Saturday, August 26th
We stayed at the Florence Marina Friday evening and enjoyed the seafood buffet at the marina restaurant. Todd and I consumed quite a pile of crab legs, among other things, and definitely got our money's worth! Todd started calling the lockmaster about 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning to see when we might be able to lock through. Three hours and several calls later, we were finally told that they would be ready for us in about 45 minutes. So, we promptly untied from the dock and headed that direction. We arrived 45 minutes later, as requested, and were told it would be another 45 minutes to an hour, so we tied up to the main lock wall and waited until they were ready for us, which was about an hour later.

The two-stage lock was interesting - and not in a good way! The more locks we go through, the more I dislike them.  So having to essentially go through two locks at the same time, one right after the other, was just double the pleasure, double the fun. Anyway, we finally got through the Wilson (Florence) auxiliary lock about 12:30 p.m. and continued through Wilson Lake to the Wheeler lock, about 15 miles upriver. Keep in mind that it takes us nearly two hours to boat 15 miles, especially running upriver against the current.

When we arrived at Wheeler lock, they were bringing a barge down and we were told it would be an hour to an hour-and-a-half before we could go through, so we just shut off the engines and floated in the lake until we were given the go-ahead to enter the lock an hour later. The lock went smoothly and we continued another 10 miles before anchoring in Goldfield Branch near a houseboat that was supposedly spending the night. By then, it was around 5:30 p.m. and we were ready to kick back for the evening. Around dark, the houseboat pulled up anchor and left for some unknown reason, so we had the cove to ourselves.

Sunday, August 27th
About 7:00 a.m. a bass boat went zooming past the boat and woke me up, so we pulled up anchor and were on our way by 7:45. I told Todd I didn't care how far we went that day, as long as we didn't have to go through another lock! We didn't much care for the lower part of Wheeler Lake but after we went through Decatur, AL (the home of Meow Mix), the scenery started to improve.

We ended up going 58 miles before we tied up for the night in Paint Rock River, six miles below the Guntersville lock. Todd's parents had noted a beach on the navigation charts about a half mile up the river and we were able to pull up to the beach and use stern lines to secure the boat rather than dropping anchor. The downside of this method is that you generally have to tromp through weeds and brush to tie the stern lines to shore, and Todd managed to attract some chiggers in the process. Fortunately, he didn't get too many but he informed me that I was going to be the one to untie the ropes when we were ready to leave!

Monday, August 28th
It rained at some point during the night, so we had some cleaning up and drying out to deal with the next morning. Thankfully, the cabin windows were closed since we were running the air conditioner most of the night and only the flybridge and sundeck got wet. We weren't planning to go very far on Monday, so we took our time getting around and finally pulled out around 11:30 a.m. We got to the Guntersville lock 45 minutes later and had to wait about 15 minutes for the lock to empty so we could enter. The ride up was extremely smooth - the best we've had out of the 15 locks we've gone through since leaving Mobile.

Once we entered Guntersville Lake, we went about a half mile to Mill Hollow where we decided to anchor for the night. We dropped the anchor and Todd swam a rope to shore to secure the stern. However, it soon became apparent that the anchor wasn't holding, and each time the wind blew the anchor would drag and the stern would move closer to shore. We then decided to get the dinghy down and use it to try setting another anchor to supplement the main anchor off the front, but after several attempts it became obvious that the bottom was not conducive to anchoring.

We ended up tieing a rope off the front rather than trying to anchor, which worked fine, but we were also taking up the entire cove by being tied front-to-back across it. We didn't know what else to do, though, since neither anchor would hold. We tied some rags to our lines to alert anyone who might want to go past us into the back of the cove and kept our fingers crossed that no one would. Two hours after beginning the anchoring process, we were finally able to relax!

Tuesday, August 29th
Rain and possible thunderstorms were forecast for Tuesday afternoon, so we decided to untie mid-morning and head toward Alred Marina in Guntersville, about eight miles upriver. The primary reason we were going to Alred's was to deal with more engine issues, but we also knew we would be more secure tied to a dock if the storms actually materialized.

A few days ago, Todd had gone into the engine compartment for a routine check and found that the port transmission was leaking fluid. After making a few phone calls, the consensus seemed to be that the main seal needed to be replaced, so Todd ordered the seal and had it sent to Alred's. About a mile from Alred's, the starboard engine overheated and we limped in on one engine. It's amazing how many "issues" one can have with a boat! But, as a friend of ours told us, when you buy a boat that hasn't been used much and then you start using it on a regular basis, you can expect to have issues. His comparison was a person who does nothing but sit on the couch and watch television for a few years and then all of a sudden decides to go out and run a marathon - that person is going to have "issues!"

