Underway Day 85:

We woke up early, and eased into the morning. I called the Guntersville lock, but I had trouble understanding him. He would often not reply to radio calls and when he did he spoke like he had marbles in his mouth and would half key the mic. For someone who uses a marine radio to communicate every day, this was surprising and frustrating. He told us to come on down, but when we arrived, he was closing the gates on a big tow with barges. We drifted with the engines off for 45 minutes while we waited for him to turn the lock around. It was kind of irritating, because had he communicated better, we could have just stayed at anchor. A few deep breaths at the poor communication and a bit of patience were in order. We locked down 45 feet in the shady side of the lock, as the sun was oppressive.

In an ironic twist, we were headed to Florence, AL during hurricane Florence. I was concerned that any heavy rain, falling hundreds of miles upstream in the Smokey Mountains, could cause the Army Corps of Engineers to drain water and cause large currents, so I was hoping to get as far downstream as possible. Once we locked through, we stopped at a marina off the river and grabbed some ice cream, snacks, and beer for the nights anchorage.

We timed the Norfolk Southern railway bridge again and this guy had great communication. He asked us where we were and was able to have the train dispatcher lift the bridge for us remotely. We hardly had to slow down. Wheeler lock was also an easy lock down of 52 feet, and we stopped, as we often do, to pick up half a dozen plastic bottles and a small tire that were floating in the lock.

We were hoping to spend the night at anchor on Wheeler Lake, and lock down Wilson lock in the morning. It was very hot. We explored a few coves. There was great wind protection, but that meant there was no breeze. The water was stagnant, and I was afraid the mosquitoes would be bad. There also wasn’t a lot of swing room in the first two coves that we tried. So we headed across the river and finally settled on a deep anchorage above Wilson Lock in a residential area called Pine Cove. This was our deepest anchorage of the trip at 45 feet depth. I let out 250 feet of chain, set up the bridle, backed down, and we dug in and held. There was plenty of swing room and a nice gentle breeze.

We jumped in the water, floated on our seat cushions and drank beers in the river. There were dragonflies mating, and at one point I had 5 of them getting it on, on my arm. There were also nibbling minnow fish. At one point, when I held very still on the ladder, I had several hundred of the fish nibbling on me and giving me a spa treatment. We floated like this for hours while listening to music, until the sun set. It was certainly an unconventional spot, and I wouldn’t use it if there was any weather in the forecast, but it was perfect for this night, and we loved it.