Early Morning Fog
This morning's fog was mostly patchy but at one point the visibility dropped to under 100'. Naturally, that's when the radar started picking up something big and just 1000' ahead. I feared it was a tug with nine barges. It turned out to be a 3' high channel marker. Note to self, the size of the radar return doesn't always correspond to the size of the object.
Big Radar Return from a Small Red Nun
About six miles below the Coffeeville dam the river gets downright spooky. It was the same erie feeling I got in Katrina-devastated Biloxi. The flooding river had ripped the first 12' of leaves from every tree. So consistent was the damage that it looked like the banks had a bathtub stain.
The Bathtub Stain
The banks themselves were deeply scared and undercut. Whole trees had fallen into the water and many more were in the process of doing so.
Errosion of the Soft Banks
The damage is a stark reminder of the river's power and a warning to all who ply these waters: beware, it only takes a little rain to wake this sleeping giant.
Coffeeville Lock (l) and Dam (r)
Nellie went through her first inland river lock today. After writing about water heights at Coffeeville for two weeks, it was nice to finally see the lock. It's like an old friend that I've never met before. Here's the last time I'll report its gage height, we saw 22'.
The Single Pin Tie Up
Different than the locks we've transited before, there was only one place to tie up to. The 'pin' floats up and down with the lock's water level. There wasn't much turbulence as we rose 20' and the single pin worked just fine.
Cellular data is hard to find on the Tombigbee so I'll send this while we're still underway. At MM154, 54sm today and 1438sm for the trip. DBH
