2026 Adventure Begins

March 22, 2026

We're BACK on the WATER!

Let's start by explaining how Cady Girl got from South Haven Michigan to today:

Well, first of all, we bused, Uber'd, and then flew to French Polynesia for a wonderful, once in a lifetime experience with great friends! Cady Girl stayed in South Haven - watched over by some great Harbor Hosts!

In October Don flew to Chicago and rented a car to get back to South Haven. He then did a solo speed run from South Haven to Chicago via Lake Michigan! He met his brother, Dave there and they cruised the Cal-Sag Waterway, an industrial river access around South Chicago. Per the Captain, this was a fascinating study of the on-going de-industrialization of the United States. From there, they hung a left to the Illinois River and Dave departed in Peoria , IL - home of Caterpillar!

Don soloed to St. Louis where his friend Gary joined him and they reached the Mighty Mississippi! The river traffic in St. Louis was intense - commercial, pleasure, ferries, and river tows as long as a 1,000 feet! And hard to understand accents by the local commercial boaters!

They continued on the Mighty Mississippi for 2 days and Cady Girl set a ground speed record of 27 mph; thanks to the fast river flow. At Cairo, they turned left and headed up the Ohio River. Cairo is famous for an earthquake in the 1800s which caused the Ohio River to flow backwards for a period of time. They spent the night in Paducah, Kentucky and in the morning when they left, they entered the Cumberland River. They reached their destination at Green Turtle Bay Marina on Barkley Lake.

Cady Girl stayed at Green Turtle for 4 weeks due to needed mechanical & electronic repair & Captain Don came home! In mid-November, we both came back and took Cady Girl to Clifton, Tennessee where she spent the rest of the winter!

So, our 2026 journey starts in Clifton! We took two days to de-winterize, clean and provision; setting sail on Friday, March 20. What a day, that was! We expected to go to Luka, Mississippi in 5- 5 1/2 hours. But, NO, we had to wait for commercial traffic going both north and south at the Pickwick Lock. Pickwick Lock drops 63 feet and is easy to lock through as they have floating bollards. No hanging on to the lines as you drop down! The trip took us 10 hours and we went through the Lock at night! Very memorable. One thing about boating is that you definitely have to learn to "go with the flow." No pun intended.

Needless to say, we slept in on Saturday being moored at the Grand Harbor Marina! The marina had a loaner car and since we were the only transients, it was ours for the day. We took advantage and drove to the Shiloh National Military Park. This park is at the sites of the one of the most epic struggles in the Civil War. Nearly, 110,000 troops clashed in a bloody contest that resulted in more than 23,000 casualties. We stopped for a great dinner at Safe Harbor Agua Yacht and met a wonderful man from Memphis!

On Sunday, we refueled and headed south on Pickwick Lake, entering the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. We made it through the Jamie Whitten Lock in no time at all. It was an easy one too, as it has the floating bollards and has a 84-foot lift making it one of the highest single-lift locks in the United States.

We are anchored for the evening at Montgomery Lock! A beautiful sunset after a pretty warm day!