Five Finger Cove, Bay Springs Lake. A Day at Rest and South again.

 I love getting up in the morning to take photos at sunrise, or soon thereafter. The colors are fantastic, and the light is like diamonds on the water....after the fog disappears, that is:)

Today is one at rest for us. It is wonderful not to have to rush anywhere, and to fully appreciate the stunning surroundings we find ourselves in. We are fortunate that the weather is holding, although the temperatures are a little chilly, first and last thing.
We needed some more gas for the dinghy, and our home Marina of Bay Springs, Mississippi, was not far away. We decided to go and check the marina out and get gas at the same time. Crossing the main lake was a bit choppy, and Cooooold. The wind, that is. One boat met us on the way in...they were coming out...but otherwise there didn't appear to be anyone around. The young woman in the office at the marina said they were full of Loopers, but we didn't see anyone.
We bought the gas and departed. The wind had chopped up the lake some more, by the time we got back out there, and the chop was not much fun to ride back to Five Finger Cove. In the process I must have strained some back muscles, coz the next day my back was VERY sore. Despite trying to relax as we hit each wave, I obviously wasn't too successful!

 Nice to have full tanks for the dinghy. We forgot last time we filled up the boat.

In the meantime, the boat looked perilously close to the beach and the water looked Very shallow!! Waz decided to see if we had enough depth to make a move out of there. That wasn't necessary, as we had at least 8 feet under us, despite what it looked like.

 We took the dinghy over to the beach...could have almost stepped off the boat onto the beach, but... There was a small matter of the MUDDDDD! Yes, I got out first, as I always do, and slipped my feet into about 6 inches of orange mud. Oh joy:) Kinda nice, actually! except that it is slippery. Thankfully I hadn't worn my shoes!

 The beach was also muddy....a long way up!

 So...we went for a walk along the beach and looked at all the animal tracks..the dominate ones being Raccoon...lots of Deer, also..both big and small...and a print we couldn't figger at all.

These little coves are just stunning, and I couldn't photograph them enough...so let me know if you want a gazillion pics of coves, in Mississippi.

 You can see how close we are to the beach, in this one. But not in any danger...truly! I could have gone for a swim, had I felt inclined...well, I did, just for a moment. The water was quite warm, which is why we have so much fog in the mornings.

 We got the oars out for a bit and rowed our way around the local coves, then Waz had to go for a blatt...read...fast spin around the water. Not sure what part of "lets do this thing quietly THIS TIME" he didn't understand, but I guess it is just a GUY THANG! lol. We were so fortunate to have nobody else around. Lovely!

 As I said...color, coves...who could wish for anything more??

I sat upstairs on the fly deck in the hot afternoon sun...out back on the deck chair..then migrated inside when the cold wind arrived, and the sun went down slowly, before I decided that it might just be time for some dinner prep. Before I went downstairs, I had to take some more pics of this very picturesque setting. Forgive me!

 I turned this reflection of trees, upside down to get his effect:)

Thursday Morning.

As you can see, it is 7.01am...We have the engines going, and Waz is hauling in the anchor, on the bow. I am watching and doing as I am told to get us out of this little cove safely. He will be back in as soon as he has washed the chain and the anchor. It came up cleanly, thankfully, without too much mud attached.

 We had heard the chatter on the radio of five other boats entering the lock, and we high-tailed it to the Lock, being the last ones in the to tie up.

 This lock took us down 84ft. We are almost at the bottom, in this photo.

 ...and the last to come out. Our idling speed is a bit faster than the crowd were going, so they let us pass, once out of the lock. We hadn't thought there would be so much fog around down here, but it made perfect sense, when we stopped to think about it:) That black thing over the top of the boats is a road bridge.

 Looking back at the lock, as we left. Those are the doors, with the X on them.

 The fog rolled back in, as we made our way south.

So..Now we are in front of the pack, simply because we go faster, but we held back because we had four locks to go through with everyone....for economy of locking purposes.  They retired above the 5th lock, and we locked in with two sail boats who accompanied us on the two further locks. They were slower than this crowd, but we just waited in the lock, put the genset on and made a cup of tea...or on one case, made lunch!:)

 The Tombigbee River is dirty, low and with lots of debris. The debris isn't much fun, and we hit things a couple of times, with the props. The colors along the side of the river are lovely, however.
You know you are getting to THE SOUTH with the appearance of Swap Cypress, again. That and marshlands.

 

 This home in the trees looked rather idyllic!

 The day was warm, then cold. We alternated between down jackets and hats/scarves and none. Aieee!

 We love seeing bird nests...this one took our fancy.

We had three anchorages marked out, but the first one demanded two anchors...not looking promising there, and there was a boat with two fishermen at the entry to it, so we passed (not good in retrospect) and on to the next choice. This one proved unviable too. We went into the anchorage, but when the depth finder got down to 5ft, we called it quits there too. There was too much debris around us and the way in was challenging.
The 3rd choice of anchorage wasn't viable either, and we opted to go into Aberdeen Marina. We knew this was under new management and that the way in to the marina was an adventure all on it[s own. We were to find out very fast, how much this was true.
This photo is typical of the area...and yes, that black spot on the left side is on the camera lens...again! Canon have already heard from me...this camera is a second one! Im not happy about this. What to do?

 One of the anchorages we discarded...as you can see there is too much debris.

 and now we have to make it down the narrow and VERY shallow channel into the Aberdeen Marina. Once we started, there was no place to go but forward. No space to turn, just go ahead...between the markers. We stopped looking at the depth finder when we got down to 3.8ft. Ouch! We were in 8ft one moment, and then nothing. Waz took her out of gear and allowed our forward momentum to carry us beyond (hopefully) this place we could be grounded. It happened, and we were back in gear and gingerly feeling our way along the channel.

 the red poles were on our right, and green on the left, obviously.

 We finally arrived.. No wonder we were stirring up mud...we draw 4ft 6 inches...!hmmmm!

 Look what we had to come through!!

Look what greeted us at the marina. Stunning, calm park-like setting. The place is in some disrepair, but the new owner is keen to repair and get the Loopers back. He will have to dredge his channel, coz half of them wont be able to get in there if it stays like that. Dredging will also be counter productive, as this is part of the Tombigbee River!...and silting is a way of life.

 We are tied up to the wall in behind the Gas station that is also part of the Marina. All plugged in, we opted to have Krispy Chicken Dinner, and then...don't hate me...we shared a whole tub of ice-cream! blech! did we really>>?  Well, I will say that I ate only 5 chicken wings, and you know how much flesh there is on those, but Waz managed to down two breasts. Hmmm....and still ate the ice=cream!

 We sat out under the cover at the table and ate. Pam and Rich, whom we first met wayyyy back in Delaware, helped us onto the dock and then we sat with them while we ate.

We didn't sit around too long, though. It got cold and we were all tired.
Another day finished. Moving on again tomorrow. Always south!