Change of plans

Captain's Log - Day 17

I was awakened this morning by a tree. A tree and Simon yelling.

Last night we decided to sleep outside. The breeze was better out there and the bugs couldn't be any worse than they were inside. I took the bow and Simon took the fly bridge.

Around 7:30am, I hear a huge "THUNK!" and the bow of the boat dips down toward the water about a foot or two. Simon is almost literally launched out of bed and comes tearing around the port side yelling something - I wasn't awake enough to make out individual words yet.

Peering over the bow of the boat, it became clear that an enormous tree had snagged on our bow anchor line and was pulling our bow down! This was no log - this was a full on tree, probably 25 feet long! Fortunately, it didn't pull us far enough that the water was coming over the deck!

I jumped up to the fly bridge, started her up, and tried to maneuver Plan C so that the tree would slip free. All the while, Simon was acting as spotter, with his knife at the ready in case we should need to be rid of the tree (and the anchor) in a hurry.

Twenty minutes later we were still snagged - when suddenly "POP!" The anchor line snapped!

Unbelievable. We've lost two anchors in the last two days. Only two remain - we gotta restock!

Nothing else calamitous befell us, but we did change course! We bid the Mississippi farewell and turned northeast up the Ohio River!

I have to make a confession - I've been holding out on you. It was awhile ago that we decided not to take the Mississippi all the way to the gulf. Let me explain.

Everyone we've talked to has said that the lower Mississippi (the division between upper and lower is where the Ohio River joins the Mississippi, at Cairo, Illinois) turns into a flat, muddy ditch populated almost entirely by barges. They also warned that fuel is scarce as there are few marinas - a fact we've since confirmed. After passing St. Louis, we only saw one gas dock that was accessible, and our Quimby's (a sort of river guide book) says that the next gas dock isn't until Memphis! That's 380 miles!

Even if we had wanted to travel the lower Mississippi, by the time we got to Cairo, we didn't have enough gas to make it to Memphis.

So our new route is this - we travel up the Ohio River (the picture shows it meeting the muddy Mississippi), then down the Tennessee River to the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway (the TennTom), which joins the Tombigbee River, which eventually empties into Mobile bay.

If you follow this link, you'll see that there are some locks that are shut down. Tomorrow, we're going to figure out just how closed they are and come up with a plan ... "d" is it now?

Tonight we're on the hook near Paducah, Kentucky, where the Tennessee River meets the Ohio River. The bugs don't seem quite as bad here, so we may sleep inside tonight!