Leaving on a Slow Boat

This morning we wanted to get underway no later than 10:00 am, so we got up semi-early and walked up to Chattz coffee shop to use up the last few dollars we had on a gift card. Since Kim woke up with a pain in her back we walked slow and she'd stop to stretch every now and again, but we eventually made it. When we got back to the marina I wanted to add water to my tanks and pump out the holding tank but the only working faucet was not at my slip or the pump-out dock, that meant two opportunities to display my boat handling skills. No problemo, backed out of my slip and with a few backward and forward thrusts along with my mastery of the ship's wheel I was able to back into a slip with a working faucet, the only problem was a boat pulled up to the pump-out dock at the same time. As luck would have it the other boat pulled away just as I finished topping off the water tanks so I hopped up to the pilothouse and started pulling out of the slip but then noticed another boat headed to the pump-out dock; being the gentleman I am I pulled back into the slip and motioned him to go ahead. So now we wait, he gets gas (it's a gas and pump-out dock) then he pumps-out, then his wife goes up to the office, in the meantime his friend in another boat pulls in for gas. Well, I won't keep harping on that except to say we did finally get to the pump-out dock.

Ok, now we are ready. Years of research, training, boat searches, getting her home, fixing her up, provisioning and transitioning it all comes down to this... pulling away from the dock. So now we're cruising along leaving the sounds of the best little mid-sized city behind (massive jack hammering on the Olgiati bridge).

We floated effortlessly downstream at a leisurely 7.5 to 7.9 mph for the next 40 miles through the gorge, this is rugged country but with some beautiful homes with large yards scattered here and there along the way. Oh, and the mountains were awesome as well.

We tied to a free dock just above Nickajack Dam for the night, other boaters have already invited us over for dock-tails. See you later.