Happy Destiny: 7/5/18 - Thursday - Guntersville Marina to Florence Harbor Marina, Alabama

We were in the last outside slip of a dock that had no break wall protection from the main lake last night at Guntersville Marina. With the heavy boat traffic due to the Independence Day holiday this made for a rockin and Rollin evening and night! Probably the rockiest evening we’ve ever had at a marina. Fortunately we were exhausted and/or the wave action finally settled down a bit because we both slept well and awoke at about 6am.
We made our coffee, stowed things, opened up windows (turned off AC) and just as Erik was preparing to cast off the lines to get another jump on the days heat Renee called the Guntersville Lock and Dam (just about 10 miles further downriver) to inquire if there were any delays due to commercial barge traffic. She was told there is a 3hr delay....ugh. Oh well, this is the nature of river travel and we roll (float) with the punches. Guess it’ll be a slower start to the day than we planned. We’ve learned that "Planning" and "boat travel" are not really synonymous 🤔.
We left the marina at about 9am and headed up to the Lock slowly. We waited another 20 mins or so to get into the lock. Down we went and on our way down river we cruised. It was uneventful and pretty quick motoring (for us) at about 14 - 15 mph. Until we got to the railroad lift bridge in Decatur. There was a train on the tracks and another one right behind it. We had to wait for 30 mins or so for the bridge to lift and let us through. Shortly after, the rain clouds rolled in. We had called ahead to the lock at Wheeler Lock and they said if we could make it there in an hour he’d lock us down but otherwise we would have to wait a couple of hours. We picked up the pace to 18-20 mph and somehow (dumb luck) managed to skirt all of the thunder boomers around us. We locked down and called the next lock (Wilson) only to find out that we would have a 2 1/2 hr wait. We were only about 10 miles or less from it. We slowed our pace drastically and tootled downriver to what turned out to be a gorgeous anchorage cove where we sat for a while to wait. Fortunately the rain in the area had cooled the temps and the scenery was beautiful in this cove. The one house that was in the cove is for sale. We tried to find the listing for it because it was on an absolutely stunning lot and we thought we might buy it with all our extra cash 💰 😂.
After a while of floating we slowly made our way over to the top of the Wilson lock where we ended up having to wait yet another hour for the barge (that got locked up in two pieces) to connect back together and motor out. By this time it was after 730pm and it was starting to get dark (we are in central time). It was only a couple of miles down a canal to the Florence Harbor Marina. We pulled in and got settled into our slip. On the wall immediately behind us is the motor vessel "Annie" whom we had encountered and met the crew in Marietta at the Sernwheeler Featival a couple of years ago. It is a very cool large old boat with a complete pipe organ set on the top bridge that belts out wonderful tunes 😊
We had planned to cook dinner but the hour was getting late (830pm or so) and the allure of the on-site restaraunt drew us in for Philly Steak flatbread sandwiches and fries. We showered and are back at the boat planning our day for tomm. We are planning to do some siteseeing and an AA meeting in the AM before our next days cruise.