The trip today was fairly easy as we decided to not attempt the 91 miles necessary to reach Demopolis Yacht Basin. The word on the rivers was that the place is packed and that transients were restricted to only one nights stay. We heard that it was overflowing last night and since we were aware that quite a number of boats were headed there today, made our decision even easier.
The shiny white stuff is the spanish moss; I guess you just had to be here to appreciate it more.
The anchorage for the night is a small bay with a park and boat launch. I have started running ahead of Windsong and Serendipity because I think that my engines need to run at least 1000 rpm to keep the oil pressure and temperatures at normal. Depending on the currents, that usually means that I travel at 9.4 mph while they are closer to 7 mph. Anyway, we have started arriving early and with all of our new found confidence in anchoring we are picking our spot and getting settled before they arrive....usually. Today was really windy and the water was quite deep so we had a few problems. The first attempt actually set well but if we let out sufficient anchor rode for the conditions we would come up against the shore. The second attempt in a wider area would not set. So we moved totally, to the other side of the ramp, and set our anchor in a less protected area. It held nicely even when "waked" by a couple of inconsiderate big cruisers. With the wind as strong as 25 mph at times, the boat was hunting???? I know, I had never heard the term before either. Evidently, the boat just swings back and forth trying to find that perfect balance where the boat slices through the wind without being deflected or redirected. Of course the boat never finds the sweet spot so you dance. Thankfully the winds died early in the evening and we slept well.
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