For the last week we have been running down the Tenn Tom and Lower Black Warrior waterways. This has taken us through deep backwoods Mississippi and Alabama. The nice thing is that the current was with us again and we were making good time, 7 plus knots and even up to 8.5 knots folr the last couple of days.
There were not a whole lot of Marina's to stay at and some of them were marginal. We anchored out most nights including one night where we were in the outflow from the Heflin lock and logs and other debris was flowing by all night, it rained several times and we kept hoping they were not going to open the dam up any further and flood us out. In the morning we got up at down and got moving and made a good distance. We anchored several nights outside the channel line but still in the current flow, this made it difficult to get Max to shore. Since the entire TennTom has been seriously flooded the shore areas were very muddy. One night we took him to the beach and both Liz and he got pretty muddy. Liz said that she would not take him again until she was sure that the area wasn't muddy. The next night we were anchored along the channel again and it did not look so bad. Liz took him to shore and everything seemed to be going fine but as they came back to the dinghy, he took off and ended up rolling in the mud so that he was completely covered, even his face.
The engine troubles seem to have subsided, and we have not had any breakdowns, we are going to have the Marina here in Mobile do a once over just to make sure there isn't anything else about to rattle loose.
Running the engine 9 hours a day at high rpm for 6 weeks would stress any engine so I hope that now that thats over we won't have more problems.
I must say that I would not choose to do this kind of cruising for fun, it was really mostly a necessary evil to get us to the Gulf. The trip just seemed to go on and on forever. Traveling with the rig tied to the boat and without a fixed radio or dining table has been a pain. The rig did not cause as much problem as I thought getting in and out of places, our 39 ft boat became a 55 ft boat. We no longer had to worry about bridge clearances, but water depth still was an issue. There was one night where we tried to get into 4 different anchorages, running aground at each, before finally tying up to a lock.
I will write more and post some pictures about this section of the trip soon but just wanted everybody to know that we had reached Mobile and were safe.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Stray Observations Whle We've Got Internet
Had a great trip to the Walmart. In our cruising thus far we've been almost exclusively in very rural, backwoods areas and I've come to realize the tremendous and mostly positive, impact Walmart has had on rural America. Cant' say we ever visited it when we lived in the Twin Cities, in fact we sort of turned up our nose at it. If we went discount at all, it was always to Target. On this trip, however, Walmart has been a lifesaver -- the most exciting shopping we've had! The only place I've been able to get decent produce, and the range of supplies we are accustomed to. I am disappointed that they don't carry any caviar at all (not even the inexpensive lumpfish caviar), but they've had just about everything else we've needed, including canvas fabric. In the small towns we've visited, having a Walmart is pretty much a sign that the town is thriving and is worth putting on the map.
Many of you have asked about cooking. It has mostly been just great. We have a good oven and a three burner stove in addition to the little propane bbq. We make many of the same dishes that we've always made at home but try to keep it simple in terms of number of pots required and length of cooking time. We brought all of our spices and condiments as well as 5 of our favorite cookbooks (wish we could have brought all 40). Also, we've got all the main accoutrements: microwave, Cuisinart, pasta machine, magic bullet, espresso maker, pizza stone, mortar and pestle).
We have a large freezer compartment that has been great for storing meat. We brought a lot of meat with us and have had not difficult replenishing our supplies. Our biggest challenge has been fresh produce -- either we haven't been able to find good produce (the local stores sell 10 different kinds of biscuit mixes and 20 brands for frying catfish, but their produce is old and tired) or we haven't been able to store it properly because the refrigerator section is already so full of other things. The lettuces always seem to go bad too quickly. Lately I've been able to buy "green" (unripe and unrefrigerated) produce from Walmart and store it in bins around the boat. This has worked well for peppers, tomatoes, avocados as well as sweet potatoes and Fall squashes.
When we get to Belize we anticipate that we'll be able to shop at outdoor markets for fresh fruits, vegetables and fish, but we've heard it will be hard to get meat and staples. When packing up the house before we left, I vacuum packaged all kinds of staples. I suspect it will take us a year or two to run out of beans, rice, flour and sugar. I also bought two dozen cans of "roast beef" from Trader Joe's and through some experimentation, think we'll be able to make perfectly good dishes using them (e.g., Cornish Pasties, Indonesian beef stew).
