Cochrane Cut, MS

Day 85, October 25th, 2009

It was quite cool in the morning with mist over the water but visibility was good and we got going again. About 10:00 that morning there was a tow boat parked on the side of the waterway. If we'd had any sense we would have grasped that there was a reason why he was just sitting there, but no, we asked him if we could pass safely on his starboard side and he responded that we could do that. Got around the corner and all of a sudden we were in thick fog. Almost missed a starboard hand buoy and went into the shallows. We were just about to drop the anchor and wait for the fog to burn off when it gradually cleared and we were able to get underway again.

We thought we would have a short day that day and stop at the Tom Bevill Visitor Centre to learn about the last steam driven snag boat. However, when we got there we anchored by the lock but found the visitors centre to be closed Sundays and Mondays. We dinghied over and had a good walk around but were a bit disappointed we couldn't go into the Centre itself and find out more. We learned from the various plaques that the snag boat was the last steamboat snag boat before it was retired in 1982. These old snag boats were usually accompanied by a barge tied to its side. There job was to go along the waterway and snag up old logs and old trees floating and clogging up the waterway. This debris was piled up into the barge and cleared away. It could carry as many as 170-180 old trees at a time. We had been passing areas of old cypress stumps and I had wondered what happened to all of the dead trees. I guess this is the answer!

We haven't seen any clearing of dead trees and we have certainly seen a whole lot of logs and debris!!

Anyway, after a good walk around we decided we wouldn't stop the night there after all but make a bit more progress. So we asked the lockmaster if we could lock through and he was very accommodating. We pushed on to an oxbow about 20 miles further south, called Cochrane Cut. The instructions in the book were clear "keep to the West bank" but I, like a dilly, tried my other West, was watching the depth carefully - it went from 17ft beneath and all of a sudden we came to a soft but surprising stop!!! Poor John was on the bow getting the anchor ready. I was able to back off without a problem but I certainly felt like a fool. When I tried again on my other West, it was fine with nothing less than 10ft beneath!!! It really pays to follow instructions!

A couple of rum and cokes and watching an action movie helped to take my mind off it.