Back in the tidal
zone
The fog gods as well as
the lock gods were good to us as we and Attitude Changer were able to leave at
the crack of dawn in only a light mist. After successfully locking through
Coffeeville Lock – our last lock on the rivers, we were glad to catch the smell
of salt (maybe imagined) and start watching the tide tables again after months
and months in fresh water. We hope that the spiders will now depart for good as
well. On this mostly uneventful but long
day we take time to reflect on the sights along these largely remote and wild
rivers. Here are some of the curiosities we found:
look very closely at this "basic" camp
Between rain showers,
Julia also took time to scrub the red rusty gunk off the fenders putting those
new boots to use once again.
Night found us swinging
in the Alabama Cut Off poised to reach Fairhope, AL in time for the ACC
Championship game Saturday.
Footnote: All those “quiet” nights on the hook have
been appreciated because of stormy nights like the one that blew through about
seven PM yesterday. Steven had just delivered Ross and Barb back to Attitude Changer after a few hours
relaxing with snacks on our boat when the expected storm rose up far more
ferociously than we had expected. Our
narrow channel did not allow us to swing freely, so Steve scrambled and dropped
a stern anchor to keep us off the trees and stumps along the bank. This was a
first for us so we had to unhook our second anchor from the pulpit and drag it
plus the rope to the stern – let out some on the bow anchor and then drop the
second off the back. (While this sounds simple, that anchor is about 60 pounds, plus chain, hanging off the front of the boat and removing it requires some strength and gymnastics. Oh, yes it was also raining and gusty! Steve did make it all look easy and we slept well.) All this had to be
reversed in the morning to retrieve the stern and then bow anchors and wash
them all off in a brisk 45 degree wind. Just another new experience as we head
for home!
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