The Bates "Boat-el"

Tom and I are currently in Mobile Alabama waiting out a tornado with a whole dockside city of "Loopers"...
As we made our way down the 450 mile Tenn-Tom waterway we were under pressure to get through the coffeeville lock before November 14th...because of our hurry, we pressed pretty hard one day trying to get through three locks in a row. We made it through the first two and as we were motoring toward the third, at about 4 pm, a sudden fog started dripping down on us and soon we realized there was no chance of making the third lock before we were completely socked in by fog and dark .To make matters worse, there were no suitable anchorages on this part of the river and no marinas....But wait! What's that? Out of the mist arose some rickety looking docks protruding into the river...we checked our guide books and found this boat "camp" listed without recommendation.We called the "camp" on channel 16, and were answered immediately by a very calm voice saying "come right in, there's plenty of water, I'll be at the dock to meet you"....As we approached we saw the usual roofs that marinas in these parts have over the docks...however the roofs were all caved in and torn apart, as if a huge storm had crumpled them like a piece of scrap paper.
We then saw the outline of a man motioning us forward as our prop stirred up river mud the closer we got to the dock.The man, "Bo", was all alone...He had no front teeth and sucked on a cigarette as he pulled on our lines...almost hitting the boat in front of us in the process.He lived aboard his boat at the camp and looked after the "camp" for the owner.He seemed to be the only person there.We tied up and had a look around...the "camp' consisted of about 20 boats all in various states of disrepair...two once lovely sailboats sat at the dock with good equipment gone bad by exposure to weather...there were moldy lines, rusted anchors, cushions saturated by mildew and rain...a houseboat right next to us looked like the owner made coffee (we could see through the windows) and never came back...the table was set with plates and cups but the exterior of the boat looked as if no one had been there for years! Tom took Kodi for a walk while I stayed on board until Tom called to me to come see yet another "ghost boat"...this is the one Bo lived in...it had tape around all the windows, equipement and tools strewn on the decks and thick curtains pulled tight against the night. There was dirt and cobwebs on everything.An old de-stepped mast sat heavily across the whole boat leaving a huge dent on the cabin top. As I looked around I noticed that there was not one usable boat in the whole "camp" and no one there but "Bo".
I shivered and ran back to the boat...
For the first time we locked our doors that night, and as soon as dawn broke we were off to make that elusive third lock.
As we left, I thought I saw someone waving at me from the sailboat, but Tom said it was just my imagination....