Fish on!

Well, guess who caught the first fish (as well as the only fishes) on the trip this far? Answer: NOT the fisherwoman! Her 99.99% fish-catching record suffered a bit of a fallback today…

Granted, mine were NOT keepers! But, in HER fishing world, catching a minnow = one fish, just the same as catching a record-breaking sea grouper or such. So, my little striper and my baby big mouth bass count as a 2:0 shutout against the fisherwoman thus far!

We didn’t go very far today. We drove a courtesy van into town yesterday to reprovision. This morning, we did laundry and cleaned the boat a bit, and topped off the fuel tank (for the first time!) We still had about a third of a tank remaining, and I think we could have made it another couple of days. But, we wanted to check out mileage thus far, and also not run things too empty or low, and risk running dry.

We only drove the boat about three miles today (to a nearby waterfront mechanic.) He confirmed my diagnosis (that neither of our alternators are working.) But, he ALSO found a cut wire on one of the alternators. So, even if it WERE good, it wouldn’t have worked anyway…

So, we ordered a pair of new alternators, and they should arrive tomorrow (Tuesday) around 11 am. I have already removed the two old alternators, so hopefully it will only take an hour or so to get them both installed, tested, and confirmed, and get out on the water.

Our next stretch of water is a 44-mile long canal (ditch) that begins with an 80-FOOT flush down our first lock towards the sea. (All of our locks from here on out will be downhill drops.) Our largest lock-through thus far has been just under 60 feet (twice.) So, 84-feet will seem VERY deep! Plus, there is no anchoring allowed in the ditch. So, you have to be prepared to complete it in one day (no overnight stays allowed in the ditch.) If we get our alternators installed and get underway by about 1:00 pm, then we can make it (we have to allow time to wait at the locks for passing tugs/tows.) But, if we aren't underway by 1:00, then we will have to spend another night up here somewhere, and then launch at first-light on Wednesday.



We can’t wait to get back underway again. Our tanks are full of fuel and water, we are fully-stocked with food and drinks. We are all charged up and waiting to launch… waiting… waiting…

If there were any towns around worth visiting, it might make this wait more enjoyable. But, it took us 30 minutes to get to a nowhere town yesterday. (We went to Wal-Mart, Kroger and had our first fast-food in over a week = foot-long at Subway.) So, we’ll just have to rough it out here on the dock of our mechanic on the banks of Mississippi and Alabama (Alabama is the opposite shore from us) until our parts arrive and we can shove off again.

Mechanical ranting: So, I have spent quite a few posts talking about the mechanical issues, breakdowns, etc. I do this for two reasons. First, many of my friends are mechanics or ex-mechanics, so they appreciate the blow-by-blow feedback. Plus, they give us feedback/suggestions/tips on how to diagnose/repair our situations. Second, I kinda want to scare some people out of following in out footsteps. This is NOT an “easy” adventure. There are navigational challenges, physical obstacles, emotional stress, mechanical & electrical dragons, and more! The physical demands of the journey have surprised me the most. Pushing/fighting to keep the boat from rubbing against the crusty walls of the locks; free-diving to recover a lost anchor; climbing up & down and in & out of the engine room; and just the sheer exhaustion of 8-10 hour drives – mostly BORING drives in the sun/heat can REALLY take their toll on your body. I have been losing weight day by day – a VERY unexpected event…

Don’t get me wrong, there have been some beautiful sunsets/sunrises. There have been some peaceful and tranquil coves. We have seen some pretty interesting houses – everything from waterfront mansions and estates, to stilt-born river cabins that looked like Daddy Long Legs preparing to walk into the river. We have seen sunflower fields along the banks, and wild packs of dogs wandering the banks. (I think I even saw snake hunters roaming the banks one day – with long sticks, poking into holes in the mud flats.)

But, MOST of the time, it just looks like most every other river we have ever boated on. Tree-lined banks, hour-after-hour. The only break to the boredom is our music, and our navigational chores. Hour after hour, we wander from one bank to the other – following the deepest portion of the channel. Thus far, the shallowest it has become was 15 feet (and we have a 4-foot draft.) So, we still had 11 feet under out keel.


Final closing comment on this day: Miles traveled today = 2.5 miles.

Sincerely,


FisherMAN (and his non-catching fisher-wanna-be)


P.S. I gotta rub it in when I can, because she will likely out-fish me on the rest of this trip... (And, since I'm authoring this blog, I probably won't mention a SINGLE fish that she catches...)

As I learned in my journalism days, the power of the press belongs to those who own the presses... If she wants to brag about her fish stories, then I guess she will have to author her own blog. THIS BLOG is for MY lies and fishtales!