October 6, 2015
It was another sunny beautiful day on the Tennessee River,
with the high almost 90. The cooler days
were actually nicer in some ways for traveling, but cooler days generally mean
wind or fog, so we’re not going to complain about a little heat. Well, at least, not very much anyways.
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| Lorelei apparently thought she was way hot! |
The 35 ft sailboat that we had also anchored with at Densons
Island was already gone when we got up.
We don’t like to take Sasha to shore in the dark, but even though we try
to sleep in until there’s enough light, we have been waking up early. Rob cooked breakfast, and by the time we were
done eating, there was plenty of light.
“The Bar B”, the boat that had anchored in front of us, was heading out
as we took Sasha to her beach.
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| The Bar B |
We only had about 45 miles to go until our next planned stop
at Grand Harbor Marina, which is located just after you make the turn off
Pickwick Lake onto Yellow Creek (MM 215), but we did have the Pickwick Lock
& Dam to go through. The Lock is at
MM 206 so was 37 miles from Swallow Bluff Island. At 7-7.5 mph – we had been cruising at about
8.5 mph but the current had picked up a bit – it would take us about 5 hrs to
get there.
We were cruising a little faster than The Bar B, so we were
slowly catching up to her, but then we noticed that she appeared to have slowed
down and was moving to starboard. Then
we heard her on Channel 16, talking to an oncoming tow about passing in a
relatively tight turn. As it turns out,
The Bar B has AIS (Automatic Identification System), which is a vessel tracking
and ID system. Since AIS is required for
many commercial vessels, not only could The Bar B “see” the tow coming before
she actually laid eyes on it, she could also hail it by name.
Since we didn’t really have far to go and would probably have
to wait at the Lock, we had already decided to stay behind The Bar B by
matching her speed once we caught up to her.
With her being able to see oncoming tows way ahead of time, this made
our decision a no-brainer. In addition,
her captain had already communicated with the Lock and began radioing his
findings back to us. There was a tow up
ahead that would need to lock through twice because it had to break up its
load, so we would not be able to lock through for at least 3-4 hrs. We decided to slow way down and enjoy the
scenery rather than hurrying up to the Lock and then just idling in one place.
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| We thought we saw a submarine but... |
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| it was some kind of hazard marker (we think) |
We arrived at the Lock around 2:30 p.m. By that time, the 35 ft sailboat and The Bar
B were in front of us, and 6 other boats were behind us. The Bar B again communicated with the
lockmaster for all of us, which was very nice for both sides, I’m sure. The tow was already in the Lock chamber being
lifted up with the 2nd part of its load, so most of the boats idled
at various distances from the chamber entrance while a few boats tied up to the
shoreside lock wall with the permission of the lockmaster. We were instructed that the 3 largest boats
would tie up to the 3 pins (bollards) on the port wall of the Lock and then the
other boats would raft up to these three boats.
Since Lorelei IV was one of the larger boats, we were to take the 2nd
pin in.
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| Waiting for the Lock |
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| Boats behind us on the way to the Pickwick Lock |
We had never rafted up with boats in a lock, so we were a
little nervous. Because of our
experience with the wind and incoming water at OH River Lock 52 and Kentucky
Dam Lock pushing us off the wall, we did more research on securing the boat
better on the pin. The most helpful tips
we read were in “The Tenn-Tom Nitty Gritty Cruise Guide” by Fred Myers. He recommends that for most locking
situations, put a fender near the bow, one about a 3rd of the way
back, and one near the stern (of course we put out a couple more than
that). Tie the boat to the pin as close
to the center of the boat as possible, which means that if you don’t have a
center cleat, you will need to have your line go from a front cleat, around the
pin, and then to a back cleat. Don’t be
concerned about your fenders rubbing the dirty wall – that’s what they are
there for – the closer you are to the wall, the less movement and strain on
your lines. He also recommends going
around the pin twice with the line to decrease back and forth movement as
well. Many of you reading this will know
that these are just basic good locking skills, but if you are green like we are
at this point, maybe it will help you out.
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| Boats ahead on 1st pin |
It all went like clockwork.
We got in, secured to the pin, rafted up, and then the lockmaster raised
us all up slowly. We chatted with the
people on the boat next to us as boaters will do in such situations. They also had a dog with them, an old boxer
named Brandy who just took everything in stride, even Sasha.
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| Lorelei on 2nd pin with boats rafted on |
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| Boats on 3rd pin |
When the Lock door opened, everyone went out in an orderly
fashion. Once we got out on Pickwick
proper, boats began to peel off according to their various destinations. It always seems like there is someone who is
more impatient – or maybe wants to get the best spot in the marina. One boat swung wide, gradually ramped up speed,
then took off, throwing off a big wake.
Maybe they thought they were clear of us, but if we had not turned
sharply into the wake, we would have been rocking and rolling pretty hard. The Bar B asked if we had an autopilot
(what’s that?) malfunction right before they got rocked broadside by the same
wake. After watching them, we were glad
we turned into it!
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| Pickwick Lake |
Rob called ahead to Grand Harbor Marina where we had a
reservation and was given directions on how to get to our reserved slip. When we got there, the boat that had been
going so fast had apparently pulled into our reserved slip without even
consulting anyone at the dock. The
dockmaster had apparently already gone for the day but had left instructions
with the old security guard. The
squatters bold move threw the guard for a loop, but since it really didn’t
matter to us where we were docked, we agreed to take a spot on the fuel dock
instead. It was apparently VIP parking
since the marina owner’s big boat was docked just in front of us!
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| Docked behind Bullish, the Marina owner's big boat |
It was a long walk to the pet area, but that’s all part of
Sasha’s plan to whip us into shape. We
got back to the boat just in time to catch another beautiful sunset.
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