After nine days of snow and freezing weather, Finito is finally underway to the Tennessee -Tombigbee Waterway on America’s Great Loop. This morning,  leaving  from Counce, Mississippi was tolerably cold even though the lines were frozen and I held on with every step for fear of slipping.

Frost covered the trawler from bow to stern.

Captain Ed was certain the weather would be warming up and he was right. By noon it was close to 40 degrees. The sun was shining  as we entered the beginning of the 234 mile  “Tenn-Tom” Waterway. The starboard side of the canal appeared brown and golden, while  the port side remained white with snow. A testament to the power of sunshine.

Remarkably enough, we saw gulls diving, great blue herons flying, and a group of gigantic white pelicans sitting on a sandbar!

As I hold an important position as first-mate, my Captain asked me if I rather continue on another 32 miles through three locks and get to a warm marina or anchor out.

I replied that since it was such a splendid day, perhaps we should go through the three locks while the weather was good. My Captian considered the recommendation, but convinced me we needed practice anchoring out, plus we would be “fresh” going through the locks the next morning.

“It’s  so hard to go through locks on a  windy day in this boat.” I complained. “Today would be easy. No wind.”

Captain Ed held his breath and gave me “the look.”

We motored around an arm of the waterway just before the John Whitten Lock and Dam. I kept looking at the depth finder. We were expecting to find an anchorage site at 15 feet, but the shallowest we found was  around 26.

“Are we really going to anchor at 26 feet?” I nervously inquired. Ed did not answer which meant “yes.”

It was decided that I would run the boat and Captian Ed would drop the anchor since more than likely the chain was half frozen. Ed untied the rope and turned the wheel. The anchor moaned as it cracked and crashed into the water; I called out how many feet corresponded to each painted chain color.

“Red! 25 feet!

“Yellow! 50!

“White! 75!”

Orange! 100 feet!”

Ed gave me the hand signal like he was directing traffic: “stop.” Things were going too well. I suspected trouble….

I left my post to retrieve  the throw line just in case Ed fell in. This was the part where he would lean down and hang over the edge to connect a trip line or some contraption. “At least we are close to a shoreline,” I thought. “He never thinks he will fall in.”

After some time, it was decided the anchor was holding so we went into the salon. Okee had calmly sat through the whole thing. She is without a doubt my therapy cat.

It was a beautiful sunny, cold  day. Ed and I did the most fun thing one can do while anchoring out: nothing!

We ate dinner at 4pm. The sun went down and the moon came up. So magical. What a good idea to anchor out! Tomorrow, the locks…