Rendezvous and Retracing our Path

Friday, Oct 10-17, 2014

Because we arrived at the site of the AGLCA rendezvous a few days early, John was able to change the oil and I caught up on laundry. The state park was a beautiful place with a large lodge and meeting place, a pool and plenty of room for the nearly 50 boats that gathered there.
The conference started on Monday and we met lots of our friends, new Loopers just starting their trip, former Loopers and hopeful future Loopers. The seminars were very informative as we focused on the southern part of the loop that was to come.

We were tied up right in front of the lodge in the middle - by the time the
conference started, every slip was full
 

Joe Wheeler was an important man in these parts
 

Before the rendezvous even came to a close, our friend Roger from TA TA was doing an expert job of organizing the 20 or so boats leaving after the last day. We had wanted to leave on Saturday but we got the word that part of the river would be closed that day due to dragon boat races to be held just south of the last lock. Roger had each boat numbered and in the order that we would tie up in the lock. It was a great plan and we were all ready go by 8 a.m. on Friday morning.

Panoramic view of the waterway in front of the state park taken by the AGLCA on the morning as we left
 

 

Our spot in line was number seven, just behind Meander and Bodacious
 

The General Joseph Wheeler lock was the first one and everything worked like clockwork as we took our spots next to Julie and Stu on Meander and rafted up to them. When we exited the lock, it had only been an hour to load and go down the 58 foot drop. As we went the 15 miles across Wheeler Lake the boats stretched out into a long line resuming their order. The wind started picking up and by the time we got to the Wilson Lock it was pretty gusty. We entered slowly because people were having a difficult time tying up to the floating bollards. The water was what John calls "squirrely" between the wind and the current as we were entering.

Serenity rafted up to Meander in Wilson Lock - going down
 

A couple of boats did 360s and tried again. Finally everyone was secured after over an hour of intense effort on everyone's part and we started lowering down the 94' drop.

That last boat looks like it is getting a little shower
 

When we reached the bottom the huge gates in front of us started to open
 

Quite a trail of boats behind us as we leave the Wilson Lock
 

We pulled into Florence Harbor, the same place we stayed on the way up the river, but many of the boats travel faster and they passed us on their way to the Tenn-Tom waterway - our next great adventure.

Captain’s Log: October 17, 2014

Departed: Joe Wheeler State Park 8:20
Engine hours: 4.0 hrs.
Actual hours: 5 hr. 10 min.
Miles covered: 20.62
Arrived: Florence Harbor, Florence, Alabama 1:30 p.m.
Results of oil analysis shows both engines are just fine. Happy Captain.
Wx: calm morning 60 degrees or so, sunny. Wind picked up so 2^nd lock was very interesting.