Integrity Cruise

Day 173: Huntsville to Guntersville, Alabama

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Day 173: Saturday, October 8th: We slept in for a while this morning and got underway about 9:00am, just ahead of Freedom and behind Noble Lady. In fact, Noble Lady was about an hour ahead of us.

We entered the southern end of the Cumberland Plateau and the mountains became higher and closer. Here is a look back:

We passed a number of bluffs that were several hundred feet high:

This beauty was named "Painted Bluff". It's the abrupt end of Merrill Mountain and is one of the highest between here and the mouth of the Tennessee River at Paducah, some 345 miles downstream:

Around a bend or two we came upon Guntersville Lock and Dam. This is one of the smaller dams at 94 feet in height and 3,979 feet long. The lock lifts us about 40 feet:

This is the lockmaster's building. The sign reads "Guntersville Lock". Well, duh!

The bluffs above the lock are shorter; or rather the water is higher. This one is about 70 feet high, but the upper hill is full of trees. We hope these fellows will turn pretty colors soon:

We had a slip reserved at Alred Marina in Guntersville, AL. Bill's family used to keep their boat here decades ago. The marina staff is super friendly and helpful. First, we filled up the tanks. If you buy 100 gallons or more of fuel, you get free dockage for two nights. That's a good deal, and we took advantage of it. Bill swallowed hard at the $2.999 per gallon price for diesel:

After we tied up we borrowed the marina's courtesy van and went into town with Kathy off of Rosetta, a Looper boat we met at the AGLCA Rendezvous in Beaufort, SC last April. We stocked up at three grocery stores, one liquor store and a Super Wal-Mart.

Supper aboard was nice and peaceful.

We transited one lock today for a trip total of 131 to date.

Position tonight: N34 23.739 W086 16.766

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