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Chattanooga 2016 Hot Cruise

Hales Bar Marina to Ross Landing, downtown Chattanooga

Tuesday September 20

Some of us got underway at 0700, the rest, including me started out at 0800. It was a gorgeous trip up through the Gorge. As we passed Raccoon Mountain Pumped storage I told the fleet about Cruachan Pumped Storage facility near Oban, Scotland. Cruachan and Raccoon are very similar in size and capacity. I'm told that Cruachan was the inspiration for Raccoon and many other facilities around the world. i

We proceeded on. The other boats got out of sight. I was happy to get to downtown Chattanooga and tie up.

We ate dinner at Blue Water in downtown Chattanooga.

Ships Log

0800 Left Hales Bar Dock

0825 Started GoPro camera in time lapse 1 second intervals.

0845 passed 435.0

0853 passed 435.8

0931 passed 439.5

- shift to Eastern time zone

1112 passed 443.2

1113 wind on the nose

1130 passed Raccoon Mountain pumped storage

1142 passed 445.8

1145 passed 446.0

1153 passed 446.8

1215 wind on the tail

1224 449.5

1226 passed 449.9

1233 passed 450.4

1245 wind on the nose

1323 passed 454.6

1332 passed Baylor School

1343 passed 456.7

1500 docked at Ross Landing in Chattanooga

Gallery

Ready to shove off

This mountain has been quarried out more

Here's a modest house that looks cute

Looking in the tunnel

In the thick of the Gorge

Sustainable energy is making good progress here

Evidence of uplifting in the geologic past.

It got windy enough that I had to use this boat hook to damp the flapping of the canopy.

Looking down on my toy boat.

As I soon discovered there are people nearby who don't have a regular home to go to at night. One sleeps on a mattress just under the ramp to go up from the end of the dock. He was maybe 50 feet off the starboard bow as Andrea Lynn lay in dock. From the ramp a foot path and a set of stairs lead up a clearing below a street. Then another set of stairs leads all the way up to the level of the Walnut St foot bridge which crosses the river.

At the clearing people sometimes hung out until late in the night. Sometimes they held jam sessions. I see this as the noise of the city and part of the adventure. But it would be nice to see these people move into basic and safe quarters where they could get a leg up from their present situation.

All 8 sailboats in the fleet lined up. This was the best turnout for this cruise that I can remember.

Dinner at Blue Water.

It was easy at night to look beyond the heat to see the magic of the city as the Southern Belle passed.

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