Waltzing Matilda’s Schedule? “Everything is Based upon Weather.”

December 24, 2009
“The cove I stopped in has served quite well,” Nathan said in a phone call the morning of Christmas Eve. “It was eerie while I was talking on the phone with Ragan getting directions on how to go through the canals when I heard the tornado sirens go off ten miles north of me. I saw clouds but I didn’t see a tornado. On the local radio they said ‘Take cover now and if you’re in a mobile home get out of it.’” But weather in the cove where Nathan is was not bad. Today, he described the water in the cove “As smooth as glass but with raindrops.”
Quite a few raindrops, apparently. Yesterday two feet of rain fell upstream from him. As a result, the locks on the Atchafalaya River are closed and if he sets sail he’ll be unable to leave the river until he arrives in Morgan City in the south of Louisiana. But he’s not planning on going anywhere for awhile. “Everything is based on weather, no matter what my time schedule is,” he said.
Despite being buttoned up inside the Waltzing Matilda, Nathan said “I’m very exposed to the elements. Water was dripping on my head this morning – the dog was unhappy about that. But when it rains two inches in an hour everything gets wet.”
For now, Nathan said he is “catching up on my sewing, cleaning the boat a bit and doing laundry on the deck in the nice clean water.” The Atchafalaya is much cleaner than the Mississippi, “There’s fish here,” he said. And helping him to pass the time “Everybody and his brother has called to wish a Merry Christmas.”
While he says he’d like to perhaps find a church where he can have Christmas dinner, his plan otherwise is to enjoy canned ham. He says he’s only eating about 900 calories a day – he’s got plenty of food but says he doesn’t need to eat much. He sleeps eight to ten hours a night, much of it, he said, induced by stress (presumably a lot of that from being on the Mississippi River).
When the weather clears he will run toward New Iberia, Louisiana, mainly on diesel power, since the canals are too small to sail in. Years ago Nathan had an old diesel Mercedes which he rigged up to burn cooking oil. Whenever he would drive by, his car often smelled like french fries. A problem with that fuel was that in cold weather it could congeal and clog his fuel system. In Louisiana, Nathan said “It’s getting warm enough now that I can start looking for veggie oil for fuel. It is an advantage to having a diesel engine, right?”
We’ll join Nathan by telephone again tomorrow night along with our daughter, Amber, and son-in-law, Eric, flying in Christmas night to what we hope will turn into the first white Christmas Northwest Arkansas has had in 34 years.
On behalf of Captain Nathan and crew member Mattie the Dog, let me as official correspondent of the Waltzing Matalida, wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy