I wanted to bring up some striking parallels between the Company travelling in Moria, and the company travelling down the Anduin.
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For eight dark hours, not counting two brief halts, they marched on; and they met no danger, and heard nothing, and saw nothing but the faint gleam of the wizard's light,...
In this way they advanced some fifteen miles, in a direct line east, though they must have actually walked twenty miles or more. As the road climbed upwards, Frodo's spirits rose a little; but he still felt oppressed, and still at times he heard, or thought he heard, away behind the Company and beyond the fall and patter of their feet, a following footstep that was not an echo.
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This is sort of like as Gandalf would say "the deep breath before the plunge." It's relatively quiet, they don't hear or see anything, but still we get this sense of ill will to come. And Frodo thinks he heres other "steps" following that aren't the Company's steps. We get this sense of foreboding ill, to come, and it does come.
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The eighth night of their journey came. It was silent and windless, the grey east wind had passed away.
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Right before this we have the bit with Gollum, and him creeping behind the fellowship, so again we get this sense of ill to come. And again we have the "silent and windless night." Not a short while, after the company reaches Sarn Gebir, they are attacked, and then later again at Amon Hen. Both cases there is this unsteady, sort of like that "silent, too silent" phrase, where you get this unsteady feeling before the "big plunge."
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Sam looked from bank to bank uneasily. The trees had seemed hostile before, as if they harboured secret eyes and lurking dangers, now he wished that the trees were still there. He felt that the Company was too naked, afloat in little open boats in the midst of shelterless lands, and on a river that was the frontier of war.
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More sense of uneasiness. But also, Sam is true, the river is "a frontier of war." On one side is warring Rohan with Isengard, on the other is Mordor, with their own patrols, reaching the edges of Gondor. I wonder if Anduin was a good choice for the Company, it does give them more time to think of the decision ahead, but Anduin is an unstable road, with much danger (The danger of being out in the open, shot at, and its made clear that the bows can shoot across the river, or atleast reach the Fellowship, and the danger of Sarn Gebir). Anduin is a very unstable place right now, one each side lies danger, and even travelling down the river is a danger.