Another early start at 6:51 am with (hopefully) plenty of time to avoid the predicted (30% chance) afternoon thunderstorms. Our trip was only 37 miles, but once again, we had three locks to transit today. We did have some light rain, but the real black clouds were both ahead and behind us for all of the trip, which was probably good news. The picture at the right shows our view ahead for most of the trip. This was one of those days where we followed the local weather radar on the iPad on a regular basis. We also reviewed our plans to pull over and anchor if we got caught in a severe thunderstorm. Both anchors on the bow are double locked to prevent an accidental lowering during normal boating. If we were in the immediate vicinity of a severe storm, the plan involves having the Admiral go forward and remove the stopper (or locking mechanism) on the anchor chain and also to take off the snubber. The snubber is a short (but heavy) piece of rope that hooks to the anchor chain on one end and is securely tied off to a big cleat on the other end. When the anchor has been freed, we can use the electric windlass to lower and raise the anchor from either the upper or lower helm station.
Our first lock was only 2.9 miles from the marina so the Admiral called them before we left the dock, and the Lockmaster said that he would have the gate open and the green light on when we got there. This was a very encouraging start to the day. The three dams and locks with a total drop of 85 feet were a total of 20 miles apart, but once again they called ahead to facilitate our transit. The picture at the left is actually the final lock for today (Amory Lock). We are in the channel heading into the lock, and the dam is off to the right. You can (barely) see the red signs that say "Danger Stay 800 Feet Back".
In the picture at the right we are in the Amory Lock with the chamber still full and we are waiting to go down 30 feet. You can see the spillway on the left with barely a trickle of water coming over the dam.
Our average transit time for each lock today was 18 minutes. That time is from when we passed the gate on the way into the lock to when we passed through the lower gate on the way out. Based on our lock experience so far on this trip, that is an incredible average.
Between the second and third locks the actual Tombigbee River flowed into the waterway so we are now following the original river channel and also now have more water in the channel. We will see along the way, but we think that our course will be much more winding than the arrow straight artificial cut now that we are basically following the original river channel.
We arrived at the marina at 12:50 pm, which was ahead of any predicted storms (after 1:00 pm). We had read online on Active Captain some warnings about the channel into the marina being poorly marked and full of stumps. The Admiral went down to the bow to serve as a look out, but the extra care was definitely not necessary. The channel looks a lot more scary than it was. There were vertical plastic pipe channel markers every 25 feet on both sides for most of the way so it was easy for us to stay in the channel.
We are at the Aberdeen Marina on the east side of the waterway, and the town of Aberdeen is on the other side of the river. The picture at the right shows the Admiral stowing lines after we had finished docking. We did not visit the town since among other things, the marina no longer has a courtesy vehicle. The marina is in a pretty setting, and we plan to spend two nights here. So, maybe we can explore a bit tomorrow...
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