This low-water season is REALLY low

I'm on a bit of a break from blogging.  Apologies to anybody who's been checking here multiple times hoping for something new.

Not much has changed since my last post, and that's the main reason I decided to give the blog a rest for a while.  The truth is that I was tired of writing essentially the same thing over and over.  Soon I'll post an update of what's been happening with my aches and pains and my efforts to keep some kind of exercise going until I find the motivation for pursuing paddling excellence once more.

The main reason for this post is to share some photos I took today in the harbor.  Yesterday the Mississippi River dropped to its lowest level ever recorded at Memphis.  The record low had been -10.70 feet on the Memphis gauge back in the summer of 1988, and yesterday afternoon the water dipped almost a tenth of a foot lower than that: -10.77 feet.

By the time I got down to the river this morning it had risen back to -10.65 feet... still all but the record low, as far as I'm concerned.  As I walked down to the marina, I found that the entire west end of it was in the mud:

Here's the dock where I normally put my boat in the water:

Low water puts a lot of stress on the marina.  Even the part of it that's still afloat has some piers that are touching the bottom, causing contortion in the roof line:

Since my normal dock was completely aground, I carried my boat around the corner to a dock that still had some water access:

First I paddled up toward the harbor's north end.  Up there a barge is sitting high and dry:

I headed back south, and stopped to take a picture where Bayou Gayoso empties into the harbor.  My guess is that the mound of dirt in the foreground is made up of sediment that's washed into the harbor from the bayou:

Farther south, down the hill from River Garden Park where the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race used to finish, an historic relic has been revealed.  Pictured here is some kind of old wooden boat complete with the engine block that I presume once propelled it.  I am not the first person to spot it: there's an orange traffic cone marking the site just to the right of this photo.  I hope that means our local archeologists are on it:

There are two marinas in the harbor.  I've shared pictures above of the one where I keep my boat.  The other one is some one thousand meters to the south, and it's not faring so well right now, either.  The entire west wing and much of the east wing are sitting in the mud.  The boats in this photo won't be going anywhere until the water comes up a few feet:

And here's a photo of the same marina from a different angle that local photographer Danny Day took yesterday.  I think he made better use of the light than I did (i.e., he's a better photographer):

All very fascinating, to be sure.  But I hope for the return of some rainfall to the Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland drainages soon.

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