Today had the makings to be a bit tricky. We need to get through both the Wheeler and
Wilson locks. The Wilson lock is
essentially closed during working hours of 7 am to 6 pm so repairs can be made. The general understanding is when the repairs
guys finish for the day after 6, you can lock through (in the dark) as long as there are no tows waiting as they get preference. It is recommended that we get their early
(vs. just in time) to get a favorable spot in line. We left the dock a bit later than usual at 9:20
and worked our way down to the Wheeler lock.
Our timing here (worked out with the lock master in advance) went quite
well. We then slowly worked our way down
to the Wilson lock to conserve fuel. We
were under the impression that there was no place to tie up and wait but heard
another boat on the radio seek and get permission to tie up to one of the work
barges near the lock entrance, so we scooted down there too.
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| Observer rafted to Golden at the barge |
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| Barge |
Well right about
4:30 this very nice lockmaster let us know they he'd be locking us all (nine pleasure craft) very shortly and he did just that (a few nights later, we heard of another looper who was not locked through until 3 am).
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| Locking through Wilson in the daylight! |
Kyle from the Florence Marina (everyone's
destination for the night) had us all switch our VHF radios to channel 68 and
gave us the order of boats in which to enter the marina and we were all secured
before nightfall and (torrential) rainfall.
Donna (guest of Golden) took our photos as we entered the marina
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| Entrance to Florence Marina taken by Donna before we arrived |
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| Observer entering Florence Marina's channel(photo cred : Donna) |
and we
all had dinner at the marina restaurant (convenient). Tim got the last walk of the night with
Millie in the pouring rain. All in all,
we were very fortunate today.
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| Storm clouds brewing after our arrival |
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| Taken at dusk from the stern of Observer looking back at Golden and the restaurant. |
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