Last summer we bought a pressure cooker in anticipation of this trip. With it we can cut the time for cooking most things from hours to minutes (e.g. rice, potatoes, stew, etc.) which will be helpful if we become concerned about refilling the propane tank. Using it, we made a terrific ratatouille just before we left that took less than 10 minutes.
One of the nicest things about cooking on the boat is that we are not rushed or tired. Until we left Minnesota we tended to eat out 3-4 times per week just because we were too bushed to cook. Now it is more a pleasurable end to the day than a chore and I've personally cooked more than I have for the past 30 years.
Last observation: the further South the travel the more confederate flags we see. Lots of good old boys drinking beer and talking trash. On the other hand, most people are very friendly, helpful and polite. The Kentucky Dam Marina, run by the State of Kentucky was top notch in terms of both facilities and management. Pickwick Landing, run by the State of Tennessee and bordering Mississippi and Alabama was run down to the point that its transient docks had been condemned two years ago and they have no money or plans for repairs.
Many of you have asked about cooking. It has mostly been just great. We have a good oven and a three burner stove in addition to the little propane bbq. We make many of the same dishes that we've always made at home but try to keep it simple in terms of number of pots required and length of cooking time. We brought all of our spices and condiments as well as 5 of our favorite cookbooks (wish we could have brought all 40). Also, we've got all the main accoutrements: microwave, Cuisinart, pasta machine, magic bullet, espresso maker, pizza stone, mortar and pestle).
We have a large freezer compartment that has been great for storing meat. We brought a lot of meat with us and have had not difficult replenishing our supplies. Our biggest challenge has been fresh produce -- either we haven't been able to find good produce (the local stores sell 10 different kinds of biscuit mixes and 20 brands for frying catfish, but their produce is old and tired) or we haven't been able to store it properly because the refrigerator section is already so full of other things. The lettuces always seem to go bad too quickly. Lately I've been able to buy "green" (unripe and unrefrigerated) produce from Walmart and store it in bins around the boat. This has worked well for peppers, tomatoes, avocados as well as sweet potatoes and Fall squashes.
When we get to Belize we anticipate that we'll be able to shop at outdoor markets for fresh fruits, vegetables and fish, but we've heard it will be hard to get meat and staples. When packing up the house before we left, I vacuum packaged all kinds of staples. I suspect it will take us a year or two to run out of beans, rice, flour and sugar. I also bought two dozen cans of "roast beef" from Trader Joe's and through some experimentation, think we'll be able to make perfectly good dishes using them (e.g., Cornish Pasties, Indonesian beef stew).
Last summer we bought a pressure cooker in anticipation of this trip. With it we can cut the time for cooking most things from hours to minutes (e.g. rice, potatoes, stew, etc.) which will be helpful if we become concerned about refilling the propane tank. Using it, we made a terrific ratatouille just before we left that took less than 10 minutes.
One of the nicest things about cooking on the boat is that we are not rushed or tired. Until we left Minnesota we tended to eat out 3-4 times per week just because we were too bushed to cook. Now it is more a pleasurable end to the day than a chore and I've personally cooked more than I have for the past 30 years.
Last observation: the further South the travel the more confederate flags we see. Lots of good old boys drinking beer and talking trash. On the other hand, most people are very friendly, helpful and polite. The Kentucky Dam Marina, run by the State of Kentucky was top notch in terms of both facilities and management. Pickwick Landing, run by the State of Tennessee and bordering Mississippi and Alabama was run down to the point that its transient docks had been condemned two years ago and they have no money or plans for repairs.
We've reached the Tenn-Tom Waterway
We have entered the Tenn-Tom Waterway, the last 450 miles of our trip to the Gulf, and have just passed through the third lock. We are making a quick (hopefully) stop at the Midway Marina to have the alternator belt replaced. The pulley for the alternator was bent when the water pump broke last week. We thought we had straightened it out enough to make it usable, but early this morning, just as we got underway, it burned up and then broke. Fortunately the batteries were fully charged up so having the belt break is an annoyance that needs attention, not a disaster. Oops, Mark just discovered that one of the attachment bolts for the alternator bracket is missing so we may have a bigger problem than just the pulley and the belt. A mechanic says he is on his way and hopefully we will get the problem fixed today. Meanwhile, we've decided we will have to spend the night here so I will try to make arrangements to go to the nearby Walmart SuperCenter for restocking supplies.
