At
mile 773
The Story of mile 773
October 23...Early afternoon
From two miles out we were curious as to what we were approaching. As we neared the structures
on the water, we saw a fountain of water shooting into the air in the middle of the river.
It spouted at the end of a floating bridge that was connected to a large Corps of Engineerts (USACE) floating construction
ship that was anchored a few hundred yards off the Arkansas shore on our starboard side.
The river was wide here, and the river charts showed no dikes in the area. We decided
to head to the Tennessee side of the river to avoid the USACE project. There were no channel markers on the Tennessee
side, so we thought it probably meant the channel was bank to bank. It so happened there was a big red channel marker on
the USACE ship, but we didn't notice it. (That marker meant the channel was on the Arkansas side of the river and it was
only 300 yards wide. The next thing I heard as I was looking over the curious structure, was Ted saying, "What's
that up ahead?" I looked forward and yelled "Hard to starboard!" Ted whipped the tillers over and we turned
parallel to a low level stone dike that extended nearly 1/2 of the way across the river from the Tennessee shore.
Sparsely separated boulders barely showed their teeth above the water. The water was turbulent
down a line to the Tennessee shore. We pedalled furiously toward the Arkansas shore keeping the dike 30 yards to our port.
Fortunately, the dike had considerably reduced the 3 1/2 mph current that existed in the middle of the river, and we easily
ferried past the end of the dike. (Had the water been a foot higher it might have been a problem.) I wasn't sure that we were
at the end of the dike as we approached the fountain in the middle of the river. A 100 yards before reaching the fountain we
saw a tow disappear behind the USACE ship, and I then realized the sailing channel was on the Arkansas shore. I decided we
should attempt to get to the channel upstream of the USACE construction ship. We had been under sail with a tailwind . When
we turned parallel to the dike we were on a beam reach. When we turned upstream to try to reach the proper channel we were
in a headwind fighting a 3 1/2 mph current. Now that we had passed the fountain at the end of the floating bridge we were
really in danger. The bridge was no more than 4 feet over the water and allowed the full current to easily pass under.
Wind and water conspired to pull us under the bridge, which would grab our mast and turn us over
and make a big mess. We began pedaling upstream, slightly angled toward the Arkansas shore. We were pedaling at our top speed
of 5 mph minus 3 1/2 for current and minus 1 mph for headwind. We can only do this for so long. I said again to myself, "
We can only do this for so long."
Half of the floating bridge passed, and we were almost even with the upstream portion of the
construction boat. At 1/2 mph we struggled on against the curent. We heard several blasts from a loud whistle. I asked Ted
for the radio and radioed on channel 13, "Corps of Engineers! This is little sailboat that almost ran over the dike.
Come back!" A voice came back, "You don't have to go around our ship. We'll move the bridge, and you can go
through." I radioed back, "Can we go around the fountain?", and the voice came back, "Yes!" We
did a 180 degree turn and easily pedaled between the fountain and the end of the dike. After passing the obstacles, I radioed
the USACE ship and found out that the dike had been built last month. I promised to stay close to the channel markers from now
on.
At night, while moored, I hear splashes of fish jumping, splooshes from mud cakes falling in the
river, crickets, whoots from owls, occaisional dog barks and coyote howls. The gently breaking wakes from a distant barge
remind me of the seashore, and they rock me to sleep. The herons squack, and the ducks quack, but I don't hear them. I am
asleep.
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