A brief synopsis of our travels so far…nothing glamorous but traveling just the same.
Buddy Boat Lucky Enuff heading south 12/27/21
Monday 12/27/20211
We departed Safe Harbor Aqua Yacht, Iuka MS at 7:10am under very heavy cloud cover, on & off sprinkles of rain. Another boat, Lucky Enuff was with us and even with the gloomy weather we were all excited to begin the migration to salt water. What we didn’t expect was the busy tow traffic but the experience was good for us. So, seven active tows, three Corp of Engineer Locks and almost eight hours later we were docked at Midway Marina in Fulton MS. After the long day, we briefly visited with a crew on a house boat (Sugaree) to let them know our departure time and direction. They agreed to join us in the morning.
We ate dinner on board and even though Midway was once our “home marina” I didn’t venture off the dock. It was almost dark by the time we were settled and morning was on the way.
Following houseboat Sugaree...south bound
We departed Midway Marina at 7:00am with Lucky Enuff, houseboat Sugaree and a single tow boat (not pushing anything) Anita House was in the channel heading toward the lock as well. At least the tow was single and we were able to lock down with him, of course I felt his eye roll and internal groan at the very idea he was stuck with us “pleasure boats”. Kindness rules!
Again the tow traffic was heavy and we were delayed a little bit along the way…and the cloud cover remained very heavy but temps were warm…scary weather for Mississippi in late December. But we were determined to make it to Columbus MS to wait out the forecast “severe weather”. Nine hours and four locks later we pulled into the very familiar, super friendly Columbus Marina!! Of course, the single tow Anita House continued on toward Mobile AL (or wherever he was going).
Spending most of the day monitoring the weather forecast, we decided staying in Columbus for two nights was smart.
Docked in Columbus MS Wednesday afternoon
Wednesday 12/29/2021
Non-travel day – land chores and fun!
I’m calling Wednesday a “dirt day” and that’s a good thing!! This day provided time to work out a few kinks on the boat, do a little laundry and most importantly see dear friends! Oh and the severe weather? It pushed through around 7:00pm so we had partly sunny skies, lots of wind and a day on land.
 |
| A great meal with Fabulous Friends |
 |
| Docked in Columbus Thursday morning |
Thursday 12/30/2021
With heavy rain overnight and no wind we were met at daylight with thick fog! So while our intentions were to leave at 7:00am common sense held us at the dock until 8:07am. Right “around the corner” from the marina is the Stennis Lock and Corey the Lockmaster was super kind (as always). He cautioned us that the fog was much thicker south of the lock. But agreed to lock us down and because there was no approaching traffic we waited a few minutes after the doors opened to depart. We picked up two more boats in Columbus…Somewhere and Copacetic. and the houseboat Sugaree opted for long term dockage and they headed home to Florida by car. So, four pleasure craft were cruising south. Minimum barge traffic and two locks later we dropped the anchor at Windham Landing at 1:05pm. Once everyone was set and secure…the sun popped out in full bloom!! First time since we left home we saw the sunshine! Yippee!!!
Charlie's Uber Dinghy Service Windham Landing
Lucky Enuff (left) & The Lower Place rafted at sunset Windham Landing
 |
| Lucky Enuff making their way past The Cliffs of Epps AL |
Friday 12/31/2021
Wow…bye, bye 2021!! We woke to fog as expected so our planned 7:00am departure was pushed to 8:53am. That was a good thing because the anchor lines worked great at collecting debris!! We spent some time clearing the collected debris and notifying Somewhere that it was coming toward them. All four boats held secure all night…our favorite anchorage!!
We only had one lock today Howell Heflin. While we were still several miles away Charlie called the lockmaster to ask about commercial traffic. There was a north bound tow locking throughat that time, we slowed our speed. We saw the tow clearing the lock just as we rounded the bend. The green light was on and all four boats just glided in and tied up. Other than playing “dodge the log” all day the river was quiet and we had a great travel day. Arrived at Kingfisher Marina in Demopolis AL at 3:15pm, topped off with fuel then made our way to slip C12. In true Lower Place fashion, we brought in the New Year perfectly sound asleep!!!
Happy New Year!!!
Stay Healthy and God Bless
No comments:
Post a Comment