ROGERSVILLE, AL TO IUKA, MS

Saturday, October 18th to Sunday, Oct 19th, 2014

Day 75-76
Miles Traveled on Sunday: 64
Total Miles Traveled: 1595

  Saturday was a relaxing day on the dock.  We choose to stay another day at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina since the river was going to be closed off and on at Florence, AL for dragon boat races.  The marina had cable hook-ups, so, we were able to watch the Buckeyes beat Rutgers (new to the Big 10 this year).  The Buckeyes gave them a BIG "Welcome to the Big 10 - This is how it's done!".  We watched a few other college football games throughout the day.  We retired early in the evening in preparation for an early morning departure with Paul and Stephanie aboard "Infinite Sea".

  
  Sunday we were up before daylight getting ready to cast off lines for planned departure of about 6:30 am.  Paul heard on the VHF that a tow boat was going to be arriving at Wheeler Lock at 7:00 am and it was 6:15 am.  We hurried and got ourselves ready and made it to the lock in time to lock through ahead of the tow, which saved us about a 3 hour wait.  

 We had a spectacular sunrise this morning as we made our way to the lock. The day was cool and only in the upper 40's to mid 50's for most of the morning.  It is a good thing we have a fully enclosed flybridge (upper deck of boat where we drive).  

Sunrise on the TN River

  We had a pleasant cruise to Wilson Lock and the lock master had the lock ready and waiting when we arrived.  Another fortunate event.  Wilson Lock is the highest drop we will have on this trip - 93 feet.  We have been through this lock once before, but then we were going upriver.  We are doing some back tracking from Chattanooga, TN to get onto the TN-Tombigbee Waterway that will take us down to Mobile, AL.  

Dan in Wilson Lock - helping to fend the boat off of the lock wall 

  Just past Wilson Lock is the town of Florence, AL.  We stayed at this harbor on the trip upriver.  At the entrance to the marina is a large tower structure that Dan is convinced is used to communicate with aliens.  He really is getting into this "Alien" thing.  Hopefully that will improve as we get further south and into palm trees and sand beaches. 

Entry to Florence Harbor Marina

Light fixture or Alien Communication Device ?

  We said goodbye to the Tennessee River and entered the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.  This waterway will take us 450 miles to Mobile, AL. 

Leaving the Tennessee River behind

Entering the TN-Tom Waterway

  We only traveled about 1.5 miles on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and docked at Aqua Yacht Harbor.  They have a good marine service center and we are going to have some work done on the auto-pilot before continuing down the waterway.