Day 38: Saturday, October 13, 2012

Underway: 7:35 am      Motor Off: 12:35 pm      Miles Traveled: 23      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First time in Mississippi (for about 5 minutes in the middle of the river.

Mile 192 to Mile 215: Today was a much better day for travel than yesterday. Like yesterday, we are fighting an invisible but stronger than expected current but at least the weather is less threatening and the temps pushed to almost 80˚ in the sun.

We noticed the water line for the river was recently two or three feet higher than it is today – clearly marked by the dark, wet line along the shore. We asked the lock tender if the water level has dropped significantly in the last day or two and he said they may have let water out downstream to start bringing the pool down to normal winter levels. This would explain why we struggled against a stronger that expected current the last two days. We had been told to be careful to have plenty of water under your keel at anchor since river levels can drop or rise 2-3 feet overnight but I couldn’t figure how they could drop that much so fast. Now I believe them.

Another thing we have noticed along the Tennessee is a lot of houses – most of which are high up on banks and then raised even higher up on stilts or cement block “basements” – have steps going down to small docks but no boats to be seen. None. It’s too early to have all the boats pulled for the season. The river seems pretty tame around here. Where have all the boats gone? We’ll have to solve this mystery later.

After passing through the Pickwick Lock which raised us up 50+ feet to Pickwick Lake, we ended up at Grand Harbor Marina – a wonderful place to spend a day or two (or more if you have the time) at Mile 215 on the Tennessee or at Mile 449.7 – right at the beginning of the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway (Tenn-Tom Canal). This marks the end of the Tennessee River leg of our journey and the beginning of the Tenn-Tom leg.

We have tried to be good sailors and get our chores done as soon as we arrive at a marina or anchorage. This is good discipline and allows us to be ready to leave at any time if our plans change and lets us relax and enjoy our stay instead of worrying about all the projects we need to do before we leave for our next stop. So we gassed up the fuel tanks, pulled out all our cushions and foul weather gear to air and dry them out, scrubbed the hull (we are growing grass at the waterline) and deck, stripped the sheets and gathered our dirty clothes and washed a couple loads, put everything back again (usually the hard part), took showers and finally were able to relax at about 6:30 pm. We had reserved a courtesy car for the evening and drove towards Counce to try a local Mexican restaurant but missed it in the dark and ended up at a busy local dive called R&B’s BBQ where we thoroughly enjoyed their $8 rib special – 1/2 rack of ribs, baked beans, coleslaw, fries and texas toast – and we split a strawberry shake. This was a dive but a classic dive that we hope to discover all along our journey.

After stopping at the Pickwick grocery store to restock, we drove home on the narrow dark roads, stowed our goods and crashed ready for another day.