October 16, 2013

Free to a good home

We started back upstream yesterday.  It's upwind, upstream, and uphill back to Hales Bar.  Normal pool for Wheeler Lake is 556' above sea level.  Guntersville Lake is 595'. That 39' higher, and Nickajack Lake is 634' up another 39'.

It's good to know the exact level of each lake every day.  It changes.  There are "gauges" along the way, and their locations are marked on the charts.  I knew yesterday that Wheeler was 555', or one foot below normal pool.  When we got to the railroad lift bridge in Decatur, the chart showed it's "down position" clearance to be 9'-8" at normal pool.  With our antenna and anchor light down, we can get under just a little over 9'.  Would have been very close at normal pool, but since I knew we had an extra foot, I thought we could make it.  There were two other bigger boats waiting there for the bridge to lift.  I had heard the bridgemaster tell them over the radio that there were two more trains coming, and they would have to wait. We squeezed under and waved to the waiting boats as we passed.  Sometimes, smaller is better.

A lot of the points of interest here are concerning what we know as the "Civil War."  Down here it's know as "The War of Northern Aggression."  (See the previous comments about Yankees.)

This will probably be our last post on this trip.  We plan to anchor out a couple of nights, and then find our truck and trailer and head back home.  No more wifi available.

There's a boat in the marina where we are tonight (Tuesday).


 It's 82' long, and not too long ago it was free to a good home. 
 Bone Yard Boats
 Having restored several wood boats myself, I know how expensive "free" can be.


October 14, 2013

Yankees

We are in Joe Wheeler State Park tonight (Monday)
I mentioned earlier that we had met several loopers on our trip.  Today, we caught up with all of them.  They're having the AGLCA Rendezvous here at Wheeler this week.  That's America's Great Loop Cruiser's Association.  If you don't know what the great loop is, look it up.

The AGLCA took over the entire marina. Every transient slip full, every room in the lodge full.






The park was nice enough to squeeze us in a slip down with the sailboats.  We've been 230 miles downstream.  I think we will start back upstream tomorrow.

I found one boat from Indiana--sort of.  Turns out they are the grandparents of my young friend Bret's best friend, Chris.


Whenever we wear our IU or Colts shirts, I always hear mumbles of "Yankees" as we pass the locals.  Try as I might, I just can't get the "How Ya'all" to sound southeren.  So I just nod my head, and let Pam talk.  She's from Louisville, and though she's been in the NOrth for a lot of years, she can still speak passable southernease.

Thinking back to my trip on this river with Bret, one of the funniest things I remember was our rescue of 4 souls on a small aluminum fishing boat.  We saw the guy in the front of this little boat standing up and waving his hands.  Bret and I had given some thought to the possibility of encountering river pirates or other miscreants, and thought this might be one of those opportunities.  The guy in front said they needed to be towed to shore. They had a fuel problem  (ran out of gas).   They had not, however run out of beer. We asked if they had a paddle.  They said "yes, but we keep going around in circles.  We seen somebody paddling on TV once, and it looked easy, but it ain't."

I told Bret to throw them the end of one of our old lines, and keep a close watch on them.  If they started to pull themselves to our boat, he should cut the line, and we would leave them.  Bret threw the guy standing in the front of their boat our line, but he missed it.  Bret got the line back in, and threw it a little stronger the second time, and it hit the guy standing in the front of the boat right in the face.  His eyes rolled up in his head, and he fell backwards over the side of their little boat.  I told Bret not to let him swim to our boat.  He somehow was able to re-board their boat without capsizing it and putting the other 3 occupants in the water.  Bret once again threw him a line, and we were able to tow them to shore.  As I recall, we ended up towing them several miles back to the launching ramp where their truck was.  And I also recall that we didn't get as much as a "Thanks, Yankees."










we are in

Decatur, Alabama

Back when we were in Chattanooga, we met several loopers.  John and Diane on Tutto Bene, retired on Friday, and then got on their boat and started the great loop on Saturday.  We saw them again at Goose Pond and Ditto Landing.  Here's a photo of them going under the railroad lift bridge near Decatur. 



We arrived in Decatur, AL on Sunday afternoon. 



We met some other loopers (Clay and Sally) along the way who had told us of a free dock in Decatur.  We tied up directly behind the Pickwick Belle.


We talked a while with the captain of the Pickwick Belle, and he invited us aboard.  It's a true paddle wheeler (no props or thrusters)


Pam read somewhere that Decatur had a hysterical district full of old houses.  Didn't matter that it was a loooong walk from the free dock.  So we hiked what seemed to be a hundert miles to look at some old houses.

They had a wedding aboard the Pickwick Belle that evening.


And speaking of weddings, I forgot to mention that while we were in the Moon Pie store in Chattanooga, we overheard a customer call in to order several cases of moon pies for their wedding.  Didn't see any moon pies go aboard the Belle last night.

October 12, 2013

Navigation

The US Corps of Engineers has placed red and green markers along the river channel to mark the safe area to travel.  (Lucky for us, the Corps did not shut down with the rest of the government, since they also operate the locks.) In order to help Pam remember which side of the markers we're to be on, I use a red a green potato chip clipped to the port and starboard side inside our windshield.

Below the locks, we are back to being in a river.  The river is narrow, and the channel even more narrow.  If you were to meet a tow boat pushing loaded barges here, it would be good to know on which side he wanted you to pass. Towboats don't make sharp turns, and they can't stop.


Towboat captains have a language all their own.  I've talked to them on the VHF radio before, and their drawl is almost impossible to understand.  That must be part of towboat captain school.  Slur your words and keep several marbles in your mouth.  If you ask which side they want you on, it's always either "One Whistle" or "Two Whistle."  We were lucky with this guy, he blew two blasts on his horn to let us know he wanted to pass two whistle--starboard to starboard.  A one whistle pass is port to port.  If he ever blows five horn blasts, it's not really for you.  It's too late for you.  That's to let your next of kin to come and pick up the remains.


