Day 7 - Friday, November 2nd, 2007

Barnacle II Cruise Day 7 – Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Leaving Greenville Yacht Club, Greenville, MS

Everyone was up by 6:00, scrambling for coffee and showers. We unhooked from shorepower and started the generator at 7:00, and we had left the fuel dock and were heading down the channel back out to the Mississippi by 7:10.

The morning is clear and cool, bright sunshine. In trying to determine where we are going to stay in Vicksburg, I started trying to find marinas there. They’ve got all sorts of businesses up the Yazoo and on the Mississippi rivers, but no marinas there at all. Friends who have made the trip said they were able to tie off to casino’s barges on the river, so hopefully we can, too. The Chamber of Commerce was no help when I called, which tells me they don’t have a lot of recreational boating activity. Seems like a waste of good water to me.

We’re having radio problems today. We seem to be able to transmit on any channel but 13, which is used as commercial ship to ship traffic. That’s how we talk to the tows to let them know where we are and ask when and where to pass them, either going downstream or up. Our handheld VHF works fine but both built-in Raymarines (and both brand new) are acting the same way. They were fine yesterday, just decided to be cantankerous today. I think it’s a setting that was inadvertently changed, but tech support for them said if the reset didn’t work to send them in for service. We’ve tried reset several times to no avail. We have determined that it is a low-wattage setting issue…if we kick it over to high wattage, we can transmit on all channels. We're just not supposed to do that on channel 13.

We never did figure out the issue completely, but Barney and Kenn said that we’re transmitting on 13 again. We met a large tow going upstream, and he was throwing a huge wake off the pushboat. We rode a bucking bronco, it seemed for over a half mile behind him. It was a good time to check to see if any of the ports leaked, and none did. But the brown water splashing up against them was a sight to see.

It’s surprising that the off-shoots and cuts off the Mississippi are fairly clear water, but the Big Muddy is just that and aptly named. In some bends, I’ve seen depths as much as 75 to 80 feet, but for the most part the channel is 40 to 45 ft. deep. You wouldn’t think that the barges could kick up much mud from the bottom, but they do.

You don’t see a whole lot of humanity or signs of life other than towboats on this section of the river. There are sloping mud banks and levees, so very few houses are within sight of the river. Occasionally you’ll see a high bank with a house or two located there, but it’s mostly grain elevators and commercial concerns where barges are loaded or unloaded on the river banks. There are lots of hardwood trees on several sections, thick enough so you can’t see the levees built up to contain the river in super high water. By the looks of the trees, it’s been several years since they’ve been inundated with the river. You see very little standing-dead timber.

We made 40 miles in 3 hours, so we should hit 100 miles, or Vicksburg, around 3:00 or 3:30 this afternoon.

Mark Twain’s “Life On The Mississippi” is an appropriate read on this trip. I read it in my youth and dreamed about it, but I had forgotten many of the details and statistics in it. One really struck me: in 1853, the steamboat Eclipse went upstream from New Orleans to Cairo, IL in 3 days, 3 hours and 20 minutes. That was 1,080 miles (at that time, but river mileage changes with each new cut made or bend cut off in high water) with an average speed of 14.2 knots upstream. They were pouring the wood on that fire, and probably only had firewood and deckhands on board with the captain and pilots…forget the food and the cargo. That is unbelievable even by today’s standards and understanding of the flow and currents of this river. Towboats with barges are usually only running 8 to 10 knots.

Thinking about our sailboat making the trip, our hull speed is 6.5 knots (sailing top speed); and having to motor down the river, we would be running 6.5 to 6.75 at top prop speed. Add a 4 knot current to that, and we would be surfing. Someone would be fighting or working the tiller constantly. One of these days we hope to do it, though. I look forward to that trip.

We made it to Vicksburg at 2:30, so 100 miles in 7 hours isn’t a hard run to make considering the current river traffic. We should do at least that tomorrow and blow completely by Natchez. We didn’t want to tie off to a barge in the Mississippi and have somebody wake us up in the middle of the night to move the boat. So we explored up the Yazoo River and ended up anchoring in the river next to the city front. We’ve set the bow anchor, and then thrown out a stern anchor to keep us from swinging out in the channel. It’s used by tugs and barges, so we want to stay out of their way. We were anchored, secured and enjoying the warm sunshine on the aft deck by 4:15.

Tonight we’ll have a quick dinner of sloppy joes that I took out of the freezer, and then make an early night to get some rest. We plan to be out on the Mississippi at daylight again tomorrow morning.

Vickie is back among the living with her caustic wit. She started out a little slow this morning, but seemed to bounce back to normal this afternoon. The rest of us remain healthy.