Dave and Kelly's Boat Trip: Sunday, October 1 - Joe Wheeler State Park, Alabama

We start today with notes from the Engine Room!😄

During a standard engine room check yesterday, Captain Dave discovers a water leak on the starboard (right) engine! The leak is coming from a stainless steel tube that delivers raw water from the heat exchanger to the manifold. So, at 0800, after shots of Patron the night before (we were thinking of you, Dave Rogers 😉), Captain Dave heads sluggishly to the engine room to make repairs. Turns out the problem was a bad "O" ring that creates a seal between the stainless steel tube and the heat exchanger. Fortunately, Captain Dave had a spare "O" ring and completed the repair in less than twenty minutes (thank goodness for him!!!).

And now, for the rest of the story . . .

We left the beautiful town of Florence at 10:30 this morning. The first thing we need to do is go through the Wilson Lock. As we pull out of the marina harbor, we realize that the river channel is a mile and a half, man-made canal, heading to the lock. The whole way we don't even see the dam.

The tower is a 360 degree, revolving restaurant at Florence's Marriott Hotel!

Wilson Lock, straight ahead.

The Wilson Lock has an auxiliary lock to the left.

If you look closely, the auxiliary lock has a "flight" of locks - two smaller lifts.

Here's a better picture of the auxiliary lock. You can see the front and side of the second lock.
We first encountered "flights" of locks when we entered the Erie Canal on our 2012 trip.

Maybe you are wondering why the auxiliary lock has a flight of locks and not just one like the main chamber.
Well, this lock has a lift of 95 feet!!!😨 This is the biggest lift that we have seen since leaving Prescott.

Dave suggested we wear our life jackets. You'll see in a few more photos why this was a GREAT idea!

Just as we are about to enter the lock chamber, I notice a pretty "waterfall" before the lock wall
of the auxiliary lock.

Look closely at the blue door before we head into the lock chamber.
That blue door is seven feet tall; now you have some kind of
perspective for just how massive this structure is!!!

Remember, the lift is 95 feet! We need to get to that "dry" part
(different color at the very top) of the wall!

This is the first time we see a double ballard; very convenient if you are in a smaller vessel!

Hmmm, a sticker. Well, at least that's better than the dead fish!!!😁

Okay, the first picture is when we enter the lock. The second picture is how far we have lifted in just EIGHT MINUTES!!!

Why such a short amount of time? Well, take a look at the turbulence in the lock!!! At this point I am breathing VERY HEAVILY!!!😨 I did not sign up to go on a ride at an amusement park today!!!

Another five minutes and we are at the base of the gates; but looking at the wall on the left, you can see that we still have a little further to go!

FINALLY! We've made it to the top in what is probably a record time; 95 foot lift in FIFTEEN MINUTES!!! The last lock (Pickwick) was a 50 foot lift and it took THIRTY-FIVE minutes (Captain Dave says that Pickwick Lock was very cautious as to how they let the water in -
I'm definitely a fan of their way);

just saying!

So, we're waiting for the gates to open, when we notice this beginning to happen . . .

the gates are going down,

down,

and now they're completely submerged! The only other time we've
seen gates drop into the water was when we were on the Illinois Waterway
in 2012.

Leaving the lock, we can now see the dam.

The Corps of Engineers has some new parts and plans to improve this lock
(uggh, glad I know that now that I have already gone through!).

We are now on Wilson Lake, and once again, see homes scattered along both
sides of the lake.

Here's a great picture of another deck with a boat lift under; again, what a great idea!

Golf, anyone? (Thinking of you, mom!)

YEA! Our last lock going upstream!!!

This is the Joe Wheeler Lock.

Only a 45 foot lift this time!😉

Really? This Designer Fishing Team sure likes to advertise!

CELEBRATE!!! We are done going through locks upstream, as this is as far as we will go on the Tennessee River. Captain Dave says the turbulence is always rougher lifting up in locks, so he, as well, is happy that we will only be going downbound from now on!

We are now in Joe Wheeler Lake and will go only two miles to our destination, which is Joe Wheeler State Park. It's obvious that Joe must have been a pretty great guy seeing that he has a park, lake, and a lock and dam named after him. It turns out that Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, was an American military commander and politician. He has the rare distinction of serving as a general during wartime for two opposing forces: cavalry general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War, and later as a general in the United States Army during both the the Spanish-American War and Philippine-American War.

Beautiful channel entrance to Joe Wheeler State Park.