It's A Small World After All

We spent 3 very peaceful days anchored in Dry Creek, well illustrated in our previous post. Today we upped anchor and moved about 6 miles to Grand Harbor marina. One of the reasons for stopping here is to take advantage of their courtesy car to get some shopping done. We hit the local super mart and found it lacking so we drove into Savannah, Tn; about 15 miles further. It was getting on lunch time so we started looking for a place to stop. Hmmm, A & W! Love A & W root beer, but we wanted something local. We were about to go back to the A & W when we saw this place called Fish Hut. Lots of cars in the lot, lets try it! Casual dining, very friendly locals, and catfish from the Catfish Capitol of America! All the small tables were occupied so we sat at the end of a large one. A few minutes later we were joined by four local businessmen. Nice guys, we talked fishing. I then asked about the local businesses and we hear they all work for a manufactured home company. Chris almost didn't say anything but decided to ask if they new her former co-worker from Detroit who moved to Mississippi and is working for a manufactured home company. SURE, we know Tony!!! What are the odds? They all had plenty of good things to say about Tony (imagine that!). We're trying to meet up with Tony & Mary next week further down the trail. And the catfish was EXCELLENT!
After a fine lunch we did stop at a Kroger. Good selection of what we needed so we dropped almost $200 stocking up.
Where we're tied up at the marina is a long walk to the laundry, so they lent us a golf cart. Chris volunteered to do laundry and took the golf cart. The run includes some steep inclines down to the docks and hard turns to avoid going into the drink. I think she spent more time on the links than she's let on..."Hellen Wheels" is her NASCAR name down here.

Too many cold nights here so we're pushing south. We should be in Mobile in about 2 weeks!

Land Ho!!

Yet another interesting situation. We decided to anchor in Dry Creek on Picwick Lake today. The Army Corps of Engineers chart shows plenty of depth. As we approach the area, I'm also checking my Garmin chart plotter. Dry Creek isn't there! We keep going in with around 20' of depth. Soon, according to the chart plotter, we're on dry land! We dropped anchor in 12' of water in a VERY nice cove, just as the Army charts show. I would have expected Garmin to make their charts based on the Army charts. Who knows. Here is a shot of the chart plotter. The red line is our track:

Garmin, what's up with that?

We'll be staying here a few days. Hi Tuesday is reported to be 80 degrees!

We're all in the same boat

Chris and I have discussed our cruising plans with a lot of friends and family. More than a few have expressed concerns with our being together 24/7 in a small space. Really, a legitimate concern! There's no place to go to get away. We're together all the time while underway, dealing with whatever the waterway throws at us. We're together all evening when at anchor. We do split up a bit when we're at a marina, but not for long.
The first few weeks were quite stressful. We had to change plans at the last minute, diverting away from the Erie canal and sailing north around all of Michigan late in the season. We had to figure out what to do with our mast while running down the rivers and through the locks. We had the rather inhospitable Mississippi River to deal with. And we cut all ties back on land, there was no turning back! Good reasons to stress out.

I'm happy to report that after 6 weeks, we're getting along better than ever! Does Captain Bligh bark on occasion? Never! Does the Admiral question the captains judgement? Perish the thought! Well, nobody's perfect. But we've both noticed that we are working well together and we're having a lot of fun together.

Just thought you'd like to know!

Today was animal day. Along with the many bald eagles, herons and pelicans we've been seeing on the Tennessee, today we saw a raccoon, a fox & a bull trying to mount a cow! Tomorrow we lock up at Pickwick dam into Pickwick lake. We hear there are some very pretty anchorages and the weather is projected to be excellent. Hi of 80 on Tuesday!! It just keeps getting better and better.

Thanks for tuning in.