Cloud Nine Boating Adventure: Chicakmagua Marina to Hales Bar Marina (9/21/2018)

We left Chickamauga Marina at 10:15AM and will have 1 lock to pass through today on our way to Hales Bar Marina - a 40 mile trip. Hales Bar Marina is about 20 miles south of Chattanooga by road and it is 35 miles south of Chattanooga by River. We would not have minded traveling farther today, but there are no marinas to stop at for another 53 miles -- so we will happily stay here.

Chickamauga Lock/Dam is located within 500 yards of the Marina so our first endeavor for this Friday morning is to get through the lock. I called the Lockmaster as we left the marina no-wake zone letting him know we were arriving and needed to lock through going downstream. When we arrived at the lock, he started opening the doors -- now that is service. Luckily we already had the bumpers on the boat to protect us from nudging the sides of the lock (they are very dirty and made of concrete and we don't want to scratch Cloud Nine). Within 10 minutes, we had been lowered 48' and ready to cruise down Nickajack Lake.

Doors inside Lock Close with waterfall on back wall

Doors Opening as we are lowered 48 feet

Doors Open -- See Railroad Bridge in the distance

Train on Railroad Bridge right as we leave Lock

After we leave the lock, we look at our GPS and with Cloud Nine in neutral, the water current is moving us 4.92 MPH. Look at the top number on the right side of the picture below. The water temperature is 80.88 degrees, depth is 14 feet and the time is 10:49AM. See picture of our boat also in the picture. This GPS is our "lifeline".

Screenshot of our GPS showing speed, water temp, depth and time

Within 7 miles (or at 11:15), we arrive in downtown Chattanooga. We take a few parting pictures and keep heading downstream.

Downtown Chattanooga Riverfront and its 3 Bridges

Aquarium at Riverfront in Downtown Chattanooga

As we leave downtown Chattanooga, the scenery is nothing but mountains, Signal Mountain, Lookout Mountain, Racoon Mountain, etc, etc. Mountains everywhere....

Interstate 24 with start of rock formations and mountains

Now beautiful blue skies and mountain ranges everywhere. Signal Mountain, Racoon Mountain, and Lookout Mountain. Mountains for as far as you can see. Mountains in front of us....and mountains behind us!!

Also after we leave Chattanooga, the clouds are gone and it is blue skies for as far as you can see. This is a house along the way that we fell in love with. The landscaping, back deck, spiral stairs, and yard was just beautiful.

Within an hour of beautiful blue skies, we could see storms headed our way. Luckily we were within sight of our marina for the night. We made it into the marina, got fuel and we could see the rain shelf coming quickly toward us. We quickly got on board, left the fuel island and headed for our covered slip for the night......ahhhh we had dodged another storm. This one lasted for over an hour so we are so glad we got under cover before we got drenched. Where we are is the blue dot and the huge storm is right over us.