Sometimes knowing when to say goodbye to something that you have been through a lot with and trust your life with can be hard to see sink.  Many of you know what I am saying when it comes to boating you have to have faith in your boat and equipment & gear. Having an anchor you trust is very important.

No rope, No chain. no power tool and no swearing was going to be enough to save our 44lb Bruce anchor. Bryce tried everything he could think of to save Bruce. We powered her forward to backward to sideways every-way…. every-way but loose.  Two hours into lets try this and lets try that. Nothing was happening! she was stuck wrapped-around something. He was going to put his wetsuit on and dive under but the water was to dark it would not be worth his life to save a 100 dollar anchor.  Bryce was determined; 30 + years of anchorage we have never lost an anchor and we are not going to start now with out a fight!

I tried to stand on the chain to see if my weight could help in some way. Bryce did laugh at me.

Nothing was helping. Bryce said well there is one more thing I would like to try before we give up. We are going to take the anchor line and try exerting pull on it with the winch. Our biggest winch is capable exerting about 5000 pounds of force.  Much more than the windlass.

I just rolled my eyes like the kids use to do. Then I would yell at them for doing it.  lol  Bryce just said we have to try this then we can say we tried everything. I agreed so we dragged the line back to the winch. Actually Bryce did, I carried the camera. 📷

okay… we are all set Bryce started cranking the winch. You could feel the bow of the boat go down. I went up on the bow to see if I could notice any slack in the chain.. I just thought that I could help by standing on the chain again, but Bryce yelled at me and told me to get away in case the chain or line snapped. I guess I can’t get mad at him, I am sort of a klutz.  We were passed by by 5 power boats with nice wakes and one tow.

“Bryce this isn’t working”!!! I yelled back to him I was getting tired “Are you sure about that?” as he pointed to the port side (left) of Beauty. WOW,,,my eyes 👀popped out of their socket. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

it grew and grew till the winch couldn’t do anymore. I was so excited that we were going to save our anchor. Okay, what’s next?  Well… time to start the generator and get my saws out. He pulled out his sawzall and circular saw and went to work.  This wasn’t a log it was a monster tree!! How in the world does an anchor get wrapped around this crap when the boat doesn’t move? He took the dinghy to the bow. Bryce stood on the tree to see how solid it was planted.

You can see by this picture the chain is at the other end of the tree. It is time to start cutting so we can unwrap the anchor. Bryce started on the top side but quickly decided it would be better to use the dinghy.

Nothing can always go smooth… right? The wakes from the other boats just …well you can imagine they didn’t help the matter at all. Bryce decided that he should tie a line on to the tree end so we didn’t loose the anchor again. Then he cut away the last part of that breakage.

Yey…we saved the BRUCE👏🏽 Bryce was able to unwrap the chain from the tree.

We are so excited that we didn’t use common sense. It was time to take off the line and bring in the anchor & chain. However, that didn’t happen! we took the line off.   Too soon; it seems the anchor chain was also wrapped around lower down on the tree.  If we had not removed the supporting line, we might have been able to unwrap the chain. No doubt, now it would require lifting the whole tree trunk.  The thought of winching up the complete tree and floating down the river tied to a tree trunk was not a pleasing image.

So this time Bruce was gone and not coming back. Bryce, it’s time to cut the chain and bury Bruce. I’ll sacrifice a rose to the burial and say goodbye to a faithful anchor & 15 feet of chain. As a last resort, Bryce took the dinghy out one more time to see how deep it was down. But he came back around and took his sawzall back up with a metal cutting blade and we said our goodbyes. I dropped two roses in to thank them for being part of our adventure for the last 6 years.

After we were loose (5 hours later) we pulled way. Bryce needed to get his frustration out so he swabbed the deck. I took the helm and headed to our new anchorage 20 miles south for the night. Yes, we had a spare anchor; a “Danforth Super Hooker” and a rear anchor “Delta”.  We will have to buy a new one. Lets pray we don’t loose another one to soon.

Sometimes our scenic venture runs into each other from one lock to the other or the writer gets lazy. More than likely, I would go with the writer gets lazy. lol Let me tell you this…After we locked through Howell Heflin, the river was flooded with timber floating in it from all the rain we have had the last few days.

