South on the Tennessee

Here's the view leaving Paris Landing bright and early yesterday morning. We didn't realize that daylight savings time had ended until the day was half over. Our cruise down the remainder of Lake Kentucky was beautiful with full sunshine. It's easy to imagine the Lake teaming with boating activities in the summer, but except for the fishermen, we saw few others.

This abandoned dock is one of the landmarks of the Lake. I don't know if it dates from before or after the Lake was created by the dam. We drove for an easy 7 hours and anchored in a little bay on the way into a marina. Had a short dinghy ride and then followed the Viking/Packer game on "game day"...a free internet link that describes each play and statistic as it happens. Not quite the same as the big screen. A beautiful full moon on the bay, a great dinner aboard, and up at sunrise today.

You can see a little fog in this picture of our anchorage, and when we first entered the channel, it was just on the surface. Within 15, minutes, however, we were in "pea soup" and could barely see the front of our own boat. So we slowed down and used the chart plotter to tell us where we were and what heading to set on the autopilot. We kept a close eye on the radar, but no barge traffic appeared. It was pretty cool, a little nervous, but ya gotta "trust your instruments"...and all this before I even had my first cup of coffee. After about an hour the fog lifted. The Tennesee River narrows at this point and we begin to see lots of houses of all shapes and sizes. I really liked this group of houses on a limestone bluff, notice the lighthouse house in the middle. Before noon, it was warm enough to go up on the flybridge. Tonight we are staying at the Clifton Marina, Clifton, TN. We got here by 2 pm, took the bikes into town for a few groceries, had showers and a terrific hamburger at the Marina. This is a great little "mom and pop" type marina, one of our favorites so far. Very friendly. Plan tomorrow is to anchor somewhere near the Pickwick Lock and Dam. After that we enter the Tombigbee Waterway, so stay tuned. High 60's and sunny predicted all week. Yippee !!!