Day 13 of "the Loop", 10/21/2022

It's been an eventful week, a lot going on....

Day 10-Sunday (10/16), due to some prop problems, we made an unplanned stop at Aqua Marina. Aqua Marina agreed to pull the boat out and replace the props. The goal was to complete the repairs on Monday (10/17), no later than Tuesday (10/18).

Aqua marina has the nicest people! We had a nice dinner, washed laundry which took us no time at all (cost for laundry was $1.00 per machine / load, other marinas have been $2+ dollars per machine / load). Aqua Marina offers two courtesy cars provided for AGLCA members to make grocery runs and other misc. type errands, if needed. We were able to use the car for groceries and eat dinner out (local Mexican place). During the off season, the marina grille is only open Friday-Sunday's. At this stop, we were able to do some walking (6k steps both days).

A cold front came through, causing the temps to drop significantly, lows in the 30's, just above freezing. The high on this day was in the 50's. Jonathan was home (in Missouri) for his fall break, we had him wrap the sprinkler system pipes to prevent freezing (our sprinkler guy will winterize the system on the 21st, thank you all that offered to assist with this).

Day 11 & 12 -Monday & Tuesday (October 17 & October 18)-

Shout out: to my sister, Jane New, she celebrated a birthday on the 18th!

Due to high winds, the marina couldn't fix our boat until after 1pm. We decided to stay and extra night. Props were replaced with the spare parts we had on board. The marina will work to have the damaged props repaired and send them to us at a later date (which will allow us to have spare parts should this happen again).

We met a new boat couple (Boat name: 4th Dimension). They are gold loopers, which means they have completed the loop 1 time. When they complete their 2nd loop, they will be platinum loopers.

Wednesday thru Friday (October 19 - October 21)- After 2 days at Aqua marina, we left at 7am (on Wednesday) to get a head start to our day and gain some lost time. Note: 50 miles by boat is equivalent to 5 hours (making for a long day). Traveling slow allows fuel savings.

An early departure means getting up early to ensure everything is put away, check the winds and routes, etc. In many cases boats will travel in packs with one boat taking the lead. Wednesday thru Friday, we started our journey every morning at 7am, CT.

We traveled through 10 Locks over the past 3 days. I won't bore you with all the details, will only share the highlights:

Whitten Lock: By far the worst lock for us due to high winds and not understanding the full scope of passing through locks. Boats in the Witten lock drop 84 feet.

*** See Facebook (Tracy Carr Boisselle) to see a video of the Whitten Lock experience****

We made it through Whitten Lock, it wasn't pretty; however, we did it! There was a lot of yelling (even with the marriage savers, aka headsets). The lock master made a personal trip to say hi (at the top of the lock wall where we tied the lines off to a bollard, see picture of a Bollard below). Not sure if this is normal or if he just wanted to stop by to see the person (me) that didn't have a clue what they (I) were doing! He said "he had seen worse and that I had done a good job". Joel and I got better with each time. We also discovered pulling in on the starboard (right) side, was the best outcome for us. Note: Sometimes you don't get a choice on which side you are allowed to tie off on. This depends on other boaters, lock master guidance / suggestions, etc.

Basically, locks are available for all water crafts (commercial and pleasure boats) to pass dams. The captain of a boat (or lead boat of a pack) will contact the Lock master before entering a lock. Once the Lock master has made contact with the Captain, they will advise next steps. Note: there is a green / red light at the front of each lock. Red indicates "no entry" and a green light indicates "okay to pull into the lock". Once permission is granted, a boat will pull into the "lock" and tie a line to a bollard (aka timbers and pins). These bollards float up or down with the water level. Because we were traveling south, the water level was lowered (for boaters traveling north, the water level rises).

In the picture below, boats are lined up and secured to lock wall.

In the picture above we "rafted". Raft means, tying to another boat. There were not enough Bollards for all the boats entering the lock. In this picture, we are the last boat on the right side (tied to Kayak who is tied to the wall),

< This is a control tower for one of the locks. It's my understanding that locks work around the clock, meaning they have someone in the tower at all times.

When Joel pulls into a lock, he does his best to get the boat as close to the wall as possible. While pulling into the lock, I put 4 bumpers (aka fenders) on the side of the boat to prevent the boat from getting scratched. In addition, I prepare the lines to toss around the Bollard (aka timber). Once Joel gives me the "go signal," I tie our line to the bollard (to secure the boat while gates are closing) and hold it until the gates re-open. Note: with the exception of the Whitten lock (water level dropped 84 feet), the other 9 locks dropped (lowered) the water level 27 - 35 feet.

You can see here the top of the lock and how low the water got.

Random pictures of "locking" through. Due to a number of reasons, boats may need to wait to enter a lock: other boats, barge (aka tows) traffic, perhaps maintenance on the lock.

See green light to the right side of the picture

And if the locks weren't challenging enough, Joel and the other captains decided on an early start for Thursday morning. After calling the Lock master (Thursday morning), we were told to proceed to the lock and be mindful of the "light" fog. It was like "white out" conditions, we could not see anything ahead of us. We followed the anchor lights of the boats in front of us (which would fade in and out of the fog).

Thursday night, we had a nice bonfire and docktails with loopers passing through Columbus Marina. Boaters: Kayak, Anna Dee, No Rush and Donna Lynn.

Lastly, a lot of planning goes into the day to day travels. Joel plots out our path, talks to other captains and reviews various routing guides, etc. Below are some snapshots of the materials he uses. We make calls to the lock masters to check on commercial traffic. We also work with marinas to confirm, change or cancel reservations.

We anchored out the evening of October 21 (Friday), just past the Heflin Lock, hoping to get an early start on Saturday. Getting an early start will allow us to arrive at Kingfisher in time to do laundry, shop for groceries and prepare for the week ahead. Our goal is to make it to Fairhope marina by October 25th. Good night!

Next Stop: Kingfisher Marinas, Demopolis, AL

Fun Facts:

Locks are named after deceased politicians.
- Whitten Lock
- Montgomery Lock
- Rankin Lock
- Fulton Lock
- Wilkins Lock
- Amory Lock - name recently changed to the Thad Cochran Lock
- Aberdeen Lock
- Stennis Lock
- Beville Lock
- Helflin Lock
- Demopolis Lock (we will get to this lock Saturday or Sunday of this week)
5o miles via water, takes our boat, Summer Place, approx. 5 hours to travel
Floating logs in the water are referred to a "dead heads"
Tenn-Tom is the longest man made canal and has a total of 10 locks, each lock is 110' x 660' making them much larger than the historic canals but much smaller than the Mississippi and Ohio River locks
Ox Bow is a meander of a stream, river or creek, that has become separated from the flow of water. (Rivers enter the plains, it twist and turns to form large bends). Ox Bows make for good overnight anchorages