10-5-18 10-13-18 Marina Time and Treasured Friends

We have been on the Tennessee river for a while. There are still locks to tend with, but we have been lucky with no long waits.  We also have had the opportunity to call the locks before leaving to limit our waits in the current on the river.  We anchored out one more night with Eddie and Linda before crossing through Pickwick Lake.  Friends, Charlie and Robin whom we met on our first loop live in the area. They were so excited that we were there they invited us over that very night. Eddie and Linda hadn’t met them, but immediately hit it off.  Both very fun couples to be with.

 

Charlie got out the blender and many different kinds of alcohol.  He made the most delicious frozen drinks called Bushwackers. They went down so easy. If you had couple of these, I’m sure you would feel it.  It was nice to be in a home and not on a dock or on the back of a boat.  We went back to the boat after the dark.  The four of us got into our dinghy as Charlie and Robin aimed the headlights on it so we could find our way down the dock. It was so good to see them.

The next day we went through Pickwick Lock. The corner of three states, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi meets on the water, that is where Spriritus (Eddie and Linda) cross their wake for the second time. Making them Platinum Loopers. We were honored to be there at that monumental moment for them. We drove along side and took photo at just that moment when they crossed.  Crossing your wake means you complete the great loop.  You have crossed your wake where you started.

Once we got docked the second bottle of Loop wine was broken out to celebrate.  They were so cute, they kept saying “Did you hear? We’re Platinum”

We had dinner at Robin and Charlie’s again. Charlie is in his glory now that all the Loopers are coming into the marina.  He gathers them up and brings them home.  Robin is a saint! He brought home an extra 5 people. The boys ran to the store for more burgers and the gals made more fruit salad and got our more dishes.  We had quite a group. Herb is a famous Looper.  He is a colorful, friendly, inviting person.  He handles his 50+foot boat all by himself and has completed the loop one and ¾ times at this point.  He always has “Porchtails” on the back of his monster boat.  We had a very fun evening with so many old and new friends.

The next day we took our boat to Lee Spry Boat yard to have Last Call pulled to have her dripping, dripless shaft seal replaced.  It is a common maintenance that needs to be done periodically.  The part hadn’t arrived yet, so we had to leave her on the hard for the night.  Charlie and Robin were so gracious and invited us to stay at the house.  It felt great to take a shower that wasn’t a sea shower and to have lots of room to move around and good internet.  The next morning Charlie and Scott went back to finish up with the boat, Robbin had to go help her mother-in-law while I stayed at the house by myself.  I was so thankful for the peace and quiet to work on our presentation for the AGLCA at the Fall Rendezvous. I needed the outline turned in that day and the presentation was due in two days.  After practicing the first time we decided to completely change the format, so it was a ton of work. I am now getting pretty good with the basics of power-point. By noon Charlie took me back to the boat as she was ready to be splashed back in the water and I needed to help Scott get her back to the Marina. The work went well, and she no longer drips.

Someone organized docktails and a potluck dinner at the marina pavilion. There is Grand Harbor marina a short way away.  Charlie got his pontoon boat out and picked up the loopers at Grand Harbor and brought them over to Aqua Yacht Marina.  Food was great as usual, and we met many new loopers.  We all stood and told where we were from and what boat we were on. It is always interesting to see the differences in how people do the loop.  Some boats huge and other not much more than a runabout.  It was another great Looper night in the books.

We spent some time cleaning the dirty boat and prepared to depart the next morning.

We took off with no particular plan. Our next destination was Joe Wheeler State Park, where the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous will be held. We had two big locks coming up.  We had to push to get to the first lock, but got right in.  The next lock was not far, but there was chatter on the radio about an hour and a half wait and it was already late afternoon.  We chose to scoot up and offshoot and anchor for the night.  We had no desire to try navigating in the dark because of a lock.  The next morning, we called the lockmaster before pulling up the anchor.  Lock was clear, so we departed and had no wait when we got there.

 

Stay tuned for the Rendezvous doing.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

m/v Last Call

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