Day 17

Miles Covered: lm 795 to lm 736 (69 miles)

Closest towns or landmark (chart): Gold Dust Bar to Memphis Yacht Club

Original Post date: June 15, 2009

We wake up Sunday morning to “Rain world,” which is really ok, I can think of worse places to spend a rainy morning, laying in the berth listening to it hit the roof, nice. The only damper to it is that Memphis is about 60 miles away and with that a planned 24-hour layover at the Marina.

Soon the coffee pot and Marine weather channel is in full swing, 4 to 6 inches of rain in nearby Arkansas but moving to the east rapidly, lightning at the moment was not a factor. Tom did his “one with the river” thing and then we sat around considering our options while tucking in the front tarp to leave us a little rain shelter. After some interior alterations the rain subsided, sprinkles with lighter skies ahead, so we moved out.

As we entered the current the skies cleared even more. We still had the front tarp halfway extended and it was collecting water so I pushed it up to expel the water and mistakenly knocked the hand truck into the river – it didn’t float as Tom had expected so it was placed on our growing “lost to the sea” list…

The shorelines now were very steep, eroded clay bluffs on the channel side, a new change and a few more tows – all still very interesting and enjoyable.

Through the day we talked, walked the boat, sat on the roof, moved things around, read, climbed around and out-back to switch out fuel lines/tanks, and then talked about what we saw even more.

Later Memphis came within sight and for the first time the thought of making this my exit point popped into my mind. A tow, and some really tall radiating “woop-de-doo” type waves brought me down from the roof (it was hard not to fall off). We pulled into The Memphis Yacht Club at the Mud Island Marina, found a berth and settled in. Tomorrow, we will check out Beale Street. I’ve already made up my mind to stay the night in one of the hotels, get cleaned up and try to find a replacement hand truck for Tom (a necessity on the lower Miss.).

In the Marina we found a guy that is rowing down the Mississippi (Dan Cook, riversofrecovery.org). He actually started up in the Yukon to raise awareness for the Veterans of our country.