Left Aqua Yacht Harbor on Lake Pickwick about 10 am on Monday morning, 07/06/20. Again, we had stellar weather and water like glass. The temps were in the high 80s – to low 90s, but we were able to spend most of the trip up in the flybridge without suffering heat-stroke. It was like cruising down memory lane as we left Yellow Creek, passing Grand Harbor Marina, one barge on its way to the Tombigbee Waterway, and then another, very-well loaded barge up ahead of us on Pickwick, heading down river just like us. As we approached the Pickwick Lock and Dam, Steve commented that we might get to experience our first solo lock with a barge! Neither of us were excited about that prospect, but knew we’d do what we had to do. We soon found-out, however, that not only would we not be going down in the lock with the barge, we would have to wait until the barge was finished locking through, and then for another boat coming up river to lock through before we would have access to the lock. Our lock-master wasn’t as polite as the ones we encountered last week, in fact he was very closed-mouthed. He told us we’d have to wait and that was that. So we idled around above the dam for not one, not two, not three, but FOUR hours before those ahead of us were completely finished and we received the green light to enter the lock. We entered the lock with absolutely no problem, with Kristin exhibiting the stellar skills of preparing and looping a mid-ship line around the skipper-designated pin, just as she’d learned from the expert, Mike Wehrle. Steve made Kristin’s job easy, by keeping the boat next to the lock wall, using our wonderful bow and stern thrusters as our boat slowly lowered down 63 feet to the river on the other side of the dam. A ski-boat locked through with us and tied to the opposite side of the lock. Because we were going down-river, the turbulence inside the lock was all but nil. (Per Steve, going up river through locks is a much different experience… oh, joy – can’t wait for that!) We had planned to cruise to Clifton Marina that day, but because we were delayed at the lock for so long, we decided to anchor-out for the night at an anchorage recommended by Skipper Bob in his book. The anchorage was behind Swallow Bluff Island, off the beaten path, and had a grassy bottom. We anchored with no problem and enjoyed a calm evening with a beautiful sunset. Steve grilled chicken breasts on the grill for dinner. We’re noticing a lot of boats on this part of the TN River are either unaware that they are responsible for their own wakes, or just don’t care. We did some rocking in our anchorage as pontoons and fishing boats flew right past us at top speed, but all boats carried smiling skippers and passengers who waved big as they zoomed by.
Position tonight: N 35° 23.302, W 88° 09.610
Distance traveled: 59.7 NM
Total distance traveled: 118.6
Time underway: 7:11
Total time underway: 15:57
Total marina nights: 7
Total nights at anchor: 1
Locks today: 1
Locks Total: 3