Mississippi: Florence, AL to Iuka (Aqua Yacht)

Day 130

NM Today: 37

NM Total: 2651

Locks Today: 0

Locks Total: 90

The captain’s log for today shows the following entry: “Overcast day with limited visibility and patches of fog”.   In addition to the moisture in the air, a nasty chill caused us to keep the full enclosure zipped closed for the entire cruise time.  We saw no sun today but at least we saw no rain either.  The photos taken today all show the foggy conditions. 

Peek-a-boo --
Smoke Stacks peeking through the fog

Can you see the towers hiding in the fog?

At this point, we have completed our travels on the Tennessee River.  As we exited the Tennessee River today, we left Alabama and entered Mississippi. For the next few days we will be traveling down the 234 miles of the Tenn-Tom Waterway that connects the Tennessee River to Demopolis, Alabama.  After that, the next 217 miles of river from Demopolis to Mobile, Alabama is officially the Black Warrior – Tombigbee Waterway.  However, most boaters refer to the combination of the two segments from the Tennessee River all the way to Mobile, Alabama as the Tenn-Tom.

With our entry onto the Tenn-Tom this afternoon, we are back on the Great Loop.  As we pulled into Aqua Yacht in Iuka, Mississippi, we spied a number of looper flags on some familiar and some unfamiliar boats.  We found Mazel Tug and LeeLoo whom we met at previous stops along the way, and we met some new loopers, and by that I mean new to us and also relatively new to the loop having started their adventure only 4 to 6 weeks ago.  Among the boats at Aqua are Corsair, Sum Escape, Grand Baron, and a non-looper traveling with us loopers -- Valor. 

Shortly after we docked the boat, Annie and Bill from Rock Me Baby came over to reconnect and say hello.  We traveled with them in parts of Canada and haven’t seen them since Michigan.  They became members of the elite set of boaters known as Gold Loopers when they came into Aqua Yacht earlier this week and “crossed their wake”. 

Given the number of loopers on the docks at Aqua, the perfect opportunity for “Docktails” presented itself.  The owners of Sum Escape graciously offered their vessel as the venue for our get together.  We enjoyed a great, relaxing evening.  A number of us are leaving together early tomorrow morning to start our journey down the Tenn-Tom.