Hereis the brief sequence of an entire lockthrough at the Whitten lock, on the Northern end of the Tenn-Tom Waterway. Here you see from the South, below the lock, the gates are opening onthe empty lock to let HUCK FINN in for the transit. There were no other vessels waiting, so it was just me and the HUCK. It's all controlled by the lockmaster, who you talk to on your VHF radio. He reminds you to wear a life jacket while inside the lock and to call him when you have your boat tied securely to the wall. Once you're inside the lock, you carefully steer your boat to one of the floating bollards along the walls, where you will attach a loop of line that leads to the bow and the stern of your boat. The bollard goes up and down with the lock water, holding your vessel close to the wall. There can be lots of turbulence when the water is rushing in from the bottom of the lock to fill it up, so your boat gets tossed a bit.



Now HUCK is inside the lock and you see the massive gates closing. They make screechy and clankey sounds that makes you want to be somewhere else. But you end up inside a huge concrete vault, about 400 feet long, 60 feet wide and 85 feet tall.

It takes about 20 minutes for the lock to fill, and it's somewhat of a relief when your boat gets to the top of the wall and you can see land and Pickwick Lake.