November 15, 2008: Bates Lake

When we got up this morning, four of the six boats had already left the dock. We had a leisurely breakfast of waffles before casting off for Coffeeville Lock. We had seen the sailboat, Solace, passing by, so we radio’ed ahead hoping to lock through with him. Just as we reached the lock, we heard a tugboat call ahead asking for lockage as well. So the Lock Master decided to wait for the tug, giving us our first experience of being in a lock with barges. The tug boat was pushing 6 barges loaded with coal, so he entered first and fully occupied about 500 feet of the lock. We followed him in and took the first cleat on the right and the sailboat Solace took the left side.

We were thoroughly entertained during the locking process by a snowy white egret that came for breakfast. She started at the top of the lock doors and then proceeded to move down the door as the water drained out of the lock. She marched across each of the cross beams of the door carefully inspecting each one and was finally rewarded with a catch of a small fish stranded in the door frame. We also had a brief conversation with Solace. The white haired captain had sailed his boat from Greece to America by himself and said that he was enjoying the beauty of our country. I told him over the radio that he was a very brave man! It was amazing to watch the Cherokee tug boat Captain push the long barges which were such a close fit to the lock width out of the lock. The tugboat captains are very skilled boatmen.

This lock is the last lock on our journey, and took us down into the river pool which is once again a tidal basin (just like home).

Our cruise today passed some high limestone cliffs called “Lover’s Leap” and some low shore

line with a little herd of cows, all different

colors, cavorting on the bank. There was a lumber mill with tall stacks of light pole sized timbers and industrial docks loading barging.

This afternoon, we reached Bates Lake which is where Martha and Gil left their car and was really just a narrow tributary to the TomBigbee. We were not sure if it was too shallow for us to take The Next 30 Years up the lake, so we took the dinghy off to take a short tour to investigate. As we entered the waterway, a neighboring fisherman came and told us that it was dangerous to anchor where we were and that the lake was over 3.5 feet deep – we should anchor there. So tonight we are anchored out in Bates Lake next to some magnificent cypress trees and very interesting floating cabins.

After a galley cooked dinner of Fettuccini Alfredo, Tom and Gil tried to watch some of the Florida State-Boston College game. The reception changed as the boat swung on anchor, so Tom went upstairs and got the remote control for the engine thrusters. Then he could keep the boat lined up for the best picture.