The dams were open to let water through. There has been so much rain, it is raising the rivers. We saw one of our anchorages gain between 1 and 2 feet.  Apparently, they have to control the levels. It looked like we were in a floating lumber farm. We just put our engine in neutral and coast through the lumber blobs till we can put it back in gear. Oh…my some of the trees were really BIG ones I couldn’t believe my eyes 👀 I stood on the bow and pointed to the trees so Bryce could avoid them.

 

As we approached another switchback turn to our surprise was a dredging tow and all the pipe-works dredging the river in the pouring rain.  Just what we needed with all the lumber floating. They had their anchor barge anchored between the red buoy and green. I suggested the we pass on the east-side of the barge. It’s the little barge in the pic below.  Yey.. for me it was the right one. We still had a ways to go.

The dredging of the river. The depth registered 17 feet

These tubes look like pipe-works that our children use to play with.

We are looking for anchorage but nothing to be found.  Don’t believe that for a second! No doubt, Bryce will find something. He never lets me down.

Oh…My the view just turned white like mountains of snow. Still on the bow, I pointed to Bryce..Look isn’t that a pretty view? He nodded yes, it is gray clay I think.lol

I just love the reflections of the river and the deep gray cliffs

You can still see the floating mess. lol

The widening of the river brought great possibility for a night anchorage for us. We nosed in a few areas but nothing was deep enough. We went on and found the perfect place. Although it wasn’t an ox-bow, it was a bank side anchorage protected by two points…Perfect!! We fit in like a hand in a glove. As we sat in the cockpit having coffee, we were passed by a Tow & barge. We could hear the captain talking to another tow on the VHF. We have a pleasure craft anchored near a bank at mile marker 245. They are well out of the channel.. they look good. The river was wide enough for us and two barges side-by-side.

Bryce put-out his new Danforth anchor aft to hold us straight along the bank. I felt safe and watching the tow & barges is neat.  We were anchored about 40 feet from shore in 12 feet.  We prefer to be protected by buoys.. but this area of the river has few buoys.

Have a great day everyone.

Going through a lock for the first time can seem like an intimidating procedure.  This is natural reaction, but it comes less intimidating the more locks you go through.  www.sailbeauty.com

Here is a picture from the Whitten Lock Dam museum that shows how the Whitten lock works..

The process starts by approaching the lock within a few miles and hailing the lock on channel 16 or some predetermined channel based on the lock.  For busy locks, we call a few hours before hand on the cell phone and ask for instructions.  Here is a pic of the entrance to the Whitten lock from shore.

The lock master gives us final instructions such as which side to lock on and be sure to wear life jackets.  He/She will typically tell us to wait for an opposite tow to clear, then enter.  A red or green light on the lock entrance indicates if we can enter (green) or must wait (red).  Sometimes the lock master will tell you to tie up in a certain place or wait off the channel in a certain spot.

Here is a picture coming up to the lock entrance.  There is typically a long wall on one side (left in this picture) and a shorter wall on the other side (right).  The lock master sits in a building over looking the lock (just above the right kayak).  This is the Aberdeen Lock on the Tombigbee.  The red/green light will be on the end of one of these walls.  We typically use binoculars to see the red/green lights as we are about 1/2 to 1 mile away waiting.

Here is a view from just inside the Aberdeen looking back towards the lock entrance.  The entrance is quite wide and water will be typically at least 12 feet deep.  Typical tows require 9-10 feet.

Our preference is to tie up on the port side as prop walk will draw us into the lock wall when we reverse to stop.  However, unbound locks often prefer us to tie on the starboard.  It depends on turbulence in the lock during the locking process.  We typically enter the lock at about 4 mph and slow down to about 0.2 mph just before tying up.

The end of the lock can appear very close as we enter the lock, but it becomes apparent that 600 feet is quite long.  Typically, the first one that enters the lock pulls as far forward as possible.  This is a picture of the Whitten Lock on the Tombigbee.

