October 16th A very hard day

We pulled up the anchor at Pickwick Landing State Park and were underway by 7:00 without any fog. The night had stayed warm and we were enjoying a beautiful morning on the lake, as a tiny chris craft passed us (first pic). Our plan is to go about 80 miles to Joe Wheeler State Park, but we have 2 huge locks to go through. We got to the first lock in plenty of time, around 1pm, but when I radioed the lock master he said it would be another hour and a half because a barge was locking though. So we ducked into Florence marina to refuel. As we did so, 2 other loopers (Once Around and Moonstruck) came back to the marina. They had been waiting for over 2 hours at the lock and when they heard my call to the lockmaster, they realized it would be some time before getting through the lock. So, by about 3pm, our 3 boats were in Wilson lock (2nd pic). This is a huge lock, lifting us up about 100 feet. And, after having gone through 147 locks, this  was the hardest one yet. Twice, Christine lost the line holding us to the lock. The turbulence in the lock was so strong, I could not hold the boat steady in lock, but we made it though.


Then, the race was on for us to catch that barge before getting to the next lock, which was only about 8 miles away. We did not make it. The barge was just making its approach to the lock and the tow captain told us to stand down, which of course we did instead of getting crushed by the tow. Of course, this was not a normal tow, it was too long for the lock, so the barges had to be broken into 2 sections. This meant that it would take another 3 hours for the tow barge to lock through. We got permission from the lockmaster to tie up at a wall near the lock and we waited, and waited, and waited. It was 4 pm and the sunset would be at 6:18 pm. It is very risky to be out in the dark on water we have never been before. We watched the chamber being filled and lowered several times. The next pic shows where the water goes as it leaves the lock chamber—it is piped through to an outlet and creates quite a water show. And we were right next to it. Finally, we got into the lock at 7pm. It was already dark.

We locked through and made way for the Joe Wheeler State park in the dark. It was only 2 miles away, but it took nearly an hour to lumber along in strange waters. Moonstruck led the way with a huge spotlight once we arrived at the inlet. We crept into the marina in pitch dark found the closest empty slips and just put up there for the night. Other boaters poured out onto the docks to help us, as they understood our predicament. We ended the day safely after being underway for more than 12 hours, and then we collapsed into a nicely welcomed night’s sleep.