Day 137 & 138: Rainy Day in Pickensville, AL & Onto Cooks Bend Cutoff
Day 137: December 2: The overnight rain left its mark; everything is damp and slippery. The frosty air temps and warming water created a foggy sky. We are not planning on going anywhere today anyway knowing Zendeavor will soon arrive.
David and Sandra made their final push and caught up with us today at Pickensville. They had traveled all day in fog and rain, making their trip pretty miserable. Despite the weather, we all shared in a very happy reunion, sharing laughs and stories as well as dinner.
Day 138: December 3: Much nicer day today. No rain and no fog. Since our dinghy was still in the water I asked John to take a small bag of trash to shore; David had some also so he went with him. John came back to get our water jugs to fill as he and David realized there was an outside faucet at the recreation area campsite pavilion. I hopped in the dinghy to help carry the many bottles we like to keep filled up for drinking.
We got ready to go around 9:00 a.m.; letting Zendeavor and Summer Fling loose then pulling our anchor up. A 2 x 4 was hanging on the anchor; luckily I was able to knock it off with the boat hook so we had no trouble hoisting the anchor onto the boat. Summer Fling had waited to make sure we were all set so she brought up the rear of our flotilla of three.
We only had about 1 1/3 miles to get to the Tom Bevill Lock located near Aliceville, Alabama so we contacted the Lockmaster on our way out of the cutoff. He said he had a tow coming so it would be awhile before the chamber was ready. We slowly made our way and idled for a bit. John looked ahead on the chartplotter and located the tug "Big A" still a couple of miles out and traveling at 5 knots. This meant we had quite a wait so we pulled off to the side of the channel, dropped the hook and shut the engines off. As time passed several more boats came from behind joining the wait; in all there were 13 of us including several we have been running into along the way.
"Big A" finally locked through; the captain radioed to all of us to please clear a path for him as he exited the lock and he would get out of our way so we could continue our trip. I have to say we have had pleasant encounters with all the captains throughout the entire trip; this was just one example.
The flotilla made its way into the lock, passing by the U.S. snagboat Montgomery. She was the last steam-powered sternwheeler to work the inland waterways of the south, clearing snags and obstructions from the seven major rivers (Coosa, Alabama, Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint, Black Warrior and Tombigbee) for nearly six decades until her retirement in 1982. Built in 1926, she represents the culmination of steam engine technology. She is now on display at the Tom Bevill Visitor Center right outside the lock.
The Lockmaster alerted us that there were 5 bollards on each side; since there were 13 of us we knew we would have to raft so we planned on tying to Zendeavor. As we made our way to the chamber we noticed a house boat named Moondance moving in on our port. Normally everyone waits in line and proceeds slowly so we were perplexed watching Moondance edging in, actually cutting Summer Fling off. Luckily Summer Fling made it safely in and rafted with another boat on the starboard side of the chamber.
Having tied ourselves to Zendeavor, we thought we could relax while we were dropped. Suddenly David noticed the houseboat was not secure; in fact she was pulling away from the wall. We could tell those on board had missed the bollard. On first glance it looked like she was going to raft to Summer Fling. However, she turned to port, heading straight toward the boats rafted behind us. We thought we were about to witness a catastrophe. However, Moondance zigzagged past the boats and missed a chance to raft with them, she then began to turn sideways in the lock. Tied to the first bollard near the chamber doors, Zendeavor and we were this wayward vessel's last resort. The man driving the boat stood on the bow and pointed at us. We had no choice but to try to help him raft to us.
As he got closer we realized he was alone; trying to steer the boat and grab a bollard at the same time which is pretty challenging. To top it off, he was a "rookie" as he put it and showed no signs of urgency even while the boat was twisting around in the chamber. His lines were not ready to be tossed to us so when he did manage to tie them to a cleat he threw them to us over his railing; a disaster waiting to happen. We tried to instruct him as it was obvious he had no idea what he was doing. It took us a few tries before we were able to secure him to our boat and get him lined up well enough so our sterns were not being dragged out and David's bow pushed into the wall.
The man told us he had recently purchased the boat and was taking it to Kingfisher Marina in Demopolis, AL to live on, having recently retired. It was obvious he was not a seasoned boater so we couldn't imagine why he was attempting this journey solo.
Zendeavor was pretty close to the front gate so once the lock finished dropping, we told the man he had to back up so the gates could open. John directed him to put it in reverse and move slightly. As soon as Zendeavor was clear and would not obstruct the gates from opening we untied Moondance and told the man to move her out. We could not believe it; he revved the engines and sped out wildly, heading for the chamber wall. He straightened out, his stern twisted in; we felt sure he was going to crash but somehow he managed to escape without any damage. Meanwhile I'm sure all the other boaters were watching the show, happy it wasn't them.
We breathed a sigh of relief but the excitement was not over yet. Unfortunately we were now stuck behind a very inexperienced driver. Three other boats that traveled a bit faster then we do ended up passing us; I think they really wanted to get beyond the houseboat.
Despite holding our breath every time Moondance veered off toward the shore we did enjoy the scenery along the way on Gainsville Lake.
We traveled 27.4 NM in just under 4 hours on the Tenn-Tom before stopping for the night at Mile 277.9 at Cooks Bend Cutoff around Littles Island. John entered the oxbow first to get situated as the middle boat. We dropped the hook in about 12 feet and threw out the stern anchor as well. The anchorage offered great wind, wave and wake protection with just enough current to keep us oriented on anchor. Our buddies followed, rafting up one at a time.
Once settled in, the men prepared to go "juggin". This method of catching catfish involves tying a hook and line to plastic milk jugs and dropping them along the river, oxbow, or inlet. You check the jugs how ever often you want, hoping for a fish. Today luck was with us; we caught a couple of small catfish and will see if we are as lucky in the morning.
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