Columbus, MS

 Kerm here,

After a wonderful three nights at the waterfall it was time to move on.  Misstickle and the Belle moved on to an anchorage above the Whitten Lock at a place called Five Fingers.  Again a beautiful anchorage.  Anchoring has never been one of my favorites and the fickle finger of fate bit us again.  We put the anchor down in about 20 feet of water and it dragged.  Something did not feel right so we tried to bring the anchor back up but the windless struggled.  Finally, we got it to break water and there was a tree attached along with a block of concrete tied to the tree.  I had to break out our trusty bow saw and cut the dang thing off.  Apparently it is common down here to sink a tree to create a fish habitat thus making your own special hot spot.  Let me see, 3 trees last loop and 1 so far this trip.  And people wonder why I am not a fan of anchoring.

Bright and early we pushed off to an anchorage above the Wilkins lock near Smithsville.  No trees attacked our anchor.  It was a very quiet night, no wind and no current.  We push off at daybreak the next morning along with another looper, Osprey, who we have seen before.  The locks tend to bunch people up so there are a lot of "we've seen you before" moments.  Our plan was to anchor short of The Columbus Marina and go in early the next day so we could take advantage of their loaner car.

The day progressed so well starting out with nailing all three locks with their doors open.  Some quick calculations and we figured we could be at Columbus Marina by 1:00 and get a day out of it so we pushed on.  As we passed our original chosen anchorage above Columbus we knew we made the right decision.  My first thought was, " I ain't go'n in there no matter what".  

Marine radios.  I don't know what it is but I have a marine radio phobia.  I don't like using them and can't understand what people are saying on them.  I always wanted to become a pilot but each time I took a lesson I had no idea what people were saying on the radio.  Oh well, at least son Dan is flying and I fly vicariously thru him.  I'm getting a bit better now that I added a post radio amp and speaker on the fly bridge helm.  I can hear better and instead of a panic attack when someone calls it's just a blood pressure spike and a desire for a Bud Lite.  Don't worry there is no drinking on the Belle when the engine is running.  So, as with any new gizmo on a boat,  there is a learning curve.  At times people could hear me but I could not hear them much to the the frustration of our buddy boat and lock masters.  Seems with the the amp the volume on the radio itself has to be set just right to make everything come thru.  Learning curve.

The Belle is running well and systems seem to be cooperating.  Of course there is a list of should do's and when we get to Fort Myers we will spend a couple of weeks working it.  I want everything just right before heading to the Bahamas.  At some point, I would also like to ride on a similar boat and see if the thumps and vibrations are similar to the Belle.  Everything in the drive line is to spec but I don't know if what I hear is the nature of the beast or if something is not quite right.