Friday, July 22, 2011 – mile 465, Chattanooga, TN

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Thursday found us relaxing at “The Beach.” During the afternoon, the skies clouded up and we experienced a few light showers that really cooled things down. After a high temperature of 98 degrees yesterday, we welcomed the respite. Shortly after 7 pm, we were enjoying our dinner out on the bow as the nightly riverboat cruise came by. The Tennessee Aquarium has a large power cat they use for the River Gorge tour which originates from the dock in downtown Chattanooga, comes past our beach and then turns around and heads back upriver. It is about a two-hour tour.

We spent Friday morning at the anchorage and then decided to check out Chattanooga. It was only about a fifteen-mile trip, so we waited until 11:30 am to pull up the anchor and make our way up the river. Our tour included more lovely scenery and great views of Signal Mountain and Lookout Mountain.

Just before 3 pm, we tied up to the floating dock below the Aquarium. We found out that the dock was managed by Marine Max so there would be a fee to stay overnight but we were more than ready for some air conditioning and gladly plugged in.

A short walk to the Visitors Center helped us to orient ourselves and learn about some of the tours and attractions available. We took the free shuttle across the river, walked around a bit and strolled back across the river on the pedestrian bridge. After cooling down on the boat for a few minutes, we decided to walk back uptown and find a nice restaurant where we could enjoy a couple of drinks and a nice dinner. The Easy Bistro Bar and Grill was just the ticket. We shared the lamb entrée on the outside patio and watched the people pass by.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 – mile 447.8, volleyball net sandbar on Tennessee River

 Please be sure to click on each photo to enlarge.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 By 9:30 am we knew it was going to be another very hot day. It was already 85 degrees and no breeze so we hauled up the anchor and moved on. After passing under the highway bridges for US 41 and I-24, we could see the Hales Bar hydroelectric plant in the distance. This facility was completed in 1913 and was the second largest hydroelectric generating plant at that time. Only Niagara was bigger. The plant was dedicated with much fanfare, however, almost from the beginning there was a serious problem of water leaking through rock strata under the dam. The dam was removed and replaced with Nickajack Dam and the old power plant stands silent today.

We stopped at the Nickajack Marina for fuel and admired the beautiful scenery around us. We thought the floating cabins looked like they would be a lot of fun to rent for a family gathering.

After leaving Nickajack Marina, we arrived at the stretch of river known as the “Grand Canyon of the Tennessee” which runs all the way to Chattanooga, a distance of 32 miles. Twisting through the mountains, we could see the slopes were rich with foliage. In fact, more than 300 kinds of trees and 900 varieties of wildflowers grow in the Chattanooga area. According to our guidebook, only central China has as wide a range of plant life.

Our travels took us through the parts of the river called “The Pan,” “The Skillet,” “The Pot” and “The Suck,” so named by early boatmen because they thought the boiling and swirling water reminded them of food being cooked. In “The Pot” we searched for a sandbar that our cruising friends, Todd and Brenda of Life’s 2 Short, had told us about where they thought we should be able to beach the boat. They said to look for the volleyball net and check out the sandbar across the river from it. As it turned out, we decided to anchor next to the volleyball net for the night and see what it was like.

After securing Blue Heron, we swam into shore and enjoyed the large smooth sand beach. We learned later that the locals actually call this spot “The Beach.”

Gale thought he would see if he could catch some fish for dinner and within five minutes, he had reeled in a beautiful large-mouth bass. There were no more that followed, but that one bass yielded two great filets for our evening meal.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011 – mile 425.5, Tennessee River, Shellmound Recreation Area

We left the anchorage shortly after 8 am with a plan to travel all the way through Guntersville Lake, through Nickajack Lock and anchor above the lock at the Shellmound Recreation Area. It was a good day of traveling with a morning temperature of 80 degrees and ending the day at 97 degrees. At least there was a haze all day that helped keep the sun from being so brutal, but it was still hot.

We dropped the anchor at 5:30 pm near the Shellmound Recreation Area and bathed in the fresh water off the back of the boat before drying off and grilling our dinner. It was a nice spot and very open to the winds. Too bad we couldn’t find a breeze!

Monday, July 18, 2011 – mile 378, Tennessee River

 
 
 
 
 We spent all of Sunday and that night at the “bat cave” anchorage. It was a very nice summer day – not too hot. Gale did some fishing (no catching) and he even looked for bullfrogs after the sun went down. The tree frogs, bullfrogs and cicadas graced us with a very loud concert for another night.

We hung out at the anchorage all Monday morning and then hauled up the anchor just before 1 pm. The sky was mostly sunny, wind calm and it was shaping up to be a very hot day with the temperature to rise to 95 degrees.
 
