Day 158 Lots of Locks

Woke up early and was leisurely drinking coffee in our pristine anchorage until El Nido and Roda Lee came on the radio with an announcement that 9 of us were all going to do an 8am lock down. Leaped into action and did the first of 6 locks of the day. Our first one was the Jamie Whitten Lock that we have heard about for the entire Loop. It drops 84 feet - the biggest we will encounter. I was not looking forward to this experience, but it turned out to be one of the easiest locks of the trip. We were the front boat and I felt like Dorothy looking up at the massive doors of Oz. By the end of the day, as we traversed the final and 6th lock, we had dropped 224 feet and we were down to traveling with only one boat, BamADream. Everyone else stopped at marinas or anchorages along the way. The landscape varied from lush, fat trees lining the banks, their branches going all the way down to the water to thin cypress swamps. There's a lot more pine and evergreens in this area so we are not seeing the fall color variation as much. This section of the TennTom is called "the canal" and that pretty much sums it up. Muddy, calm waters and just tranquil. BamADream ended up joining us at our quiet, secluded anchorage for the night after a long day of boating. Nothing but the sound of birds and crickets. The weather is superb - 70 degrees and sunny, but in the 40's again tonight. Tomorrow we only do one lock and a short jaunt to the Columbia Marina.