Day 2 on the water

Another long but outstanding day on the water. We left Chattanooga at 0800 as the fog was lifting into the mountains. And some people had to go to work today...sad. Here is Lookout Mountain as the fog lifts.

We were able to cover 86 miles today in 11 hours and moved into the Central Time Zone. The lock gods were once again smiling on us and we slid right into Nickajack Lock and out the other side in less than 20 minutes.

The rain gods, on the other hand, were not as kind. We had one storm pop up on us that pounded the eisenglass so hard it was coming in through the zippers and drove me to pilot from the lower helm with the wipers on. Traffic was light and visibility was OK so we never broke stride. Here we are headed right for it...or is it headed for us?

Tonight we are in Scottsboro Alabama at Goose Pond Marina. They have an unusual entrance off the river and it looks like you are headed into a bayou down in Louisiana. When I called yesterday to make the reservation I was told no less than 3 times to take the second channel which leads to the marina (and, yes, I told him we were coming down river) Well...the second channel was a dead end and I, Mr. new boat owner, watched his depth sounder go from 17' to 3.8' to 2.8' to --- (I can only imagine --- is really bad). Fortunately we never touched bottom, but once I realized the guy had sent us up the wrong channel I was livid and had to go back out through the skinny water! This time Billy Bob in his bass boat had to get in as I was trying to get out, imagine a 15' wide boat in a 25' wide channel with some Jack Wagon headed at you at warp speed...pissed is an understatement and he didn't even look up to see my 1 finger salute...so sad.

Tomorrow we are headed for Decatur AL. Another long day at 73 miles and 1 lock. I guess today we actually covered about 90 with the detour today. All is running well with the boat and the mechanic checks in on me several times a day to be sure we are OK, a real good feeling. He told me tonight he wished my trip was a few months later and he would have made it with us...hopefully without the hourly rate!

As you can see I have figured out how to add pictures so I am learning blogging as well as how this boat works. I was able to turn the blog around so the posts flow better also. Until tomorrow....