Pretty Day on the Waterway

We were delighted to see the sun this morning after all the rain last night and the wind blowing us around a lot with one big bang!  I had not secured the deck box where I keep the lines.... it was hard to believe that the wind was strong enough to lift that heavy lid & make it hit the boat rail. Walter went out and fixed it and we ended up sleeping well last night.

We were only going 30 miles today so we were the last to leave out of all the Looper boats except those few whose insurance would not allow them further south until the day after the end of Hurricane season.

The sun looked so good on the water as we waited for a tow to come out of the lock so we could lock down.

Here comes the tow... we moved over and then proceeded slowly into the lock alone.  We had been off the waterway for a week and I wondered if I would remember how to catch the Bollard and secure the line but it all came back quickly.

We are leaving the lock and there will only be a few more locks in this entire trip.  Once we are off the TN-Tombigbee Waterway and into Mobile Bay we will have completed about 170 locks!

This is the first tow we passed after leaving the lock.....the barges are sitting low in the water meaning they are fully loaded with oil.

Then along came this cutie all alone pushing nothing in kind of a hurry.....

This is a tow with empty barges. Walter had heard that a big wake can make empty barges break loose so we slowed down and the tow also slowed.   

The Tennessee-Tombigbee was pretty today.

We are beginning to see a little bit of fall.

We saw no other boats today and about the time I was sure we were in the middle of no where, as there was no cell service, look what was on a bank in a clearing!  Really???

Here we are turning into Pirate Cove for the night.

Walter had been wanting to see a Snagboat, a National Historic Landmark. Sadly, the boat was closed for repairs but we did go through the museum at the visitor center.   Here is a photo of the model they had there.

It is one of the South's last steam powered sternwheelers.  It was used to maintain 7 rivers for navigation. The derrick and grapple were used to remove debris and snags from the river channels. Her last work stations were on the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee & Flint Rivers.  Now she is here permanently at Pickensville, AL.

It is good to be on the move again after a nice rest... loving the sunshine and somewhat warmer days as we go south.