We're staying at Ditto Landing tonight.  Then on to Decatur, AL tomorrow.


Lock Down

A little fog again as we left Guntersville.  Found this to welcome us to the Guntersville lock.


Most of the lockmasters are very friendly, however, they speak southernease and can be difficult to understand at times.  Same goes for the towboat captains.  Fortunately, they both can use horn signals to let us know what to do.

Pam finds locking through a stressful situation.  If you take your time, it's no big deal.  Here's what the gates and chamber look like full.


You tie off to a floating bollard, and about 10 minutes later, here's the same gates opening, and the chamber empty.



When Bret and I made this trip, he played his bagpipes inside every empty chamber.  Hopefully, none of these lockmasters will recognize me.

Guntersville

We had to wait at Goose Pond until about 11:00 am for the fog to lift.  We had a short day planned anyway, so we were still able to reach our planned destination for the day.  Guntersville, Alabama.
They have a free dock.


We walked over to the city's welcome center, and unfortunately Pam found that they have a hysterical museum in town.  The fact that it is several miles from the dock and uphill in both directions didn't deter her.  Off we went.  The museum was mostly about Wernher von Braun and rockets.  (Huntsville is not far away.)  The museum also had a mineral collection.  "Minerals--NOT Rocks."

The city of Guntersville is about 10 miles above the dam, and at this point is more like a lake instead of a river.  There are more bass boats on this lake than anywhere we've been.


 

October 10, 2013

Goose Pond

There was another boat at the campground free docks, and when they left, we followed.  We were less than a mile from the Nickajack lock, and wanted to go through with them so we wouldn't need to wait for the lock chamber to be filled again.

The morning fog had not totally cleared yet.




Shortly after the lock, we saw this gallery.


We're now at Goose Pond Marina.  Thursday.

Dawg, the coordinates are
N 34 34.810
W 086 04.758

Here's the view from our dock.



Here's looking the other direction.


We're in Alabama now.  
This is what a "stand up paddleboard" looks like here.


We're off to have Shrimp and Grits for dinner.

Downstream

When we left Chattanooga, Pam couldn't decide which direction she wanted to travel. We started out going upstream, but when we got to the Chickamauga Lock, we turned around.  We had been going 6 mph upstream, and without changing the engine rpms, we went 11 mph downstream.  I think that means there was a 2.5 mph current.  (I'll consult with my grandson when I get home to confirm the math.)

We stopped at a campground that has my favorite kind of docks.  Free. 


There were no showers available in Chattanooga, so we thought we would sneak into the campground bath house and clean up.  On the way to the bath house, we passed the office, and the nice woman came out and told us that the docks were free, but showers cost $3.00 each.  I asked her if Pam and I shared a shower, could I only pay for one.  So $6.00 later, we were clean.

While we were at the dock, we saw these two boats pass by.




The Nina and Pinta.    Really.    http://www.thenina.com/



Chattanooga 2-2

Our second day in Chattanooga. We went through their aquarium.  Interesting.......I didn't know butterflies could swim.


We really liked Chattanooga.  We were on foot, so we didn't get to "See Rock City," but we were able to ride across town on their free electric shuttle bus.  We even got to visit the Moon Pie Store.


The only problem with Chattanooga is the same as most other river towns.  The river is the lowest spot in town, and everything else is uphill.  In this case, it was a hundert and fidy steps up to street level.   This set of steps had a waterfall adjacent to it.  The waterfall commemorates the "Trail of Tears."  All the other kids got to play in it, but Pam said no.


The other problem with being down on the water is that we couldn't access the the free wifi.  I had been tethering to my phone, but got caught, and shut off.




October 7, 2013

Chattanooga

As we got closer to Chattanooga, the  river housing improved.



When Bret and I did the Tennessee River, our schedule didn't allow us to stop in Chattanooga.  Since then, the city has done a lot to clean up the waterfront, and entice boaters to stop. 


We're tied up to a dock in front of the Tennessee Aquarium, and we intend to spend the day there tomorrow.  We are the middle of the three boats in this photo.


Here's a pretty cool museum overlooking the river.




This is either a killer skateboard course, or a handicapped access to the river.  Either way it's a heck of a ride.





When I was in the sailboat business, I thought that used up sailboats went to our local sailing club to grow old and die.  I never really thought about where used up stern wheelers would go to grow old and die.  But here you are.  The Delta Queen is no longer able to ply the rivers and is now used as a floating hotel. 




Hales Bar


I have cruised on the Tennessee River before.  All of it.  Back in 2008, my young friend Bret and I started at the river's beginning in Knoxville, and followed it to it's end at the Ohio River.  All 652 miles.  We took Bret's old leaky Catalina 25' sailboat, and had a great time.  I guess I talked it up so much that Pam decided we should take TONIC on a similar trip.
I do think that parts of the Tennessee River are as scenic as anywhere east of the Mississippi.  In particular, the "Gorge" area just west of Chattanooga is beautiful.  So that's where we started this trip. 

We launched at Hales Bar Marina.  If you've traveled on I-24 between Nashville and Chattanooga, you've passed right by Hales Bar.  You can see it from the bridge crossing the river.  In that area, it's Nickajack Lake. The marina is located at an abandoned lock and dam.


The sign on the door going into the showers made me wonder where the camers are mounted.  I'm pretty modest and wouldn't want to show off my bare butt to everyone.


From Hales Bar, we headed upstream towards Chattanooga.  I probably took a hundert photos of the hills along the river.