Operative word for today is: ASTONISHMENT. Today was sorta full of surprises. Including right at the start of the morning.

Around 1am it started to rain. For the first time in weeks I had my rain fly on as rain was predicted earlier in the evening but never came. At 1am it came, and never stopped. I was up before sunrise but delayed a while in the tent hoping the rain would stop; at 6:40 I finally assumed it wouldn’t; so I put on my rain jacket and went outside. I had left my paddling pants hanging on a paddle to dry last night; instead now they were thoroughly wet, so it was exhilarating putting those on. I broke down the wet tent and left it outside of the dry bag on the boat, expecting the sun out later to dry it some before tonight. I had coffee but skipped the oatmeal: it seemed too sad sitting down for oats in the rain; an energy bar and protein bar would do.

When I set out it was a bit foggy. I could see two tugboats about 2 miles downstream and one a mile upstream, but I couldn’t tell who was moving due to the fog. I was on the wrong side of the channel and didn’t want to be stuck there assuming all the barges were moving. I would’ve preferred to ease into the morning, but decided to make a quick dash for the other side. As I sprinted toward the channel, I looked left and right again to see which tug was going to close in quickest; I couldn’t tell. So, a little longer glance upstream to my right, then another downstream… what the! There was a red channel buoy two feet in front of me and there was no avoiding it. KANK!!! I hit it just ahead of the middle of my boat; it gave way a little and the impact jolted me a little towards the buoy which hit my defensively raised forearm. Then I was past it. 2-3 minutes on the water and I made my biggest kayak blunder yet. Quite a startling surprise to start my day.

When I looked back at the buoy I noticed, someone had written with a black Sharpie in 6” letters: KANK. I think I would’ve chosen THWONK or BLOMP, for this was much more collision than a DOINK or PING, but KANK seems like it was meant to be. Kank (verb): To unwittingly smash your small watercraft into channel buoy. Now, could one of you with better cell phone coverage call Mr. Webster for me to get this added to the 2024 edition?

I was glad not to be capsized and marooned on that Mississippi beach in the rain. I can just imagine the headlines in the Helena Observer: Captain Charcuterie Kanks Buoy and Capsizes Boat; Charcuterie Lost in Shipwreck, Presumed Drowned.

Oh yeah, Captain Charcuterie? Thanks mom for that suggestion. I think it’s better than Blueboat. It’s great because 25% of the population can’t pronounce it, and many people will probably assume the communal food offering is named after the pirate! Though the people that can’t pronounce it may just call me Captain C, and I don’t want to be confused with Captain Crunch. He’s no pirate! I don’t even think he has a ship.

So, after I crossed the channel and got a ways downstream, I realized those tugs that concerned me were parked; and the one upstream seems to be as well. Guess I panicked into that buoy for nothing.

Appropriately after my wildlife comment yesterday, early in the morning I saw 7 egrets standing in a long line on the beach, and just downstream were two bald eagles. A short while later, more egrets in the water, and a flock of 20-30 flew past headed downstream. Then, 5 or 6 turkeys on the Mississippi side. So, the birds are still making a showing, but no other animals.

As I went on downstream I came across more parked tugboats with barges. I stopped counting after 20. Finally I realized, they must be grounded due to the fog? The visibility wasn’t that bad (this was nothing like the morning Caroline joined), I could see ahead at least a mile, though things were a little fuzzy out there. But that was indeed the case: no barges were moving.

A few times the rain stopped and it seemed the sun was going to break through and burn off the fog. Then, things would get grey and the fog would worsen. In fact, the fog was probably worse at 3pm than it was at 8am. I then realized: Dick Dastardly is still back in Memphis; I may be the only boat moving on the Mississippi for 100 miles in either direction, and I do believe that was the case.

So I don’t know what happened to that 89 and sunny weather forecast. Because of my shoddy reception I can’t get a weather forecast, but this was another surprise today. I can’t say I particularly liked being rained on all day, but I think it was preferable to last week’s hot weather. And the day without barge traffic was a nice relief; I traveled wherever I wanted to in the channel, and gave plenty of space to oncoming buoys.

Around 5pm today I was getting tired and had no reason to forge ahead further. So I found a beach on the left bank and pulled up; 44 miles today. I’m camped on a strange little section where the river has moved since state lines were originally formed, so Arkansas is on both sides of the river. Is two nights in a row In Arkansas pushing my luck?

10 minutes after I pulled in, the first of several barges headed downstream past my beach, as if they couldn’t get the green light until I stopped! I suspect they will be moving past in both directions most of the night after having lost at least 10 hours today.

Without having to think about the barge traffic, I was able to do some planning on the remaining journey. I expect to average less than 40 miles over the next two days as I’m hoping to meet someone in Greenville, MS on Saturday afternoon. From Greenville it’s about 100 miles to Vicksburg, which I plan to do in 2 days. If I can do that I’ll likely stay at the casino there that’s right on the water and take a day off again there on Tuesday. (I’ll go straight to the roulette wheel and put my whole booty on black!) That will leave me about 350 miles to do in 9 days to arrive in New Orleans on the 19th. Around 38 miles a day seems almost lazy, but it leaves me some contingency. Maybe I’ll have free time to do some piratey things, like some swashbuckling, or burying some treasure (though I feel I’ve already buried lots of treasures). Hey now! You promised!

The clouds didn’t leave any room for a sunset, and the rain drove me inside the tent right after dinner. Seems it will be a cool evening, but I would like to wake to dry things tomorrow; we’ll see.

There’s loads of good rainy day tunes to choose from for today’s playlist, but I found myself singing, or trying to remember lyrics to sing this Led Zeppelin tune a lot today: The Rain Song