Florence to Joe Wheeler

Florence to Joe Wheeler   

Lock opening is almost square 110 x 93

The Looper Rendezvous is held this year at Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, AL. So Monday thru Thursday we will be learning about doing the loop. To get to Joe Wheeler it is necessary to traverse two additional locks the Wilson lock with a 93 foot lift and the Wheeler lock with a 52 foot lift. Today we made the move through the locks and up to Joe Wheeler State park. The Wilson Lock is a sight to behold and we raised the 93 feet, almost 10 stories, in about 15 minutes, so of the locks fill slowly but to raise the water level 93 feet requires moving 50,503,464 gallons of water. Most locks on the inland rivers are 110 feet wide and most lifts are 50 or so feet high and the lock openings take on those proportions, but this lock is as high as it is wide a whole new scale. The standard lock door swings open like a barn door, the upper lock door on this lock lowers under the water to allow boats to enter or exit the upper gate, this is the second time we have seen a gate that moves vertically, interesting!!

Huge walls

Lock is full, walkway begins to descend 

Walkway submerges then the railings

Generally, on travel days we like to get an early start sometime between 7 and 8 o’clock, this morning there was a dense fog over the river and we waited until 9:00 when the fog cleared. Because of the short lock times we still arrived above the Wheeler Dam about 2:00. 

Carol and I decided to anchor out for a while to test a new to us anchoring technique, trip line anchoring. It is necessary to use trip line anchoring in those areas with fouled bottoms, in our case the fouling on the bottom is tree stumps that remained after the dam flooding. Anchors can get lodged under the roots of the stumps and are difficult to remove. Trip line anchoring provides a second line to help pull out the anchor when necessary and it is necessary to use trip line anchoring in several places on the Tombigbee. For those of you that are interested trip line anchoring is explained more fully at: http://www.discoverboating.com/resources/article.aspx?id=479

Our quiet anchorage

It was very calm and quiet in the cove we chose to anchor, I swam under the boat to check zincs, the propeller, rudder and bottom condition. The bottom is nice and slimy, zincs and propeller are in good shape, one small spot on the rudder has lost the bottom paint but everything else looks OK. After my swim, we both relaxed in the very quiet atmosphere listened to the birds calling each other and limbs falling off trees. A fishing boat joined us and caught a couple of fish, nice relaxing time with just a bit of a nap. Carol was called by the staff at Joe Wheeler State Park just as we were leaving, her mastery of the southern English language is becoming very useful.

This evening a boat with a calliope cruised past the marina and played music for all of us, really unusual and lots of fun.

See the calliope whistles on the roof?

Beautiful homes all along this part of the river