy and go back a half of a mile to that bridge, then walk about a quarter of a mile to the Chevron convenience store.  We are getting wiser though, we called ahead to make sure they sold Corona Light.  Not wise enough to remember the trash though in our big hurry to get this done before dark.  That ended up being no problem at all.  The only problem was that the store only had regular Corona in a 12 pack, and only two of those.  I guess it all worked out for the best though since they fit perfectly in the little cart we brought along.  We didn't find a need to take Matt up on his offer if we needed anything.  He was another weekend warrior boater that came by and talked to us.