Today is the second day we have been at Goose Pond Marina, and this is a great place to hang out. The price is right, $25 a night for our boat, which included 50 amp power, water and cable TV. It gets more expensive from here on.

Since we departed the Chattanooga Yacht Club on 8 October, we have had perfect weather, beautiful scenery of Tennessee and Alabama, and no problems. On the evening of the 8th, we wanted to get through Chickamauga Lock and Nickajack Lock. We made it through chickamauga Lock, which is only 6 miles down river from CYC, but there was a towboat with 9 barges locking through, which delayed us getting through the lock until around 11:30am. By the time we got to Nickajack, about 55 miles down river from Chattanooga, it was 4:00pm. We locked through by 4:30, and I had selected an anchorage about 5 miles down river from the lock to spend the night. Great plan, poor execution.

The anchorage was a perfect location. Safe, protected, not far off the main channel, and wide enough for plenty of swing room, meaning th boat could swing around on the anchor without hitting the bank on either side. The only problem was, I couldn't get the anchor to set. We were in about 15 feet of water, and I was using my big Danforth, FX-55 Anchor with about 100 feet of chain. I tried for about 45 minutes to set the anchor, making about 8-10 attempts, but it wouldn't hold. The bottom was either rock or gavel, and the anchor had nothing to dig in to. Time to go to Plan B.

Plan B was to either find another anchorage, or go back up river, through Nickajack Lock, to Hales Bar Marina. By now we have about an hour of daylight left, which is just barely enough time to make it back to Hales Bar if we can get through the lock without much delay, which is not something one can count on. After checking the river chart for another anchorage (which I couldn't find in close proximity to our presentlocation), I decided we needed to go back up river to a the marina. First I called Hales Bar Marina to see if they had space, which they did. Then, while making our way back up the river to the lock, I called the Lock Master and asked about locking through up river. He said no problem, and there would be about a 10-15 wait. so far, so good. The I had a brainstorm. I wondered if the Lock Master would allow us to tie up on the wall on the lower side of the lock. I figured the answer would be no, but it was a for-sure no if I didn't ask. So, I called the Lock Master back on the radio and asked if he would grant us permission to tie up on the wall, and to my surprise, he said we could. There is an auxillary lock at Nickajack that was about 50% completed when they built the main lock chamber, and the Lock Master said we could go in there and spend the night. So, by night fall, we were safely tied up in the auxillary chamber, and eating dinner. Not a bad plan. We had a very restful, peaceful night.

The next day we were greeted with heavy ground fog, which delayed our departure from the lock by about an hour and a half. As we headed down river, the fog thickened, and after about 30 minutes of leaving the lock, I could barely see the river bank, much less anything in front of us. So, I pulled the boat into the same place we had planned to anchor the night before, and just did slow turns until the fog lifted a bit. After about 45 minutes of that, I thought I could see well enough to move on. We actually departed about a half hour before Pat really wanted to, but with good radar, a great chartplotter, and automatic fog signals from the VHF radio being blasted through the loud speaker, there was little danger. As we went along the fog continued to lift and within the next hour we were in bright sunlight, and a perfect day.

We made it to Goose Pond Marina, in Scottsboro, Alabama, at about 1:00pm CST. Goose Pond is a beautiful marina located at TN River Mile 377, on the right decending bank. It is part of a state park that also has cabins, a golf course, hiking trails, condos, etc. Here we met some of our closest friends, Carl and Sharlis Sutherland. I've know Carl for over 30 years, and we have been close friends ever since. Carl is a retired Army Colonel, and one of the smartest Army officers I ever met, and Sharlis is about the sweetest lady you could ever meet. We spent the 9th and 10th with them, just visiting and having fun. Th highlight of the visit was a tour of Cathedral Cavern, about a 10 mile ride from the marina. Cathedral Cavern is one of nature's anomalies that is breathtaking. It is beautiful beyond description, and if you havent seen it, you should. I'll include a picture of the Cavern in our next update.

That's it for now, stay tuned.