Our intent was to leave Kenlake Marina on Thursday, August 8, but storms, wind and lightening delayed our departure until Friday, August 9. We left Kenlake with low-lying fog, but cleared up by the time we arrived in Paris (this would be Paris Landing Marina, not Paris, France). We left Paris and the weather was gorgeous. Within 30 minutes, there were huge storms and lightening at Paris, in our rear view mirror. We then pulled up weather on our phones to see huge storms in front of us although everything was completely clear on radar up until then. We stopped and put our windshield covers up so we wouldn't get soaked. We were more anxious about the lightening than the rain. We watched radar until we lost internet connection, then we had to look "the old fashioned way" which is to look at the storms and see which way they were moving in the sky. They were coming toward us from behind and in front of us. We decided to move forward as we rather get hit from behind with rain rather than get hit in the face with the rain. We did this for about an hour, then the rain moved past us and shockingly we avoided getting wet at all that day.
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| You can see the clear spot where the storm passes over the river to the left/east letting us pass thru |
We were on our way again toward Cuba (that's Cuba Landing Marina, not the country) which was our destination for the night. Our first 76 miles were in the books. They had the friendliest and most helpful staff making sure we were taking care of in every way.
On Saturday, we headed south toward Clifton Marina (another 45 miles). The weather was perfect, and we saw a lot of ski boats and fishing boats enjoying the day. The scenery changed significantly as the river narrowed and houses built on stilts dotted the shoreline.
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| Kathy's side of the boat with Tweety Bird sun visor and beverage |
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| Captain Gene enjoying his beverage and new Coozie! |
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| Gorgeous Sunset at Clifton Marina |
Sunday morning we were headed out again for our first venture through Pickwick Lock. There was an hour wait for a barge to lock through so we had a little time to kill. The Lockmaster told us we could tie up and wait for him to lock us through so I sat on the front of the boat with a lifejacket on for an hour holding the boat wth a rope on a tie-off. It was blazing hot, but my Captain kept my thirst quenched with lots of bottled water. Finally we made it through the lock and were on our way to Aqua Yacht Harbor in Mississippi. It was nice to not have to travel today and just relax getting our blog updated and doing some tidying up in the boat.
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| Inside Pickwick Lock waiting for the doors to open |
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| The Lock Doors are open and we are "Outta Here" |
We are now in Pickwick Lake. What a beautiful, huge and busy lake on a Sunday afternoon. We had another 12 miles (about an hour) to get to Aqua Yacht Harbor in Mississippi where we will stay for 2 nights.
We have spent a lot of time walking the docks and enjoying looking at all the huge ocean-going boats. It's a great place to see boats of all sizes and shapes, new and old.. This is a hub for many boaters that travel the Great Loop which takes you through the Tennessee River, down into the Gulf of Mexico, around south Florida, up the East coast, through Canada and the Great Lakes, into the Ohio River -- making a complete loop-- thus the name Great Loop.
At this marina, we parked Cloud Nine next to a boat we had been following their blog for over a year. We had not met the couple, but we recognized their boat and boat name!! That was exciting and the owner was still here so we spent an hour talking with him last night then he came back to see us today so we visited again for another hour. Boating people are "the best". We thoroughly enjoyed talking with him about his travels to Florida, Bahamas, East Coast, and Canada.
Aqua Yacht Harbor is a huge marina with over 600 boat slips and a dry dock holding over 200 boats in storage.
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| Picture of "dry dock" storage area |
We will leave for Florence Marina in Alabama tomorrow. We have not had decent internet access since we left which is why we are delayed in updating the blog.
More to come in a couple of days.
Love my Captain.....Love Cloud Nine.
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