October 18th, 2008 john
Miles: 43 Total Miles: 43
We are off on our way, finally; he saga begins. I never thought the day would actually come when we would depart on our big adventure. And what a zoo, the last few weeks have been.
In preparation for the trip I was still trying to get last minute details accomplished. Little things like the new Anchor Windless (the wench that lowers and raises the anchor). Or a small thing like the new Radar Dome and the AIS (Automatic Identification System) installed.
As you will soon learn there is the concept of “boat time”, just as there is a concept of “boat dollars”. With regard to “boat time”, people just move “slow” around boats. I am looking forward to the time when I too, move in boat time. I did learn that when I stayed on the boat, things seemed to happen a little bit faster. So with the exception of two days, I spent the last two weeks on the boat.
The result is we have a brand new working windless and super Radar. Now I just have to learn how to use them. The only thing left are some minor things which we will get done in a week when we pass back thru our home port of Aqua.
Now, let’s get on to the trip. After filling my corvette to the ceiling, both in the back hatch and in the front passenger seat, as well as filling Barbara’s SUV to the brim, we arrived at the boat. We had planned on leaving no later then 10:00 a.m. but at11:15 we were actually ready to depart.
As we ventured out the channel towards the Tennessee River, Barbara turned to me and gave me a big hug. “We are actually doing it!”. Then after a few minutes, she said, “And I am not going to work on Monday.” She seems happy to start our adventure, but I have a feeling she is going to miss her job and especially her friends from work.
It was windy on the river today and a bit cool. I had to change into a long sleeved turtleneck (with bermuda shorts no less). But on this boat we have a raised pilothouse. That is we can stay inside and still run the boat. I usually only go to the fly-bridge to drive if I am coming into a harbor, or want a cigar.
But the trip up river was sunny and delightful. There were occasional small boats fishing, but really very little river traffic. Barbara relieved me at the helm several times when I did my routine 3 hour engine check, or ran to the head. She actually held the helm for a couple of hours. She navigated us under our first bridge, “The Natchez Trace Bridge”, a famous touring road through several southern states left over from the stage coach days. She also successfully stayed out of the way of our first oncoming towboat. Towboats are commercial tug boats that actually push barges up and down the river. This one had 3 barges across and 4 deep, so if the river is narrow, they can present a real danger. We were fortunate to be passing in a relatively wide part of the river which was fine with us.
I took a few pictures of this leg of the trip, posted on the web site scrapbook under “Aqua to Florence”.
We had made reservations at the Florence City Marina and pulled in right at about 5:00pm. And what to our surprise, but there, standing on the dock waiting for us, were friends. Two couples from Memphis, visiting with there own boats. John and JC are fellow USCG Auxiliary members and good friends. They have been river running for the last week or so and just happened to be at the marina and heard we were coming in. After a safe docking we all joined together and enjoyed a dinner at the local marina restaurant.
We decide not to turn on the heat, but climbed into our master bed with a cozy comforter on top. It was great. Although in the a.m. I did kick on the heat just to make sure it would work. Great.
Today we plan on leaving at our leisure. We will immediately go through our first lock. That should be an experience. More on that tomorrow.
From the Decks of the Emery El
Capt John
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