We did something that Loopers are not supposed to do… we made a schedule. We needed to be at Joe Wheeler State Park for the AGLCA Fall rendezvous by Sunday.
Between us and Joe Wheeler were about 61 miles of water and two locks. Normally, that would not be a concern, but one of the locks, Wilson, had a wall collapse a few months ago. This was causing them to be a bit wonky about getting all of the traffic through quickly. Wilson is about 43 miles from Grand Harbor. We needed to buy some time.
On Friday, we thought we would try to go up to Florence Marina to be ready to spend all of Saturday going the last 15 or so miles and two locks.
Unfortunately, there was no room at the inn in Florence. We decided to make a run for it to try to get through Wilson and anchor in the lake. After work, we threw off the bow lines, well, all the lines, and headed up river.
The Tennessee River and Pickwick Lake were absolutely beautiful. We did catch some rain – heavy at times – but the ride was a joy.
As we got to Florence and passed a very full marina, we veered to port into the channel to Wilson Lock. The channel was absolutely smooth and still and afforded some pleasant views.
We radioed the lock master and he told us that it would be a while. They had a tow working it’s way through but they would try to get us in after that. It would be a couple of hours, but we could tie up on the auxiliary lock wall with two other RCs who were already waiting.
The ride up to Wilson was awe-inspiring. Wilson raises up 93 feet and the looming doors at the end of the narrow channel was a sight to behold.
We found our way to the auxiliary lock wall to nestle between The Lower Place and another boat. We would go on to meet the fine folks from The Lower Place at the rendezvous. We shut down and settled in to wait.
The next few hours were really cool. The lock took longer than they thought, the sun set, the moon came out, the wildlife stirred, and we soaked it all in.
Finally, Wilson was ready for us. We made our way through safely and the lock master kindly let us tie up to the wall on the other side for the night so that we wouldn’t have to go any further at night. We tied up to the inside of the wall in a perfectly protected spot and called it a night.
Bowlines Thrown 