Author: Kristin

On Tuesday morning, 07/07/20, we pulled anchor at Swallow Bluff Island about 10:00 am in more perfect weather.  We planned to cruise about five hours to Cuba Landing, located beneath the I-40 bridge over the TN River.  Kristin rode in her favorite perch – to the right of the fly bridge helm up on the dashboard platform.  We passed beautiful riverside home after beautiful riverside home along the way – all elevated on really high stilts to allow for flooding.  As we cruised past Savannah, we saw some of the wreckage from last year’s flood, where several houses had washed away toward the river when the bank eroded right out from under them.  We also noticed more houses that seem not far from this same fate, as the river is washing away the banks beneath them as well.  We also saw many lots along the river where high roofs over concrete pads had been constructed for RVs to park out of the sun, and with a riverfront view.  Cell coverage was spotty, but we were able to view on our cell phones the heat thunderstorms popping up all around us; but along the river, the weather remained lovely!  It was another warm day, but still we persevered and remained up in the fly bridge, rather than coming down below to helm from the air-conditioned salon.  Steve reiterated his intent to purchase a mobile a/c unit he found at Home Depot that he thinks would be perfect for our enclosed fly bridge.  Stay tuned for more information on that idea!  As Legacy approached Cuba Landing, Skipper decided it was now Gilligan’s job to contact the marinas ahead of time to check minimum depths (Legacy requires at least 5 feet of water to safely enter) and transient slip availability for our size boat.  Sadly, Cuba Landing did not answer the call, and it was eventually determined they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Go figure!  Time for a change of plan.  Gilligan contacted Pebble Isle Marina (two hours further down river) and received favorable information.  We mainly wanted to spend this night at a marina (rather than anchoring-out again) so we could refill our water tanks, give the generators a rest, and hopefully enjoy some sort of internet access.  We found the water and electricity, but not the internet access.  Kristin is having to deal with going back in time – technology-wise – during this adventure, and it is not her favorite thing.  Docking at Pebble Isle’s transient docks proved to be relatively easy, even though Kristin was disappointed there was no one standing ready on the dock to grab her lines as she threw them.  This meant the boat hook had to be utilized by Kristin to loop the bow line over the cleat on the dock, as Steve maneuvered Legacy close enough for her to do so.  Kristin has a true love/hate relationship with the boat hook, so this was not the smoothest feat, but we were eventually successful.  Have we mentioned how much we love our bow and stern thrusters?

Position tonight: N 36° 03.700, W 87° 57.049

Distance traveled second day NM: 63

Total distance traveled NM: 121.9

Time underway: 7:28

Total time underway second day: 21:18

Total marina nights: 8

Total nights at anchor: 1

Locks second day: 0

Locks Total: 3

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

Maybe we should add a little something to our blog. Our short term plan. Many know that we’re planning on doing The Great Loop beginning this fall. However, for the summer, our plan is to spend it at Green Turtle Bay Resort in Grand Rivers, KY. This marina is on Lake Barkley, which is actually on the Cumberland River. The Land Between the Lakes is formed by Lake Barkley (part of the Cumberland River) on its east side and Kentucky Lake (part of the Tennessee River) on its west side. There is a small, man-made channel that connects these two lakes to ease transiting between them. We will be traveling north on the Tennessee River, and will cut through this channel to get to Grand Rivers, KY, where Green Turtle Bay is located.

We left the marina in Florence, AL, on Thursday morning, 07/02/20, traveled under the Natchez Trace Parkway bridge (over which we’ve driven many springs in the convertible) northward toward Aqua Yacht Harbor, which is on Lake Pickwick (part of the TN River) at Iuka, MS, not far from the northern end of the Tombigbee Waterway, which connects the TN River to the gulf of Mexico. Many loopers stop at Aqua Yacht Harbor, as it is right on the loop itself. About 14 years ago, when we lived in Collierville, TN, east of Memphis, we were introduced to the world of sailing on Lake Pickwick, itself, and slipped several different sail boats at Aqua. We made many dear friends during our time on Pickwick, belonging to the Pickwick Sailing and Cruising Association while we were there. We’d hoped to hook up with some of those friends when we came through Aqua this time, but we erroneously timed our 4-day stay for the 4th of July holiday weekend, and also with very short notice to our friends, so we missed them this time. We plan to stay at Aqua again on our way to the AGLCA loopers rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park this fall. We will then give our Aqua friends greater notice of our plans, so hopefully at least some of them will be free to meet up with us. Our trip from Florence to Aqua took us about 5 hours and couldn’t have been more pleasant. The water was smooth as glass, there was very little traffic, and the skies were mostly sunny; the humidity a bit on the lower side. All the popup thunderstorms that had been plaguing us earlier in the week stayed to our south the entire day. We did not have to traverse any locks on this travel day, which was just fine with Gilligan (aka Kristin)! In fact everything went so swimmingly (not literally, of course – we did both manage to stay onboard this trip) on this leg, that the travel time just flew by. We both enjoy this boat the most when it is underway and conditions are stellar. We arrived at Aqua about 2:30 pm on Thursday. We were pleased to learn that Aqua had an actual transient slip available for our stay, rather than out on the transient wall. We entered our slip and tied up with very little effort. A small marina store and a restroom are literally right next to our boat, which is convenient! However, we quickly noticed a list of pros and cons about this particular slip, which I’ll list here. PROS: 1) proximity to marina store and restroom for convenience, 2) transients are positioned on the most eastward dock, so we had THE BEST view of the fireworks the night of the 4th, 3) our slip is not covered, which means far fewer spider-droppings to accumulate all over the outside of the boat overnight, 3) we are literally right beside the fuel docks, which provides us with both convenience and a never-ending parade of boaters/people to watch from our salon windows! 4) Pickwick is a beautiful lake with sunsets and scenery to dazzle any nature lover. 5) We were able to park our personal vehicle on a nearby parking lot for easy use and errand runnings as needed. CONS: 1) proximity to marina store, restroom and fuel docks, which means absolutely no privacy or quiet at any time (specifically on a holiday weekend – DUH!), 2) transients are positioned on the most eastward dock, which means we are right beside all the holiday weekend comings and goings of boats in and out of Aqua to and from Lake Pickwick, so our boat has not stopped rocking from wakes ever since our arrival 3 days ago, AND the marina store’s outside lights stay lit 24/7, so our aft berth is brightly illuminated throughout the night. (We finally eliminated this problem by taping dark green bath towels to the outside of our aft berth windows on the third and fourth nights of our stay here – ingenious!). 3) The other side of our slip is occupied by a lone boater in a large, beautiful Jefferson trawler who likes to play his music at TOP VOLUME, so that our entire dock can “enjoy” his music, whether we wanted to hear it or not. (Until 9:15 pm at night, when we finally expressed some frustration, which prompted him to end his concert.) Oh, AND the roof on the docks next to us completely blocks our satellite TV signal, so we can’t watch any TV at all. None. (Oops – lesson learned for the future!)

