July 4, 2020 - Clifton Marina to Grand Harbor, Iuka, MS

We cast off about 730am from Clifton, having nearly 57 miles to travel, about 50 of them upstream, and Pickwick lock to transit. Another beautiful sunny day... almost too sunny for me! Amy on the other hand likes her sun, even when it is a bit too hot. The Tennessee River is very beautiful. The surrounding soil is quite sandy compared to WI and Northern IL. As a result you see more "rip-rap" of private property shorelines. You will also see a couple houses that likely wished they had been able to protect their shorelines from high water erosion. There are other places where you can see the river has been cutting through the sandstone for thousands of years. I admit I do like to see some of the towns and the man-made developments along the waterways... but the nature views mean the most to me. There are so many people that seem to feel so self-important.... that the world revolves around them. Taking all these beautiful scenes also reminds me... it was all here thousands and thousands of years before me... it will be here thousands of years after me. We, and our life spans are not even a spec of dust in the big picture.

Pickwick lock was ready to open the doors and take us in when we arrived. A fairly long lift... around 50 feet by quick estimate. Pickwick Lake was a beautiful ride as well. It took us about an hour from the lock to arrive at Grand Harbor. We knew ahead we could not reserve dock space for the night and would have to anchor. Unfortunately, even with lots of space visually available, we weree not able to even tie up for an hour and visit with our friends. Grand Harbor is a beautiful place, but when you combine their lack of hospitality, (possibly related to the next point) and their location right on the navigation channel leading to the Tenn-Tom canal without an actual harbor for protection, I would not be putting this place very high on the list to visit. It appears a majority of loopers go on to Aqua Harbor, about a mile or so further in... and from my view, with good reason.

We dropped the anchor about 200 yards east of L dock, to settle in for the fireworks show. The video and pics don't do it justice, GH put on an excellent fireworks show. We called it a night right after, as we were getting up at 530 Sunday, to travel with "Outta Here" and crew back south. They wanted to leave early because they needed to make the entire 100 miles back to Cuba Landing in 1 day. Happy Independence day everyone! I hope yours was as blessed as ours!

One last observation: over the last 2 days i bet I have seen 200 boats flying "Trump 2020" flags. That sure makes me smile. The media pounds the leftist agenda, the protests, the hating of everything that makes this great country great... then you get to see that you are not alone!

July 3, 2020 - Cuba Landing to Clifton Marina

Up until this past week I have been pretty happy with TN weather. However, the rains came back, bringing tons of humidity along with! Sounds like a perfect excuse to take a few days for a trip! Amy got down here On Thursday evening, and we staged her car in Clifton (We both need to be in the office on Monday). Friday morning, we got up, filled the water tanks, and began prepping Toscana for a trip to Pickwick Lake. Grand Harbor was putting on fireworks, plus some friend from the pier were going up there to bring their new to them houseboat down to Cuba Landing on Sunday. I pulled out of the slip and tied off at the end of the pier about 9am. We needed to get out of the slip to raise the mast for the trip. Finally ready to shove off at noon!. A nice 40 mile cruise up to Clifton. The rains have also brought some moderately higher water, and plenty of floating debris. Not terrible, but enough to keep us on our toes at the helm. Amy even piloted for awhile! We got in to Clifton about 530pm. On to Grand Harbor on the 4th!

June 13-14 - First trip of 2020

Thankfully the first trip of 2020 went much better than 2020 itself has gone. Friday night I took the dinghy off and loaded it in the pickup to take to the shop for awhile... We won't be going anywhere that we need it this year. Well back up, Thursday night was install time for a new a/c system to replaced the failed unit in the Master Cabin.

So on Saturday, I got up, and finished all the pre-trip prep, took a shower, and was ready to cast off about 0930. Got out in the channel, opened the mains up for a couple minutes to blow the coal out of them, then a nice leisurely trip North (downstream) to Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN. Cuba Landing is still rebuilding after the storm, and until the store is open they are not able to offer fuel or pumpout. About a 2.5 hour trip, took on 240 gallons of fresh diesel, and got a good pumpout and flush. With that all done, a nice lunch at their Blue Heron grill! After lunch, back South (upstream) toward Cuba Landing. Some friends from Pier 5 were anchored out in Eagle Creek, about 3.5 miles North of Cuba Landing. I pulled in about 1630, rafted up, and hung with them for the evening. We had a big breakfast and sat around till about 1600, then we all headed for Cuba Landing. See pics and video below!. All in all, Toscana ran great, a great weekend on Kentucky Lake / Tennessee River!

Lunchtime @ Pebble Isle!

5/28/2020

Last night the bay @ Cuba Landing was beyond peaceful!

Some updates:

I am officially moved now to TN. Still setting the business back up, and trying to get things going again after the economic devastation caused by the socialists over the corona virus, but that's another topic entirely. During the process i got the other two A/C systems switched to digital control, and am in the process of wiring a new pump relay. The master cabin unit has an issue, I'm waiting patiently for a guy that can work on R22 units to come diagnose. If it's not repairable, a quick replacement, as it is a combo unit. Boat projects for the most part will take a back seat this year, as I need to spend most of my time moving John Gault Trucking into it's new home, however the one that must be addressed is the mast. I will be removing the mast in the next couple weeks and taking it to the shop to re-work the hinge, and fabricate a better lifting mechanism. Keeping Toscana in a covered slip has worlds of advantages, but one disadvantage is the mast must be laid down to enter the slip. The mast is critical to be upright while underway in all but the calmest of conditions.

Stay tuned, for progress updates, and hopefully an adventure or two this summer!