Sunday - October 10, 2010

lat 035 12 99, long 088 17 60, Fuel 134 gallons, eng 412.36

Happy Thanksgiving to all. This year we are going to celebrate US Thanksgiving since we will be done her at the end of November. I can't believe Laura made stromboli. She must have bought it.

Fog again this morning so we waited until 9:30 to start out. We traveled up the river to Pickwick lock and waited about 20 minutes for the lock to open. This is a large drop lock and fortunately we were the only boat in the lock. The water came rushing in to the lock adn Brenda was forced to let go of the line attached to the bollard because the stern of the boat was floating out from the wall which meant the bow was crashing into the wall. She forgot to cinch the line with a boat cleat. dThe boat floated free and was thrown around in the lock. Finally we moved back to the wall and Brenda threw another line over a bollard and cinched it around the cleat which kept the boat stable against the wall. No damage was done but lessons were learned.

We were going to stop at Pickwick State Park Marina but they were full. So we moved on down Pickwick Lake which really is the dammed up Tennessee River. There were only a few recommended anchorages on this lake so we pushed on to Florence Alabama and arrived a 5:00 - a really long day. The only reason we arrived at 5 is because I moved up our traveling speed to 9.7 knt rather than my usual 8. It get dark here around 6 and so we had to get to the marina before dark. Fortunately the scenery along Pickwick lake was nothing to write home about so it was good to get through it quickly. I understand it will improve after this.

Went to dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant in Florence