Grand Harbor and Broken Spoke

October 30, 2013

First off, Happy Birthday to my sister Bobbie.  She is in Florida with a friend and traveling to Key West for the day.  I hope she had a great time.

Secondly, this is a big day for me personally……42 years ago today I flew out of Viet Nam to come home after 13 months overseas.  Seems like not all that long ago and yet a lifetime ago.  To celebrate I had dinner with  Trick at one of my favorite restaurants; The Broken Spoke in Corinth Mississippi….more about that later.

The day started out early, up at 5:30.  Motors started at 6:45 after adding ¼ of oil in the port motor. 

Nice people but limited facilities

We were in the channel by 7AM, mile 140, right on time.  

Beautiful morning.  MV Sideview is ahead of us again about 10 miles out.  They must have anchored for the night near us and head out at the same time.  Trick looked them up on his I Pad.  The Coast Guard website shows Sideview is owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority. 

 

Sailboats drop their masts on the river to get under low bridges

At 0830 we came across S/V Seahorse at mile 153.5.  They were just pulling up anchor and slipped in behind us to follow us upstream.  

We came across another sailboat coming downstream a short time later but they were not very friendly and did not respond to our wave….their loss.

We passed “Francis Keegan” at 0945 at mile 165.

With the water level so low, we could actually see the sunken barge at mile 180.1 at 11:30 AM.

Around 2PM we passed a cruiser heading downstream……wonder why he was going north??

 

Cows grazing

getting a drink

mine shaft on river bank

nice river home

I could live with this place

Must be a trucker's time share

As we move closer to Pickwick Lock we are seeing an increase in the current coming at us.  We started the day with about a ½ knot of current and it is building constantly.  10 miles from Pickwick and it is 2 knots.  A Carver, “Pampered III”, caught and passed us at mile 201….the captain was nice enough to hail us on channel 16 to do a slow pass.  Much appreciated!  

They took off like a rocket after they passed us burning a ton of fuel.

5 miles from the lock and we have 3 knots hitting us.  3 miles out and now 5 knots!  2 miles out, almost 6 knots.  We are moving slow over land but still at 9 mph water speed.

We arrived at Pickwick Loat at 2:45. 

Pampered III was sitting there waiting for the lock to open and it did just as we arrived.  Timing is everything! 

We were in the chamber by 3:00 and on the way up.  

Pampered III was using thrusters to stand off the lock wall 4 feet….interesting.  Clear of the lock at 3:25.

We headed for Grand Harbor Marina.  Just as we were about to make the turn off the Tennessee there were two cruises coming downstream (from Florence??) and turned in behind us.  

One of two loopers that followed us into Grand Harbor

Rush hour at the marina. 

We pulled in and fueled up…..100 gal of fuel for 200 miles, some of the trip faster that I would like.  I was very pleased…..XP3 WORKS!!!!  (go to interstatedriving.com or interstatefueltreatment.com to order now)

It was easy to get into our slip and got the keys for the courtesy car for the evening so we could go to Broken Spoke restaurant.  Missy, Rachael and I discovered the place in the spring of 2012 and I also took Chris Wold there last Memorial Day on our trip up river.  It looks like a dive from the road but the food is great and they have live entertainment.  Tonight was “New Artist” night and we were treated to six different performers.  Fantastic. Darrell would love this place!! I had a great Crab Salad.  Trick ordered the Spoke Chop thinking he was getting a pork chop…..turned out to be roast beef?????  I can’t understand 90 percent of what they all are saying down here so it does not surprise me the difference in menu items.  

We both had a good time but I sure do miss having Missy with on this journey.  I am blessed in many ways but most of all to have Melissa as my spouse and it's tough not to have her sitting next to me on the bridge.  Good news is her leg is healing well so she will be on board in December in Florida (if Trick and I manage to get the boat there!!).

Cell coverage has been very inconsistent.  I guess river folks have not joined the rest of the country staying connected 24/7.

Big storms are forecast for tomorrow.  They might break up before they get here so we will have to look at the weather in the morning to decide if we are going to continue or hold up for a day to let things calm down.  Never a dull moment.  We would like to get to Smithsville tomorrow but there are a couple of marinas we can duck into if necessary.  

Life on the River!