Right before we retired last night, I spoke to another 2 boaters who were planning on leaving in the morning. This is good news to us, as we knew people were going but didn’t know the time, but now we do. We were to be ready at 7am, and monitor the radio as one of the captains was going to arrange with the lock at 6am. We listened and were told to be ready for a 7am lock through. We readied and tossed our lines around 645am. While we were pulling out of the marina, we could hear other boats on the radio calling the lock, informing him they would be joining as well. We ended up with eleven boats coming through the lock! Everyone made it through in an orderly fashion, and the lockmaster was out and chatting with us as the last few boats were tying up. Once out of the chamber, everyone separated again according to speed, and we brought up the rear.
You can see by the heading we anchored. We had procured a hand written photocopied list of anchorages at the marina, which listed about a dozen stops in the next 200+ miles, with only one place that has an actual dock but no power or water. The only way to describe the place to stop is by mile markers (MM). Old Lock #2 is the name left over from some time ago, there is no lock or any structure, just an area there used to be one. We left the marina at MM 216 and saw a stop at MM 168, which is the Old Lock #2. Tis is a good travel day for us, moving around 6.5-7 knots, we could do the forty eight miles in a little under seven hours. It is very important to us we don’t travel in bad weather and we get to our destination in the daylight.
The trip was uneventful, everything was running well and the steering was good. We came to our destination, and saw that the river became about thirty feet wider. There was a small boat ramp, and the description was to go past the ramp and anchor where the stone wall ends, using a stern anchor so you do not swing into land or the channel. There is no wake protection, as the boats, small and large tugs pass by you at any time, day or night. Ok- this seems strange, but we don’t really have other options other than to continue downstream and hope another is better. We also see other anchorages are listed as the same, or “just outside or reds’, which is referring to the red buoys used to mark the channel.
We approached the area very slowly, and as we passed by the boat ramp saw someone was just launching a small fishing boat. The area it widened, then came back to a point where it resumed the normal channel width. On the point was a young guy fishing. The stone wall ended and left about seventy feet to the point where he was fishing. I turned the boat upstream and motored very very slowly toward shore. We were watching the water depths as we moved closer, and it was staying around nine to ten feet, even ten feet off land. This was close enough for us, and we were out of the channel. We dropped the front anchor and backed down on it to make sure it was secure. Then I hopped in the dinghy, without Frank who didn’t understanding why I wasn’t taking him, to drop a stern anchor. I put the anchor in the dinghy and motored out as far as the line I had tied it to. I then drop it overboard and come back to the boat to haul in the line and get the anchor to bite. I also pull in some of the front line to give more purchase on the rear. Once all was set, we sat there and watched to make sure we weren’t moving. I asked the fisherman who was only twenty yards away if he’d seen anyone else anchor here? He replied he had not, but he “isn’t from here and there is nothing around here if that’s what your looking for”. I told him we were just looking for a place to stop, and he went back to fishing. He didn’t seem overly friendly. Maybe I disturbed the fishing.
Lauren, Frank and I went to shore to walk around, stretch our legs and let Frank do his business. I pulled the dinghy over to the boat ramp to let everyone off, which Lauren and Frank jumped off into very soft mud. I moved the dinghy a little farther away and got off by some rocks, so I wouldn’t go through the mud too. We walked around a small park the Army Corp of Engineers maintains, and found a cool, old abandoned school bus that someone had on their property next to the park. We took a few pics and went back to the boat. I got the dinghy and met Lauren and Frank in a not so muddy area and picked them up. We just got back to the boat when we saw the people who had launched their small boat returning. They weren’t out long- maybe an hour or so. We watched the couple bring the truck and trailer to the muddy ramp and attempt to pull it out. There is a boat saying: Sometimes there is a show, and sometimes you’re the show! They were definitely our show today; they finally got the boat on the trailer, but the truck had no traction to pull it up and out of the water with all of that deep mud. We could hear the tires spinning and he would inch up, then fall back. We watched this for about twenty minutes, then they eventually got it out. Good for them as I was getting worried for them. The night was quiet, with only a couple of barges coming by, one during daylight, which rocked us a bit, but they slow down and take care not to cause too much disturbance. Then one passed at night which woke us up for a moment, then all settled down and we fell right back to sleep.
Tomorrow we are planning on another forty five mile day, and the anchorage is in a small creek, which in October 2015 entrance was reported shoaled to four feet so it may not be usable. We have a back up anchorage just in case…