We anchored out near Pickwick Landing Friday night through Sunday morning. The weather turned quite cold and rainy with a vicious wind that made just being outside unappealing and neither of us wanted to consider motoring on Saturday. Sunday dawned clear and sunny . Though the temp was close to freezing, it was so calm and so bright that we didn’t feel the cold. We motored the last few miles on the Tennessee and turned into the Tenn-Tom waterway. The first stretch of the waterway after Yellow Creek is called the divide cut and is a 25 mile canal that connects Yellow Creek to Bay Springs Lake. It apparently is the largest canal in North America in terms of sheer digging. Finished in 1985, it is one of the prettiest stretches we’ve seen with lots of varied trees and shrubs along both banks. We stopped for the night in a beautiful little cove in Bay Springs Lake and Max had a great outing for swimming, exploring and chasing sticks. We hiked to a lovely little family cemetery (Davis and Armitage), well kept up, that is now within the Core of Engineers property. Some of the headstones are too old to read but seem to date back to pre-Civil war days.
Immediately after Bay Springs Lake is the first lock on the Tenn-Tom, called Jamie Whitten Lock. It is a drop of 84 feet – the deepest we will have on our trip. Fortunately the wind was completely calm so we had no trouble keeping the boat still. We loosely tied to a floating bollard that lowered along with us as the water dropped. The floating bollards are hollow drums and as the water lowers they all make a singing/groaning that sounds much like a pod of whales. The second lock, five miles later was only a 33 foot drop and uneventful. The third lock was another 6 miles downstream . Ten minutes or so after we arrived, two boats from Minnesota pulled in (one was Summer Song, one of Hubbard’s boats from St. Mary’s Point; the other was Tommy Girl from Wabasha). Both are headed for Florida. So the first two boats we’ve seen from Minnesota since leaving Iowa we meet up with in Mississippi!
More later. Pictures attached!
We anchored out near Pickwick Landing Friday night through Sunday morning. The weather turned quite cold and rainy with a vicious wind that made just being outside unappealing and neither of us wanted to consider motoring on Saturday. Sunday dawned clear and sunny . Though the temp was close to freezing, it was so calm and so bright that we didn’t feel the cold. We motored the last few miles on the Tennessee and turned into the Tenn-Tom waterway. The first stretch of the waterway after Yellow Creek is called the divide cut and is a 25 mile canal that connects Yellow Creek to Bay Springs Lake. It apparently is the largest canal in North America in terms of sheer digging. Finished in 1985, it is one of the prettiest stretches we’ve seen with lots of varied trees and shrubs along both banks. We stopped for the night in a beautiful little cove in Bay Springs Lake and Max had a great outing for swimming, exploring and chasing sticks. We hiked to a lovely little family cemetery (Davis and Armitage), well kept up, that is now within the Core of Engineers property. Some of the headstones are too old to read but seem to date back to pre-Civil war days.
Immediately after Bay Springs Lake is the first lock on the Tenn-Tom, called Jamie Whitten Lock. It is a drop of 84 feet – the deepest we will have on our trip. Fortunately the wind was completely calm so we had no trouble keeping the boat still. We loosely tied to a floating bollard that lowered along with us as the water dropped. The floating bollards are hollow drums and as the water lowers they all make a singing/groaning that sounds much like a pod of whales. The second lock, five miles later was only a 33 foot drop and uneventful. The third lock was another 6 miles downstream . Ten minutes or so after we arrived, two boats from Minnesota pulled in (one was Summer Song, one of Hubbard’s boats from St. Mary’s Point; the other was Tommy Girl from Wabasha). Both are headed for Florida. So the first two boats we’ve seen from Minnesota since leaving Iowa we meet up with in Mississippi!
More later. Pictures attached!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Images of Water Pump and Alternator
Here are some images of the water pump and Alternator after we installed the pump for the second time. If you look closely we fabricated an extra retaining bracket from the engine to the water pump which the manufacturer said was required. This was done even though the previous water pump which lasted for several years did not have one, but since the distributor and manufacturer did not want to honor a warranty without it we added it.
Here is an image of the water pump after it shattered.