On most all the locks on the Illinois, Mississippi and Tombigbee we tied to to “floating bollards”.  These are huge floating cans about 5 feet in diameter that have a “cleat” on them.  They ride up and down with the water on slides built into the lock wall.  Steel wheels inside steel slots allow them to rise and fall easily.

Here is a picture of a floating bollard.  I think this is a picture from the Amory lock on the Tombigbee.

We found the best way for us was to tie two lines to the bollard.  The first line from the springer (cleat near the center of the boat) and a second line from the aft cleat (rear of the boat).  At first we used two separate lines.  However, this became a bit clumsy getting two lines connected, particularly in high winds.

We developed our current technique using two lines tied together.  We create a large loop on one line and tie the other line to this loop.  The large loop is used to loop around the bollard.  This loop is cleated at the springer and the other is cleated aft.

Bryce motors up to the bollard and I slip the loop around the bollard.  The line is already secured on the springer and Bryce just tightens it up on the aft cleat after I slip the loop on the bollard.  After he tightens it, he reverses the engine to bring us to a complete stop.  Here I am placing the loop.  Look how big these bollards are!!

In high winds, Bryce can use a bit of forward or reverse on the engine to hold the boat straight.  It is critical the boat be held straight because the mast sticks out about 10 feet from the front and rear.  If the boat rotates to much the mast can crash into the lock wall damaging the mast or mast head.  If there are no winds, the lines against the bollard slot tend to hold the boat perfectly straight.

After tying up, we notify the lock master over VHF that we are secure and ready for locking.  The lock doors where we entered then start closing.  This is the Aberdeen lock.

Here the lock doors are nearly closed.

The lock master is viewing the process from this building on the lock wall..  Here you can see the Aberdeen lock.

After the lock doors are closed, the water starts going down (or up if you are going up).  These pictures are from the Whitten Lock (84 foot drop).  Looking towards the lock entrance.

And it goes down..

And it goes down…

And when you think it is finished.. it keeps going down..

Finally, we are at bottom pool level!!  Look at how far we fell..

Now we shift our view to the other end of the lock.. The gates start opening at the outlet..

The doors are almost open all the way..

After the gates open all the way, a horn blows indicating we can untie and leave the locks.  Here is a picture looking back in the Whitten Lock.

And here is what the exit of the Whitten looks like from shore.

For our inquisitive niece Nicole, I hope this better explains how a lock works.

The weather has turned sunny and in the mid 75’s to low 80’s here in the state of Mississippi. Our journey has been anything but dull. Our adventures continue from one anchorage to marina. Going forward, after leaving the Jamie L. Whitten lock we traveled to Midway Marina. We were greeted without doubt with more of the southern hospitality. I phoned in to let them know of our arrival and to make sure the depth was depth enough for us. The gentleman said the depth was 7 foot minimum. So we headed in. We found it was about 7.5 only near the channel.  Near the docks and in the marina it was 10.  Somehow we managed to loose all of our photos during our visit, so we are unable to show the awesome shots we had.  George was a bit irritated about our loss of picts.

Talk about good service! This reminded me of when we pulled into St. Joseph Michigan the service was just fabulous.  There was a young man waving to us; guiding us in to the gas docks. He was so polite… I asked him his name he replied back “Shane, Mam” Well, Shane worked diligently to get us settled. Shared so much with us about the area. He was so helpful. The courtesy van was in use at the time; but we were first up for the next round. Shane and Bryce connected us up to power before Shane could leave. He had to make sure we had good electrical hook-up.. it was marina policy.  Here is a pic on our way to Midway.

I noticed the courtesy van pull up and three people got out and unloaded supplies from it. I thought to my self they must also be cruisers. They filled up the carts that the marina offers to carry your stuff to your boat and headed in my direction. I just had to stop them. They looked like great people. We spoke for a few seconds but they had to get stuff put-away and we needed to go get our round of supplies. As we were getting ready to go into town. Kevin one of the three people we had just met, came over and invited us over for a cocktail between 4-5 or wherever we get back from town. (AWESOME)

Shane explained to us how to get into town and shared with us where to find the map and key. Fulton had a lot to offer us. We went into Walmart to stock up on food but they didn’t sell any alcohol. Our new friends Kevin, Chris and Graham suggest we go to Fish-lips for wine or liquor.  Picked up fresh flowers for the boat.

