Thursday, November 17, 2011

Day 20 on the river (11/16/2011)

We got out of the Columbus marina late 8 or 8:30. There was some heavy rain that passed through. Then off we went. There ended up being some heavy weather both north and south of us today. We did have some rain off and on but not too bad at all.

We got through 2 locks today.  All of the locks during the past week have been easy, which has been a nice change from some on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.  It did stay warm all day despite predictions for cooler weather. We had a couple of spots picked to anchor for the night. We ended up going up part of the old river channel. In some places where the river would loop out and back with tight corners they just dug a short cut. The  old river turns off and in this one about a mile down it comes back in. Most of the time when we turn off, the channel sandbars are there and the water is not as deep. When we did bottom out there, it's in these conditions. But this place was not that way.

As soon as we got off the channel and going slow, it did not get shallow. We went from about 14' to 40'. Deep water is more of a problem in some ways to anchor. We need 11 Xs the depth of anchor rope and swing room for that much rope. We have 220' of rope and chain, so with all of it out we need no more than 20' of water and a 440' circle around the anchor to swing.  We can drop the 2nd anchor in back but we only have 60' on that. We did find a spot about 23' deep, not ideal, but will work.

Dave cooked up some brats on the grill for dinner.   Day 20 is done and we can see the end in site to Mobile.  We have about 287 miles and 3 locks to get to the Dog River Marina in Mobile. It is 22 miles from there till we hit the Gulf of Mexico, but will have fews days of work at the marina before we head out across the gulf to Belize.

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