Woke up this morning to a 56 degree blue sky day. Since we only have a short distance today, there was time for a long morning walk around Paris Landing State Park. This is an 841 acre park with something for everyone—primitive camping, RV sites, rustic cabins, conference center, hotel and restaurants, pools, amphitheatre etc. The marina rate is $.65 a foot which is very reasonable. They supply 50 amp power and we draw 30 amp but the office supplied us with a pigtail to convert. They have limited shower facilities but with few boaters in the off season, this was not a problem.
Here is a picture of the water level pole. Another way to get the daily river water level is to listen daily to the Coast Guard’s “Notice to Mariners” updates.
We departed at 9 with “Cynthia Faye” and “Rose’s Pick”. Soon after leaving the marina, we picked up an AIS target, “Mimi”, traveling at 14 mph. We hailed the Captain and learned that this 125 motoryacht hails from the St. Croix River in MN and regularly travels down to FL following the warmer weather. Now that’s a great life!
We had a wonderful cruise today on the Tennessee River. We saw remnants of the former river life at Mile 78 with the remains of the Ol’ Louisville & Nashville RR Bridge with ½ its span removed, and a sturdy abandoned dock. The shoreline is rolling green hills meeting a more sandy shore and with the contrast of the blue sky, “Cynthia Faye” looked bristol easing through the water.
We got to Pebble Island Marina and decided to fuel up as they were offering diesel at $3.19 with a Boat US discount. That is a deal compared to what we have seen so far. We looked at our logs and calculated that we have done 1600 miles so far and in the rivers, we have averaged 4.5 mpg vs. 3.7mpg in the Great Lakes
Pebble Isle Marina supplied a courtesy car and we took off for the Civil War museum at Johnsonville. We learned that this area was important to the Confederacy when Maj. Gen. Forrest and his troops destroyed the Northern supply routes for Gen. Sherman on his March to the Sea.
We had a Captain’s Meeting on the dock at 6 and met some new Loopers on “Ebb Tide”. Tomorrow may be stormy with rain and hail and we will have to evaluate in the morning.
