Evening, Saturday, 07 Jan 2023

We cruised from Paris to Cuba today, in only eight hours (Paris Landing, TN to Cuba Landing TN). With the daylight hours short in these parts this time of year, we pushed off at first light, a little after 7 a.m. Smooth sailing, and no locks today. Some beautiful houses along the river, but given the otherwise remote area, we had to assume they were vacation homes rather than primary dwellings. Fog started settling in the afternoon, so that by the time we approached the marina, visibility was down to about 100 yards. The GPS chartplotter & AIS brought us in, and since the last barge had been miles prior we weren’t too stressed. Nonetheless, the marina guide warned of shoaling north of the island at the entrance to the creek where it resides, so we slowed down and idled in. In the nearby distance, we could make out a small pleasure craft. Why would someone come out to the river on a cold foggy Saturday afternoon like today — when the marina was closed. It wasn’t outfitted like a duck hunting boat (those look like commandos in camouflage decked out for battle; poor ducks 😦 Probably a fisherman who doesn’t get along with his wife, we assumed. On we went. To our mild surprise, the little boat started up, turned on its navigation lights, and started into the marina ahead of us. Fish must not be biting, we thought. We idled along the path of little buoys into the marina, past the fuel dock, and four or five other groups of boat slips. Wasn’t paying attention to the fisherman ahead of us, since we were looking for transient docking. Come to think of it, where are we supposed to dock. When they didn’t answer on the radio, Lisa finally called the marina office on the phone to ask them. “Didn’t you follow the escort boat we sent out to wait for you?” came the reply. Doh! Off in the distance I could hear someone calling — “Hello…over here!” Pivoting our boat around, there he was waving his arms and smiling. As we pulled up he casually offered, “There you are, thought I lost you for a moment!” “Oh, sorry…we talked to your boss on the telephone, and he explained that you came out to escort us…” “Actually, I’m his boss…I gave him the day off to spend with his family”. Friendly fishermen in these parts, we thought. “Oh, how do we pay you for the boat slip rental?” “George comes back to work on Monday; I’ll have him give you a call. Until then, enjoy!” Off he went, still smiling. Friendly fishermen in these parts, indeed. (Sorry to cut this post short. For the first time on this trip Dishy McFlatface (our satellite internet antenna) can’t see past the edge of the marina overhang, so I’ve pressed my cell phone into hotspot mode with sketchy results) 🙂