Cold
We spent a few days at Grand Harbor. More than we intended but rainy weather encouraged us to hang out for a while. We’ve been out in rain before, but in the spring or summer, when you kinda welcome a bit of wetness. With temperatures in the upper 50s we decided to wait. Ran some errands, got some groceries. Grand Harbor, like many marinas along this part of the Tennessee and Tenn-Tom waterway, have courtesy cars available for transient boaters to go get supplies. It’s a nice perk and in areas where Uber is not an option, it’s sometimes the only way to get supplies.
Thursday the forecast improved slightly. No more rain but highs only in the low 50s. So we bundled up in our foul weather jackets and headed out. We’ve been this way before. The Divide Cut, as this part of the Tenn-Tom Waterway is known, is more like a canal than a river. The banks are rock, rip-rap I believe it is called, and it’s not very wide. But it’s a pleasant enough portion of the trip, especially this time of year, with the leaves beginning to change.
Pleasant, except for two things. One was our speed. Again we were getting passed by everybody. This time of year, a large number of Loopers are on this part of the Tenn-Tom, and most of them are going at least 7 or 8 miles an hour. We could see them coming on AIS, and the next time we looked around, we could see them behind us. Moments later we’re being hailed, asking if they could pass; most Loopers are quite nice and take seriously the “rules of the road” on waterways like this.
The other thing, which was much more of an annoyance, was the wind. As the waterway winds through the landscape, the wind is sometimes behind you, sometimes from the side, and a couple of times straight on the nose. Keep in mind, we are on a sailboat, we didn’t have to remove our mast to clear all the bridges, which is great. Except that means that completely enclosing our cockpit is more difficult, so we haven’t. Add to that, our bundling up was less effective than we had expected. The gloves that we had weren’t our winter gloves and it showed, or rather felt. Not too far into the day, Amy broke out her foul weather bibs, an overall type garment worn with the jacket, to provide extra protection from the wind. As we got to Bay Springs Lake, where the landscape opened up quite a bit, and the wind became a bit stronger because of that, we entered the ‘miserable’ part of the day. We didn’t try to look up the wind chill, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in the 30s at that point. The occasional patches of sunshine helped a little, but we realized we made an error in our packing list by emphasizing south Florida and beyond. Some winter clothes were called for. And we developed a plan.
Bay Springs Marina is, so far, our favorite place on the waterway. It’s in a beautiful cove, the family that owns it was great when we stayed here in 2024, and they remembered us when we called. Our plan was to leave the boat there for a couple of days, use the courtesy car to get to Tupelo where we could rent a car, drive back to Decatur and pack up the winter clothes, especially the coats and gloves that we had left behind. We docked, and explained our plan to Megan, the owner’s daughter that remembered us from 2024. There was only one problem. Someone already had the car reserved for a trip to Tupelo the next day. Megan was kind enough to ask them if they would consider having us share a ride. Happily, they agreed.
We walked to the far end of the marina from where we were docked, to meet our benefactors. Megan had told us which boat they were on. As we approached, we laughed just a bit when we realized, we’d seen this boat before. They had been at Grand Harbor while we were there, and they were one of the boats that had passed us earlier in the day. We introduced ourselves and they invited us aboard. One of the great things about boating, is some of the people you meet. We had a delightful visit with them, and knew we would have a great time riding to Tupelo. And Beth and Larry, if you happen by this blog, thank you again for the hospitality, and the ride. Hope to see you on the water again, sometime soon.
With a rental car at our disposal, we made our way back to Decatur. Winter coats, gloves, wool socks and caps. We now felt prepared. Amy took the opportunity to visit the church’s Trunk or Treat and surprise folks. This morning we packed the car with our treasured items and made our way back to Kotona. Unfortunately, the rental location in Tupelo is not open on the weekend, so Monday we’ll return the car, get back to the boat and head to the anchorage nearest the lock. Tuesday, we’ll make our way through the first three or four locks. We’re a bit behind where we’d imagined we’d be at this point, but we have a bit of new enthusiasm and lots of time. Mobile, we’ll see you in a couple of weeks. After that… we’ll see which way the wind blows.