A long day and a long evening which made for a late post. We're trying to get to Green Turtle Bay by Wednesday night for a haul out Thursday. Thus the long days. We stayed at the same marina we did on the way up largely because 1) they have a courtesy van and 2) there's a Costco in town. Thus the long evening. By the time the docking got done, the van got used, and the groceries were made (see "New Orleans Quaint Lexicons") it was 8:30pm when the day was finally over.
We started out in a pea soup. Between AIS and radar we weren't worried much about traffic. Tows are lit like Christmas trees and the occasional bass boat tends to stay out of the channel. But errant log were and always are an issue. So we moved a little slower until we were sure the fog had lifted.
Foggy, foggy, foggy... oh, we can see! Nope, foggy, foggy, foggy...
Two locks were traversed today. Both were a little slow. The first only had the big chamber working, the other was just really busy so we had to wait for the small chamber to lock down a small tow. The 2 locks added another hour to the day.
Pretty clouds in the sky, and nifty reflections on the water.
They were unloading this barged. I don't know what the contents were, but the dust flumes made it look like there was a fire. You can see the stuff on the banks. So... talcum?
Just beyond the second lock was a dredge. For whatever reason there were a cluster of tows coming, going, and waiting by it. We heard all sorts of traffic on the radio as we approached but once we got there we saw the issue: There were tows swapping out barges full of dirt and whatever got dredged and replacing unloaded barges for use. They were working so close to the channel, however, that the incoming tow kept drifting into it. Tows trying to get by (as we were) kept hailing them. "You gonna move that soon?" We managed to skitter by on the far side and stayed out of everyone's way.
The last lock and the dredge. Always somethin' on the water.
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