We have an 80 mile journey today so we are up early to leave the anchorage by 6:30 or so we thought. Bob retrieved the mud-laden stern anchor with no problem and then I started the windlass to lift our bow anchor. It groaned and the bow dipped.
I looked over the rail and the anchor brought up a 25 foot tree limb with a 15 inch diameter. No wonder we held so well last night! How are we going to get rid of this thing? We have to think fast as when we dislodged the tree limb, we no longer had an anchor set and were starting to drift sideways in the small channel with a tree attached.
This is exciting or some word like that! We started using all our lines to lasso the beast, dunked it up and down many times, uttered a few choice incantations, and an hour later, it surrendered. Or so we thought…. We started to prepare to get underway and it popped back to the surface like an arboreal Jaws. I beat it back again with a boat hook while Bob gunned the engine to make our escape. Phew—that was a close one.
We continued on the circuitous Black Warrior River made more interesting by meeting barges on these hairpin turns and bridges. The terrain changed to bayou country with very shallow depths. I found this out the hard way when I ventured off course a bit to allow a boat to pass, the alarms sounded and I had to veer back quickly.
We were never so glad to see the faint outline of Mobile in the distance. We are here—we have arrived.
I looked over the rail and the anchor brought up a 25 foot tree limb with a 15 inch diameter. No wonder we held so well last night! How are we going to get rid of this thing? We have to think fast as when we dislodged the tree limb, we no longer had an anchor set and were starting to drift sideways in the small channel with a tree attached.
This is exciting or some word like that! We started using all our lines to lasso the beast, dunked it up and down many times, uttered a few choice incantations, and an hour later, it surrendered. Or so we thought…. We started to prepare to get underway and it popped back to the surface like an arboreal Jaws. I beat it back again with a boat hook while Bob gunned the engine to make our escape. Phew—that was a close one.
We continued on the circuitous Black Warrior River made more interesting by meeting barges on these hairpin turns and bridges. The terrain changed to bayou country with very shallow depths. I found this out the hard way when I ventured off course a bit to allow a boat to pass, the alarms sounded and I had to veer back quickly.
We were never so glad to see the faint outline of Mobile in the distance. We are here—we have arrived.
