The World Cruise of Veleda IV

Rockin' and Rollin' in a heavy wake

Leaving by 0825 on November 2, 1999 en route to Stennis Lock, we attempted to go into a side bay going over to Waverly Mansion, an antebellum southern mansion, but we grounded in mud and had a struggle to get off. We had just got free and were cautiously proceeding back out towards the main channel when a 35 to 40 foot motor yacht came down the channel on a full plane, creating a 3 to 4 foot swell and went right on by within fifty feet of us, rocking us violently. Thank heaven we were off the mud and into deeper water; otherwise we would have been pounded on the bottom by the swells this "idiot" created. Of course he was not listening to Channel 16 when we tried to request he slow down as he was approaching us. We caught up to him about 30 minutes later at Stennis Lock, where Judy in uncharacteristic venom yelled across the lock that he put up a hell of a wake. He made no reply or apology. 

I hereby put out a request for power vessels to please be aware of your wake, especially when passing sailing vessels. We have rounded hulls and roll considerably if we cannot maneuver to take the wake head on.

We actually established a procedure in calling overtaking power vessels, asking them to slow down as they approached us and that we would slow as they approached and then head into their smaller wake as they passed us, thus minimally interfering with their progress and giving us the opportunity to communicate with them and where possible to maneuver appropriately. We also waved or called and thanked those power boaters who were considerate enough to slow down in passing us.

As we proceeded down, the river widened even more with cutoffs and islands that made us look very carefully for the buoys, as at some bends where there were forks it was difficult to tell where the main channel went. This was further complicated by the bunches of water hyacinths that became more prolific. These were pretty blue flowers floating on the water in the midst of thick green waxy stems and leaves. We maneuvered to avoid these floating islands of foliage where possible as we did not want to foul our prop or rudder.

Before going through the Tom Bevill Lock, we went alongside a dock surrounded by water hyacinths to visit the Visitor Center, which was housed in a beautiful mansion based on the Grecian antebellum architecture. The house and grounds and fountain were a beautiful example of the grandeur of southern mansions predating the Civil War. The ground floor was decorated with period furniture to give the flavour of the Southern cotton barons. The upper floors contained a very good exposition of the Tombigbee Waterway, its development and the archeological and natural history of the area. I even went to the "widow's walk" at the top of the mansion. This was a beautiful rectangular cupola, the roof being supported by Ionic columns, with a walkway around all four sides giving a panoramic view of the land, the lock, and the Tombigbee River as it stretched north and south with its floating islands of hyacinths dotting it like a palatial Greek garden of the gods. As part of the Visitor Center, in addition to the mansion, was the snagboat Montgomery. This was the last paddlewheel snagboat used on the rivers. A snagboat is a workboat with a large crane to pull snags out of the navigational channels. The snags are usually trees that have fallen into the river due to erosion and the flooding that had to be done to make it navigable, as well as the flooding that takes place annually. We were the only ones at this center until we came across George and Sheila Van Nostrand, of "Dreamcatcher", whom we had met a few days earlier at Midway Marina. They had moored at another marina up from the Visitor Center and used the courtesy van from it to come to the Center.

We left the flower-covered dock and called the lock master who opened up in a few minutes to usher us into a hyacinth-strewn garden of a lock. We complimented him on his "horticultural" lock. and motored on down to Big Creek Cutoff for an evening anchorage at mile marker TB 304.4.

The next day enroute we topped up our fuel tank from a jerry can as the tank was reading empty. However, it took only 3 gallons. A faulty fuel gauge can still cause concern, as bleeding the injectors after running out of fuel is not a pleasant task, and of course Murphy's Law states that you will run out at the most inconvenient or hazardous time. So, we like to keep it topped up.

Incidentally, one of the benefits of having jerry cans for fuel is that if you run out and even your cans are empty, you do not have to wait until the next marina, as you can anchor and take the empty jerry cans ashore in the dinghy and go to the nearest gas station for fuel. We do not trust our fuel gauge and track our fuel consumption so we have an idea of our usage. At present we use about 3 litres or 3/4 gallon (U.S.) per hour at hull speed cruising revs (6 knots). Our tank holds 112 litres or 28 U.S.gallons, plus another 15 gallons in three jerry cans. We are thinking of putting a larger propeller on as we find we have to go at higher revs to attain hull speed with our new larger 30hp engine than our old 15hp one. More about this if ever we get to changing our prop.

Another reason we did not want to take any chances with running out of fuel was because the area we planned to anchor in, at an industrial cut, was no longer available and we had to continue on. Our chart and guide indicated an anchorage location, but it had been taken over by industrial usage. We found this out as we arrived there about 15 minutes before sunset. The next possible anchorage was at Rattlesnake Bend, another 20 miles downstream. That meant navigating the Tombigbee at night! Lots of fun! There was still barge traffic as well as the twists and turns of the river to be navigated through three hours of darkness, in addition to going off the river at Rattlesnake Bend into one of the oxbow cutoffs to find an anchorage. It was a full moon night, but it was still difficult to make out the shoreline, as well as to determine what the different shore lights were. We passed two or three tows during this period. It was quite scary as when passing a tow we had to stay closer to an indistinct shoreline. Fortunately we had a 400,000 candlepower spotlight. However, every time we turned it on, it killed our night vision too. Judy had to hold it as far forward and outboard as possible so it would not reflect off our dorades, lifelines and shrouds. Identifying the opening which was Rattlesnake Bend was difficult, as every indentation and bend in the river could be Rattlesnake. We relied on dead reckoning to estimate when we would be abreast of the proper bend. Once we found it and went off the main river, it was a peaceful beautiful placid moonlight-filled expanse of water that we cautiously navigated up until we dropped anchor at about 1900 at mile marker TB223.0. From TB304 to TB223 meant we covered 81 miles plus one lock in a long 13 hour day.

After the mist cleared the next morning we weighed anchor about 0810, to see by day the bend we entered at night. Shortly later we passed the junction of the Black Warrior River, another major river system in that part of the world, and on down to Demopolis, a sleepy southern town with a good marina. We just wanted to refuel, pump out, and top up with water, but we met a couple of boaters we had met earlier, and spent more time there than initially planned.  

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