Tues, Aug 23 to Wed Aug 24, 2011 - 215.3, Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina, Iuka, MS

We had decided that it was time to come in for groceries, so we pulled anchor at 7 am and made our way to Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina in Iuka, Mississippi, which was less than five miles away. Both Heron and Blue Heron tied up at the transient dock and settled in.

After getting organized, Bob, Susie and Maureen took the courtesy van to Savannah, TN, for groceries while Gale stayed back at the marina. In the previous paragraph, it was noted that we were actually in Mississippi. Well, that's hard to say -- the marina's mailing address is Counce, TN, but the physical location is in Mississippi. If you look at the map, find the spot on the Tennessee River where Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee meet and you'll know where we were.

 
 
 


Gale had to be extra careful to stay out of the sun during this period. Several days ago, he began a treatment on his head, neck and shoulders using a topical ointment that is a chemotherapy agent for skin cancer. The directions say to apply the cream twice a day for three weeks and then wait several more weeks for things to heal up. He remarked that his skin felt like it started on fire and somebody tried to put it out with a baseball bat.
Hmmm . . . . .



On Wednesday, Bob and Susie decided to take a slip for a month over at Grand Harbor Marina while Gale and Maureen spent another night at Aqua Yacht. Gale had just experienced his worst day of his recovery from the skin cancer treatment and was not up to doing much of anything.

Wed, Aug 17 to Mon, Aug 22, 2011 – mile 217.3, Tennessee River at Waterfall Cove near Iuka, MS

 
 
 
 
 
 
We were very excited to leave Florence – especially since we were planning to hook up with our good friends Bob and Susie Schaut aboard their 25-foot Pacific Seacraft, Heron. Gale and Bob have been friends for more than 30 years and met during their careers as park rangers for the State of Iowa. Bob retired on April 29th of this year (coincidentally on the same date that Gale retired in 2009) and he and Susie began cruising aboard their boat in May. We have been keeping in touch with them over the last few months as they’ve made their way down the Mississippi River from Lake Pepin, Wisconsin, to the Tennessee River and have been looking forward to the time when our paths would come together for awhile.

We were on our way at 7:30 am and traveled the 40 miles to Waterfall Cove in six hours. By the time Blue Heron was beached on the sandbar, we noticed Bob and Susie’s Heron coming across from the other side of the river. They anchored in the center of the pool between the waterfall and the sandbar then jumped in their dinghy and came ashore to greet us. It was so good to see them!

We spent the next six days watching boats come and go out of the cove as well as doing a little fishing and swimming ourselves. The weekend was especially busy with a constant parade of boats coming in, staying for awhile and leaving again to make room for the next batch. Except for Friday night when a family arrived in their little boat about sunset, pitched a tent on the beach, made a campfire and stayed through the next morning, we were always alone in the anchorage by the time night fell.

 

Wed, Aug 10 to Tues, Aug 16, 2011 – mile 256, Florence Harbor Marina, Florence, AL

It was a beautiful sunny morning and at 9 am we were already at the state park fuel dock getting ready to check out the facilities. The marina manager was very friendly and encouraged us to take our time and look around the place. The marina building included showers and a washer and dryer as well as a store where one could buy snacks, very basic groceries and a few marine items. The 75-room lodge was lovely and the restaurant was supposed to be quite good. There were many boats slipped here including both power boats and sailboats and it looked like the permanent slips were full. There was lots of room at the transient dock which was located in front of the lodge and next to the swimming pool. The park had an 18-hole golf course, 27 cabins for rent and miles of walking trails. If we had checked this spot out earlier, we probably would have chosen to slip the boat here rather than in Florence.

For the next hour and a half we enjoyed walking around the park and then decided we’d better get moving if we wanted to make it through the locks at both ends of Wilson Lake. We lucked out and didn’t have to wait for either lock as we made our way to Florence Harbor arriving at 2 pm. We took the time to fuel up before motoring to our slip and we were very happy to finally plug into shore power and get the air conditioning going as the temperature approached 100 degrees. It seemed that Florence was always hotter than anywhere else in the area.

We spent the next few days doing the usual boat chores. On Friday, we rented a vehicle from Enterprise so we could shuttle our car down to Port St Joe, Florida. We took off early Saturday with Maureen driving our Toyota and Gale driving the rental car. It was an easy and enjoyable trip that took about 8 hours and we arrived at the marina in PSJ before Lisa, the manager, had left for the day. Through an earlier conversation, Lisa had told us it would be fine to park the car in their lot until we could get there with the boat. She told us where we could park and let us know that when we do come back, she expected us to stay for awhile since we only spent one night there on our way through in April. Gale would really like to come back before September 25th when the scallop season closes. We saw some of the scallops that people were bringing in and they were huge!!

The drive back to Florence on Sunday was even nicer since we were able to share the driving task in one car. Before returning the vehicle on Monday, we made a grocery run to Walmart to get ready for the next week of traveling downriver.

On Tuesday evening before leaving Florence, Bruce Cherry, whom we had met on the dock the previous week, brought over to our boat a roast pork dinner that he had prepared along with a wonderful mixture of roasted vegetables to accompany the meal. He had invited his friends, Goodlow and Susan Pride, to join us and we had a lovely evening visiting with these folks, going for a pontoon ride and then later enjoying the very tasty pork, vegetables and wine. Goodlow shared with us a few stories and a lot of knowledge about this portion of the Tennessee River.


