Today was our longest navigation day so far, for a total of almost 12 hours. It sounds like not much compared to our previous coastal navigation, but going through locks and maneuvering in the sometimes tight river channel is a different thing altogether.
Not that it is difficult -at least it's pretty hard to get lost!- but there is constant current, the wind tends to come up during the day and overall I need to keep sharp at all times.
After passing 2 locks, The Dalles and John Day, navigation became easier, our ground speed picked up from fighting less current and I was able to relax a little more. Enfin's pilothouse setup really works well for long navigation, with a comfortable settee affording a great view of the instruments and the water, as well as a small table for my tablet and as importantly a quick lunch.
Scenery seems to change after each lock, and we went from canyons to rolling yellow and golden hills after John Day.
Princess is still getting used to navigation, and especially long days. but today she relaxed a lot more, which was nice to see.
We aimed to get to Arlington before sunset and made it with about 45 minutes to spare.
The entrance to the tiny marina is very well protected. At first we tied to an end tie dock, but soon realized that the finger docks were actually 40 feet long and not 35 feet as we first thought. So we decided to use the last rays of sunlight to move the boat to a finger dock to get the full marina service including water and 30 Amp electricity.
Our team felt well oiled and organized as we tied the boat, connected electricity and water.
After a long day like that we're likely going to spend a couple of days here to rest, maybe replenish on fresh groceries if we feel like it, and will continue our upriver trek rested with full water tanks and full batteries.
We treated Princess and ourselves to a long evening walk around Arlington. There are a couple of beautiful parks that Princess loved and a few small shops and restaurants for us.
We were afraid of the nearby railway line being very noisy. It definitely is but luckily Enfin is built solidly with thick hull and well insulated cabin so once we close all doors and portholes the noise from the passing trains turned to be muffled and very acceptable.
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