Alive in Florence!

We are now docked comfortably in Florence, AL. Shore power is plugged up, we ate soup, and Trevor is outside with a caulking gun (get those leaks, baby, get 'em all!). Life right now is pretty sweet. I guess I'll start at the beginning and hit the highlights.
Monday: got up early. Marcus, Shifty, and Jesse came to the dock to see us off. I blasted "I'm on a Boat" to keep those guys from getting all weepy. Then it was a rousing round of "Come Sail Away" while we motored away from the dock (I've been dreaming of that for years!). Got through the Chickamauga Lock with no problem, then got downtown. Downtown Chattanooga is crazy gorgeous from the water! I mean, it's pretty anyway, but whoa! So pretty. Made me want to live there. Oh. I did. Oops. Thaddeus came to see us off from the gorgeous waterfront. So awesome! This picture of us on the boat is one Thaddeus sent us from his phone. Sweet! Then it was a pretty uneventful day. We went about 45 miles and anchored near Shellmound.
Tuesday: Got up early. We were ready to leave at 8:00. But then the anchor wouldn't cooperate. We tugged, pulled, let it sit, went forward, went in reverse. And the thing wouldn't budge. Cutting free an anchor is just not the way to start a year-long boat trip, so we didn't give up. Finally managed to tug it just the right way, and pow! it came loose. Seemed we somehow managed to tangle it around a tree branch. So then we were off, around 9:00. Went through the Nickajack Lock without a problem. Pretty uneventful day. We stopped at Goose Pond marina in Scottsboro and had pizza with my cousins. Awesome!
Wednesday: Another uneventful day. We took our time getting started, then moseyed on down the river. Not much to tell. The scenery was nice. We anchored at my parents' favorite anchorage on the Tennessee River, at mile 350, just up from the Guntersville Lock.
Thursday: Got through the Guntersville Lock without a problem. And then things got rough. As soon as the lock opened, the wind was in our faces. And it blew in our faces pretty much all day. A cold, northerly wind, it made for a slightly less than pleasant ride. Downright miserable, in fact. The final stretch into Decatur was especially rough. We actually had waves rocking the boat. It made the ride kinda fun, for a while.

But after a while it stopped being fun. Luckily, we made it in to the Riverwalk Marina in Decatur. And no one was there to take our money. Free marina! We did eat dinner at their restaurant, though.
Friday: This was planned to be a shorter day, only 28 miles. We had to use starting fluid to start the engine. Maybe the cold weather? And then we were off. Almost immediately, we had to go under a railroad bridge. We had to call them to get it raised up high enough. Pretty cool. Then the wind and waves beat the crap out of us. Once we got past Browns Ferry nuclear plant, the waves were really tossing us around, and we were only going about 2 miles per hour. So we decided it wasn't worth the work and misery to go so slow. At that rate, we'd have to go 12 hours to get out of it. So we found a little cove and ran for cover. We hoped the wind would ease up on us (the forecast said it would slow to 10 mph), but it didn't. So after a few hours hunkered down, I studied the chart and studied the river out in front of me and figured that if we stuck close to the near shore, maybe we would be sheltered from the real beat-the-crap-out-of-you waves. And we could use the depth finder to keep us from running aground (because that would have been bad). So we pulled up anchor and tried again. My plan worked! We still had cold wind (and now rain) in our face, but we weren't getting tossed around as much. So we made our way down the river. Just a few miles before our stopping place, the wind did slow to that promised 10 mph. And the sun peeked out. It was awesome! We were exhausted, to say the least.

Then we stayed the night at Joe Wheeler State Park marina. Hot showers! And electricity to run our space heater. Temps got into the 20s last night, so the heater was totally necessary.
Saturday: This morning, we got up pretty early, even though it was going to be a pretty short day (yesterday was supposed to be short, too, and look what happened). Had to use the starting fluid to get the motor going again. Don't know what the deal is with that, but I disapprove. We'll get to the bottom of it soon, but not tonight. So we went through the Wheeler Lock into Wilson lake with no issues. When we got out of the lock, the wind was in our faces again. But it was 10 mph, so not too bad. A little chilly, but sunshine makes it so much more tolerable. We were really hoping to get some sailing in, since Wilson lake is so wide and awesome, but it didn't look like that was in the cards. But the we rounded a bend, and the wind was in our favor (close enough, anyway)! So up went the sails! Yay! It was awesome! We tooled around on the lake for a couple of hours, and then got kinda hungry. So we took the sails down and headed for the lock. We ended up in the lock with 3 other boats. It was weird. And that lock is deep! I don't know how many feet we went down, but we ended up in the shade from it. And then we went down the river and tied up here at Florence. The marina folks are super nice.
And now you finally have an update. It's pretty long, I'm sure. But I did give you the short version. I could have gone on and on about the misery of those couple of days on Wheeler lake. But nobody wants to read about that. Supposed to get cold again tonight, but we already have the heater cranked. We're meeting up with my parents tomorrow, so we should be able to blog more often. Yay! That means more pictures! Aw heck, I'll just throw in some more picture for the fun of it.
Our farewell party at the dock:

Pretty scenery on Nickajack Lake.
Locking through: