Friday, October 14

This morning we had the first rain of our trip.  We were in a covered slip and weren't in any hurry so we sat and read and watched the rain.  Eva at the marina office had told us to be sure to go to the Visitor Center just across the way, so once the rain stopped, we decided to do that.  The marina and Visitor Center are part of a large county park that was once a golf course so the walk was very pretty.  A beautiful stand of pine trees, rolling hills, views of the water, and a striking building for the center. We learned that Lake Wilson is the largemouth bass capital of Alabama, that Helen Keller's home is 10 miles away, that W.C. Handy was born close by, and that there is such a thing as Muscle Shoals music.  We had hoped to walk from the center to the Frank Lloyd Wright house in town, but the nice lady at the desk discouraged us, saying it was too far and too much traffic.  That visit will have to wait until we come back through here after the Rendezvous or on the way home.  And the next time we will reserve the marina van earlier.

We did not have a reservation at Florence Marina for tonight, so headed out after lunch.  Kyle, the Harbor Master told us there had been some delays at the lock due to construction, and we found that to be true!  The approach to the lock is a canal that was constructed in the 1920's to enable boats to avoid the shoals.  We passed several large barges and tugs on our way up the canal, and hoped they weren't waiting for the lock.  The lock master said we would have to wait two hours for the construction to be finished.  We tied up to the wall right beside a huge, dead, smelly fish, and watched the construction crew dump huge buckets of cement into a hole.

When we got clearance, we pulled in, followed by two other cruisers who had tied to the wall with us.  We felt pretty smug, as Danny made a perfect approach to the bollard, and I made a good loop followed by a secure knot.  The boat behind us spent the entire time in the lock trying to stay off the wall using boat hooks.

On a side note, rather than doors that open at the top of the lock, the gate at this one goes down into the water. Pretty confusing the first time was saw it.

It was after 5:00 by the time we headed up the river.  The banks were so steep that we had trouble finding a place to anchor for the night.  Danny likes places that are 15-20 feet deep, but with a 70- foot deep lake those were hard to find.  We finally stopped about 7:30 in an almost-cove by some houses.  Last job of th day was watching th beautiful harvest moon rise over the lake.