Day 41 - Tuesday October 30th Columbus, Mississippi

As much as I did not want to, we had to leave Aberdeen, Mississippi to head on down the river. So we were up and going back through the scary entrance/exit to the marina toward the Aberdeen Lock and Dam by 9:30a.


Now on our way to the Aberdeen Lock we came across another one of the oddities that we have only seen in the South: bridges that are only half-way removed and that still extend out over the water. Neither Mark nor I have ever seen anything like this before and we have seen three bridges like this since crossing the Mason-Dixon Line. Mark Lyons, I am going to pose this question to you since you are the only person that I know that spent their formative years in the South…Why don’t they remove the bridges all the way? Is there some reason for leaving the bridges half-built? This Yankee just does not understand…


We locked through the Aberdeen Lock with four other boats but as soon as the gates opened, the larger and faster boats left us in their wake. Soon we had the river all to ourselves for the remainder of the rather short trip of about 3 hours.

We had planned to get to the Columbus, Mississippi Marina early because they advertised a free wi-fi connection to the Internet and I was in serious Internet withdrawal mode since I had not been “connected” for the past week or more. The marina is very easy to enter and the most absolutely charming soul met us at the gas docks. I instantly fell in love with Jimmy. Jimmy is a Mr Do-it-all at the marina and was just as cute, jolly, and fun as could be. He started teasing me the minute he saw me and did not stop until our boat was out of shouting distance upon our departure the next morning. Later I was told that the only thing easier to pick than cotton in the South, is a Yankee.

The marina was full due to the fact that many of us pleasure boaters can not enter the Gulf until after November 1st due to insurance issues; so many boaters leave their boats here for several weeks prior to November. Upon arrival at the dock we filled up with fuel and then Mark had a true test of his docking skills. He had to parallel park the boat in a very tight slip with the owners of both other boats watching him. This is the first time that Mark has ever had to parallel park the boat. But he has had plenty of experience in the locks and he did an excellent job. He just slipped the boat in like he was parking a car – piece of cake, so he said. But seriously, he did a wonderful job.

As soon as we were docked and the electric lines were attached, I had my computer open and was on line. I was in heaven. I uploaded one blog entry and then we decided that we needed to go to the store and we wanted to see the town. Mark reserved the courtesy car for 4p and I turned off the computer. Now for the first time since we started our journey we encountered rudeness among our fellow boaters. When one borrows a courtesy car from a marina or person, one always returns it early so that others may have the car if they need it. We were not so lucky…Our turn was to be at 4p and the people ahead of us did not return the car until after 5:30p. In hindsight, what upset me the most was that I lost 1.5 hours of Internet service. To further foil my plans, a marina employee (not Jimmy) turned off the Internet connection at 5p when they went home for the day so when we returned from shopping, I HAD NO INTERNET connection. I was beside myself to the point where all I could do was laugh because it was just so stupid. Then to compound the problem, the marina does not open until 8a and we had to leave by 9:00a because they had a large boat coming in that needed our slip. Ahh, the joys of boating with a computer geek.




We did have several treats while in the Columbus area though. First, we had a little visitor join us on the boat while we were at the marina. This was very nice as I found non-boating homes for my two cats, Betsy and Bertha, prior to the trip. So to have a feline guest onboard for even a short time was very special indeed. Secondly, an Air Force base is located nearby. The jet pilots are trained here and we were treated to our very own air show. It was just a contradiction to be slowing riding on the river bayou and then hear and see the jets overhead as the only sign of civilization.

Hours on the water: 3.25
Nautical miles traveled: 22
Number of locks: 1
Time spent waiting at locks: 0
Tomorrow's Destination: Cochrane Cut-off Anchorage
What we're listening to: I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe
What we watched: Cable TV
Lesson for the day: Not all boaters are polite
Obligatory knitting report: Mittens for Wunder Kids