After a few hours, we made it back to Midway Marina. I unloaded the bags as Bryce put them on board. It was getting close to Five o’clock. I don’t like to be late. On the other hand Bryce is never on time. lol We walked over to meet up with the three people on the dock, Kevin, Chris and there good buddy Graham. Kevin and Chris are the proud owner of a 38 Prout Catamaran. What a great vessel!  Their home port is England. We sat and drank with them for a number of hours exchanging stories. They had some great appetizers. I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard. We really had a great visit with our new friends. Thanks again for a wonderful time.

Our new friends from England, Kevin, Chris, and Graham our good buddy too. These guys were a hoot..  Kevin gave me the grand tour of their Cat.

I just love the reflection of the clouds here.  This is a view of the Tombigbee in front of us.

We also had the opportunity to meet Steve and Judy Weisbrod the morning we left Midway Marina and found out that we more then likely met them in Annapolis Maryland at the sail boat show.  Steve worked the Catalina booth that we always go to.  Small world.  One show he worked was the release of the 355.  We saw it that year, so we know we met him. The next day we ran into each other going through the Aberdeen Lock.

Barges unloading and loading at a paper mill.  It seems paper mills are prevalent down here.

The water was so calm.. it was like a mirror..  only broken up by our wake..  This was a huge hill of wood chips for a paper mill.

Towing our dinghy behind us for a short time.  The water was calm and the day warm.

We passed a barge and tow underway too. Although, on the upper part of Ohio & Mississippi it was an every 10 second  passing a tow & barge. Now we might see one or two every day or so.

After taking anchorage in Bay Spring Lake, we rested up and tried to stay dry. The rain continued over night. After waking up the next morning, we decided to spend an extra day in the lake. We pulled up anchored around noon when Bryce was done working for the day. I do believe we only had 5 miles to go before the next anchorage. We spent the rest of the day wandering the visitor center of the James Witten Lock.

This is where we anchored when we arrived in Spring Lake. What a great view.  But weather was not nice enough to explore the beach.  This point shielded us from the light north wind.

Five miles from where we anchored the previously night will be our next anchorage for tonight. Jamie L. Whitten Lock and Dam is at the Northernmost park of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Also located near Dennis Mississippi. This boat ramp is part of the recreational area that supports fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, swimming and picnicking on Bay Spring Lake.

Heading into this arm to anchor in was a bit nerve-racking. I don’t know if you can tell but there sure are a lot of tree stumps to look out for near shore.  But the bay was deep and we attached a trip line as a precaution.

After chores were done, we took the dinghy into the Visitor center to take a look around.

According to our Waterway Guide book this was the place to park the dingy.  I was being He-woman and pulled Bryce and the dinghy onto shore not realizing the muck and slid into it hands first. We headed through the woods. Not really a great path and breaking webs are we walked through it. Just as we came to the parking lot, we noticed a web with a big ugly red spider hanging in it.  Bryce told me to duck and follow him. I freaked-out dong a little jumping.  After rubbing my hands through my hair, I brushed off my clothes.  Chills went rushing through me at the thought of that spider crawling up my arm.

Made it to the visitor center. A wall full of history to explore.

This was a small visitor center but nevertheless interesting.

Very large three-D model of the Ten-tom waterway. This is a model of Bay Spring Lake formed by Jamie L Whitten Lock and Dam.

Not sure if you remember or not but this Coyote does look like the one I posted a picture of in my past blog.

This is a sandy beach just out-side the visitor center.  There was a larger one on the other side of the lake.

Remember, I just told you about the spider? lol Bryce went back and drove the dinghy around the point so I didn’t have to Freak-out again.  Here was a better dingy dock directly in front of the visitor center.

We decided to take the path to see the lock. Bryce walked in-front of me to break any webs.  Its fall, so many of the leaves have fallen.  But temps are mild.  Thursday its suppose to be mid 80s.