Still not out of the woods yet
Still not out of the woods. We got the water pump installed and tested the alternator. It tested shot and a new rebuilt one was only 80 bucks since it was a Volkswagen/Bosch part from VW Diesel Truck engines. We got that installed and everything seemed good to go. We started motoring south which was actually NW and upriver against the current. Cranking @ 2900 rpm we were making 6.6 knts through the water but only 4.2-4.4 over the ground. About an hour later all hell broke loose. Liz said something did not sound right and yelled at me to stop the engine. At just that moment the new water pump blew apart.
We were in a narrow section of the river with limestone cliffs on one shore and a rocky levee on the other in 2.5 knt current and 1/4 mile from a bridge. The depth was in the 50 ft range and I did not have much option. I looked for shallower water but pretty soon I had no steerage and the current was dragging us who knows where so we dropped anchor. Even with almost all the chain out the anchor was bouncing off rock and we were moving at nearly the speed of the current. Liz wanted to drop the dinghy in the water and use it to guide the boat. We did that and she jumped in the dinghy and yelled for a life jacket "just in case." Just then the anchor caught and we came to a stop in the middle of the channel.
We made numerous calls to the Marina and the mechanic (Randy) on the radio, since we had no cell phone coverage and eventually the Randy and the marina owner (also named Mark) came out to help get us to the Marina to see what was up. When we tried to bring up the anchor it was nearly impossible to crank it in even with two of us working on the windlass. Finally it came to the surface and there was a towboat cable caught on the anchor. 4 loops of 1 inch steel cable were draped over the flukes of the anchor. We used the boat hook to drag them off the anchor with difficulty. When we pulled the final loop off, the anchor was freed up but we could not get the cable off the boat hook and had to let it go.
Then they towed us a mile or so to the marina. It was still hard to get us stopped and moved to the dock. When we looked at the water pump, the shaft had backed out of the pump body and then the mounting plate had bent and shattered in two because the motion was erratic. We called the distributor and asked for a warranty replacement but they said that this pump needed an external retaining bracket to keep it from failing in this way and since we had not had one installed it was our fault.
I am talking to the Swedish manufacturer to verify whether this is true and whether they will cover the replacement, especially since the existing pump had no retaining bracket and ran properly for hundreds of hours. Stefan from Johnson Sweden was very nice and said he would look into it if I sent him some more info so we will take pictures of the installation and the failed pump and send them to him today.
Meantime more delays and more costs and more rain but happily we are staying at a nice marina with good internet connectivity.
I'll let you know what happens.
At least its not snowing.
We were in a narrow section of the river with limestone cliffs on one shore and a rocky levee on the other in 2.5 knt current and 1/4 mile from a bridge. The depth was in the 50 ft range and I did not have much option. I looked for shallower water but pretty soon I had no steerage and the current was dragging us who knows where so we dropped anchor. Even with almost all the chain out the anchor was bouncing off rock and we were moving at nearly the speed of the current. Liz wanted to drop the dinghy in the water and use it to guide the boat. We did that and she jumped in the dinghy and yelled for a life jacket "just in case." Just then the anchor caught and we came to a stop in the middle of the channel.
We made numerous calls to the Marina and the mechanic (Randy) on the radio, since we had no cell phone coverage and eventually the Randy and the marina owner (also named Mark) came out to help get us to the Marina to see what was up. When we tried to bring up the anchor it was nearly impossible to crank it in even with two of us working on the windlass. Finally it came to the surface and there was a towboat cable caught on the anchor. 4 loops of 1 inch steel cable were draped over the flukes of the anchor. We used the boat hook to drag them off the anchor with difficulty. When we pulled the final loop off, the anchor was freed up but we could not get the cable off the boat hook and had to let it go.
Then they towed us a mile or so to the marina. It was still hard to get us stopped and moved to the dock. When we looked at the water pump, the shaft had backed out of the pump body and then the mounting plate had bent and shattered in two because the motion was erratic. We called the distributor and asked for a warranty replacement but they said that this pump needed an external retaining bracket to keep it from failing in this way and since we had not had one installed it was our fault.
I am talking to the Swedish manufacturer to verify whether this is true and whether they will cover the replacement, especially since the existing pump had no retaining bracket and ran properly for hundreds of hours. Stefan from Johnson Sweden was very nice and said he would look into it if I sent him some more info so we will take pictures of the installation and the failed pump and send them to him today.
