Aqua Yacht Harbor to Midway Marina

After four weeks of waiting we are finally on the move again. We joined Bob & Sharon (Karma) and pulled out of Aqua at 7:00 am headed for the Tn-Tom at a leisurely 7 knots. Now I don't usually talk or think in terms of knots because the rivers and ICW are all measured in miles plus my brain is wired for mph, not knots... so this morning as I was running my usual 2000 RPMs my new chart plotter indicated to me that I was only going about 6 mph, I was expecting 7 to 7.5. I kept bumping the engine speed until I saw the expected 7 on my plotter and eventually realized the display said 7 kt rather than 7 mph, so I was actually doing a little more than 8 mph. Since I haven't figured out how to change that particular setting I'll try to rewire my brain to think in knots for a while. I made use of my new AIS as well, as we approached a southbound tug, I looked her up in the list supplied by my new toy and saw the name was Ginger Moller, however I called her Ginger Molly over the radio. Well the tug captain didn't seem to like that, his only reply was “Ginger Moller.” So, I hailed again with the correct name and asked which side I should pass to which he indicated it didn't matter since he planned to stay in the middle. This section of the Tn-Tom (The “Divide Cut”) is about 200 yards wide and his barge is about 70 yards wide, that leaves about 65 yards on either side. Normally that would be plenty of room however we were in a slight bend as I started around and it seemed he was squeezing me a little more than he needed to, I was about 10 yards from the barge and 10 yards from the bank as I passed. From now on I'll make sure and call these tugs by their proper name. We passed through three locks, Whitton, Montgomery and Rankin, on our way to Midway Marina with a 40 minute wait at Rankin being our only hindrance. We picked up another boat in our traveling pod, a small sailboat with no mast called Plan B (Charlie and son, Quinton) and when we pulled into the marina, we met other Loopers from Ocean Dancer (Bill & Kellirae) and Monterey (Rob & Glenda) at the dock. It was a good day! And Thanksgiving to boot! We enjoyed turkey sandwiches and leftovers from Hagey's Catfish Hotel Restaurant where we had eaten the day before – excellent food! We finished off our very unique Thanksgiving with some apple pie and ice cream. Hope all had a great holiday!
Aqua Yacht Harbor is located at 34.991645, -88.246922.