“Locking” Our Way South to Mobile, Alabama

 October 23^rd to October 31^st

This part of the trip has been pretty uneventful.  Frankly, we cannot wait to get off the rivers and into Mobile, AL.  We have been pushing on every day, trying to stay ahead of an influx of about 60 “Loopers” who will leave the AGLCA Rendezvous and head south also.  We have been leaving every morning between 7:00 and 7:15 a.m. at the first light of day, and always plan to stop no later than 5:00 p.m. because by the time we tie up for the night, it is dark at 6:30.  We’ve been averaging about 56 miles per day; one day was long, 69 miles.

 

Luckily, we have been able to stay at marinas every night for nine nights, except for one night.  That was Thursday night and we had to anchor in a finger off the river.  We’d made the mistake of takin our dinghy motor off the dinghy to redistribute the weight on the stern of our boat.  We figured we could just row the dinghy to shore where Louie could take care of “his business.”  At this one place though, we had to anchor further up the river than we’d originally planed.  So instead of rowing to the public boat ramp, we could only row to the shore on either side of our boat.  (Actually, there was no “we”.  Roger did all the rowing.)  It was a disaster – slippery rocks or muddy shore!  We chose the muddy shore, Louie was desperate, but it was way, way, way worse than the last time in September!  Roger was literally stuck up to his knees in the muck trying to get back into the dinghy!  We have 3 more nights of anchoring ahead of us before we get to Mobile.  We’ll either put the motor (which is heavy, even with the boom lift) on the dinghy or Louie will have to use the lavatory facilities on board (piddle pads).  No more going ashore unless we see a boat ramp nearby.

 

We discovered that the “marinas” can be interesting places too.  Roger & I pulled into one marina in Alabama and the people running it were just as nice as they could be.  I think Good Morning America did a special profile on dental hygiene in rural areas of the South.  It was kind of sad and I was amazed --- one guy had teeth --- but only 2 teeth!  Another guy courteously picked up the lid of the trash can for me.  I put the bag in there and quickly looked away, and he said, “Yup --- what you saw was a ____ (I didn’t quite get it  -- maybe it was the Southern accent).  I said, “you mean A SNAKE ??!!!  I’d caught it out of the corner of my eye in the trash, but I wouldn’t look at it.  Proudly he said, “Yup --- I shot it 4 days ago.  It was trying to get inside the office.”  Ohhhh-----isn’t this fun now????

 

The good news is that we caught up to Barefoot Shoes, our friends from Canada, on our 6^thnight out.  We celebrated our re-connection with drinks and dinner on our boat.  I had brought some homemade sauce and meatballs from home and cooked spaghetti for the 4 of us.  We drank well, ate well and laughed all evening.  We’ve been traveling with Rae & Steve since Monday night, and Rae is spoiling us.  She’s made chocolate biscotti, apple crisp, and date bars.  She’s going to make all of us fat while she stays tiny!

 

“LOCKING”

 

WARNING:  If you are not interested in this concept of locking up and locking down the waterways, you might want to skip to the end of this and go right to the trip photos.  

 

Prior to this trip, neither Roger nor I had much experience in locking.  We locked a few times in our 21-foot Boston Whaler Conquest on the Ohio River during Coast Guard Auxiliary patrols, but that was it (and you know how enthusiastic I was about patrols!!).  Since we first started this journey, we have gone through 25 locks.

 

In the past 11 days, we had locked 12 of those times!  It’s pretty stressful and Roger is not shy about yelling at me if I don’t “catch the bollard” on the first try.  (Okay, so maybe I yelled at him once or twice about getting the boat closer to the bollard.)  But I’ve got it now.  I haven’t “missed” in the past 12 locks.  I even “locked under the influence” of just one cup of coffee.  That’s more dangerous than DUI, as anyone who knows me well, knows that I need 2 cups in the morning. 

 

If you’re wondering how boats “lock through”, I’ll try to explain it in laywoman’s terms.  Sorry guys, I am the one writing this blog.

 

Before you approach the lock, you call the “Lockmaster” on the radio to ask permission to lock through.  Sometimes you have to wait until other boat traffic comes out first --  the wait can be a few minutes or a few hours!  Once you see the green light and get permission, you enter the lock.  It’s hard to describe – it’s basically a wall on the right and on the left of you, with gates that open in front of you and close behind you.  When everyone is in the lock and tied up to the wall, the gates behind you will close and the lockmaster will either flood the chamber with water (to lock you –up) or drain it out (to lock you –down).  In the past 12 locks, we have locked down a total of 341 feet.  In most of the locks, we’ve dropped 30-40 feet each time, but we went through the James Whitten Lock the other day and dropped 84 feet!!  It was like taking an elevator from (above) the 8^th floor down to the basement!  But the difference is that you are standing on your boat, and the only thing keeping the boat from going every which way is the line that you are holding on to.  Here’s how we do it:

 

About a mile before the lock, I put on my life jacket and lower the 3 big orange ball fenders down either the starboard or port side of the boat.  Then I tie a line onto the cleat on the top of the deck, mid-ship, same side.  Roger drives into the lock and depending on the other boats ahead of us and some good forecasting, we hope the line and fenders are on the correct side and we discuss which “bollard” to tie on to.  The bollard is a structure (there are maybe 5 of them, evenly spaced, on each side of the walls of the lock) that you loop your line onto so that the boat stays in place.  The bollard moves downward (when locking down) according to the rate that the lockmaster sets for letting the water out of the lock.  

 

If we go too far to the front of the lock and the last bollard is missing, we’re in trouble.  It’s really hard to maneuver our boat in reverse and we need to get it right the first time.  So Roger edges up to the lock wall and I have the boat hook in one hand with the line on the tip of it and the other side of the line in my other hand.  I walk forward and try to “catch the bollard” early, while trying NOT to lose the line off the boat (sounds like it might have happened before, huh?) or drop the boat hook into the water.  I yell, “I’ve got it.  Take the !!@*&%!! BOAT HOOK,” calmly, really I am calm.  

 

Then Roger takes the line, holds us onto the wall and I use the boat hook to keep the boat from banging against the wall as the water drops.  In some locks, I have had to use all my strength to keep this 30,000 lb. boat from banging against the lock wall.  It’s a good thing my shoulder surgery was successful!  Once the water is out of the chamber and the level is the same as the level ahead of us outside the gate, the lockmaster opens the gates in front of us, sounds a horn, and we unhook ourselves from the bollard, push the boat off the wall and drive on down the waterway.  By the time we get to Mobile, Alabama into the Gulf of Mexico, we will be at sea level.  And there will be plenty of marinas, so they say!