This is Jamie L. Whitten Lock that takes us from Bay Spring Lake down. The Tombigbee Waterway was built to provide a shorter distance navigational route from middle of the United States to the gulf of Mexico. You’ll find Jamie L. Whitten at mile marker 411.9 (distance to Mobile Alabama). This lock lowered us 84 feet it’s the third highest lock east of the Mississippi and is also the fourth highest in the nation. We locked through the following day.

What a great view of the Tombigbee River from the top of the lock.

Beauty resting comfortable with George watching over as we explored.

 

This was a goodnight from the Tennessee Tombigbee.  We sat on the bow with a cup of coffee as the night settled in.

What an amazing view! I don’t even think I can describe how tranquil the meandering cut was. I enjoyed sitting on the bow taking in the view. http://www.sailbeauty.com

It’s amazing to think that this cut connects the Tennessee and the Tombigbee River basins. When we reached the start of the cut from Yellow Creek, we saw parts of tree stumps and sand bars off the channel. It was very important to stay between the buoys and markers.

As we enter the 280 feet wide canal, we notice the banks are rock covered to help stop erosion. Our depth gage read 17 feet.  I read that one of the challenging tasks was the removal of 150 million cubic yards of dirt to dig the cut. Apparently it took seven different contractors to remove move the dirt. It took an amazing eight years to complete the 27 mile Divide Cut.  It apparently removed more dirt than the digging of the Panama canal. We cannot anchor in the Divide cut because there is no way to stay out of the way of barge traffic.

As we pulled up anchor and headed down (what was) the Yellow Creek, we found the view was quite scenic.

You start seeing how the river narrows toward the cut.

Along the banks of the river front we noticed some great camping sites

I thought these channel markers were interesting. Mile marker 446.1; just a different view of the lake.

Another mile down is mile marker 445.1

As we start to approach the Divide Cut we start seeing sand bars and stumps where the end of the lake was at one time prior to the divide cut.

Here is another pic showing the lake end.

Highway 23 bridge at mile marker 443.7 appears to be the start of the divide cut.

As the junction straightens out, we can see the width of the cut.

We see here the rocky banks and a fishing pier.

This is the first of several dams along the cut.  These Dams apparently connect to small lakes or streams along the cut.

Green Wave was the only Tow & barge that passed us in the cut.  It seems to take a good portion of the canal width as it passes us.

The canal continues to twist. It is not the straightest canal, but the turns are wide sweeps and easy to negotiate.  It looks as though they have manicured the grass along the river bank.  Kinda like the I75 expressway for boats!  We were zipping along at a break neck 6 MPH.

One of the things we noticed were all the different ways they have to drain the rainwater in to the canal. Although they may do similar things, the drains or dams are different either in size or shape.

We wonder if any of the local kids ever tubed down some of the wider ones after a good rain.

We passed under several train and car bridges while on our way. This was an interesting one. Not sure how the vine gets all over everything in some areas in the south.

We are nearing the end of the Divide Cut and entering Spring Lake.

The cut widens back up to a good size lake pretty quick.  Just a few miles up the lake is the Jamie L. Whitten Lock and dam. One of the first of 12 left to do.

We had heavy rains that kept us at anchorage for an extra day. We geared up with our rain suits on an took a dinghy ride in the pouring rain  back to the Grand Harbor Marina where we kayaked to yesterday. Just to pick up a Blue Bunny ice-cream. http://www.sailbeauty.com

Oh my gosh, you will not believe this; after two months of complaining he finally did it! As we walked through the convenience store I looked over to see what Bryce was looking at. His eyes sparkled with joy. He had found his back up anchor. We forgot to bring our small Danforth with us as the second anchor. And the only thing he has done is complain about the extra plow anchor. It never seems to hold Beauty. Our 44 lb Bruce works fine. I started laughing and wished him a Happy belated Anniversary. Now, I am still waiting for a day at the spa! with a massage and hair, nails… okay, I’ll be happy with pearls too. LOL

He is Happy😂

Now, do you remember when we posted about about the howling of wolf or coyotes? We were sitting on the bow enjoying our morning coffee☕️ when Bryce (and George) noticed this fellow walking along the shore not but a 200 feet away! We expect its a coyote????

