6/9/22 - Pickwick State Park anchorage to Clifton Marina - 48 miles 1 lock

 It was a very pleasant night at a peaceful cove.  No wakes and comfortable temperatures made for a restful nights sleep. Erik even slept in until 6 am!  

While simultaneously making a pot of coffee and running the microwave for a moment the inverter/battery bank started to flake and go on and off.  Renee checked the status on the inverter amp and it in fact was indicating a ‘fault low battery’.   We started the now working generator to charge batteries.   The hope was that with the new agm bank we would have enough amp hours for anchoring out for a couple days with no issue without having to run the generator; maybe not.   We got out our amp meter and started plugging in devices to determine how much each was drawing. We’ve had some concerns with the efficiency of the refrigerator because it seems to run a lot. It was determined that devices we use regularly draw: refrigerator 1.56 amps,  portable fan (usually runs all night)  .2 amps when running and .02 amps while charging, microwave 12 amps! , coffee pot ? Forgot to check, computers/phones charging .06 amps.   Essentially our determination, for now, is that when we brew coffee or microwave things we will usually want to have either the generator or boat engines running.  

Erik took Riva to the marina/shore for her to eat goose poop…..I mean do her business lol.  Ugh, this dog is hard to keep from munching on darned goose dung. Disgusting!  After returning to the boat the dinghy was put up and breakfast of eggs and bacon followed.   While eating we noticed a large tow and barge headed to the lock; uh oh, that likely would mean a wait for us to lock down.    Upon calling the lock master this proved true.   They had one barge going into the chamber and another large one behind it.  He stated that it would likely be 3-4 hours before they would out any recreational boats through.  Oh well…left usplenty of time to chill, relax, check engine fluids, make some phone calls etc.

      Riva has decided that steps are not her thing

We called him back two hours later and he said if we could get there pretty quickly he would get us down.  Anchor up and engines started we cruised the 1 mile or so to the lock entrance and awaited him to open the gates for about 15 mins. After a smooth ride down when thanking the lock master on the VHF radio he told us to check out the Pickwick Dam FB page where he had posted several picture of us in the lock.  Nice of him to share with us!  Pretty cool pics.   

Happy Deatiny outside of Pickwick Lock
Taken by lock master 

Inside the chamber and partially lowered down

One more from the Pickwick Lock FB page

It was a an uneventful but beautiful cruising day down 48 miles of the river.   We passed by, but did not stop because there was no good access, the Shiloh National Military Park and the civil wartime home of Ulysses S Grant.  In this area of the river the houses were nice but modest   The river bank landscape changed significantly to tall muddy banks.  Most all of the homes were built up on high piers making them almost look like costal homes.   

Quintessential puffy cloud, low humidity day

Very cool house

After 30+ miles of mostly flat muddy banks the rock wall cliffs were returning the last 10 miles or so 

We arrived at Clifton Marina at 4:30pm.  We had debated on whether to fuel up (lowest gas prices around) and cruise on for a couple of hours to another anchorage.   Instead it was decided that we’d stay here for the night and get our bikes off of the boat to get some exercise and see what the town of Clifton had to offer.  After a dinner of loaded nachos made from leftover taco salad fixins we took off for a ride.  Clifton turned out to be a VERY sleepy town.  Small and quaint but not a whole lot to see or look at.  The exercise was nice though.  

Back at the boat we enjoyed a relaxing evening of each other’s company and had a typical boaters early bedtime.  

Trip stats for the day
Averaged over 1.3 mpg at 10 mph
Not bad for us 😂