Rattlesnake Bend

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 184 - October 1. 2017

When I went to bed last night at Sumter Recreation Area, we had a minor crisis in the cabin! Patty was still up and heard a noise, and it did not register what it was until she realized that her feet were getting wet! So she shut off the fresh water pump, and we did our best to use towels to soak up the water! This morning it was my first order of business (after putting the coffee water on from the 7 gallon Aquatainer!) to figure out what had happened.

The fresh water pump is under the rear passenger seat on the port side. I removed the seat cushion and the stuff that was in the storage area in front of the pump. I had feared that perhaps the plastic "L" fitting that goes into the pump had broken, and was very relieved to find it was only a hose clamp that had come loose and allowed the hose to slip off the "L" fitting,  As they say, if these things didn't happen, it wouldn't be a boat!

It was a short run from Sumter to the Howell Hefflin Lock, our only lock today. When we got there, the lock master hailed us as the  "southbound RV," a term which we had never heard applied to boats before! We refer to ourselves as a "pleasure craft," not an "RV"! He told us he had to lock a tow down, and he would turn it around as quickly as he could, but we would probably have an hour's wait. He was exactly right, and we treaded water for about an hour. We heard him conversing with the tow captain about how both his land line and cell phone were out, and all he had for communication was the VHF. When we exited the lock, he asked us to pass that information on to any other northbound "RVs" we might see on the river. We didn't see any northbound "RVs" or plesaure craft either, for that matter!

Anyway, we had intended to set out for Demopolis today, but we had no cell connection at all from Sumter to Rattlesnake Bend, and so we would not have had a reservation at Demopolis. We were also kind of confused by both what Skipper Bob and Active Captain had to say about the two marinas in Demopolis, Demopolis Yacht Basin and Kingfisher Marina. Finally, it looked like we would have arrived after closing or right about closing time, so we decided to stop at Rattlesnake Bend.

This was a good choice! This is a significant old channel that shallows up a little ways upstream to a depth that barges cannot use it, and the shoreline has some spots where I could land Baxter - not a lot of room for him to run around a bunch, but enough to do his business! Plus, it was sandy rather than muddy, and I already have enough mud from the other rivers embedded in my pores so I was not anxious to deal with yet another muddy landing! 

We had a quiet evening on this channel off the river, with maybe four small outboard boats passing us, two of which even slowed down so as not to wake us! Once again, we were treated to an absolutely spectacular sunset"

Rattlesnake Bend sunset!

We only have a short distance to get to Demopolis tomorrow, where we plan to stay two nights. Time to clean the boat, hit the showers, do some laundry and go shopping!