Today was a cold morning with temperature at 31 degrees. There was steam off the water with frost on the canvas and dock. I used a pair of lock gloves for my morning walk with Candy to keep my hands warmer.
The river was quiet with only a few bass fishermen out. A couple were launching their boat at Ditto Landing just about the time we were leaving, 8:30. They were going fishing.
We did have to wait a short while for the railroad bridge in Decatur Alabama but it was only about 10 minutes. There were tows along the side of the river and there was one active tug moving barges around for specific shipments. We could hear the chatter on the radio.
The tow captain even acknowledged a sailboat on the river that had its mast down and was flying a skull and cross bones flag. At first he was not sure what he was looking
at and then it got closer. He and his friend had a good chuckle about that. The sailboat was not moving real fast and we passed him about a mile or so past the barges.
While the day started sunny by about noon it was mostly cloudy. We did not have any rain and it was kind of nice to get off the river early. We arrived at Joe Wheeler State Park at about 2:00. A lot different view coming into the harbor then when the rendezvous was on, there were only 2 boats at the transient dockage. The rendezvous had 60 boats.
The sailboat with the skull and cross bones flag came into the marina about 1 1/2 hours after we had come in so he was traveling really slow. He is towing a small Boston Whaler behind the sailboat.
We had a relaxing afternoon doing laundry and picking up around the boat. Somehow that never gets done when you are underway. There is always something to do on the boat.
Dinner was at the restaurant in the Joe Wheeler Lodge. They had a buffet but we decided to order off the menu. The menu was a “Limited” menu because of the buffet. Even though it was limited we were able to order a couple of items that we had previously seen on the full menu (good waiter).