This was truly a great place to anchor. We had gust of winds up to 16 knots and hardly felt them. Well today is suppose to be 68 & overcast winds N, 5 mph so we are headed to the famous Tenn-Tom cut. Enjoy your day.

Happy Halloween. We made it to mile marker 449.2 it is as they describe it: Tranquil anchorage, perfect for relaxing, kayaking and meeting up with new friends. Just around the corner we will be headed to the Tenn-Tom cut at Mile marker 448.7.  www.sailbeauty.com

After anchoring in a small bay off the Yellow Creek we dropped in the kayaks to a paddle around the bay.  We headed to Grand Harbor Marina to check out their convenience store. There is really a lot to do in this area: just full of history. The Shiloh Battlefield is just a bit back down the Tennessee River.  Today, we are going to head to Corinth MS Yacht Harbor (Aqua) to pick up some nourishments. (ice-cream). LOL   

As we motored from Panther bay, we relaxed on the bow. It started out a bit chilly but did warm up.

This is funny, as you are looking down the river the State of Alabama is on the starboard side (right), the river is Tennessee River, and on the (left) port side is the State of Mississippi.  And if we traveled the river in this direction 1 mile, we would be in Tennessee. Holly cow…lol

We merged to the (left). When we approached the The Yellow Creek basin, we noticed this view of homes next to Grand Harbor Marina.

This is Grand Harbor Marina. Apparently, they have lots of amenities to offer those who stop in from swimming pools to tennis courts and a courtesy car to go into the local shops.  We popped in by kayak just to check it out.

This is the entrance to the bay we pulled into.  We were going to continue downstream before seeing how tranquil the area was.  Decided to stay a day.

Bryce decided to put out the rear anchor. It’s connected to the black line you see hanging off the back of the dinghy.

We are now anchored and it is time to drop in the kayaks and paddle about. We paddled down to the Grand Harbor Marina.  On the way back we noticed a familiar boat anchored two bays down from us. It was the Blue Heeler from Melbourne Australia. It was nice to see that they also found the awesome anchorage.

I think this is one of our better anchorages.  It was well protected from the river traffic and any winds.

Bryce needed to organized the lines in the anchor locker. The main line gets a bit twisted over time.

We took the dingy to the point of the bay and watched the sunset. Afterwards, we went and said hello to Wayne & Alison the couple from the Blue Heeler

Here is another pic of the point.  Grand Marina in the background.

Just as the name says (Panther) my mind thinks danger. We laid in bed listening to the howling of what sounded like wolfs attacking other animals. We could hear what sounded like dogs crying in the back ground.  Bryce went up on deck to get George. His eyes said it all FEAR! His little body trembled. He didn’t get off our bed till early morning. I have an over active imagination! I tried to go to sleep but each time I closed my eyes, all I could see were wolfs or panthers swimming out to our boat.  Bryce got up and pulled the ladder out of the water for me. Maybe next time we should pick a bay with a sweeter name. Then maybe I’ll dream of ice cream or something on the sweeter side.

Like aways we like to explore our anchorages after we anchor. We don’t always get a sandy beach to put our toes in, but the view is always pretty.

Out taking a dinghy ride. This is Beauty anchored in Panther Creek.

Cypress tress are so neat looking. The roots look like they could start dancing.

I thought I had seen a turtle with its head out of the water only to find out it was a tree stump. Bryce laughed at me.

Well, the sun is starting to set so we are heading back to the boat

Ducks didn’t like the motor sound.

Good-bye Pickwick Dam Marina. This is  a great place for fuel, supplies, pump-out and water.  The staff is really nice and friendly. On the way down Pickwick Lake, we saw Wayne and Alison anchored at the Falls.  Didn’t look like enough room for two boats, so we continued on.

it sure was a chilly & wet Friday as we headed to the lock. We only have 15 miles to go before the Pickwick Lock. We had planned to leave early. It seems like we get through the locks faster if we arrive early. However, as we were pulling up anchor a tow was passing by us. Bryce noticed on the AIS he was moving faster than us. Christina Belchard was the name of this tow.  We played can and mouse with this tow going up.  She was carrying 34 thousand tons of petroleum on each barge and she was 4 barges long that would be a total of 136 thousand tons. The rain was hitting us hard. Visibility was just so so. Being a dreary day, with little to post we noticed some homes along the Tennessee that we thought we would share with you too.

