Friday October 17, 2014

Swallow Bluff Island mm 169.3 to Pickwick Landing State Park and Marina mm 207.6

A restful night as the current kept the boat positioned in the lee of the island. Got up early 630 to do my engine checks. Colletta was up and at’tem early also so we pulled back out into the river at 0715. We had spent the night anchored with 3 other boats. Can Am owned by a couple from Texas, Tohoma owned by a couple from Washington State. They do the loop for one month a year and then but the boat in storage at a marina. This is year 4 for them. The third boat was the Ouachita, a Coast Guard Buoy tender owned by all of us taxpayers.  We retraced our entrance into the anchorage as the cruising guides and ActiveCaptain.com said not to exit up stream because of snags and shoaling. Better to be safe than sorry. We had blue skies again. Really nice.

On our way today we noticed some serious mudslides that had occurred along the river. This house was one of the most precarious. You can see the concrete footing have slid down from under the house and the patio is just hanging out over nothing. Scary.

If you notice the right front corner of the house the concrete footing has collapsed from the mud slide. There is nothing supporting that corner of the patio.

We lucked out with the Pickwick Lock, because we had a minimal wait of probably 30 minutes to get into the lock. Can Am and Tohoma were traveling faster then us and had a 2 hour wait at the lock. The race does not always go to the swiftest. Locks on the river are a great equalizer. By the time we got to the lock the doors were opening so the Coast Guard boat went in first followed us pleasure boats. Harbor Lights had caught up with us so the 4 of us pleasure boats locked thru together. The lock lifted us 55 feet.

Locking thru Pickwick Lock

 

We exited at 1500 hours and headed for Pickwick Landing State Park Marina with Harbor Lights. Deb on Harbor Lights is doing some online course so she needs good internet. We had not been out walking about for 3 days so we thought a park early in the day would be nice so in we went.

Harbor Lights and Greek's Folly at the marina

 

Nice docks, but small bathrooms and only one shower for the entire marina. Maybe people prefer to shower on their boats. We can shower on our but a full size shower is special. Oh but they had rocking chairs. Guess who found one first?