Thursday Oct. 30, 2014 Decatur, Al MM 305 to Florence, Al. MM 256

Prepared to depart Riverwalk Marina and get on our way. Immediately upon exiting the marina we had to go under a railroad bridge that only had 9.8 ft. of clearance when he was down so we needed him to lift the bridge. Unfortunately there was a rather long train going over the bridge as I could watch it from the flybridge of our boat in the marina. I called the bridge tender and asked him if it would be possible to get a lift after this train. He said I would check and then called me back on the radio and said as soon as this current train was gone he would lift the bridge for us. A quick exit from the marina was made at 0837 to go under the lifted bridge.  There was a little less current to push us along today as we were going 7.4 kts (8.9 mph) @ 1500 rpm. It was sunny but cool at 50 degrees.

We had 2 locks we hoped to get thru today. The first was the Wheeler Lock mm 275 and I was concerned because the main chamber was being repaired and we would use the auxiliary chamber which is smaller. It doesn’t make any difference which chamber we use but if there is a tow with barges at the lock, he has to break apart his barges in order to get thru the lock and that can take hours. As luck would have it there was no one waiting to get thru the lock so on we went. The lock master had the doors open for us as we arrived and we pulled in at 1207 hours and were out at 1229 hours, a smooth 48 foot drop.

We proceeded to the Wilson Lock mm 259 and once again there was a minimal wait. I love when things work out that way. We were in the lock at 1412 hours and exited 1442 hours a very smooth drop of 93 feet. Colletta has decided she likes going down in the locks much better then riding them up, it is a lot less stress and work. This will be our last lock until the Tombigbee.

 

We called Florence Harbor Marina in Florence, Al. about a slip for the night and after 2 calls and leaving messages with no replies we figured they must be busy, so we would pull into the gas dock. We got to the marina at 1500 hours and there was not soul in sight. I checked the marina office and it was locked up. The hours on the office said 8-5pm but no one home. We tied up to a floating dock with power and there we stayed waiting for someone to stop by. We never saw or heard from anyone in regards to our phone calls while we were there. I guess Thursday is free dockage in Florence, Al.  We got our bikes off the boat and cruised into downtown Florence just to check it out and then returned to the boat. We had dinner on the boat as we had eaten at restaurants the previous 2 nights; we have a cruising budget we try to adhere to, sometimes.

The Free on Thursdays Florence Marina