Sunday, November 3: An Extra Hour of Sleep as We Lay Over at Grand Harbor

Date:                           November 3, 2013

Day on the Cruise:     181

From:                          Grand Harbor Marina, Iuka, MS
                                       
To:                              Grand Harbor Marina, Iuka, MS

Statute Miles:              0.0 SM

Time:                           0.0 Hrs

Cumulative Miles:       4,712.0 SM

On Board:                   Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut

We stayed at Grand Harbor again today to take a break after three very long days on the Tennessee River.

We just did a five day trip from Chattanooga in three days! We are trying to make up some time from having taken off to attend the wedding in Valsosta. We have had unbelievable luck at the locks in that our waiting time has been minimal. Also, the river currents have been with us instead of against us, and this fact has given us at least a 1 mph push,especially below the dams. We have been lucky in that we have had no fog to delay us in getting daylight starts the past three days. Finally, we have been traveling at about two mph faster RPM wise than normal, and while this has come with a price for poorer fuel efficiency, it has helped us make up time. All of these things have helped us expedite our trip back down the Tennessee River, and now we are off the River in Yellow Creek, connecting to the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

Today also marks the return to Central Daylight time. We gained an hour of sleep, and we took advantage of it! It was great to sleep in this morning, even though my body clock had me up at 4:00 ready to get on the water again. I went back to sleep for several more hours!

Four boats pulled out of Grand Harbor this morning headed for the Tenn-Tom. "Pazza Bella", "Freya",  "Ka-Jen", and "In My Element" left mid morning to run 38 miles to the first marina. It is a beautiful day here and cruising should be great. We will follow them tomorrow with "Sun Gypsy". We are reluctant to run with six boats because of space considerations at marinas and anchorages. Besides, we needed this "Lay Day" to rest up.

We needed a few groceries so we tagged along with Rick and Leila in the early afternoon to go eat a late lunch and visit the local food store. They had reserved the marina courtesy car. We replenished our supply of fresh stuff that we had consumed this week. We stopped at a local Mexican place for lunch that was very good, then returned to the boats.

Tomorrow we start down the Tenn - Tom Waterway toward Mobile, AL. We hope to maybe make it about 60 miles, but we have to go through 3 Locks to do it. Traffic at the locks will dictate how far we can go tomorrow. We will also pass under a railroad bridge that my friend Jack Rogers worked on back in the late 70's. I have promised to take copious pictures of the bridge for posterity!

Thanks for Reading!