Sunday Oct. 19, 2014

Slow, scenic, and boring just another day in paradise

Six Mile Creek , Wilson Lake , Alabama mm 266 to Ditto Landing Marina mm 333.3 Huntsville, Alabama

 

Pulled up the anchor from Six Mile Creek at 0815 hours and exited into Wilson Lake. The anchorage had been much deeper then we normally anchor in so we put out almost 90 feet of chain with our anchoring bridle. When we pulled the anchor up it was covered in mud which is a good thing. It was buried into the bottom and just not laying on some rock. As we entered Wilson lake we called the Wheeler Lock master. He said he was finishing locking thru a double tow which means the tow had to break apart his barges and it takes about 2 hours for this process. Seeing he was almost done we were instructed to” bring it up close” to the lock so as soon as the tow cleared the lock we could enter. We entered the lock at 1005 hours and exited at 1030 hours. It was one of our rougher locking because it turned out that they could only use one set of valves to fill the lock. The valves on the side we were tied to, so there was a lot of turbulence trying to push us around even tho we were tied to the lock wall on a bollard (this is a cleat that floats up with the level of the water. It goes up with you so you don’t have to use long ropes for locking thru and gives you more control to keep your boat close to the lock wall). This was a good lesson; the next time before we enter a lock we will ask if there is a preferred side to tie to. 

As we exited the lock we entered Wheeler Lake.  A few miles in I noticed a weird movement in the water and as we got closer although it looked like the lochness monster it was 2 deer swimming across the lake at the widest part of the lake. Go figure.
 

We had a leisurely day cruising up the river thru some industrial areas,by a nuclear power plant and the city of Decatur, Al. We finally arrived at Ditto Landing Marina just as the sun set at 1810 hours. Got a slip and were done for the day.