Meantime more delays and more costs and more rain but happily we are staying at a nice marina with good internet connectivity.
I'll let you know what happens.
At least its not snowing.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
More Challenges
Hello from Clifton TN. Yesterday morning we were anchored behind an Island on the TN River at mile 143, about 113 miles south of where we had been resting in KY Lake. The trip down was mostly uneventful. As you get further down the lake it gradually becomes narrower and more river like. This includes more current in this case against us, building from 1/2 knot near the dam to almost 2 knots. Therefore we are only making 5 knots or less over the ground although we are making 6.5 through the water. Liz made a comment that something sounded different with the engine, I should have thought more of it. After we got going for the day, I noticed that the battery voltage seemed low on the engine panel, and checked the volt meter on the power distribution panel. It looked like we weren't getting any charge from the alternator. When we opened the engine compartment to see if there was anything else amiss, we noticed that the water pump shaft seal was leaking badly. We called ahead with the help another another looper that we had met back at Hoppie's Marina and got a slip and a mechanic to meet us at Clifton Marina, which was only 15 miles from our starting point.
When we took the water pump off it was definitely shot so we spent a bit of time trying to find the right replacement. It turns out that Pathfinder used a Swedish pump from Johsnon AB, which of course is three times what a US pump would cost and they are not easy to come by, but the mechanic found one through a contact of his in FL and it is coming in overnight. Then we can try to troubleshoot the alternator.
Also Max has been having some issues. He developed a hot spot at the root of his tail, which resulted in an open sore and itchiness. We got some over-the-counter treatments at WalMart near the Pebble Isle Marina that we stayed at two nights ago. Since we were stuck at Clifton until we got the motor straightened out, Liz took the Marina's courtesy car to Savannah TN near the point at which the TN River joins the TennTom waterway. She took Max to a Vet there and got him a cortisone shot and some antibiotics which he will be on for 12 days. Everybody feels better knowing that we have that under control.
If we can get the engine problems taken care of today, we can leave tomorrow and probably make it to the head of the TennTom by Friday. From there it is 450 miles to Mobile. The current in this part of the river will continue high until we hit the first lock on the TennTom, then no or helpful current from there to Mobile.
Unfortunately in the TennTom there are lots of locks. In fact, in the first 40 miles or so there are 5 locks that bring us down by 240 ft, including one lock that is an 84 ft drop. Commercial traffic on this section of the TN R has been very mild compared to the Miss and Ohio. We were talking to some TN natives and they said the tow boats are much more polite and easy to deal with on this part of the waterway. But there aren't many services from Demopolis AL to mobile which is the last 200 miles.
I guess thats all for now.
When we took the water pump off it was definitely shot so we spent a bit of time trying to find the right replacement. It turns out that Pathfinder used a Swedish pump from Johsnon AB, which of course is three times what a US pump would cost and they are not easy to come by, but the mechanic found one through a contact of his in FL and it is coming in overnight. Then we can try to troubleshoot the alternator.
Also Max has been having some issues. He developed a hot spot at the root of his tail, which resulted in an open sore and itchiness. We got some over-the-counter treatments at WalMart near the Pebble Isle Marina that we stayed at two nights ago. Since we were stuck at Clifton until we got the motor straightened out, Liz took the Marina's courtesy car to Savannah TN near the point at which the TN River joins the TennTom waterway. She took Max to a Vet there and got him a cortisone shot and some antibiotics which he will be on for 12 days. Everybody feels better knowing that we have that under control.
If we can get the engine problems taken care of today, we can leave tomorrow and probably make it to the head of the TennTom by Friday. From there it is 450 miles to Mobile. The current in this part of the river will continue high until we hit the first lock on the TennTom, then no or helpful current from there to Mobile.
Unfortunately in the TennTom there are lots of locks. In fact, in the first 40 miles or so there are 5 locks that bring us down by 240 ft, including one lock that is an 84 ft drop. Commercial traffic on this section of the TN R has been very mild compared to the Miss and Ohio. We were talking to some TN natives and they said the tow boats are much more polite and easy to deal with on this part of the waterway. But there aren't many services from Demopolis AL to mobile which is the last 200 miles.
I guess thats all for now.
