Bashi Creek

Yesterday we saw the nastiest section of water on our trip so far. Shallow and twisty. We even noticed ground effect in several areas where the depth was less than half Moon Dance’s draft. The speed dropped off suddenly and the standing wave at the stern increased in height.

We are usually quite diligent about watching the chart plotter but became more focus after hearing a tow captain waiting for another boat to get off a sand bar. He said to use electronic charts as the Corp of Engineers can’t keep the navigation bouys in the right place as things shift so quickly. Many boats, and certainly, all the tows upload data from their depth sounder to companies like Garmin who update the depth information frequently. It was hand steering, following the navigation line while switching between the nav charts and fishing chart options for an hour or more. All good practice.

We started the morning in the dark and ended up revelling in the late day sun. As the photo attests, we slowly removed layers as the day warmed.

We made it to this well known anchorage with daylight to spare. We peaked into the creek and decided to move across the river. We had heard a 37’ boat could go in and turn around and come out. It would be a tight fit for us. Plus the weather forecast was favourable.

We dropped our anchor on a sand bar just before a corner. We were upstream from Valkammen who was already there. We also added a stern anchor. We thought the current would keep us parallel to the shore but with a light wind blowing in the opposite direction we thought it would be prudent.

We took the dogs to shore and to stretch our legs. John took this great shot of Moon Dance that was photo bombed by Spanish Moss. We are getting closer!