Day 1 of river Part 2

Yes, we did get off and are on our way to Belize. We ended up with about a dozen friends and family to see us off from Wabasha, and left at about 7:45 am. Thanks everyone, it was nice to have the send off.  Today we made better time than planned. We had planned at about 7 mph but ended up at 8.1 to 8.7 mph. That may not seem like much but that changes the daily mileage from 70 to 80 plus miles a day, that could take 2-3 days off river part of the trip.

We had 5 locks today, 4 of them we went right though. We pulled in, they closed the gate, floated in the middle of the gate, water dropped to the next level, and off we went. At the last one we had another boat with us so per their rules we needed to grab two lines off the side of lock, but still was quick. We found a small leak in the hose that drains the ice box so water ended up standing right in front of the stove. To fix it is a big job because we can't get to the hose without taking out most of the galley. So we will live with it for now, and just use a mat so we don't track it around the cabin. We are looking fowaed to warmer weather as we head South, as it was about 32 degrees F when we took off, and standing with the breeze is a bit nippy. It was cloudy most of the morning and started to clear off by afternoon. About 5:00 we got to the Lawrance Lake Marina for the night. They let us use their car to run to town to get dinner at TGI Fridays and make a Target  run. When we got back, we figured out the leak on the ice box, checked email, then off to bed for both of us.

Been along day but a great start