Thursday New Year’s Eve 2020/2021
Near Red Sulphur Springs, TN
We took the forecast for mild but
overcast weather for today at face value and got underway at 0715. Being only three miles from the Wheeler Lock
and Dam, I called the lock master on the phone at 0530, and he suggested that
we be approaching the lock around 0730 because he had a tug locking through at
sunrise. After a few minutes of standby,
we saw the gate begin to open, and soon the red flashing light changed to
flashing green indicating the all-clear for us to enter. We donned our inflatable life vests, and I made
sure my knife was on my belt and the handheld VHF radio was on my life vest. We turned on our intercom headsets and idled
into the lock slowing closing within a foot of the wall until we were opposite
one of the floating bollards inset into the concrete wall at which point I
stopped the boat and Mary lassoed the bollard with the loop of line we had prepared
with the line running through several feet of clear vinyl hose.
Being lowered in a lock is much
less turbulent that being raised, and soon we stopped going down, and the lock
gates ahead of us began their slow opening sequence. Then the horn sounded indicating we were free
to proceed out the lock.
While running the 15-plus miles
to Wilson Lock, I ran the RPM on both engines up to 2700 not a really stressful
level for them, but enough to work them a bit.
After 15 minutes or so, the carbon monoxide (CO) alarm in the bedroom
aft alarmed. This was more or less
expected as it had happened when Frank was given a test ride in the boat before
he bought it. I looked it up on the
Gibson owner’s page on Facebook, and some guys had taped up the joints in the
aft sliding glass doors to eliminate the CO problem. I took some painter’s tape I had purchased for
this occasion and began taping the door when the CO detector I had brought
along and placed at the helm also went off.
This was cause to slow down to reduce the “station wagon effect” of the
exhaust rolling up onto the aft deck and to open some windows. With the outside temperature at 47F, this was
not a popular move for the entire crew.
Once the tape job was completed, a second test resulted in no CO alarms.
Wilson Lock was basically a rinse
and repeat of the Wheeler lock, and I was pleased to be greeted by a small,
barge-less tug waiting to lock up when the doors opened. We have often waited for tugs because they
have priority at locks.
We mostly had the river to ourselves
on this gloomy day, but we began to see barge taffic headed upriver as we neared
the turnoff into the Tom Bigbee Waterway.
I began calling on radio and cell
phone as we got close to Aqua Harbor Marina, but never got an answer; so we
eased in and tied up near the fuel dock and connected to shore power to await
developments. Nobody we spoke to is sure
about when the workers here will return to work with guesses ranging from
tomorrow to the next day, Saturday.
At least we are off the broader
waters of the Tennessee with this houseboat and have little concern from here
on out about wind conditions.
Used 90 gallons of gasoline on our
7-hour, 63-mile run today and need to refuel before we can press on.
I received an invitation to a New Year’s Eve party two piers over, but I told the nice gentleman that we had been as careful as we could be about exposure to other people since the covid pandemic started and with a vaccine right around the corner, we were not about to get careless now, and it is COLD out there.
