Guntersville

Monday, September 22

I got an early start and ran to McDonalds for coffee and wi-fi. I got the previous blog entry done, some emails sent and the news and weather checked. By then Enterprise just down the street was open and I returned the rental. They ran me back to the boat by 8:15.

We had breakfast, I got cleaned up and the boat ready for departure. We had a short day planned with a run of less than 30 miles to Ditto Landing Marina.

Looking behind us as we left we could see the highway 31 bridge; the marina is just below it on the right. On the left is the main city of Decatur, with a lot of commercial docks on the waterfront.

It was a beautiful sunny morning with a temperature about 70 and no wind. Once out of town the river runs thru the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. This is a major wintering ground for ducks and geese; we are a little early the birds aren’t here yet. Because of the refuge there is virtual no presence of man on either bank for twelve miles and on Monday morning almost no fisherman. We cruised slowly up river enjoying the scenery. We are starting to see mountains in the distance.

Other than a few fishermen the only boats we saw were two small sailboats motoring down river.

Of the total shore line probably less than one percent is rocky but Diana gets lots of pictures of rocks. This was an interesting formation with an arch in the middle and sun light shining on the rock behind.





Shortly before two o’clock we had the marina in site. We quickly got in and got tied up. It had been pleasant all day but was begin to get warm in the sunshine. The AC felt good. Diana got pictures of the spacious marina which is in a lovely larger park. They also have an RV park with a pavilion that serves both the marina and RV Park. It has restroom, showers and a laundry. Diana took the opportunity to do a load of clothes.






We had dinner onboard, and as the sunset it cold off quickly and we open the windows for the night.




Tuesday, September 23,

Again plans for a short day, only about 25 miles but with one lock. We slept in (a little) and took our time getting underway. We were underway about 8:30

On the way out of the marina we saw this Jefferson 42; it is very similar to Cat’s Cradle that I have written about in earlier entries. Cat’s Cradle is a Hershine that was originally sold in Canada then later brought to the US. Jefferson’s are build by Hershine and imported thru Jeffersonville, IN. If originally sold in the US it is a Jefferson, sold anywhere else in the world it is a Hershine.




As we headed out today the weather was about the same as yesterday (beautiful!), just a little more wind. The mountains are getting closer and there are more high banks. Still most of the shore is owned by TVA and not a lot of development.




Still not much pleasure boat traffic, there were more fishermen, I am not sure if there were more fish in this stretch or more launching ramps. One of the few larger pleasure boats we saw was this lovely old Pacific Trawler. It is registered out of Rhode Island. I am guessing they are doing the great loop and are on a side trip up the Tennessee while they wait for the season to go to the gulf.

Shortly we came to a large cliff that is the end of a mountain range that the river cut through. The last two days has been some of the most beautiful scenery of the trip so far.












About 10:30 we called the Guntersville Lock to tell them we would like to lock up. He said we would have to wait an hour to an hour and a half. As we rounded the next bend we could see the lock with a string of barges below it and the tow with the rest of the barges in the lock. The tow finished locking down and reassembling his barges and at 12:02 we were signaled to enter. By 12:30 the gates were open and Diana was driving out of the lock.

About a mile upriver is a cave favored by Gray Bats (an endangered species) as a maternity cave. They raise the young there because it is the right temperature, then move to cooler caves for the winter to lower their metabolism.

We continued up Guntersville Lake and reached an area where it widens out and there is a cluster of wooded islands. Just past these we turned up a side channel to the Alred Marina. We had trouble getting into the available transient slip because our bimini was about two inches too high to clear the roof. We backed out with no damage and tied along the end of the dock where there is no roof. By 2:30 we were tied secure, had power and were doing boat chores.

This is where Dave and Mary West are joining us for a week (sister and brother-in-law). We have talked to them and they are visiting a friend in town and will be here shortly.