Days 167 - 169, Nov 17th - 19th, TN River

This is Wilson Lock, the fifth highest lift lock in the US, raising CRAZY EIGHTS 93 feet into Wilson Lake! To date we have traversed about 100 locks.

We were the only boat in the lock but had to wait for 3.5 hours for two tows with barges to be locked through first. We had a long day planned so we set the alarm for 0530 - oh, how we hate that hour! We called the lock master, only to find out that it was going to be a delayed lock UP for us until he was done getting the tows through.

To add insult to injury, the one tow was going our way, so when we arrived for the next lock at Wheeler Dam, we had to wait for him to lock UP again! Even if we had been able to pass him at some point, likely he would've still been given lock through priority. So we waited another 3 hours this time.

Remember, we've commented that with the short daylight this time of year, we plan to be docked no later than 4 PM? This didn't allow for much further travel - we progressed only 17 miles for the day!