Grand Harbor Marina

Where are we?...Somewhere up north?  It is 57 degrees, windy and I am frozen after standing on the foredeck for a lengthy time waiting for this sweet marina attendant working on her own to find us our reserved spot.   Poor gal was hammered with newly arriving Loopers. We listened on the radio as “Summer Recess” called in to say they were in the creek leading to the marina and had a reservation. The marina answered back saying, “Sorry, we are full up and there are no slips left.”! We just looked at each other saying, “What?”.... Summer Recess answered back saying, “This is NO Time for joking!”  She sounded pretty serious to me but turned out she was spoofing him.....even though she had been deserted by all co-workers she still had a good sense of humor.

As we coasted by the outside docks here we were greeted by Jeff from SeaGlide (Asheville, NC) and when we came around the fuel dock there was his wife, Grace, waiting to catch our lines!  We were asked to just coast around until they figured out where to put us...turned out no one asked our height when I made the reservation here...we were outside not under covered dock space before so I never thought to tell them. We are now secured under a covered dock..... so glad for the nice Looper discount here.....we had to lower our mast which has our antenna on it but still have good free wi-fi connection.

There are a few yankees running around in shorts on the dock.....wonder if they will enjoy the 37 degrees predicted for tonight? The wind was what made it feel so COLD as we came off the Tennessee River and into this creek .  And on the River today it was hard to believe the white caps and SPRAY coming over the deck! The forecast called for 10 knots winds but it was closer to 20 knots.

We are now back where we started when we went up the Tenn. River to Chattanooga, so from now on all will be new to us as we travel down the rivers to Mobile Bay.  But it is a legitimate question as to WHERE we are.......if you walk across the parking lot here you are in Mississippi but where the boat is tied is Tennessee and across the River is Alabama!  I have yet to get used to the river wanderings.... seems we should be going south but most of today we traveled northwest to get here.  ????

We got a late start waiting for the marina office to open.  It was after 8a and no one there yet.  We gave up after 9a and left and called them later and paid by phone.  Perhaps the staff were all at the Paddle canoe race which was taking place on the river just outside the channel to the Marina.

Here is an interesting way to get to and from your boat without having a tram... it's an elevator!

The sunshine went away and the wind blew harder than we had expected but not so bad that I had to put on my sea bands....... could I be getting use to this rockin' and rollin' life?

White caps in the Tennessee River today.

Many Loopers are here for a few days and it will be nice to catch up with them and compare our Adventures.  We are looking forward to exploring Shiloh National Park and relaxing for a few days before moving on down river.