Day 24 or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Space Heater

Can you guess what movie on gracing the presence of the TV tonight during dinner? (For those too young to understand the reference, which should include me, educate yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-X_D2JUAAY)

Woke up to a balmy 27 degrees outside. What the hell Mississippi, I thought y’all were part of the south! Bless your heart…

Today was supposed to be a long 55 mile day. But your fearless captain neglected to check the chart for locks, HA! There were 4. I was travelling with 2 other sailboats, and we got very lucky every lock had the chamber open and waiting for us so we made good time.

The first lock, the Jamie Whitten Lock, named for former Mississippi Congressman Jamie Whitten, is the 4th largest single lock in the US! It lowered us 84 feet as we continued south. It was easily the fastest draining lock I had ever been in. I took several videos I’ll post in the comments. I’ve never dropped that fast in a lock before.

From there we continued south through the Montgomery Lock, Rankin Lock, and Fulton Lock.

I had planned on continuing to Blue Bluffs where there is a free dock (after 11 nights of paying for marinas free sounds great) but going through 4 locks forced me to change plans.

There was a good anchorage just outside the Grover Wilkins Lock (Grover Wilkins sounds like a great name for a basset hound IMO), but as I pulled in the temp had to be 35 degrees, and with a very sad run down marina 100ft away (1/2 my dock neighbors need a new bilge pump it seems) I couldn’t resist the temptation of a 30amp shore power outlet so I could run our heater all night long… (Cue Lionel Ritchie)

So here we are, after traveling only 32 statute miles opposed to 55 like planned, spooning a space heater for warmth on this brisk Mississippi night watching Stanley Kubrick movies. God Bless Kurt Lentch and his Starlink terminal.

Cheers y’all. Only 8 more days on the rivers!