Today is the 13^th and we are waiting for the Lockmaster to call us to the lock.  We checked with the five or so boats here to see who is leaving with us and looks like we are the only ones.  Of course they do predict rain all day today, that could be the reason we are the only boat leaving today.  Well we only have one lock today and it is 42 degrees so I shouldn’t freeze too badly manning the lines.

We were finally called to the lock by the Lockmaster.  There was a lot of foam in the entrance to the lock and the lock itself

Look at all that foam

We had to be careful where we went cause you never know what is hiding under all that foam.  Luckily we didn’t hit anything and we make it out of the lock by 7:45, not too bad.

We are still getting a 2 knot current so we are making pretty good time.  The water is relatively clear of debris.  I seem to remember we had a lot more logs and water hyacinth last year.  Quite a few people we have talked to, tell us they think the TennTom is boring, they call it the “Ditch”.  I don’t know, I always have found it interesting.  Different things to look at.  We saw an ottor or something at our anchorage

Otter or alligator????

There are always lots of different benches and chairs along the bank

Just a bench

Bench and Chair

We even saw a wheel chair!  The telephone booth was still there

Pay phone on shore

And we saw what we thought was a deer crossing the river (it was too far away so I couldn’t get a good picture 😦 ).

Then we saw a tow trying to thread the needle with his barges.  There was a railroad bridge with a pretty narrow opening.  We hung back to make sure he made it.  The Tow Captain put a lookout on the front of the first barge to make sure he was going to make it.

Little more to the left

Then he lined it up

Ok, looks good

Then he made his run

Thread the needle

He made it!  With the current as fast as it was, that was a difficult move by the Captain.  As we drove between the pillars of the bridge we could see where some other barges scraped the pillars.  Pretty tight squeeze.  We had plenty of room 🙂

The weather man was right and it rained all day today but with the extra current we made good time and got to Bobby’s Fish Camp by 3:50.  At least the current wasn’t as bad as last time we were here or Gary is getting to be a better Captain cause he shimmied right up to the dock and I got off no problem and was able to tie the boat up.  Of course when I tie the boat up I just do my best to keep the boat from moving off the dock, then Gary comes in behind me and tidies everything up.  He makes sure the boat won’t go forward, or backward and stays nice and tight to the dock so we can get off and on safely.

Just south of the dock we were tied too is a boat that apparently didn’t make it to it’s destination

Whoops

That window on the starboard side looks awfully close to the water

Watch out for that big wave

I don’t remember this being here last year but the boat is in really tough shape.  But it is an old woodie.

Tough shape

We missed the Catfish dinner at Bobby’s so I guess I better get going and make my man something to eat.  Sweet dreams till next time!