November 2, 2013 Pirates Cove Marina Pickensville, AL

We hosted another planning meeting at Columbus Marina where we decided to skip my idea of running 58 miles to the Warsaw Cutoff and instead run 30 miles to Pirates Cove marina.  And as it turned out the winds we far stronger than forecast so lying in an anchorage with 5 boats rafted together would have presented a potential problem.

But before any meeting that evening we spent the late morning shopping.  We hopped into the marina van and ventured into Columbus where we saw a little of the historic sections of the town.  And of course made several stops including the Walmart, a liquor store and a Krispy Creame establishment to satisfy certain individual's cravings.

The next morning Bob gave us the word we could lock through without a wait if we left soon!  So as per usual with this group, we all got off around 8:45am.  We of course brought up the rear.

The lock was only a mile away but it was very windy especially in the lock which acted like a wind tunnel.
We missed lassoing the Bollard we were aiming for and the wind almost had us sideways in the chamber.  It took me a few minutes to pivot the boat around and back down to approach the Bollard again.  Second times the charm but even after we were secured we waffled around in the wind.  It was at this lock where we had to provide all our vessel's pertinent information such as home port, documentation number etc.  We finally skidded out of the lock fighting the wind all the way.

Look closely

Once out  it was another slow, scenic lazy day tootling down the river with a few interesting if not surprising sights along the way.  

Pickensville is where Pirates Cover marina is located.  We were informed that this was a perfect example of a rustic, backwater marina.  The entrance was off the main river channel marked by slender buoys.  We were in the area of the buoys when our depth sounder alarmed went off so I just shut it down and proceeded through the channel.  The shallow spot was only maybe 20 yards wide but you could see the mud billowing up from where we churned it off the bottom.

The marina itself is in a little tree-lined cover with plenty of depth once in the basin.  The docks are not floating but offer weathered wood planking with a spectacular array of splintered sections.  The dock hands were helpful but with that heavy southern accent I could only figure out every other word.

Our dock had two bent poles one of which you had to duck under when getting off the boat.  The other was touching the side of the boat and we had to adjust lines to angle the boat in the slip to avoid the pole.  They did have 50 amp power receptacles. First impressions can be deceiving.  We were only getting 20 amps which was marginal for any heating or other high draw electrical needs.  So we roughed it without heat!

Pieces, the other boat on our pier turned out to be from Wisconsin too.  They are also doing the loop but at a pace well beyond our speed potential.  It's a Viking 60 which is fast!

Down Yonder

Some of us decided to go out for dinner instead of cook on board and took the marina van (broken strut and all) a few miles down some back roads to a place called Eat Down Yonder.  Quaint place, but no alcohol.  Oh well.

Inside Down Yonder

We made it back to the boat and basically watched a bunch of West Wing episodes before going to bed early.  It is Daylight Savings Time tomorrow after all and we have rise earlier.  Or is that later?  Well, we have to get up before 10 whatever that really means.