A Slow Trek to Rogersville

Day 146  |  Florence to Rogersville  |  6.8 Hours  |  18 Miles  |  2 Locks

Barry made a call to the lockmaster at 6:30 to find out the schedule for our fleet of six Looper boats to pass through the Wilson Lock. There was one double tow already in front of us, so our predicted entry time was 10:00. We had a few hours to wait, but at least knew in advance. We pulled away from the dock at Florence Harbor Marina at 9:20, passed the funky lighthouse on the point, and entered the lock canal. Florence wins the award for best graffiti. This lake monster probably looked really good last week when the water was a bit higher. Within eyeshot of the lock, we were told they were running behind and it would be closer to 10:15. So we waited ... and waited some more. Finally around 11:00 we received the green light to enter the chamber of our largest lock so far, and the highest lock east of the Rocky Mountains. The gate door dwarfed our boats and when we were lifted to the top, we had 109.5 feet of water under us.

The good news was we only had 14 miles to go to our second, and final, lock of the day. The bad news is were were still stuck behind the same double tow and would again have to wait hours for its passage before we could enter. A double tow requires two cycles in the lock. The barges are untied into two loads. The first half is put in and lifted up. Cables pull the barges out as the lock resets. Then the back half pulls into the lock and gets raised up. The two halves of the tow are reassembled and then it moves out of the chamber, allowing the lock resets again. It is a long and drawn out process taking about 2.5 hours.

To kill the time, we poked along at 3 knots (walking speed). We watched a regatta. We looked at more trees and clouds. Oh, look -- a spectrum was cast across the pilothouse bench. Finally, I just gave in and took a nap.

The tug eventually loaded in for the final segment of its journey. We knew that in about 45 minutes, it would be our turn. The lift on the Wheeler Lock was half that of the Wilson Lock. We were all happy to exit and opened our boats up to high cruise speed to cover the final two miles of our long day as quickly as possible. We tied up in Joe Wheeler State Park as the sun was dropping towards the treetops.

Tomorrow will be cleaning day in preparation for the Rendezvous Boat Crawl (open house). Barry will wash the outside while I vacuum and straighten (hide clutter in cabinets) the inside. We hope to be done by noon so we can walk around and reconnect with all our Looper fiends.