Another day, another lock!

Yesterday we went to see Shiloh on the recommendation of our good friends Jim and Linnea.  What a bunch of history took place there! Jim was right - NOT TO BE MISSED! I’ll let Pat tell you all about it in another post.

The reason I mentioned it was to explain why we had to take some time to relax  at the end of the day. A very large National Park to tour makes you weary.

We met some very nice people at Grand Harbor Marina last night, 

watched another sunset, and took a dock walk. This marina is HUGE! Very nice docks, but it’s a LONG walk to the car.

Not only do they have built ins behind their boats for tables & chairs, but many have golf carts to get around on! The manager said they lose one every couple of years over the edge!

We left there this AM, and are on our way to Joe Wheeler for a night, and then on to Chattanooga.

Above is the Wilson lock at mile marker 268 on the Tennessee River. The main chamber is to the right, and a secondary chamber is to the left. This lock has a 93’ lift. However, they only use the secondary chamber in emergencies. Our wanting to get to Joe Wheeler tonight is NOT an emergency, according to the lock master. There was an up bound tow in the chamber when we got here, and another waiting to go down.

They let us tie off to the wall below the secondary while we wait, so I decided to blog a little.

Lock master just blew the horn - our sign to come on in!

This is what we saw when we entered the lower doors - impressive HUH!! 

The lower two sections of wall are solid concrete and do not move. The “lattice” looking section on the top is the “gate”. Instead of swinging, this gate drops down to let us out.

There is water on the other side of this wall, all the way to the top!

We tie the boat to some floating bollards that are recessed into the sides of the lock wall, (sorry - no pic - we were busy getting the boat squared away) the lock master closes the downstream gate we came in, and starts filling the lock with water. I did not time it, but it takes about 20 minutes to float us to the top. 

Here we are at the end of our ride up, waiting for the gate to drop so we can leave.

Look closely at the gate in front of the boat. Across the top is a walkway with handrails. At the water line is some curved steel which is the top of the gate, and on top of the “lattice work” steel you saw in the previous picture. 

Going down!  They will drop it so the tops of the handrails are about 14’ below the water.

I believe this is called a “wicket gate”. 

Above is a shot of our chart plotter.  You can see the depth of the lock is 111.6 feet.

You can also see the icon of our boat in the lock, and the “bread crumb” trail the plotter left from where we were tied up waiting below the auxiliary chamber, and motored into the lock.

You can also see the time of day at 4:15PM. Too late to make another 20 miles and the Joe Wheeler lock. Better find a place to hole up for the night.

We pulled out the Fred Meyers Tennessee River Cruising Guide and found Six Mile Creek as a recommended anchorage, about seven miles above the lock. Nice little spot for the night!

                                               Good Night Anchor!

                                                   Stay put now!