Leg #1 TN River to Palmetto

We left Aqua at 7:00AM in another bright but chilly morning with only a little fog on the water. You are now traveling downstream so the red buoys are on the right. The first 24 miles are in the ditch; a canal 230 feet wide. Then the river widens into a small lake with a lock at the end. We got to the first lock about noon. There was a tow coming up and another ahead of us. We anchored and waited 2 hours with 4 other boats. Then we got locked through without incident. A little farther on was a pulp mill and wouldn’t you know it another tow boat started up from there. So now we had two tow boats infront of us. Another 2 hour wait at the next lock. One more lock to go to get to Midway. However, it now became clear we would not make it in daylight. The other 4 boats decided to anchor out and lock through in the morning and skip Midway. Getting anchored was hell. First we were too close to the channel on the west side so we pulled up and went over to the dam side but now there were stumps to hit, and anchors that wouldn’t hold so we went farther up stream and anchored again. However, the lockmaster said we were too close to the channel again. It took about three more tries before we felt reasonably safe. It’s now 9:35PM but no one wants to sleep under such precarious conditions. Watch this space tomorrow for the outcome.