Locks, Weather, and Wilma, oh my!

Goal to New Orleans: 1865 miles
Paddled since last blog: 167 miles
Total paddled: 325 miles
To go: 1540 miles
Current location: East of Chattanooga on the Tennessee River
Granola bars consumed since last blog: 22 
Total: 44 
Snicks: 9 bars
Total: 23
Days of paddling: 15 


It's been a week since our last bloggage. We are off the river for Thanksgiving Week with Team Shannon  and Grandma Hruby.  


Turns out, you can lock through in sea kayaks at dams with locks. DAM! That's easier than portaging. During our first lock at Fort Loudon, we called ahead and explained to the lock operator that we had never done this before and he took care of us. He coached us in proper lockage, told some good jokes, and set us up for locking success. We looked good and won through two more locks.... they're all the same. It's tradition that once one passes through a dam, there are big machines doing crazy things such as: a guy hanging onto a helicopter repairing electrical lines, 15 heavy machines dismantling a building by a nuclear powerplant (we're talking transformers here!), and a train elevator bridge with a boom crane-barge underneath it.

Kara in the lock chamber at Watts Bar Dam

We have had a broad spectrum of weather. Some days have been clear, calm, and sunny which are accompanied by cold nights. On these nights, it's a good idea to leave hatch covers off because they become frozen ice bricks that are difficult to remove with ice brick hands in the morning. 

Clear morning

We've had one day of hard rain that taught us our waterproof jackets aren't necessarily waterproof and helped us log our biggest mileage day due to the threat of mild hypothermia. Woo hot chocolate!

Rain on water

Wet Liddell

Thus far, the most significant factor determining our speed has been the wind. We think the maximum wind speed we've experienced is about 20 mph. These speeds force us to choose protected shoreline routes rather than open water crossings to cut corners. When we have a tailwind, we bust out our Fiberglass Shaft  umbrellas to sail. Liddell is a conservative umbrella sailor while Kara goes balls-to-the-wall and sometimes experiences umbrella blowout at great speeds. 

Kara's first umbrella blowout

For our avid blog followers, you'll be thrilled to know we finished reading The French Broad by Wilma Dykeman and are now taking donations (or suggestions) for the next read aloud.

Happy Thanksgiving!