Hurry Up and Wait; Vidailia, LA

We pulled out of our anchorage above Vicksburg early; the sun was rising and a kind of wispy mist was suspended over the river. You couldn't really call it fog but it gave the morning a very calm demeanor and set quite a different perspective for us after a couple of days battling the cold winds and snotty cruising.


As we began early, we made Vicksburg by the middle of the morning and chose not to stop because the fuel dock had ceased providing services. Our plan called to fill every extra barrel and can with gas, which we did, at Greenville and try to make Natchez/Vidalia by night. We made previous arrangements with a gasoline distributor in Vidalia to bring us gas at the river. There is a small dock just north of the Natchez - Vidalia bridge where you may tie up close enough to the road for a truck to deliver the gas.


The day was, as I recall, a nice cruise day and we made Natchez about 4:30 pm. As usual, we had no plan for anchorage but I had noticed a small creek on the chart just south of Natchez and upon arrival it looked as though we could pull Detour into the mouth and out of the swift Mississippi River current. We pulled in slowly because of the stumps and debris. We, as we were many times on the trip, very lucky to have not destroyed some important under water machinery.


Dinner was simple; Vienna sausage, crackers and beer. I think we had a Twinky for desert but I can't remember for sure. They say the mind protects one from trumatic memories. It finally got dark and we quickly fell asleep. I slept better because we were in an anchorage that was safe from the perils of the river... unless of course you counted cotton mouth water moccasins and alligators.


About 7:00 am I called the gas guy about our gas that was to be delivered at 8:30. Couldn't get the guy but I talked with the office person who assured me that the delivery would be there on time. I hoped we had enough gas to get back upstream and to the Louisiana side of the river which was about three miles; a long way when one is traveling upstream on the largest river in the US and most other parts of the world. When we arrived at the dock and secured Detour we noticed a water hydrant on the hill above the dock and I decided that a good way to spend the time waiting on the gas would be to carry water and fill our tank. When I climbed the hill, I would say a couple of hundred feet, I found that there was a hose long enough to reach the boat so I was saved from carrying the heavy cans. Evidently, the work boats that were using the pier to refuel were also filling water tanks.


I finished filling the water tanks and recoiled the hose in its place and realized the gas had not arrived. My watch said it was a little after nine. I didn't get too worried because I figured he was just slowed down for some reason and would be here shortly. Mickey and I took the opportunity to explore a little as we had not been off the boat for any appreciable amount of time in the last three days. About eleven the gas was still not there so I called the office person again and was assured me that the truck was on its way and probably had to make a stop or two before it got there.


I think somewhere in our discussion to date we have mentioned that cruisers should not try and stay on a schedule as there was too much margin for error. Well, we learned that lesson again. It didn't matter that I had a plane ticket from NOLA to Knoxville and Mickey had a train ticket home that were not transferable and had to be used at the prescribed time, which was carefully calculated to get us back to work when we were due. It didn't matter that we were tied to a precariously little dock on the Mississippi trying to keep all manner of floating objects from becoming tangled in the rudder and screws. It didn't matter that we were becoming more irritated by the minute with no recourse. So, we had a beer and relaxed on the boat and tried not to think about it.


I believe the truck arrived at our outpost about 12:45 or so and the driver very unapologetically said that he had several other stops and it took a little longer than expected. I had several things I would like to have said but I couldn't take the chance on him packing up and leaving us without gas and stranded. The gassing was more complicated than I figured because the truck had to back onto the dock; actually a small floating barge, in order for the hose to reach our tank. We had to get gravel and logs to put under the wheels of the truck in order for it to gain access. There was a time he said that he might not get the truck out on the barge but I quickly found more filler to place under the wheels and we competed the filling up process.


Now our task now was to get from Natchez/Vidalia to NOLA, actually past New Orleans and through the industrial canal and about 8 miles up Lake Pontchartrain to the New Orleans City Marina. A full two day trip and we were a half a day late already. The real problem was we had to make it on the gas in our tanks and the barrels we had brought with us.