Day 108: Travel Through to Pickwick

Day 108: November 3: I've been writing about the morning fog, sea smoke, cold, and ice for days now but this morning we woke to the thickest fog we have seen yet. Since day temperatures continue to rise, we knew that the sun would burn through the mist. Surely, being this far south we would not be experiencing these kind of cold temperatures during the night and mornings. Fingers crossed.

We were able to pull up the anchor and get underway just before 9:00 am. Temperatures rose throughout the day as we cruised south on the Tennessee River for 7.38 hours, traveling 51 nautical miles. 

The banks of the river changed with every turn. 

Houses on cliffs sometimes didn't stand a chance. We cruised by one area where it seems a tornado must have passed through at one time. 

Houses on cliffs, houses on stilts, houses with rip rap. The river had it all!

We called the Pickwick Lock (about 12 miles south of Savannah, TN) and were told the lock would be ready soon. The lock is serviced by two chambers, one measuring 110 by 1,000 feet and the other 110 by 600 feet. They both lift or lower vessels up to 63 feet between the Pickwick and Kentucky lakes. 

As it turned out we idled around outside the chamber for about 45 minutes before the doors opened. During that time we hauled the dinghy up (we had towed it the whole way) as a precaution. Once inside the chamber it didn't take long for us to be raised up!

As soon as we exited the lock we turned to starboard toward the Pickwick Landing State Park Marina in Counce, TN. We did not intend to stay at the marina, rather we were planning on anchoring in Sulphur Creek, a small cove just past the marina entrance to the southeast. All 3 boats dropped the hook and we settled in for a quiet night.