Jones Creek

Last night we talked about leaving early enough so that Coast Guard boat would not mess up our timing at Gunterville Lock.  We pulled out of Ditto Landing shortly before 7:00 a.m. to find them already gone.  A while later we heard them call Guntersville Lock on the VHF radio.  The lock master had a commercial tow in the lock, that we heard had greenhorn deck hands on board, so the Coast Guard would have to wait until they were through, about an hour and a half.  Perfect timing.  That's just about when we would get there.  At 9:50 a.m. we were tied in Guntersville Lock with the Coast Guard buoy tender "Ouachita" out of Chattanooga.  They had some trouble with the wind in the lock.  They were supposed to tie port side and the lock master instructed us to tie all the way forward starboard side because we would go out first.  Starboard side was our planned tie up anyway because of the wind.  After holding back while "Ouachita" was trying to tie off, they finally opted for starboard side also.  We got permission to tie starboard side behind them as we told them we would have the same wind problems, but we would still have to exit first by going around them.  All went well, and they left us in their wake shortly after exiting.  We saw them a couple more times during the day tending to buoys, but we never did catch up to them again as they rounded the curve beyond Jones Creek where we have anchored for the night.