We woke up early to more ice covered boats. Lauren boiled some water while I walked Frank, so we could pour over our lines to get them loose from the dock! We listened to the VHF radio while the lock was contacted. We were told to be ready around 8am, and we started the engine, which needed a couple of attempts due to the cold. I would be driving from inside today!
We got through the first lock: Glover Wilkins Lock & Dam. There were a couple of boats that had joined us from other marinas or anchorages, and about five boats locked through. Five miles downstream was the Amory Lock and Dam which we proceeded through with no issues. The next lock after this one is about forty miles, with lots of anchorages as a back up if we didn’t make it through the locks as quickly as we did. Since we made it through rather efficiently, we decided to go as far as we could today. I alternated driving from inside downstairs and the flybridge later in the afternoon when the sun came out for a bit.
The Columbus Marina is listed in our guide books as a great place to stop. They have a courtesy car and the staff is very hospitable and welcoming. We were getting close and contacted them on the VHF and they directed us in. We stopped at the fuel dock to top off our tanks as we know it is the a last good fill up stop for a while according to our guide books. Once done with the fuel, we went to the dock. A dock hand was there to assist, and we got secured to the dock. Once settled, I plugged in the power cord and…no power. huh? I checked the breaker and noticed there was no resistance. The only other way fro me to plug in is to either move to a new slip, or turn the boat around so our cord has more length to run to another power pedestal. We opted to turn the boat by hand, whch had us pushing it out of the slip and pulling on the forward lines to turn it, then pulling it in by hand backwards. This worked and we could now reach another pedestal. We plugged in and… power! Yay! Once this was done, I had to fill our water tanks as we were empty now after this morning; While I was doing this I saw our friends Sonja and Duane on Trinity pulling into the marina. They travel faster than us, and they made some distance in the last few days- we haven’t seen them since Florence, when we left and they were arriving.
Now that we were settled in, Lauren did some laundry and I took Frank for a walk. Our friends invited us for a beer on their boat, which we accepted. Sonja made some jalapeno poppers in the oven and we all sat around and chatted a bit. We made plans for tomorrows departure and where we would anchor. Eventually Lauren and I called it a night and retired to the boat. We had the heater running so we were able to sleep comfortably, even though we still are in multiple layers of long underwear, clothes and sweatshirts!