We had some rain overnight but by dawn the rain was mainly to the east of us. It was cool in the low 50’s. We had coordinated the departure time with the other boats headed to Chattanooga because we had a lock to go thru 15 miles from the marina.
The other boats were all Loopers that had come in yesterday from Joe Wheeler and
because of circumstance we will be travelling as a flotilla. The 2 slower boats left about ½ hour before the other 4 boats.
The timing was pretty good at the Guntersville Lock with all the boats within approximately 1 mile front to back when we arrived at the lock. One of the boats had called the lock when they were about 4 miles away to get a status and the lockmaster said they do not give out status reports and to call back when they arrive at the lock. Sounded like a pretty “friendly” guy. At the lock he was not much better with his answers pretty short and his volume was pretty low so he was difficult to hear. Anyway we made it thru without any problems and the lock was ready when we arrived.
Pretty large lake right after the lock and the wind was up out of the southwest. There were quite a few sailboats out on the water and the chart showed that there was a sailing club on the south shore. The lake extended for about 12 miles past the lock.
After about 11:00 the sun was mainly out and the day seemed a lot nicer with the sun shining . The scenery was pretty good with the sun and clouds casting shadows on the Cumberland Plateau Mountains as we passed thru the valley between the mountains. Still not a lot of color but there is a little. We are hoping that there will be more next week on the trip back but a local at Ditto Landing didn’t think a week would make much difference.
Along the way we were 3rd in the flotilla and a call came over the radio that someone had lost a ball fender, blue over white. It was our fender and the knot that was holding it, pulled thru the top hole. We went back and were able to get it out of the water. By the time we retrieved it we were last in line about a mile behind the other boats. Boy am I glad we got the call because we would not have known otherwise and the fender is about $200.
The Goose Pond Marina has a restaurant and we are going to have a Looper dinner with 16 people attending tonight.