We slept in.....till almost 6:30am! A record for Erik. We had a purposeful slow start this morning while Renee logged on to a live tutoring app for her college class Erik logged on to do a small amount of work as well. After cleaning up the boat a bit we got out onto the river at about 9:30am. The plan for the day was to move upriver 76 miles and one lock to Hales Bar Marina (within 32 miles of Chattanooga). The cruise started as a hot, sunny morning. Just upriver there was an abundance of an invasive species of water grass call hydrilla which the TVA cuts Chanells through for navigation. We are hoping this does not last for long! About 20 miles upriver we stopped at Goose Pond Marina where they had reasonable gas prices ($3.63 compared to $3.89 or more elsewhere). The entrance to Goos Pond was a very narrrow 1/2 mile channel that was thick with Lilly Pads on both sides....a bit dicey since the depth finder was reading just 5-6 ft all the way in. We gassed up with 92 gallons of fuel. The dock attendant took our debit card for payment and returned to the boat where Erik signed off on the sale (without really looking at/considering the amount). Fortunately, Renee actually looks at receipts and saw that he had charged us not only for our gas, but also for the amount of the customer before us. The attendant fixed his mistake and credited our acct back the appropriate, significant amount. Meanwhile Erik tightened a couple of belts and checked fluid levels. We also did some testing of our starboard alternator because it appeared from the gauges to be putting out low voltage amounts. It did in in fact test with the multi meter to be putting out just 12.5 volts or so where it should be putting out 14+. It’ll get us through, but we will need a new one or this one rebuilt soon.
Continuing upriver the invasive grass issue decreased. However, the rains began to move in shortly after. We switched back and forth between the flybridge and the lower helm to remain dry. We arrive at the Nickajack Lock at about 5pm and were locked through quickly.
Hales Bar Marina is only about 5 miles above the lock and we cruised up to it quickly. We were greeted at the marina by a nice woman who docks there annualy and also by swarms of Mayflies! They are annoying bugs, but do not bite so we can live with them. We got settled into the slip, talked for a few minutes with dock mates, and then headed up to the shower/laundry room to get cleaned up and a couple loads of laundry done (free washer and $1.25 dryers were reasonable!). There was not much too exciting around the area of the marina. I know it’s hard to believe, but we did catch another wonderful sunset with a mountainous backdrop and floating cabins at the marina in it.
We are excited to hopefully make it up to chatanooga tomorrow.
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| The channel at Goose pond, notice the big lily pads outside of the channel |
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| Another bald eagle if you can make it out |
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| Cool wispy clouds that can out after the rain |
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| Comingup on Hales Barr |
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| Sunset over the floating cabiins |
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