Wednesday, September 29, 2021.
Temp: 86/63, Humidity: 54/100%, Top Wind: SE5 mph, Precip: FOG. AGAIN! then sunny and hot,
Miles Traveled: 43 in 5.5 hours…. average 7.8mph.
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Even though we were in a covered slip and could barely tell it was getting light outside, we still were awake before 6:30. Captain rolled over and said there was a fog advisory until 9:00. How’d he know that?! So I got up and looked outside. It was OK here in the marina, but I could see out to where the river is, and yep – there was fog. Hmmm…🤔. I reported back my findings and suggested that we could have a delayed start today. You know – like the busses are running one hour late? Not really a snow day, just a late start. So I puttered around and was not even getting ready to go.
Captain came upstairs and we fixed coffee. Then by about 7:20, the scenery had changed enough and it looked like it was good for us to go. We got ourselves all beebopped outta there and on our way in a matter of minutes. The golden glow of the morning sun is so pretty on the trees as they’re starting to show their fall colors.
The marina office still has a little barge and equipment here to continue working on the refurbishment of the marina. Way back in the corner to the left is a bunch of crumpled up dock structures. 😕
Out onto the river by 7:30, and it was looking like we might be OK as far as the weather was concerned. YAY!
Then – NOT YAY! Are you kidding me?! What the heck is with that big giant pillow of fluff on the water? There must be something around here that creates extra steam right there? It was just hanging out and not moving, like an alien from Star Trek.
Before we got to the eye-blinding cloud of whiteness, these trees were really looking gorgeous!
And then…. whiteout. Most of the time, we could see a slight shadow of an outline of the trees on one shore or the other. But looking straight ahead was just white. It was really hard on my eyeballs because there wasn’t anything to focus on. Kind of like my camera couldn’t focus either – notice the flag and bow railings are blurry? That’s how my eyeballs felt. Kenny kept watching the electronics and I watched and listened outside. After awhile I kept seeing black floaters in my eyes because they were trying so hard to see something! I asked him to try to keep close enough to the shoreline that we could see it for reference.
At one point I heard something, craned my ears out the window, and thankfully it turned out to be an airplane. Whew! Kenny could see a dredge-tow on the side of the river on the AIS and radar, and finally I was able to see it’s outline as we were almost next to it – like the Black Pearl in Pirate of the Caribbean… just a fog ship! And then I saw a bass boat go by, and then head out to cross in front of us and I lost him! YIKES! Where’d that sumbeach go and WHY is he out here crossing IN FRONT of us?! We slowed down and could see that his waves went clear across the river, so we were likely not going to run over him… we hoped. What a crazy head! 🤨 Kenny saw blobs on the radar, which turned out to be barges loaded with dirt, but no tow in sight, so that was good. We stayed going pretty slow through the whole ordeal for almost an hour. And then…. we slid right out of the fog and it stayed behind us like a blanket on the water. I don’t have any idea why it was all just hanging out right there and not dissipating.
After that, the sky was clear blue and beautiful, and we had some nice scenery. Tucked into the trees here is the Old Tennessee Lighthouse, but I couldn’t find any other information about it.
This was fun – the Mermaid Marina! It’s probably just for pontoon boats, but the mermaid out front was fun.
We saw miles and miles of “campgrounds”, which apparently are plots of land along the river where people erect a carport type building for their RV. Occassionally we’d see some living quarters way up on stilts, so I’m supposing the building regulations say that permanent living quarters must be at a certain elevation. Below that, only temporary living is allowed, due to flood dangers.
By 1:00 we arrived at the Clifton Marina and tied up to their transient dock. I totally spaced and didn’t get any pictures of the marina except this one: Reserved parking for Seattle Seahawks Fans Only…… in a little marina in the tiny town of Clifton Tennessee! 💁♀️. Go Hawks! 🏈
We had a very early dinner at the restaurant because we hadn’t really eaten anything all day. Kenny’s “burger” was a giant pile of protein between buns. There was a variety of beef and pork piled high. He had to use a knife and fork, but he couldnt’ even eat it all. At least we ate early, so we have lots of time for it to digest before bedtime!
We’re making our way south ahead of the giant pack of loopers, and this will be our last night in Tennessee. Today was our 194th day on the trip, and this is our 101st stop. I’ve been looking at the next week or so of weather, and I think we’re going to be in good shape to just keep moving south! The river is starting to calm down, although today’s current had us averaging less than 8mph – but part of that was the fogpocolypse. Hopefully the Pickwick lock above us will slow down the release of water as projected so that tomorrow won’t be too bad. After we transit that lock tomorrow, it’ll all be downhill to the Gulf of Mexico. 🎢