Friday, October 9, 2009
We're back at Lighthouse Landing Marina near Kentucky Dam, ready to get underway for the next big leg of the trip. We spent much of the past week in Pisgah Bay - very serene, great swimming and lots of trails for hiking with Max. I wish we could stay longer in Kentucky Lake but the weather has turned rainy and cool. We don't want to be travelling with coats and gloves so its time to get going.
Yesterday we stepped the mast! Mark did most of the prep work on Tuesday, so all went quite smoothly and the marina didn't charge us much.
The downside of the mast being down is that we have no table inside to eat on since it was attached to the mast. Also with the mast down there are lots of hazards (chainplates, shackles, etc. to trip over or and both Mark and I have done so. With the mast lying on deck, our boat length is now 55 feet. This will make it harder to maneuver in small anchorages and also more expensive to stay in marinas.
It has been raining pretty much non-stop for the past 36 hours - sometimes quite hard -- and we've found a few leaks we'll need to repair when we get to Mobile. Time to take off...
Sunday, October 4, 2009
So how was Kentucky Lake
We have been poking around Kentucky Lake for most of a week now. We stayed at LightHouseLanding the first two nights. It is a very nice marina entirely sailboats; they sell both Hunter and Beneteau and their clientele appears to be surviving pretty well. There are quite a few Hunters in the 41 foot range that appear to be quite new, and there are many new Beneteaus including 34-42 footers. They also have cottages and rv sites for rent. The service department seems ok and they are going to help us unstep the mast. Even with such a large number of Diesel Sailboats, they don't sell fuel and the little oil that they had in their ship's store was for gasoline engines.
I did an oil change and transmission fluid change and everything looked good, they disposed of the used oil without charge. I ordered replacements for the water pump impeller and had them shipped to me at the Marina. I spent parts of two days mucking out the engine room. It was recommended to me to used Soy Sock bilge absorbers to keep from polluting the water by absorbing and digesting any hydrocarbon based fluid in the bilges. Unfortunately, the soy material breaks down into a really ugly gelatin-like substance that makes a real mess of the engine room. Yuk.
The Lake is 180 miles long and takes up a great deal of the Tennessee River down to Pickwick Lock and Dam whic is the start of the Tenn Tom waterway. The lake reminds me of Lake Pepin quite a bit --not too deep, pretty wide and LONG. The thing that makes it nicer than Pepin is that there are a large number of side bays that you can poke around in. We went down to Pisgah Bay about 6 miles south of Lighthouse Landing. It was fairly large and surrounded by state and federal parks with campgrounds.
There was quite a bit of fishing both from shore and in bass boats in the bay. Water temp here is still pretty near 80 degrees most places so we enjoyed a nice swim in clean water. We were anchored in 18 ft. Max got to go to shore multiple times and Liz walked through the woods with him. She was trying to get into a cemetary asociated with one of the few towns that was flooded by the creation of the lake. Unfortunately, it was fenced with barb wire, one assumes there had been some vandalism. There was some graffiti on some of the rock faces surrounding the lake but not too bad.
The guide books said that this bay was good holding ground for anchoring and there was a pretty strong cold front/thunderstorm predicted. We kept having the anchor alarm go off but did not seem to have moved much, but it was certainly enough to disturb our sleep. Anyway, the cold front brought pretty Fall-like weather with lows in the forties and blustery winds. We decided to try one of the other Marina's.
This one is called Kentucky Dam Marina and is run as a State Park. The facility is pretty nice, lots of both Power and Sail boats, gas and diesel. We had some communication troubles talking with them about how to safely reach the entry channel and where to go inside the marina which was frustrating but once we got in they turned out to be nice people just not very good communicators. They helped us dock and tie up at the fuel dock. When it was time to move to our rental slip, a common problem that we have found at powerboat oriented marinas recurred. The slip had plenty of water depth, but since it was built with powerboats in mind it had a crossbar across the front of the slip at 5 ft. So we unexplainably could not get more than half the boat into the slip. After we asked they admitted that the crossbar was there, but they thought it was at 6 ft. So they moved us to the end of the pier. We pulled in right in front of a Kady Krogen Trawler that must be 55 ft, feels like our cockpit is sitting underneath their bow sprit but we have had no problems\.
