If you read our previous posts you know we had to park our boat at Hales Bar Marina at MM 431 since Sunday due to Chickamauga Lock being closed due to high flood waters. It was frustrating to say the least. We decided yesterday to go ahead and cruise her up the river more. When we left in the morning the lock was still closed and appeared it would be closed all day. There are docks in downtown Chattanooga 6 miles below the dam though so we figured if it did not open we would have to stay there. Thankfully though the lock opened just as we were getting to downtown! YIPPIE! I can't tell you how much this delay has made me want to just hurry up and get the boat to our home marina at Island Cove. My good friend and broker that works with me, Steve, came today to help me make the last run up the river. It was originally forecasted to be a nice sunny day with chance of showers in the afternoon. I always said I wanted a pilothouse so as to not worry about the weather and I guess God wanted to have me live that out because it started pouring rain just as we were getting to the boat! Oh well...another rainy day on the river but at least no real fog and it was cozy in the pilothouse. The first section of the river above Hales Bar is called "the gorge" due to it's windy and twisty path, mountains right up to the edge, and remote nature. It is a pretty stretch of the river for sure.
Here is a view in the morning as we were getting underway with mist and fog:
It was about a 35 mile run to downtown Chattanooga but it was nice to get there. You can see at shoreline some posts sticking out of the water. That is usually where the waterfront wall is. The wall is completely under water and what you are seeing are the power poles to plug into shore power when staying on the fixed wall in downtown:
We made it to the lock but as luck would have it, the Bearcat tug was locking down a bunch of barges. We ended up having to idle around below the lock for an hour before we could lock through. Here you can see all the construction they are doing on the lock as they are working on building a new replacement lock. Some of the barges in tow with the Bearcat are tied up to the mooring cells just to the starboard of my bow pulpit:
The "Anne" work tug that shuttles around the construction crew and does small jobs around the lock for the construction:
Another tow from the Bearcat coming down through the lock:
The "bow" of the barges being pushed down to the downstream mooring cells so that we can lock up out of their way:
The Bearcat itself pushing her tows along:
Steve helping me out with locking through as we begin to ride up Chickamauga Lock with the rising lock waters:
And finally...afloat and underway on Cickamauga Lake!!!!
Right next to the lock there is a condo tower development. As we were below the lock I had posted a mobile picture of us waiting at the lock on my facebook page. Some clients and friends live in one of the condos. As we came out of the lock I got a call from them asking if that was us coming out of the lock as they had just seen our facebook page update! So- they graciously went out and took some pictures of us passing them underway. How cool is that?! Thanks Ann and Ray!!!!
And finally, the sweet sight of our "new" boat in our new slip at our home marina. We got in just after dark but boy did it feel good to be home!
What a wonderful trip we had. We put about 45 hours on the main engines and the boat ran simply awesome. We have not even had to chance a single fuel filter or anything the entire way. I can't tell you how please we are with how the boat ran...all systems functioning, comfortable, a joy to pilot, and really...I can't believe she is actually ours. :) Now that we are home we can finally start really organizing her and getting her set up the way we want. We are going to replace the cross-hatch valance material in the main salon (too pediatrician office looking!) and the floral stuff in the master stateroom and a few other things, along with completely redoing her exterior teak and a big buff and compound of her exterior fiberglass. Stay tuned as we do that work and hopefully we will have her dressed up and ready to go by spring!
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