Sulfur Creek (Pickwick Landing State Park anchorage)

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 177 - September 24, 2017

Since it will be another ~50 mile day with a lock at the end with an unknown wait to transit, we got another early start! We started out a bit ahead of The Good Life and Jet Stream, but each of them in turn passed us! We had decided we didn't want to pay the fuel penalty for the extra 1 mile per hour, so we settled for our usual 6.67 mph and 1 gph, at least for the most of today's cruise! When Jet Stream passed us, K.C. got a nice shot of Daydream running in the Tennessee River!

Daydream on way to Pickwick Lock on Tennessee River

Along the way, we passed an area with a marginal T-Mobile cell signal, and Patty Googled how to reset the Verizon Jetpack. Turns out you remove the battery and then press and hold the reset button down. When we put the battery back in, the Jetpack came back to life, at least for the time being, and we once again have internet when we have a Verizon cell tower nearby, which is a WHOLE lot more places than there is any T-Mobile service!

We cruised along just fine at our usual speed until about five miles before we got to the Pickwick Landing Lock, when we noticed the current getting a little stronger, then a mile or so along, a LOT stronger, until finally right before the lock we were struggling to make 4 or 5 mph and burning a lot of fuel at that! We found The Good Life anchored a short distance from the lock, and we anchored between The Good Life and the shore. The lock master informed us that he needed to lock two tows through, and that it would be a two to four hour wait, so we resigned ourselves to wait! While we were waiting, Angel Louise, a sailing catamaran without a mast, went past us and anchored a bit closer to the lock.

Fortunately, the lock master called on the radio after about an hour and said he was going to lock us through with the second tow, which was a single barge, and that we should enter the lock on the horn and be sure we were tied up behind the tow.  When the horn sounded, we all entered the lock and secured our lines, and the 55 foot ascent began! Gail on The Good Life took a nice picture of Daydream at the top of the lock on the wall!

Daydream at top of lock wall at Pickwick Landing Lock

The lock master directed us to exit the lock prior to the tow exiting, and as soon as the horn sounded, we were on our way! 

I called around trying to find a place to sell me a second Group 31 12 volt battery, since we discovered over the course of three nights that a single Group 31 was on the very bottom edge of adequacy, and we wanted more comfort in our reserve amp hours! I called a couple of places, and amazingly, Sam from Captain's Choice at Aqua Yacht Harbor called me back and arranged to have the second battery delivered and installed on Tuesday, and offered us a free tie-up at the Captain's Choice brokerage dock, so that is where we will be heading tomorrow.

The Sulfur Creek anchorage is just past the Pickwick Landing Marina up (non-odoriferous) Sulfur Creek. Gail emailed us that game time would be at 6:30 p.m.on Angel Louise! There was a dandy place on the shore opposite the marina to land Baxter, and with that out of the way, we had our sundowners and dinner, and then paddled over to Angel Louise.

Getting onto a sailing catamaran from an inflatable kayak was the first hurdle, but that was nothing compared to my trying to understand the rules to the evening's game. This involved an octagonal wooden board with holes for marbles, with the men playing against the women, and cards having weird properties, like only go backwards, or must be split between two marbles, or allow you to bump an opponent, and so forth. I did not and never will understand the rules of that game, and if I never have to play it again, it will be too soon!

Tomorrow we motor over to Captain's Choice brokerage dock at Aqua Yacht Harbor for our new second battery!