 
 
There was stunning scenery along the way all afternoon. At 5:30 pm we dropped anchor at mile 378 with a fine view of Sand Mountain and a spectacular sunset.

 

Saturday, July 16, 2011 – mile 349.5, Tennessee River, just above Guntersville Lock & Dam

Because of limited anchoring opportunities, we needed to cover 65 miles and make it through one lock on this day. We had the anchor hauled up and were on our way at 6 am accompanied by cloudy skies and a morning temperature of 75 degrees.  
 

Early on we passed the TVA’s Browns Ferry nuclear plant which when it was built in 1974 was the world’s largest nuclear generating plant. The stack, part of the plant’s cooling system, is 660 feet high.

 
 
 


Beautiful scenery along the way included not only vistas of the mountains and the winding river but also lovely homesteads nestled along the hillsides. The day was very comfortable with a high of only 87 degrees and the cloudy skies were welcomed.











The Guntersville Lock was open and waiting for us when we arrived at 5 pm. Within the hour, we had cleared the lock and dropped our anchor for the night in a lovely spot.


 
 
 






































After dinner, we took a short dinghy ride around the bend into the river to witness the grey bat population make their nightly exit from their cave at sundown.

 

 

Friday, July 15, 2011 – mile 285.1, Tennessee River, Goldsfield Branch embayment

It was time for us to get moving on the river again. The skies were cloudy and the temperature was 76 degrees as we left our slip at 8:30 am. Before departing, however, we gave the lockmaster a call and received the “All Clear” to come ahead towards the lock. Just as we were leaving the harbor, a barge was passing in front of us heading towards the lock. Of course, we had to wait for the barge and we didn’t clear Wilson Lock until 11:15 am. Oh well, we had a nice place to tie up and listen to the rushing water from a nearby outlet.

 

Wilson Lock, at mile 259.4, is the oldest on the river having been completed in 1925. At that time it was heralded as the world’s largest. The original still remains even though it has been rebuilt and is used only in emergencies today. The new lock was built in 1950 and was once the world’s highest single lift lock at 93 feet. It now ranks sixth in the U.S. behind five higher locks on the Columbia River and Snake River in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Wilson Lake with a length of only 15 miles, is the shortest of all the lakes on the Tennessee. It’s also one of the deepest with water depths as great as 125 feet. We soon arrived at Wheeler Lock and Dam, and were locked through to enter Wheeler Lake at 2:15 pm. We continued on for about four more hours and anchored in a nice open anchorage with gently sloping wooded banks. It was great to have the cloudy skies with us all day. It felt almost “cool” even with a high temperature of 92 degrees.

Friday, July 8, 2011 – Florence, Alabama

We spent over five weeks off the boat visiting family and friends back in the Midwest. On our way to Clear Lake on Memorial Day weekend, we stopped overnight in Aurora, Illinois, (Chicago suburb) and visited our eldest son and his family. We enjoyed going for a walk in their neighborhood and then later playing with the three rats that have become part of their family.



The next day, we stopped in Guttenberg, Iowa, about the time our friends, Bob and Susie, were to come through Lock 10 on the Mississippi River. After locking down, we helped them secure their 25-foot sailboat, Heron, at the dock and walked uptown to visit with them as we enjoyed some lunch. We plan to hook up with them on Pickwick Lake later this summer and do a bit of cruising together.



We arrived in Clear Lake on the evening of Tuesday, May 31, just in time to join Gale’s mom, dad and brother outside as they grilled their dinner. Early on June 2nd, Maureen headed north to Minneapolis to spend four days at a yoga teachers’ training conference learning about restorative yoga and pranayama (breath work). Mid-June we were able to spend some extra time with our two youngest grandsons when we brought them up to Clear Lake from Des Moines for a few days. 
 


Much of our time over the next few weeks was taken up tending to small maintenance-type jobs around the cottage and enjoying the Lake. The Fourth of July is always a big deal in our hometown with lots of people around for the six-day carnival and the huge fireworks display. This year was no exception.
 
Early on July 8th, we loaded up the car and headed south. We were in Iowa City by 10 am and stopped there for a few minutes to visit our son, Kelle, who just graduated from the University of Iowa in May. He is getting ready to pack up and leave Iowa for Rochester, New York, where he will begin medical school in August.
 

The drive to Florence was an easy one and we arrived at the dock around 8 pm. After unloading the vehicle and starting the air conditioning on the boat, we walked over to the marina’s grill for some pizza and beer. What a great end to a nice trip!