The closer we got to the dam the current really picked up slowing us down from 6.5 miles an hour to 4.0 miles an hour. We heard the Christina Belchard haul the Pickwick Dam to let them know of their arrival knowing we would have to do the same once we got closer. The lock master said you have a sailboat coming behind you how far away is it?” The Tow answered back “about 3/4 of a mile”. The lock master started to chuckle and said he was just wondering witch one of us would make it there first. How did the lock master even know we were out there. We were to far away for him to see us.. perhaps we were being known to the lock masters.

We could see this green rooftop from a mile away. Nice colors.. porch wrapped around the house.

We often wonder what happens if the dirt lets loose and this house is loosing its ground.  This picture shows.  The foundation under the corner has disappeared with the dirt.  You can see the corner of the house floating in air.

What a pretty southern looking home with the fall colors setting in.

Look, the steps are coming from the second floor.  Imagine walking these steps to get to your boat.

This house looks like it’s made of shipping containers.  Perhaps a good way to save building costs.

I have been asked what do I do on a raining day? I like to bowl and walk but sinse I cannot always walk, the WII is my back up. The engine is a bit loud so I listen to my music with my headset on.

I forgot, we celebrated our anniversary on the 25th

I think most of you know I am not a fan of going through the locks. But I have to get used to it or It will not be a fun trip. My blood pressure must skyrocket at each lock. Bryce said he thought of a way that might help me with the lines as I try to reach the bollards. He took two lines together making a loop in the center and one end of the line tied on to the aft cleat and the other tied on tho the center cleat with the loop in center. It worked great! I was able to latch on the first time.  What a end to a wet few days. We arrived at the Pickwick Dam Marina on Saturday Morning. Boy, it was still raining as we entered the lock.

I did it I was able to latch that bollard on one try and not struggle with two lines.

Now why is he so happy? Probably because he sits while I do the work!!

Getting a break from the rain;  taking a pic.

Now, you can see why Bryce was so happy.

This is the new loop Bryce made for me.  He still holds the boat steady with a bit of engine.

After Leaving the lock, we headed our to the Pickwick Dam State Park Marina. It was great to get a slip after 8 days of anchoring. I needed to head back out to the market & tidy up the boat. but after we finally got the boat settled into the slip we decided to go meet some new friends. As we pulled into the marina we noticed a sailboat with its mast down and knew they were cruisers and wanted to met them. So with that said we put on our rain suits and dinghy over to introduce ourselves.

Wayne & Alison Sollars from Australia. What a fascinating couple they have spent 5 years sailing around the world. They shared some of their experiences with us. Hope to see them again.

Sunday morning.. the marina has no courtesy vehicle for us to go to the market. I googled the market 2.5 miles away no big deal we will take our bikes. The marina had wagons for the guest to carry there gear to their boats, so I asked if we could borrow one to take to the store and they said sure. I carry two insulated Gordens food service bags with us to put grocers in rather than using plastic bags.

Bryce pulled the wagon behind him.

My seat was slipping down.

This was a neat water plane that someone was building.

Okay, 2.5 miles up hill to the market and 1 mile construction zone.

Finally, I am done bags are loaded and it’s time to head back.

Okay, We are stopping to find pretzel rods. I keep asking but no ones knows what I am talking about.

I bet if we stop at a gas station they will have them! (nope) They didn’t know either.

A few days late, but we went out and celebrated our anniversary.  This is one of the advantages of the State Park Restaurants in Kentucky and Tennessee.  They have great food and spectacular views.

The view from the restaurant looking toward the lock and dam that we passed earlier.

We met another awesome couple who are camping at state park. Neil & Barbara Bracken from Winchester TN. Neil is a local voice on the AM radio station who tells stories about many different things.

The restaurant  at the state park. We had a very nice waitress to whom I promised to send a post card to from the Bahamas. I won’t forget Emily.