The Tennessee River Gorge Explorer has docked in Chattanooga after an eight-day journey from Port Everglades, Fla.
The 70-passenger catamaran, the newest attraction of the Tennessee Aquarium, will offer educational tours of the river gorge beginning June 27, launching from the Chattanooga Pier, aquarium officials said. The boat can reach speeds of more than 50 miles per hour.
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Staff Photo by Angela Lewis -- Children wave as the Tennessee Aquarium's new River Gorge Explorer boat arrives at Ross's Landing this afternoon.
“This is the best handling boat I’ve ever been on in my life,” said Capt. Mike Hosemann, one of the ship’s three captains.
The 65-foot-long vessel had been delayed for a day when the window sky lights loosened during transport, said Thom Benson, aquarium spokesman.
Today, during the final leg of the vessel’s journey — from Hales Bar Marina in Guild, Tenn., to the Chattanooga Pier — the Tennessee River Gorge Explorer hit speeds of more than 33 miles per hour, Mr. Benson said. Coast Guard approval is needed before the boat can reach its top speed on the river, he said.
The Tennessee River Gorge is a 2,000-foot-deep canyon, running for about 27 miles through the Cumberland Mountains. The area is home to more than 1,000 kinds of plants, trees, grasses and flowers, plus 184 species of birds, 63 species of mammals and 193 species of butterflies, according to the Tennessee Aquarium’s Web site.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Health care reporter Emily Bregel has worked at the Chattanooga Times Free Press since July 2006. She previously covered banking and wrote for the Life section. Emily, a native of Baltimore, Md., earned a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Columbia University. She received a first-place award for feature writing from the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists’ Golden Press Card Contest for a 2009 article about a boy with a congenital heart defect. She ...
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