Day 31 - Our First Crisis — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 36 miles, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $0, daily high temperature 83*F

We transited four locks today – Whitten, Montgomery, Rankin and Fulton. We had only planned to transit three locks but we were timely getting through the first three so we transited one more. This will shorten out trip to the Columbus Marina tomorrow. It took us 9.5 hours to transit the four locks and cruise 36 miles at 6 mph.

We had a go fast cruiser rock us in our anchorage. We transited the first lock with that go fast boat Beckibear. Bear seems to be a favorite part of boat names on this leg of the cruise. We have Elizabear and Panda Bear as well as Beckibear. All we need to complete the bear herd is my friend Captain Jack Sheppard’s boat Sleeping Bear.

Beckibear blasted off from the Whitten lock and had to wait for the snailers to catch up before we were all locked through together. Then Beckibear blasted off for the Rankin lock and lucked through. As in they had the good luck to lock through right away while the snailers had to wait an hour for an up-bound tow. The tow was too long for the lock so the tow boat had to disengage the tow and ride beside the tow in the lock. At the top of the lock the tow boat had to the reattach to the barges and push them out of the lock.

Here is a photo of Panda Bear in the Whitten Lock . The drop is 84′

People from Boston do the Loop too.

Our giant turbo diesels protested like hobbled race horses when forced to cruise just above idle speed for endless hours. We will split from the herd after transiting two locks tomorrow and meet them at the Columbus Marina. Some of the herd will stay in Columbus for a few days so this Looper love fest is over anyway. We will see them down the road.

We are anchored in the “Pool” just above the Wilkins Lock in Smithville, Alabama at mile marker 376. The Smithville Marina is the cemetery for derelict boats. There is a collection of the oldest and dirtiest boats still floating – sort of. Our anchorage has a lovely dingy dock that is perfect for walking your dog.

Sunset at the “Pool”, Smithville, Alabama

The Cuba Libra has a steel hull and wooden masts. I would estimate she is a 1950’s/ 1960’s vintage boat at the Smithville Marina.

Tomorrow we will transit two locks – Armory Lock at 371 then the Aberdeen Lock at MM 357 and we will cruise at our own pace to Columbus Marina at MM 335. The herd will eventually catch up to us. The Stennis Lock is at MM 334 so that will be our first lock on Friday.

We had our first mechanical crisis tonight. We overloaded the generator by using too many electrical devices and all the AC power stopped. The generator was still running we just weren’t getting power to the electric panel. We checked the circuit breaker on the front of the generator, main breaker and main ACC fuse. All were good. After reading a few manuals and texting friends for help we decided to call a nearby Looper. Dale had chatted with Tom from Elizabear pronounced (E-LIE-ZA BEAR) who mentioned he solved a mysterious electrical problem with his windlass (anchor hoist). I called Tom and asked his opinion of what might be the cause of our dilemma. He said I will come right over. That is easier said than done. Tom has an unknown nerve disease that effects his ability to walk. He walks with a cane and has raised bars to get in and out of his dingy. It is 7:30 pm and pitch black. He gets in his dingy and motors over to help us. He arrives and realizes he forgot his tool bag and returns to his boat. He returns and boards our boat and starts his diagnosis. He checks all the things we had checked then takes his multimeter and goes into the engine room and fiddles with the generator. After a while we see a green light flash on our electrical panel. A miracle happened. He found a second circuit breaker on the back of the generator that could be not be seen only felt by reaching between the generator and the bulkhead. A simple fix that did not cost us the usual $1,000 to repair anything on a boat.

You might be wondering why former minimalist boaters who were sailers would overload our generator. One of the discussions at the Rendezvous had to do with making sure your diesel generator had a high load on it or else the pistons and rings would eventually shake themselves apart. We took this to heart and turned on every electrical device on the boat. All ‘s well that ends well thanks to our new best friend Tom.

The only good thing to come out of our generator crisis is that we missed most of the Cubs game and the humiliating sweep of the National League playoff series by the Mets. The Mets won game four 8 – 3. The Mets move on to the World Series.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote for the day.
“Not all who wander are lost.” – JRR Tolkien