Position for this visit: N 34°59.502, W 88°14.831

Distance traveled: 37.9 Nautical Miles

Total distance traveled: 58.9

Time underway: 5:12

Total time underway: 8:46

Total marina nights: 7

Total nights at anchor: 0

So it begins. Sunday, June 28, we had our good friends, Mike and Brenda Wehrle, join us at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina. They accompanied us as we cruised Legacy on a fairly short cruise to Florence Harbor Marina at Florence, AL on Monday, the 29th. The marina at Joe Wheeler is on Joe Wheeler Lake on the Tennessee River, and is located just above the Joe Wheeler lock and dam. Monday morning, we called the lock master and gave him our location, he told us to come on to the lock and he would begin raising the water to pick us up and lock us down river. Having helped to bring Legacy all the way home from Sturgeon Bay, on Lake Michigan to Joe Wheeler, Mike became an expert at locking through. He patiently taught Kristin the steps to successfully secure the boat to the side of the lock, while Steve was at the helm using the engines to help keep the boat in one place, throughout the entire locking process (which – depending on the size and mechanics of the lock – can take from 10 minutes to more than an hour). Once the lock master had lowered us down to the bottom of the dam, and opened the exit gates, he sounded his horn, which was our queue to release our loop from the securing pin on the side of the lock, and for Steve to maneuver the boat out away from the side, to exit the lock. After slowly leaving the lock, we enjoyed a leisurely cruise through Wilson Lake to the Wilson lock and dam, as Mike and Steve regaled Brenda and Kristin with memories of their US river cruise southward last summer bringing the boat home. This particular lock features the largest change in elevation east of the Rocky Mountains, at 94 feet. As we entered the lock chamber and began the drop (this time with Kristin taking the lead as Gilligan – er First Mate – and Mike supervising), we watched a popup thunderstorm brewing to the west. In the 20 minutes or so it took to get through the lock, the storm had moved much closer to us. We had about two miles to cover to get from the lock to our new home on the transient dock at the Florence marina for a few days, and the race was on to get tied up before the storm, which was exhibiting a judicious amount of electricity. Thankfully, we made it. Got a little wet tying up, but the worst of the wind and lightening came just after being safely secured. Talk about great timing! Later Monday evening we drove the Wehrles’ vehicle, which we had shuttled down to Florence the day before. After a delicious meal at Ricatoni’s in downtown Florence, before heading back to the boat. We enjoyed adult beverages up on our flybridge that evening and people-watched. The Florence marina is adjacent to a nice city park, so there was quite a bit of comings and goings (even on a Monday night) until later in the evening. During the night, several more traveling boats tied up to the transient dock, so we had surprise neighbors the next morning! We spent Tuesday driving around the Florence/Muscle Shoals/Sheffield areas, searching for musical history. Unfortunately, our options were limited due to the COVID restrictions, but we made the best of it and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Tuesday night we had another tasty dinner at Ray’s At The Bank, in Florence, which came highly recommended. The Wehrles left us on Wednesday morning and drove back to their home in Nashville. The boat seemed awfully still and quiet after their departure.

Position for this visit: N 34° 47.17′, W 87° 40.42′

Distance traveled today: 21 Nautical Miles

Total Distance traveled: 21 Nautical Miles

Time Underway Today: 3 hrs 34 minutes

Total Time Underway: 3:34

Total Marina Nights: 3

Total Nights at Anchor: 0

Legacy is slipped at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina at Wheeler Lake, which is on the Tennessee River, in Rogersville, AL. She has been here since July of 2019, as this marina is about an hour and a half drive south of our home in Franklin, TN. We spend just about every weekend down here on the boat in this lovely park and will until we move onto her full time in late May. The sale of our house closes on 5/26/20, with our planned estate sale happening the weekend before that.

Even though the weather is absolutely spectacular this weekend, there are very few people enjoying this beautiful place, thanks to COVID-19 limitations our country is under at this time. We are writing this blog to be informative and also as a sort of cruising diary for ourselves. I decided to post some pictures from this beautiful place on this lovely day.