Day 29 July 5th Starting The Waterway

Well, it's an exciting day as we are to head out and hopefully make it under the first bridge and continue through 6 locks today with Art and Sandy on their vessel Magoo. They left from North Carolina in May and we have met them over the last 2 days.
It's also a tough day, because we are saying "so-long" to Craig and Sandy who were the most wonderful host and hostess at Fraziar Park Marina in Trenton. We interacted with them and their other guests as though we were at home at our own yacht club.
We hug and shake hands with Mitch, & Rod. We missed out on a hug this morning from Sandy, but we sure hope we'll see her and Craig in Florida this winter.

Just before a 10:00AM departure, the Skype phone rings at it's Lynda Laycock...was great hearing from her since we'd played a bit of telephone tag. The Captain gives us some time to chat before the computer gets switched to be used for navigation. Yeah :)

We have our handy dock hands with our lines in the hands ready to help us off the wall, with Magoo shortly behind.
The Captain has been changing his mind by the hour over the last couple days about taking the mast down. We are said to be able to clear the bridge by 3" (per charts and our measurements). Craig has almost guaranteed us we'll make it under with at least a foot clearance as he has watched others in our same shoes.
Mom calls as we are shoving off the wall, and I am able to phone her back while we wait for Magoo to come under the bridge and continue the journey.
We get into the locks almost immediately and find that we have little time between each one. I did not prepare a quick lunch or anything for a small break, although in hindsight, I am not sure we'd have had the energy or the stomach to eat. By lock #3 we were in full sunlight on the first of what is to be days of 90 degree heat.
We do get some strong breeze when we reach the top of each lock. By lock 6 we are incredibly happy, hot, and tired.
Each lock was unique to itself and the lock masters were all so helpful and pleasant. I may put something together later about each lock, but to much for now with limited Internet.
The pictures should show some interesting scenery as we climbed approximately 120' today.

The AC went on as soon as we tied up and we wisely chose to grill outside and eat in the comfort of the cool air. We'll have another good night sleep before we venture up the Waterway tomorrow (earlier if possible) due to the sunny forecast.