Day 227: Cool cruisin back down the Tennessee

10/25/18 Thursday:  Happy birthday to our oldest daughter!  We had to wake up with the alarm today, because we wanted to get a move on.  There was rain forecasted for later in the day, and we hoped to get a bunch of miles in today.  A few days ago when we came up the river, we broke this segment into two days to enjoy the ride.  Today, we wanted to skip the Shellmound stop, and go 86 miles all the way to Goosepond.  I hate alarm clocks, but we were awake anyway, because our neighbor boats were fired up and ready to go.  It was a spectacularly beautiful sunrise!

We pulled away from the Bluff dock, and headed down river.  There was just one looper boat tied up at the base of the steps in front of the aquarium.  We saw a few boats here yesterday.  It looks like it was meant for a cruise ship, because your boat pretty much has to fit in between those upright pilings.  It is not a security gated spot to tie up, but it is pretty!

It wasn’t yet raining, but it was quite cold outside – in the 40’s – so even with sweatshirts and jeans, we sat inside and tried to stay warm.

As we went past this, Kenny said he thought it was some kind of water uptake.  Sure enough.  Looking at the Google map, there is a reservoir on the top of this hill called Racoon Mountain.  The Raccoon Mountain project is TVA’s largest hydroelectric facility and is a little unique. Water is pumped UP to the reservoir on top of the mountain during periods of low demand and then used to generate electricity when additional power is needed.

I spied this gadget along the waterway.  It’s huge!  Look at the size of the picnic table in comparison.  I was just sure that this was a Stargate to another universe!  Any of you that have watched the old T.V. SyFy series “Stargate” will be with me on this.

After about 3 hours on the river, we arrived at the Nickajack Lock, and we didn’t have to wait at all.  The lock master got us right in.  It was a little different coming at it from the up-river side, and looking down to the lower elevation through the gates.

Here is our bollard set-up, with Kenny back to handling the stern line now that we lost our additional crew member.  I think I’ve mentioned before, that since we don’t have a mid-ship cleat on Island Girl, we run two lines to the bollard:  one from the forward-of-mid cleat, and one from the stern.  It was cold out there!  I had my hoodie and raincoat, hat and gloves on!

Here is looking back at the lock after we came out.  All of the locks on the Tennessee are pretty tall!  We were tootling along all by ourselves today.

As we continued down the river, we did meet a tow in a narrow section.  We squeezed past him on the one whistle.

Hey!  “See Rock City!!”  Painted on a barn on stilts!  I don’t think there was a road here, but it was good advertising for the river travelers.  And pretty neat now that we know what it’s all about.

The colors along the river were getting more and more beautiful with fall foliage.  They changed just in the few days since we were here!

We passed the US Coast Guard Ouachita.  The AIS said it was a Law Enforcement vessel.  Kenny pronounced it Ow-a-CHEE-ta.  Kind of like Chiquita bananas.  We had something with that name at Weyerhaeuser, and I think it is really more like Wah-chi-tah – like Wichita.  Anyway – it was loaded with red and green markers, and there was a large crew aboard.  Yay for the team that keeps our navigational markers where they belong!

After 86 miles in 8.5 hours we pulled into Goosepond.  Not bad!  Average 10 mph even with transiting a lock!  Oh wait -there is some yellow on the trail, which means we went fast for a little bit. 🙂  I guess that made up for the idle time in the lock.   It was raining, just as forecasted.  At least we knew where we were going and could follow the little markers in as we avoided the lily pad plantations on both sides of the little channel.  Our friend Bert cruised in ahead of us.  And a couple of other boats that left Chattanooga before us were already here.  And then a boat named Aslan from Bradenton FL came in.  AMAZING!  They are not members of the AGLCA.  But guess what?!  We crossed paths with them clear back in Georgia last March!  And here we meet them again.  We remember the name because we loved the movie/book The Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe.  And they are a 60+ foot beautiful Fleming that we let go through Hell Gate in Georgia before us, figuring if they didn’t have a problem finding bottom, neither would we.  What a small world we live in, to see them again – on our side trip!

It poured this evening.  We had fleeting thoughts of walking over to the restaurant, because we know they have good food.  But we decided to stay dry and warm, and have a simple comfort food meal.  Grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbells Tomato Soup.  Mmmm, Mmmm Good!  Here was our squiggly river ride today.  It would have been much shorter if we were flying as the crow flies.  But it is that squiggly part that is the beautiful gorge, so I guess it’s good that we squiggled our way down the river.