Friday - November 12, 2010

Lat 33 50 43, long 88 30 50; fuel 186 gal; eng 403.45 6 bottles of wine, a case of beer, a little scotch and half bottle of rum. This last part was the suggestion of Joseph, my son-in-law, but this will probably be the last time I record this item.

It was sunny this morning when I got up at 6. Got the boat ready to go and while we were having breakfast, another boat pulled out around 7:30 pm. I knew that he was heading for the lock just outside the the marina channel. I immediately contacted the lockmaster and asked if there was any holdups this morning. I knew a tow was close but I didn't know if it had gone through. The lockmaster told me, the lock was open and waiting for me to enter. We immediately pushed off and arrived at the lock in 15 minutes. Sure enough, the other boat was already in the lock. Missing the lock through would have meant a wait of around an hour. Our luck continues.

After we passed through the lock, the Tenn-Tom is becoming prettier and leaves are turning here so we still have colour. The air is cold in the morning (around 35-40 F- we are in the US you know) (For the younger Canadians in order to convert to C, subtract 32 from F and multiply by 5/9), but it warms up later in the morning and this afternoon got up to around 78.

There is a large Air Force base close to the Tenn-Tom and it was interesting to see the jets flying over. Lots of people fishing on the river and when we see them we immediately slow down so there is no wake to rock them. We heard at the rendezvous, that one person got a bullet hole in his boat as a result of a large wake. Better safe than sorry. We were also told that the fishermen sometimes phone ahead to the lock about a rude boat. The lockmaster who may be friends with or a relative of the fisherman, has held people up and refused entry for some time into the lock. This is a close community. When Brenda was driving the boat, she heard a conversation between the lockmaster and a boat, asking if he was such and such. The individual said yes and the lockmaster told him the marina which he had just left wanted to talk to him before he got into the lock. Common sense and courtesy always prevails.

We decided to go into Columbus, Miss which was only about 35 miles down the river. Brenda forgot her phone charger at home, so we went into town to buy a new charger. We also bought a few other things including some more wine and it was a lot cheaper than that purchased yesterday.

After we got back, I set up the hammock upstairs and slept for an hour - great. Brenda went for a walk in a local state park.

Well guess who just pulled into the marina - the guy who almost swamped and several other boats on the Tennessee as we were traveling the Chattanooga. He has about a 70 foot go-fast boat and he was going fast and throwing up a lot of wake. A friend of ours calls these people who have no consideration for other boaters or who only think of themselves, IA's (Inconsiderate As.....)