Cruising at night

From the Captain

On Monday October 24th, we left Aqua Yacht Marina near Iuka, MS at 7 am. We had heard that tow (barge) traffic was increasing on the Tenn-Tom waterway due to low river levels on the lower Mississippi and wanted to get an early start in the event we ran into delays at any of the three locks we needed to transit on the way to Midway marina in Fulton, MS. In addition, there was a large storm front moving towards the east on Tuesday and we didn’t want to get caught in it.

It was smooth sailing until we got to the first lock (Whitten) just after 11 am. There we met one down bound tow, the Mike Howard, and two upbound tows. In all there were six boats stuck waiting. Everyone dropped anchor and we waited until 3 pm before proceeding into the lock. This was not a good sign. We contemplated anchoring for the night, but all the other boats decided to make the run to Midway, so we joined them.

At Montgomery lock, the Mike Howard was just leaving and it met another upbound tow. We all stopped a mile upriver from the lock and “kept station” for 1.5 hours, in the wind. Keeping station means trying to keep the boat in the same spot for a period of time. Wind and current tend to move the boat around, the wind especially. Our boat has a large upper structure and a shallow draft. In other words, it’s a kite. This was not an easy task in broad daylight.

We made it through the second lock around 5:30 pm and headed to the last lock of the day (Fulton). There was an 80ft yacht, Summer Song, leading our parade of boats. While it may not have been a super yacht, it was compared to the other five boats. With all the electronics and night vision cameras on board, no one complained about it being the lead boat.

It was dark when we all arrived at Rankin Lock and you guessed it, one down bound and two upbound tows later we moved into the lock at 8:30 or 9:00 pm. Station keeping in the dark and in the wind was not in the brochure! The lock was well lit, but as we emerged, everything went dark again. We only had two miles to go and Arabella ended up as the second boat behind Summer Song. Our spot light was puny compared to the big boats’ monster light, but he lit the channel markers so those behind him could see where they were.

What a relief! WRONG.

Summer Song, with his forward looking infrared cameras, cruised in like it was daylight. We, on the other hand, were left trying to find the channel into the marina. There were some small channel markers, but they were nearly impossible to see in the dark. The marina staff was on the docks to help us get in. They were trying to talk us into the channel with a VHF radio and shining a big flashlight at the markers. I couldn’t see them, there was just too much back light coming from the marina itself.

As I came in, the wind blew us out of the channel and before I could correct the boats’ position, we bumped the bottom. Fortunately, we were only moving about 0.1 mph and I backed into the channel and turned around. I was finally able to see the dock where we were to tie up and made our way to it. After being blown off the first time trying to back in, I turned us again and nosed in with no drama.

Meanwhile, the radio traffic was crazy with the four boats behind us trying to do the same thing we just did. Everyone made it into Midway safely shortly after 10 pm. Wow, I needed a stiff drink!

Why did we do this you ask? I can't speak for other boats, but I spoke to the lock master at Whitten and he said their AIS system was down and he could not see what commercial traffic was coming up or down the river. He even asked me what I saw regarding tows and what their speeds were. The Marine Traffic app shows commercial traffic, but it is flaky and I don't think any of us expected what was coming. Once we left Whitten lock, we were committed since there is no place to anchor between Whitten and Montgomery. What we didn’t realize is that there were five upbound tows we would have to wait on.

Fifteen hours is a long day and I don't want to repeat this experience anytime soon.

From the Admiral

This post could have been called ‘Beware of the Downbound Tow’ or ‘The Curse of Mike Howard’.

We left early in the morning. It was another cold morning so we wore layers, hats, and gloves. Besides the cold, it was a good start to the day. We even had enough cell signal to have a zoom call with our daughter and our friend Christine Young who were both in London visiting Christine’s daughters, Allie and Rachel. Being able to have video calls from across the world never ceases to amaze me. We passed by Goat Island which has goats living on the island. I was disappointed that we didn’t see any. Probably too cold for them to be on shore where I could capture a photo. We then entered what is called the Divide Cut, which is a 25 mile long channel connecting the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River. Normally, this is a boring part of our cruise, but because it’s Fall, it was a beautiful trip. We reached Whitten Lock just before noon. There were two boats ahead of us. We’d been positioning the boat for about an hour or so when one of the boats called the lock for guidance on how long we were going to have to wait for us to go in. The answer was ‘a couple of hours or longer’. So we decided to anchor and wait. The anchorage was actually beautiful with the colorful trees. I wish I could have enjoyed it more but I was EXTREMELY worried about the coming storm and having to anchor out in it if we couldn’t get through the locks. Our wait at the lock drug on into the afternoon. We had to wait on the tow, Mike Howard, going down river, and two other tows going upriver.

Somewhere between 3p and 4p, the lockmaster gave us the green light to enter. There had been some discussion among the other boats about whether to continue down the river or spend the night at anchor. The lock blew the horn. We all had to make a decision. After about 10 minutes, the other boaters started pulling up anchors meaning they were ’going for it’. We decided to join them rather than anchor by ourselves with the weather coming. At this point we were committed to getting to Midway Marina.

This first lock is Whitten Lock. It’s my least favorite because it’s the one with all the gnats from our trip upriver.. This time we didn’t have gnats but about halfway down the 85 ft drop, the walls started to leak and the wind made it spray at the boat. Because I’m the one keeping the boat tied to the lock wall, I was drenched when we got to the bottom. I repeat, this is my least favorite lock.

We got to Montgomery Lock, and again had to wait on the downbound tow Mike Howard in order to enter the lock. After the lock we realized that it was almost sunset but felt we could still make it to Midway with some daylight. Unfortunately, we were wrong. We had to wait on Mike Howard again at the third lock, Rankin Lock, and also another upbound tow. There was a beautiful sunset, but because of the stress, we weren’t able to fully enjoy it. At this point our crew and the other boaters were tired, hungry, and facing traveling in the dark. Capel did a great job driving and positioning the boat under duress. At about 9p, we got the green light to enter the lock but had to pass the exiting tow in the dark. When we left the lock, we were faced again with passing another tow in the dark.

After the tow we still had to make it into the marina in the dark. Gratefully, the marina staff was there for us. They could see us on Nebo and adjusted their day to be out in full force to shepherd our six boat flotilla safely into our slips. It felt like this whole day was some sort of obstacle course that we had to complete before we were safe. Whew! What a day!