Leg #20 - 10/26/16 to 10/30/16 - Grand Rivers, Kentucky to Grand Harbor, Mississippi

We left Green Turtle Bay and turned west through the Barklay Canal and then south on the Tennessee River.

Leaving Green Turtle Bay

The beautiful sunrise.

Our day was beautiful and warm with just a few boats, barges and fishermen invading our path to MM 96 and Pebble Isle Marina in Waverly, TN. 

The American Queen

We visited with Bobby, while we took on some fuel and went to our slip.  Later that evening, we borrowed the courtesy car and went into Camden for dinner.  We found Smarder’s Restaurant. 

 In the morning, we waited on the famous cinnamon rolls from the PI harbor before we headed out around 9:00am. 

Bobby with the morning cinnamon rolls.

Another pleasant and beautiful day heading to Clifton Marina (TN 158.5) where we met Cindy the harbor master, cook, boat hand, etc.  We met up with Mike and Deby from Moondance, Jeff and Bern from Two Infinity, and Denise and Hamp from C/V Gracie.  We sat on the restaurant deck and had dinner while being entertained by a musical duo, the Clif-Tones.  It was a very enjoyable evening—a perfect looper gathering. 

We waited on some serious fog the next morning and headed out around 9:00am.There was still pockets of fog in a few bends of the river but it shortly burned off and gave us another beautiful day to head south on the Tennessee River. 

 

We met a couple of barges which were easy to maneuver but we were constantly slowing down for fishermen in bass boats along the shores.  We throw too much of a wake to pass them with anything but dead slow speed.  We arrived at the Pickwick Lock and were told that our wait would be about 15 minutes.  We knew Moondance was a couple of miles behind us and we could both get into the lock as AIS wasn’t showing any other boats heading our way.  We were both tied up in the lock and 45 minutes later the lock was filled and the doors were open.  We all commented later that was the longest fill time that we had seen on any lock. 

We left the lock and shortly entered Grand Harbor Marina to top off with fuel and take our slip.   Moondance did the same and tied up across the walkway.  We met for drinks out on the swings and then took the shuttle to Freddie T’s for a nice dinner, catfish for Ken and I, and a one take-home dessert.

The next day we took the courtesy car into Counce, TN to pick up the rental car, found breakfast and returned to the boat to do cleaning and maintenance to the poor neglected boat. 

Later in the afternoon Two Infinity and Gracie pulled in.  Later in the afternoon Fins, a sister ship to us, and In Deep Ship pulled in.

We all piled into courtesy van,  Jeff and Bern from Two Infinity, and Denise and Hamp from Gracie, and Mike and Deby from Moondance and went to dinner again at Freddie T’s. 

The next morning, we took the boat over to a more permanent slip, emptied her out of “freezable” items, and headed home.