After pumping out the holding tanks and getting tied up for the night, we decided we would take the courtesy van into town to have Mexican food and margaritas. Discovering whatever caused the starboard engine to overheat would wait until morning. The storms that had been forecast did materialize but the line split and went around us at the marina, so we only got a little wind and a few sprinkles. We had a great meal at San Pedro and then stopped at a convenience store on the way back for an ice cream bar, which neither of us needed, but it sounded good at the time!

Wednesday, August 30th
Todd spent all day working on our latest engine issues. The overheating starboard engine turned out to be a split rubber fitting where the anti-freeze flows into the hot water heater and on into the engine. We had lost quite a bit of anti-freeze which resulted in the engine overheating. Thankfully, that was an easy fix.

The transmission seal came in about 11:00 a.m. and Todd spent a considerable amount of time trying to get the old seal out. He finally went to get the mechanic from the marina who was able to get it out and then Todd proceeded with the fix. He also changed the fluid in the new starboard transmission since we had put 50 hours on it and that's what the maintenance schedule recommends. So, a productive day but not a fun day for the Captain!

I fixed a meatloaf for dinner and we settled in to watch a DVD we had picked up at the Florence Marina book/movie exchange. For anyone who is considering watching "Open Water," don't waste your money or your time. The Captain said it would be more fun to watch paint dry!

Thursday, August 31st
We had planned to go about 60 miles to an anchorage five miles downriver from the Nickajack lock, but that didn't pan out. However, we got things ready to go and went to settle our bill with the marina as soon as they opened at 8:00 a.m. While there, we learned that if we put in at least 100 gallons of fuel we wouldn't have to pay for dockage ($80). Since we were going to have to get fuel before too long anyway, we decided that would work well for us. Todd also bartered with the manager to throw in the mechanic's time (another $50+) with the purchase of 200 gallons of fuel ($700) and we were on our way by 9:00 a.m. The people at Alred Marina were great and we look forward to stopping there again on our way back from Chattanooga.

We passed a few boats heading downriver throughout the day, but overall the trip was pretty uneventful. We did, however, see a small deer swimming across the river right in front of our boat, and the river was at least a half-mile wide at that point! About 6 1/2 hours into our day, we were able to see the Appalachian Mountains off to the east. To me they looked like a slightly larger version of the hills between Springfield and Branson, Missouri, but Todd disagreed with that observation. Since he was raised in Colorado mountain country, I suppose he's a better judge of what constitutes a mountain. I admit that they did get larger as we got closer to them.

We arrived at our anchorage around 5:00 p.m., but after two unsuccessful attempts at getting the anchor to hold in what appeared to be a very rocky bottom, we really had no choice but to go on to the Nickajack lock and lock through. We got to the lock about 5:45 and the second half of a two-part barge was on its way down. The barge finally pulled out about 7:00 p.m. and we were cleared to lock up. The lock went extremely smoothly and quickly and we were on our way again by about 7:15 p.m. Fortunately, the Shell Mound Rec Area was in sight once we exited the lock and we were able to tie up in a very nice area before it got totally dark. It was an extremely beautiful, highly maintained park area that we will definitely revisit on our way back downriver. A couple of pictures of the area are below.




Friday, September 1st
We continued the journey to Chattanooga Friday morning, boating through what is called the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee. We had about 40 remaining miles to go and the first 30 were very scenic with bluffs and mountains all around us. In one area, the water was 135-feet deep because the river runs along an old earthquake fault, and there were some really nice homes along the river with beautifully manicured lawns and mountains on both sides.




We finally arrived at the Chattanooga city dock around 2:00 p.m. (3:00 p.m. Chattanooga time - we crossed into the Eastern Time Zone between the lock and Chattanooga) and got tied up. The dock is just below Chattanooga's famous aquariums and is very scenic. Several boats were there when we arrived and more arrived within a few hours, so the dock was full by evening. Below are some pictures of the dock and surrounding area, including one of the two side-by-side aquarium buildings.

This is the city dock. Ours is the boat on the far right.


These are some water canons on the upriver side of the city dock.


These steps are behind the water canons and lead up to Chattanooga's downtown area.


This is one of the two aquarium buildings above us. One is called "The Ocean Journey" and the other is called "The River Journey."


We spent the evening exploring downtown Chattanooga and had a really good time. There are a number of nice restaurants and other fun places to explore, so we will spend the next couple of days seeing what else we can find. The aquarium is first on our list for Saturday (after I update the blog!). Apparently, the Mississippi Queen is due in Saturday evening and she takes up 400 of the 600 feet of dock space where we are tied, so several of the boats are going to be forced to find other accommodations. We're hoping we will be able to stay where we are, though, since the Mississippi Queen should have room to pull in behind us (we are in the first 200 feet of the dock). We'll let you know how that goes in our next update. We may have a huge paddlewheeler sitting behind us when we wake up Sunday morning!