We left Decatur in a light rain at 0800. It soon developed into a steady rain and then became heavy and limited our visibility. Notwithstanding, we pushed on with windshield wipers clearing the windows as a car’s would on the interstate. From Decatur to Guntersville Lock we saw two pleasure crafts (one up bound and one down bound) and one down bound tow. By the time we got to Guntersville Lock the rain was coming down so heavily that it was difficult to see the lock - we could see the dam because it was illuminated in fluorescent lights. The lockmaster locked up us up quickly, so fast that the lock gates were closing as we entered the lock, and the chamber pool was rising before I could radio that we were secured to the floating bollard. The Admiral and I stood guard outside in the pouring rain as we ascended in the chamber. The Tilley hats we bought in Gore Bay came in handy and kept our heads dry as the rain poured on us.

We could barely see the mountain landscape as we exited the lock chamber. Our radar was rendered virtually useless because of the heavy rain. This is due to the reflection of rain to and from the radar beam. And due to the circuitous course of the river we kept crisscrossing the same band of rain showers. I relied on the chart plotter and the Admiral's keen eyes to keep us between the channel markers and for any bass boater crazy enough to be fishing in the pouring rain; there were a couple of them out there! Eventually we found our channel cut into Goose Pond marina. Fortunately, the rain momentarily stopped, and we decided to take on fuel and pumped out during the brief respite from rain. Goose Pond “gives” you one night’s dockage if you take on more than 200 gallons of fuel. I easily cleared that amount!

The impending cold front is supposed to pass through the area tomorrow morning. Temps are to drop throughout the day with high temps met at midnight and falling to a low in the lower 30’s by tomorrow night. Our plans are to move on at 0800 and make the 90 mile to Chattanooga tomorrow regardless of rain or wind.

The boat has been running flawlessly. As I’ve said before, the advantage of a go fast boat is the I can choose to go slowly or fast while a trawler can go only slowly. We made the 70 mile run, including one lock, in 4 1/2 hrs. We passed a trawler boater whom we met last night in Decatur and he said it would take 6 hours just to get the Guntersville Lock!

Today’s conversation while underway was reminiscing about the last time we passed through the area which was March 2018 and in flood waters as we had just begun the Loop. More tomorrow as we get “home”.