Castawayll Great Loop

October 17, 2013 Thursday Day 32 on the water

Lots of fog this morning, had to wait till around 10:00 before going out on the main channel, didn't want to get run over by the barges and tugs or hit them while they are stopped waiting for the fog to lift. Last night after we started to dose off in the middle of nowhere by ourselves we heard a noise on deck. It was a strange loud bumping noise. Listened and watched to see if the wind had come up but didn't appear so. Then there were other strange noises from the deck like someone walking around. Curt kept watching out the windows above our bed and the hatch windows to see if someone was coming in. I was too tired and tried to go back to sleep. Curt kept watching out the windows above us and then saw something in the dark moving directly above my window. He says as he stretched to look out the window to see what it was he saw a big blue heron standing on the deck. With three pounds on the window the unwelcome visitor flew away quickly. I said the next morning I bet the Blue Heron left a deposit for us when he heard a pounding on what he thought was a nice solid rock to perch on for the night. He must have been so surprised the rock was making noise that he didn't have time. 4:00pm We stopped at Pebble Isle Marina for gas, walked around a little to see how far it was to the Nathan Bedford Forrestt State Park where the Crockett Cem. was. It was 5 miles one way and no courtesy car so we got gas for the boat, ice cream for us and since it was so early yet left to get to our next anchorage. Had some delay waiting for a train to go thru the RR Swing Bridge, sun going down we paced in the boat until they lifted the bridge. 3 miles to go to the anchorage we as quick as the little motor would go headed there. Got to the entrance at dark, fisherman said to follow the green and red buoys closely because it was very shallow in places, said he would lead us thru to the marina. Curt with his flashlight on the bow of the boat looking for the green/red buoys shining in the light of the flashlight we started, fisherman said not that way, you'll run into the "Ber" southern for sandbar. Off he went in front of us with his light on to follow. He came up to a plane in the dark, we sped up and in a distance saw him disappear then reappear in a tight S curve, not to be seen again. We slowed down meandered our way thru the dark, found what appeared to be a large enough spot off the main channel for our boat to swing around on the anchor if needed and dropped the anchor. Moon coming up and looked like a spot light now, a little late we could tell we weren't dragging anchor and went down to make supper. We were anchored somewhere along the path to Birdsong Marina.