Tennessee River North bound to Chattanooga

25 01.90 N
085 28 35 W

We are on the fly bridge moving along at 8 mph through the location know only somewhat tongue in cheek as the Grand Canyon of Tennessee. Towering mountains on both sides we are starting to feel dwarfed as the river narrows. Today we will travel 50 miles. During this part of our trip we will actually advance 33 miles to get 13 miles as the crow flies. Allow me to give you some insight to this area by quoting extensively from the fifth edition of The Tennessee River Cruise Guide by Fred Myers.

The mountains drop steeply into the river that in places is barely 700 wide and the river makes a dozen turns during the next 32 miles as it twists through the mountains. The slopes are rich with foliage. More than 300 kinds of trees and 900 varieties of wild flowers grow in this area. No where else in the world except central China is there such a wide range of plant life.

Next to you on Raccoon Mountain there is a 520 acre lake created from water pumped from the river during times of slack power consumption then as peak periods of demands occur water is allowed to flow down the mountain through giant tubes and turbines to generate electricity.

In another couple of miles we will see depths of 135 that is three times as deep as we found crossing the upper Gulf of Mexico while coming here. The Gulf water was more often 12 -24.

1930 hrs

We have arrived! Having reached Chattanooga is a major milestone in planning from the inception of cruising the rivers this summer. I am thrilled! The realization that we are cruising full time has finally completely taken hold and become a fact not a simply a dream. Oh my gods. How wonderful.

We waited four hours for the Chickamauga Lock. Our longest and most tiring wait since it was at the end of a 50+ mile day. It was also our hardest ride up in a lock. This lock is much smaller than the others have been and the water gushed in pushing us hard against the port wall pinning our bow and washing off our stern some. I had to put the engines in pivot, port fwd and starboard aft and give it quite a bit of throttle to keep everything flowing upward on the lock walls.

We are here and look forward to calling some TWLers today and meeting with them. We decided the river, flowing at 2+kts was a little scary to anchor on rock behind the island downtown. Especially if we were going ashore, so we decided to stay at the Chickamauga Marina for several days. We may be getting confident and seasoned but not quite that seasoned to anchor on rock in the river without benefit of more protected waters. Maybe later in our cruising career.

We look forward to spending the time exploring and touring this wonderful little city and reporting back to our friends.

The song of the day is The Tennessee Stud. Yesterday it was the Chatanooga Choo Choo.

Capt'n Lynnie and Skinwalker