GENESIS: Thursday, September 21, 2017. Florence to Bay Springs lake.

The water looked great when we untied and idled out of Florence Harbor Marina this morning at 6:20, but we soon ran into patchy fog that reduced visibility to near zero. Just as we thought it was clearing up, we ran into more fog, so about 7:30 I made the dcision to stop and wait it out. We first tied to a dolphin (a big round docking structure for tows and barges) at a loading facility, but had to move when a tow boat needed to tie his load there. We then pulled across the river outside the navigation channel and anchored.

We stopped shortly after this picture was taken.

We anchored here to wait out the fog. A quarter mile downstream, visibility was zero!

I'm not sure what you call this - a fog bow or rainbow in black and white? It appeared when the sun was behind us and the heaviest fog was ahead. (No, it's not photoshop!)

I calculated that we needed to be moving by no later than 9:00 in order to get to Bay Springs Lake before dark. Just as if it was following a script, the fog started to clear about 8:55, and at 9:04 we pulled up the anchor and headed back down the Tennessee River toward the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

We passed this Nordic Tug on the Tennessee today. (Another one of my favorite boats)

Between Pickwick Lake and Bay Springs Lake, the Tenn-Tom is a man-made cut.

Glenda drove much of the day, and I took some short naps. We pushed Genesis' diesel engine to about 2000 rpms in order to maintain a speed of around 8 mph. This was a day of no locks to go through, so even with the fog delay, we covered 78 miles and anchored in time to take Daisy to shore in the dinghy before dark.

Glenda says:

So today was definitely a long day. We did not sleep as well last night. Daisy must have found something "yummy" to eat while we were walking last night because she was miserable sick from 11 until after midnight. She was gagging and hacking and throwing up. Needless to say the captain was not very happy. She finally settled down. But 5:30 came early. I walked Daisy (and watched everything she sniffed at) and we were away before 6:30. The fog did delay us but it was fascinating to watch. There were times when it engulfed everything and we could not see either bank. Reminded me of some of our tough times. Tom slept on and off and I drove a good bit. We finally anchored at Finger 1--in Bay Springs lake. It is beautiful. We took the dinghy over to the shore and let Daisy take care of her business. As sun went down we heard the echo of the bird calls across the water. God is really so good!