We left Wednesday morning at 0 dark thirty! We were in the lock at the hint of daylight. We had a beautiful day of flat water and no wind. We have a bike trainer, which we mount our bikes in and we both got in a good workout while underway. Not bad riding a bike on the back deck with tunes playing and watching the river go by! We got to our anchorage at mile marker 270 and found a dredge working in the mouth of the bay. The dredge operator called me on the radio and apologized for being in the way and quickly backed his rig out. We entered the bay and he went back to work for about an hour. The Army Corp of Engineers, both at the locks and on the river, could not be nicer. They have held locks open and given us accurate wait times, which have been minimal. At one lock, we got there and a barge was going south and one north. I talked to the Lockmaster and pretty soon he called back and said the up bound barge had called and said he would wait so we could go through. If you are going to do the river, get AIS A and B. Because this identifies your boat name, course speed, etc., they all know you are coming. We have had many locks and many barges call us by name to advise when to get to the lock or what side to pass a barge on or even just say good morning! Back to our anchorage, a beautiful spot, which I will share pictures again when I can use the net to download pictures to the computer. We tried taking Cody for a long walk, but a pack of coyotes started howling, so we cut the walk short and back to the boat!
Thursday had a leisurely start at 7:15, called the lock about 4 miles down river. He responded to me by name ( Putz'n Around) and he advised to just Putz on down and he would have the lock ready for us. When we got there, the lock was full and the gates where open. We had a beautiful cruise down river and got to the Demopolis Yacht Basin at 3;15 and fueled up at $3.59 per gallon! This 5 day leg we averaged 2.87 miles per gallon. This marina is a sleeper. When you see slips form the gas dock they lock like a S@#$ hole, but that's not where you stay. After we pulled around a break wall, we found a fabulous marina! Pump outs at your slip, laundry and showers an the end of the dock and golf carts to get around the large property. They even have a beautiful pool and a community vegetable garden. We had dinner at the marina with 3 guys slipped next to us. The guys are our age and are doing a bucket list thing. Great catfish and Jambalaya! We will be off tomorrow for a 2 day run to Bobby's Fish Camp! I wonder what that marina will be like??? Today is laundry, grocery shopping and chillin' with loopers!
