Our plan was to get out of town by mid-afternoon on Halloween, with a goal to leave the dock by 6 pm if possible. Our grand plan was to drive about 10 miles upriver to Shady Grove Harbor Marina, and spend the night there on Friday. This would position us to venture further upriver on Saturday, and see some parts of the river that we have not yet seen. We also had a reservation at another marina for Saturday night another 20 miles or so further upriver.
The only snag in our plans?? The weather was bordering on dreadful. The forecast earlier in the week wasn't too bad, but it deteriorated as we got closer to the weekend. We were certainly game, and the boat can handle just about anything that we might encounter on the river in terms of weather. After only a small amount of deliberation...and after having already delivered the candy...we grabbed the dog sweaters for the pups, threw in an extra blanket, and hit the road.
It was cool and heading for cold. By the time we left the dock (at about 6pm) it was in the 40's and dropping. And the expected northerly winds were picking up...probably in the 20 knot range (a knot is 1.15 mph for those of you with a calculator). We had daylight for the first 2/3's of the trip, but the last 1/2 hour or so, we were driving by radar. We passed (or rather were passed) by only a couple of bass fishermen, but otherwise no one else was on the river.
We were warm and cozy in the pilot house, and only had one tricky channel to navigate on the way into the marina. We have been into this same channel a number of times, and had the route already plotted on our chart plotter, which it made it much safer. But, it was a good challenge in the dark, and we managed just fine. Sandy about froze when she had spotlight duty outside on deck as we made our approach, and the spotlight actually reflected off of a few snow flakes! Yep...it was a small flurry as we made our docking...temps were in the low 30's.
The wind howled all night, and 3am puppy walking duty for Rob was a bit nippy, but other than that, we were all snug and warm with no issues. After sleeping in (well, sort-of) we debated continuing on upriver, but the weather just didn't look to be improving until Sunday. And the colors were plainly disappointing. We think that bright sunshine would have made a huge difference in terms of making the colors pop, but it was not to be. So, we decided to make a shorter trip of it, and headed back to our home marina. Temps never got out of the 40's on Saturday, and the wind didn't quit until Saturday evening sometime. By then, we were home watching TV.
Picture opportunities were limited...here are just a few to give you a sense for why it didn't turn out to be the gorgeous Fall Color Tour we imagined...but we had a fine small adventure none the less!