 

Tuesday, Aug 9, 2011 – mile 277, Tennessee River, Joe Wheeler State Park, Rogersville, AL

We planned another long travel day so we were up early and on the phone to the lockmaster at 6 am. He said he was unaware of any other traffic in the area and encouraged us to come right away. We were at the Guntersville Lock arrival point within 30 minutes and had a green light. As we entered the lock, a thunderstorm with lots of lightning and loud thunder threatened and we thought for sure we were going to be in the middle of a deluge before we exited. Surprisingly, the storm skirted the area and we received only a couple drops of rain.

We finished locking through and were on our way at 6:50 am – a great start to a great day. We traveled all the way across Wheeler Lake, approximately 75 miles and made our way back into First Creek where we found a beautiful spot to anchor near the Joe Wheeler State Park Marina. It was already 5:30 pm when we stopped to anchor so instead of doing any exploring then, we decided to relax, enjoy the sunset on the boat and wait until morning to check out the marina and the park.

Monday, Aug 8, 2011 – mile 349.5 on Tennessee River above Guntersville Dam

The storms went around us last night and it was still feeling rather hot and sultry in the morning. When we left the anchorage at 8 am, the temperature had already climbed to 84 degrees. Fortunately, the partly cloudy sky became cloudy and kept the temperature moderate. By the time we anchored at 12:30 pm it was “only” 88 degrees. We were familiar with the anchorage as we had stayed here two nights on the way upriver and observed the nightly ritual at the bat sanctuary. We were only a half-mile from the lock so that put us in good position for the morning lock through.

After lunch, we relaxed with some reading and watched the sky as a thunderstorm approached. Before long, we could see the rain coming across the lake and quickly dropped the hatches to wait for the storm. We could tell there was some pretty strong wind on the main lake, but we didn’t notice it quite so much in our protected anchorage. During the storm we enjoyed a wonderful cool down that lasted the rest of the day.

Sunday, Aug 7, 2011 – mile 379 on Tennessee River near Scottsboro, AL

It is a long traveling day when you pull anchor at 7 am and don’t drop it again until 7:30 pm. We were quite comfortable with it, though, since we had some cloud cover and a bit of a breeze making it feel a little less hot than usual. Besides, we were ready for a good long cruise.

At 10 am, we stopped at Nickajack Marina for some diesel fuel and picked up a few bottles of diet pop. We had a lock and a railroad bridge to pass through but, fortunately, there was no waiting for either opening. We traveled 70 miles (62 nautical miles) and entered the anchorage at mile 379 in a place where we had stayed on the way upriver.

Upon entering the anchorage, we discovered a houseboat had arrived before us and anchored in the spot we had previously used. We made several attempts at anchoring some yards away from the other boat but were unable to get a good “set” due to the hydrilla and water milfoil clogging the anchor. The sky was looking a bit threatening and we wanted to be sure we would hold in case of a storm. Our only alternative was to tie to one of the three sets of pilings that were present in this Second Class harbor. We felt secure as the lightning lit up the not too distant sky. After dark, the houseboat pulled anchor and left – we weren’t sure if it was because of the weather or if they had only intended to stay for the day.

Saturday, Aug 6, 2011 – sandbar at mile 447.8 on the Tennessee River

Gale made a great scrambled egg and toast breakfast for everyone to start the day. Dan and Julie packed up the van and the kids and they were on the road back to Chicago before 9:00 am with the hope of making it all the way home in one day.

We spent most of the rest of the morning doing general cleaning chores. After lunch, Maureen grabbed the utility cart and walked across the bridge to the north side of town where there was a Whole Foods grocery store. While in the produce section, one of the back wheels gave up and fell off the cart. Maureen called Gale to come to her rescue and while he made the walk to the grocery store, she finished up the shopping and met him outside in the parking lot. He had brought a wire and a pair of pliers to fasten the wheel back on. We were able to haul our groceries back without further incident.

At 3:45 pm, we were ready to leave Chattanooga for good and begin our westerly tour back down the Tennessee River. Since it was already so late in the day, we couldn’t go too far, so at 6:30 pm we dropped the anchor one more time at “the Beach.” There were still several boats full of kids hanging around so we anchored away from the action and enjoyed our time making dinner and watching the sun go down.

Friday, Aug 5, 2011 – Chattanooga, TN

 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We awoke to another lovely summer morning. Dan was able to snap a couple of great pictures of the sun coming up over the mountain and the anchorage. By 9:30 am we were on our way back to Chattanooga but we took our time returning to the dock. Along the way we stopped to swim, Dan took some fabulous Blue Heron photos and we enjoyed a nice lunch on the boat. At 1:30 pm we were in Chattanooga getting cooled off and cleaned up for an afternoon of more fun.

Everyone was excited to tour the Tennessee Aquarium which included one building for saltwater ocean creatures and another building for freshwater river life. We began with the Ocean Journey and marveled at the stingrays, sharks, turtles and jellyfish. There was also an exhibit for penguins, a special butterfly room and a petting tank. The River Journey was also interesting especially when we were able to see the fish native to the Tennessee River. It made us wonder about jumping into the water again not knowing what might be lurking there!

By the time we finished touring the aquarium exhibits it was nearly 5 pm and everyone was hungry. We walked back to the boat and grilled up some hamburgers for dinner – but the evening wasn’t over yet! We still had tickets to the I-Max and a promise of ice cream later. The movie we saw was about two women in different parts of the world who had dedicated their lives to rescuing orphaned elephants and chimpanzees. Afterwards, we treated ourselves to large scoops at the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream shop. A perfect ending to a perfect day.