The Marina had a courtesy car/van which we used for free to get groceries, oil, and propane. We also stopped at a couple of roadside stands to get some vegatables since the produce in the local IGA food stores basically sucked: old and shrivelled and not very much variety. But it was nice to not to have to rent a car or pay big taxi fees.
It is sort of amazing, but none of the literature about this place mentions that it is entirely surrounded by "Dry Counties". No booze whatsoever for 40 miles. We went to Patti's 1880's settlement the local restaurant and said we were just there for cocktails and appetizers. The hostess said sorry its a dry county, Liz asked how about beer, "No, it's a dry county" was the response. Anyway we went back to the boat and made our own drinks.
IT has been very nice to be off the big rivers out of the current and in such pleasant surroundings and poking around instead of getting up at the crack of dawn to make another 60 miles.
Liz will comment further.
Please make sure that others know about the blog and send your comments or questions
Later....
I did an oil change and transmission fluid change and everything looked good, they disposed of the used oil without charge. I ordered replacements for the water pump impeller and had them shipped to me at the Marina. I spent parts of two days mucking out the engine room. It was recommended to me to used Soy Sock bilge absorbers to keep from polluting the water by absorbing and digesting any hydrocarbon based fluid in the bilges. Unfortunately, the soy material breaks down into a really ugly gelatin-like substance that makes a real mess of the engine room. Yuk.
The Lake is 180 miles long and takes up a great deal of the Tennessee River down to Pickwick Lock and Dam whic is the start of the Tenn Tom waterway. The lake reminds me of Lake Pepin quite a bit --not too deep, pretty wide and LONG. The thing that makes it nicer than Pepin is that there are a large number of side bays that you can poke around in. We went down to Pisgah Bay about 6 miles south of Lighthouse Landing. It was fairly large and surrounded by state and federal parks with campgrounds.
There was quite a bit of fishing both from shore and in bass boats in the bay. Water temp here is still pretty near 80 degrees most places so we enjoyed a nice swim in clean water. We were anchored in 18 ft. Max got to go to shore multiple times and Liz walked through the woods with him. She was trying to get into a cemetary asociated with one of the few towns that was flooded by the creation of the lake. Unfortunately, it was fenced with barb wire, one assumes there had been some vandalism. There was some graffiti on some of the rock faces surrounding the lake but not too bad.
The guide books said that this bay was good holding ground for anchoring and there was a pretty strong cold front/thunderstorm predicted. We kept having the anchor alarm go off but did not seem to have moved much, but it was certainly enough to disturb our sleep. Anyway, the cold front brought pretty Fall-like weather with lows in the forties and blustery winds. We decided to try one of the other Marina's.
This one is called Kentucky Dam Marina and is run as a State Park. The facility is pretty nice, lots of both Power and Sail boats, gas and diesel. We had some communication troubles talking with them about how to safely reach the entry channel and where to go inside the marina which was frustrating but once we got in they turned out to be nice people just not very good communicators. They helped us dock and tie up at the fuel dock. When it was time to move to our rental slip, a common problem that we have found at powerboat oriented marinas recurred. The slip had plenty of water depth, but since it was built with powerboats in mind it had a crossbar across the front of the slip at 5 ft. So we unexplainably could not get more than half the boat into the slip. After we asked they admitted that the crossbar was there, but they thought it was at 6 ft. So they moved us to the end of the pier. We pulled in right in front of a Kady Krogen Trawler that must be 55 ft, feels like our cockpit is sitting underneath their bow sprit but we have had no problems\.
The Marina had a courtesy car/van which we used for free to get groceries, oil, and propane. We also stopped at a couple of roadside stands to get some vegatables since the produce in the local IGA food stores basically sucked: old and shrivelled and not very much variety. But it was nice to not to have to rent a car or pay big taxi fees.
It is sort of amazing, but none of the literature about this place mentions that it is entirely surrounded by "Dry Counties". No booze whatsoever for 40 miles. We went to Patti's 1880's settlement the local restaurant and said we were just there for cocktails and appetizers. The hostess said sorry its a dry county, Liz asked how about beer, "No, it's a dry county" was the response. Anyway we went back to the boat and made our own drinks.
IT has been very nice to be off the big rivers out of the current and in such pleasant surroundings and poking around instead of getting up at the crack of dawn to make another 60 miles.
Liz will comment further.
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Later....
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