CAVING
SKYDIVING
HANG GLIDING
WATER
Sail Away
Watts Bar 2000
Watts Bar 2003
Labor Day 2002
Shackleton Series
Cozumel
Okefenokee
Idiot Tubers!
BACKPACKING
RESCUES
STATION R
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Oh, we were in for a spanking. I hadn't seen a more forboding sky since watching The Perfect Storm. Of course, I'd just been watching it the night before, so perhaps that isn't saying much.
We'd set out from Sale Creek Marina shortly after Noon on Friday, May 1, four sailing vessels under power, bound for Watts Bar Dam some 35 miles upriver. Leading the way, as always, was the indominable Banana Split, followed by Watts Bar veteran Enchantress, then Capt. Anthony in Endurance, and trailing in the distance, the always wary Possible Mallard.
Is there no limit to our skills of seamanship and navigation? When all was said, and little done, nary a drop of rain had fallen on the fleet.
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Immediately above the dam, back in a pleasant little cove, we found the docks of
Watts Bar Resort. Dockage, complete with electricity and rustic outhouses, was a whopping nine bucks a boat. The trip upstream, including the lock, had taken us just over seven hours.
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A week before I'd put on three layers of neophrene to get in the water and clean the bottom of the boat. Funny, the kids jumped right into that water. After a brief attempt to sail, we motored through the "cut" towards Euchee Marina. Possible Mallard continued on Blue Springs Marina, just to see it, while the other three vessels ghosted into Euchee.
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Banana Split and Endurance were up to early to catch the morning wind.
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We raced downstream under power for a few hours and were back at Sale Creek by late afternoon. The next week the river rose 17 feet and TVA was releasing 220,000 cubic feet of water per second. Timing is everything when you're planning a trip to Watts Bar.
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Copyright © 2003 by Rodger Ling. All rights reserved.
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