Columbus Marina to Warsaw Cut-off Anchorage

October 15th, 2016

We re-provisioned, fueled the boats and attended to minor repairs during a one day layover. I replaced the belt that had been slipping. I found out it was the original belt with over 1,000 hours on it. It had gotten worn down when quite a bit and I measured it against the new belt—it’s supposed to be a 3/4″ belt.

We got another early start coming out of the Columbus Marina the next day with the moon-set providing a backdrop as we cruised to the lock nearby.

We cycled through the lock while the sun broke the horizon and kissed the moon good morning.

We left the lock and motored into the sun directly. Looks to be a great day!

We passed some power lines where the local population of black vultures were worshiping the sun after a cool night on one of the metal towers.

With the river being so close to Columbus, and just after the lock, there were many homes along the waterway. Most with their unique stamp from the owners. Like banana trees in central Mississippi which more than a few homes had in their yards.

Most have lots of glass to enjoy the vista of the river.

The homes weren’t necessarily just for older folks, many had the trappings for kids at play.

Some had original yard sculptures.

This guy seems to be a Superman fan.

The guy on the corner looks to be slowly adding to his yard, Holland style, with a serious seawall.

These folks are blending an MSU lighthouse, precariously close to Crimson Tide country, into their waterfront theme.

Overall, it’s still an agriculture driven area with this large set of grain silos and barge loading facility.

My brother might enjoy a unique perspective for selling waterfront property. We saw several of this type of advertisement.

We entered our next lock. They all were designed to drop around 30′ to avoid impacting the communities nearby. A few of the locks had leaky gates and the herons would fly in once they closed in hopes of snagging any fish that would get pulled into the lock.

And away we go! This is starting to be too easy

As the day got warmer, Moyia decided to practice for the Florida beaches on the fore deck.

We ran across a dredging operation keeping the channels clear. This crew was actually from the Port of Dyersburg.

We didn’t pass a lot of barges today but this type was becoming more predominant. It is smaller than the usual raft of barges but carries tanks of chemicals up from the Gulf coast. This one carried benzene which seemed to be popular chemical to move like this. Not sure what so much of this is used for but it is a component of agriculture insecticides and herbicides.

It was getting more rural as we entered Alabama—not a single “Welcome to Alabama” sign on the river. Many of the homes started looking more like hunting lodges. These guys seemed to be successful at their hobby.

May have to look into this for purple martins.

I initially thought this might be a trebuchet, but I was over-thinking it. Just an elaborate swing into the river.

We got to Warsaw Cut well before sunset to anchor and raft together. Most of the loop off the river is deep (+20′) so we dragged a bit the first time, used the two outer boats to re-position and anchored again. Plenty of eyes watching the first hour or so after the anchor bit.

It was finally time for sundowners and some supper.

The moon rose a bit afterwards and I did my best to capture it on a gently rocking boat.