Bay Springs Marina to Midway Marina

Date             November 8, 2011

Day              133
Departure     Bay Springs Marina, New Site, MS 9:20 am                                                 

Arrival          Midway Marina, Fulton, MS  2:30 pm    
Miles                19.2    
Cumulative   2976.0

We stayed at the Bay Springs Marina, while Sweet Pea and Nauti Nell stayed at an anchorage a short distance away.  At the predetermined time of 6:30 am, we contacted Sweet Pea on the VHF radio and agreed to meet at Whitten Lock (the first of 4 we planned to do today) at 8:00 am.  Shortly before 8:00 we contacted the lock to see what the traffic was and found they were performing repairs on the lock and said it could be another 30 minutes or maybe 2 hours before they would be able to lock anyone through. So we all stayed put and decided that I would call the lock in another 30 minutes.  At the appointed time, we called the lock master and found they still were not able to open.  Around 9:15 am we heard a VHF radio transmission that the lock was ready.  We called the lock master and told him the three boats were on their way.  We all arrived at the lock, secured our boats to the floating bollards and then had to wait an additional 1 1/2 hours for another boat to arrive!  We have now lost 3 hours and have not gone through even one lock as yet.  Finally, the other boat arrived and we begin the ride down in the lock.  This is the first lock that we have actually gotten wet from water that was spurting through access doors in the lock wall.  If you look close, in the picture below, you can see the shower of water just above Bob's hat on the right!

We are underway again, and we can smell fresh cut wood.  We are now going by a barge fleeting area for the Scott Paper Co. and they are shredding wood.  Note the logs stacked on the far right and the piles of wood chips on the left.

It has been said many times, "Do not leave your lines unattended, in the event the bollard jams".  We are now in the second lock, and as we began our decent in the Montgomery Lock, I noticed the lines have become very taut and the bollard hasn't gone down.  OMG!!  We quickly untied and loosened the lines and thankfully, the bollard begins to go down!  We then notice the handwritten note on the bollard.  "Important" was written just below where the lines are fastened.  Below, in the black circle, barely visible, it said "Water drops 4' before the bollard moves".  Oh, that's why it wasn't moving right away!

On to the third lock, the Rankin Lock.  As the door was opening to allow us to exit, they stopped the movement of the door, the lock master came on the VHF radio and asked the captain of the "Joyden" (they were the first boat right behind the door) if the door was going to clear their bow!  take a look below, it appears that the door is going to crush the boat.  Fortunately, the bow was clear!

It is now after 2 pm, the next lock is just over seven miles away and the destination we had hoped to make was an additional twenty-two miles away.  Because of the three hour delay this morning and the shorter daylight hours, we decided to stop at Midway Marina, after only traveling just over nineteen miles today.

Tonight's sunset (notice the two American Coots in the foreground)

For dinner, the crews of Nauti Nell, Sweet Pea, Erika Lin and two other folks that had arrived at Midway, went out for a Mexican dinner.  Notice there are no adult beverages on the table; we are in a DRY county!!

Ed, ?, Twyla, Dale, Jim, Mike, Lynda and Bob