We woke up early this morning, it was 24° and there was frost on the dock and the boat. Gary tied two lines, one I could just release from the bow, the other was a mid line that he hoped would just slide off when he pulled forward.  I certainly didn’t want to get off on the dock with the frost on it, I would have for sure ended up on the river.  We started off, I got the line off the cleat on the bow but dam, the middle line didn’t slide off.  I shout at him “we are still tied to the dock!”  He backs off and it comes off, whew!  I was hoping we didn’t pull the dock away from shore, that would be really bad :).

We got into Coffeville lock right away.  All those tows from last night must have made it thru during the night.  While we go thru the locks we see people have made up stickers with their boat names on them and then they stick them to the bollards and the sides of the lock.  I saw one today that said “Adventures Before Dementia”, ain’t that the truth. The Lock Master asked for our documentation number.  That is the first time any lock has done that.  This is our last lock until we come back up.  I can put away my locking gloves

Locking Gloves

These help keep my hands clean and warm.  You’d be surprised how cold the wall of the lock gets when the water temperature is in the 40’s and 50’s.

We have seen a few large items thrown over the bank.  We just saw a mattress on the bank of the river

Mattress on Bank

Crappy picture, but you can kind of see that little blue thing.  That’s the mattress.  It is almost like they are tossing their junk over the bank just waiting for high water to take it down river.  That is one way to get rid of your big trash I guess 😦

We have also seen a few abandoned businesses along the way.  Here is a picture of Lone Star Cement Company.  They note that they are abandoned right on the charts.

Abandoned Company

Here is a section called “Lovers Leap”

Lovers Leap

We have seen more tows today.  You should “announce” yourself when you come into sharp curves so other vessels know you are coming.  Here is a picture of our Garmin

Curves on the Garmin

Wow!  No wonder you have to let others know where you are, not good to run into those tows on the corners.   Been there, done that 🙂 This is a picture of Newman Bend and Horseshoe Bend, mile marker 70 – 74. 

One thing I have noticed as Gary and I travel together.  You really get to know your partners bathroom trips.  You can’t just slip off to another part of the house or office and do your business without anyone noticing.  Nope.  You have to let the other person know where your going so they don’t think you fell overboard.  “Gotta use the head”, “Going to see a man about a horse”, “Need to get rid of some coffee” etc, etc.  Not too many secrets on the boat.

We finally arrived at our anchorage about 2:30

Anchorage looking out bow

Anchorage from Stern

We had to tie a stern anchor for this anchorage.  There aren’t many places to anchor between Bobby’s Fish Camp and Dog River Marina on Mobile Bay.  This was a really nice anchorage.  Our anchor alarm didn’t go off at all, a first.  This must be a freeway of sorts for small fishing boats and 3 whizzed by us early in the morning before we left anchor.  They didn’t even have lights on them.  I suppose they can see better in the dark that way. Better hit the hay, we get to Mobile Bay tomorrow.  That will be scary and exciting at the same time.