October 30, 2011

We anchored out last night at a great anchorage.  We were the 3rd boat into this place.  We use a couple of books, Skipper Bob and The Tennessee River Cruising Guide, Fred Myers, to provide recommendations for anchorages and marinas.   The place is an embayment at the base of Little Cedar Mountain at Mile 426.9, on Nickajack Lake.  The first in is Shingebiss, second is Trip Time.  Once we got settled, Trip Time dinghyed over to visit.  It was great to talk to them.  BTW, this is our first anchorage on this trip and only our second in this boat.  Basically, we let out an anchor with enough rode to swing.  Assuming no wind, the boat just sits there.  If there is wind, it will swing with the wind.  We set an anchor alarm to let us know if the anchor drags.  Fortunately, we held all night. 

Morning brought fog. You can kind of see the other two boats in the cove.  The picture below is looking out of the cove towards the channel.  We waited for the sun to burn off most of the fog and took off.

Wind Song crossed under the I-24 bridge that crosses Nickajack Lake.  Every trip to Atlanta, as we crossed this bridge, we would talk about seeing it from the water.  Now we have!  It's much better from the water for sure.

Just passed the bridge is the Hales Bar hydroelectric plant, one of the most historic structures in Tennessee.  According to the Fred Myers book, in 1904, Congressman John Moon introduced legislation to build a dam that would generate hydroelectric power and improve upstream navigation.   The bill passed and the Chattanooga & Tennessee River Power Company soon began construction.

For the next eight years, the 5,000 workers involved in the project faced considerable risk.  Construction accidents resulted in many injuries and deaths.  Finally, in 1913, the Hales Bar Hydro Electric Plant was completed.  It was the world's second largest hydroelectric generating plant, second only to Niagara.

Almost from the beginning, there were serious problems of water leaking through rock strata under the dam.  Faced with exorbitant costs for uncertain cures to the problem and a navigation lock too small to meet modern navigation needs, TVA decided to remove the dam and replace it with Nickajack Dam.

Today, the old Hales Bar power house, stripped of its machinery, is eerily silent.  Sounds like pork to me.

We came around a bend in the river and the sun is shining on the trees.  The colors are spectacular.  And with each turn comes even more beautiful color.  This stretch of the river is known as the "Grand Canyon of the Tennessee".  I'd say it's a pretty big stretch, but we are seeing exceptional scenery.

We're cruising at about 7-8 mph which is much slower compared to other boaters.  We get passed quite a bit.

As we get closer to Chattanooga, there are more and more boats.  One boater exclaimed that it was like driving on I-285 in Atlanta.  It was kind of hairy at times.  Some of these boats are big run abouts others are just big cruisers out for an afternoon. 

We got a call from Janet Arnold, Jerry's niece while we're cruising today.  She lives in Cleveland, TN about 1/2 hour from Chattanooga.  She and her husband Joe are going to meet us at the marina later.  We visited then went to dinner with them at the Big River Brewery.  Had a great time visiting.  They are our first visitors on the trip so far and we are their first visitors too.  Such a deal!