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.
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