Keep Your Fingers Crossed

Monday, November 7, 2016

Awake early to watch the other Loopers leave for the Demopolis Locks 3 miles downriver. The repair yard came over to look at the leak, but nothing was visible from inside the boat. They want to look at the outside.

 

Still up in the lift, they took off the prop and pulled on the bolts that hold the cutlass bearing plate. The mechanic pulled out the top bolt with his fingers, the bottom bolt was secure. 

                                                      

          It took about 4 hours, but we are fixed and back in the water.
   
                                                    BOAT: Bring Out Another Thousand

          We will leave Demopolis tomorrow!!!!

It's a Beautiful Morning

Friday, November 4, 2016

We left Columbus Marina with several other boats and went through the lock together, but we traveled leisurely all day and then anchored in an oxbow before it got too dark.

Saturday travel was quiet-not much river traffic, but there were several interesting sites. These beautiful white cliffs of Epes line the river for about a mile.

And for emergencies you never know when you need to make a phone call!

We arrived at Demopolis about 5 pm. We will stay at Kingfisher Bay Marina at least through Monday. The boat has developed a leak.....

The Tenn-Tom

Tuesday, November 1

We only covered the first 38 miles of the Tenn-Tom Waterway today from the beginning just past Grand Harbor Marina to Bay Springs, Mississippi. The waterway was first proposed in the late 1700s but not completed until 1985. The deepest cut was 175' and the entire construction moved more earth than digging the Panama Canal. There's your engineering marvel and history lesson for the day!  

We stopped for the night at Bay Springs Marina, mile marker 412.  The next 3 dams are fairly close together so we should be able to get through all of them in one day.


Wednesday, November 2

Whitten Lock was already open when we called at 8 am. Three other boats were already tied up and waited for us--Life's TraVAILS, Tidings of Joy, and Mystic. This lock drops 85 feet, the 3rd largest elevation change in locks east of the Mississippi. We all stayed in line going down the Tenn-Tom through all 3 locks. Then we all went in Midway Marina at mile marker 394. Kelly and I borrowed the courtesy car to see the visitors center showing a lot of information on building the locks and canal. Later that evening 2 more boats pulled in the marina.

Thursday, November 3

Boats started pulling out of the marina at 7:30 am. We are the slowest boat so we went last. Another boat came down river and that makes 7 boats in Fulton lock. This part of the Tenn-Tom is moderately narrow so we all followed each other in line from Fulton to Wilkins to Amory locks. Coming out of Amory two of the boats said they were going 20 mph. Five of us went through Aberdeen Lock together and then two sped ahead out of the lock. It ended up that all 5 of us are at Columbus Marina, mile marker 335 on the Tenn-Tom for the night. We still have 3 more locks until we get to Demopolis.

On The Boat Again

October 20th to October 31st

I know we have to catch up on a lot of blogging, but don't expect much and you might like it!

The boat spent an entire month at Cuba Landing and we did get some of the wood refinished. It also got a much needed washing!

Kelly's cousins drove over from Knoxville to see us. Dave and Diana Tisdale and their friends Mike and Carolyn also brought the rain so we just visited at the dock. Residents in their neighborhood are Ron and Eva Stob--authors of "Honey Let's Get a Boat" and founders of America's Great Loop Cruisers Association. Amazing how small the world can be!

So we have been out cruising for a week with Nikki and Carlin. Going up the Tennesse River we passed under I-40 and it started looking like river again instead of Kentucky Lake.

The first night out we went to Clifton Marina since it was too cool without heat. We met two boats also cruising the Great Loop: Stardust and Maravillas.
                                                      
The next day the weather warmed up considerably so we anchored out behind Swallow Bluff Island. No swallows but we did see a family of goats. Another boat was anchored there-the same boat we passed when we left Cuba Landing. "Adventure Quest" is also cruising the Loop. Notice that the leaves are finally getting fall colors!

We went up the Pickwick Lock--a new adveture for Nikki and Carlin!  

We spent two nights at the State Park Marina then anchored up Dry Creek. It is a very wide and calm cove. We watched Kelly fish and he caught several! But there wasn't enough for all of us, so he let them go.

By then it was Saturday and Dry Creek is very popular with local cruisers and fishermen. Just 4 miles up Pickwick Lake we went from Tennessee to Alabama to Mississippi within a couple minutes!!! 

On to Grand Harbor Marina to pick up our mail - two absentee ballots for the general election and two new debit cards. Now we can get cash, but I bet the new president will take it away! Grand Harbor is on Yellow Creek right before the start of the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway so we saw many boats go by.

It is Halloween, so Carlin put his costume on for pictures! He is so cute as a little dragon.

Tomorrow we start down the Tenn-Tom.

Maybe Work Will Find Us

We are still at Cuba Landing Marina, mile 115 on the Tennessee River/Kentucky Lake. It is halfway between Nashville and Memphis and we can see Interstate-40 from the salon windows.  Just watching it rain and cooking pinto beans and cornbread for dinner. All the regular boaters here are gone, the marina is only open Wednesday through Saturday during the winter.  We have a covered slip and plan on applying a couple more coats of stain to the doors and the wood around a window. We will continue south in about a week.  So far the new captain says to relax.

We worked hard in Memphis to find just the right costume for Carlin for Halloween.



You can tell he likes having his picture taken!

Look for another post next week.

Buzzzzz

Thursday, September 22:  We have been anchoring out because there are many coves on Kentucky Lake. But we have to be careful that they are deep enough so our boat doesn't run aground. We need at least 5 feet of water under the boat and the turns and twists to get to those coves can be torturous. We BOTH watch the depth finder. Here's one nice anchorage at the mouth of Hurricane Creek right behind some cypress trees.

All evening it sounded like a bunch of bees all around us with the many, many bass boats buzzing from one fishing spot to the next.  But I did manage to get out on the kayak to take pictures while Kelly fished.

 

Friday:  We only traveled about 30 miles and anchored behind an island. It was miserably hot again so we started the generator and air conditioning to get cool and run the refrigerator. Kelly has a couple small solar panels that keep a battery charged so he hooked up the TV, we found a signal for our wifi and watched the newest Longmire!!! It is a good thing I made us a screen door because the mayflies found us.

Saturday:  Another short travel day to Cuba Landing Marina.  We will have the boat here several weeks while we travel to Memphis to visit our grandson!!!.

All Work and No Play

Sunday, September 18 continued:  Well, the lights were really bright in the Barkley Locks.  And then it was really dark once we got past the upstream lock approach walls.  So we just stayed slightly behind and slightly downstream of 2 federal emergency mooring cells.  We watched the barges approach the locks and there are sharp turns to avoid the sand bars.  Eventually the clouds moved off the moon and it was bright.

Monday: We pulled in Green Turtle Bay about 9 am and had to wait about 4 hours for a slip.  They had many extra boats in the marina for an in-water boat show over the weekend and had to move them out of the transient dock.
                                  
We rented a golf cart to run to the store and ate at the local dairy bar. Nothing exciting followed by washing the boat and watching a group of Loopers arrive in some really nice boats. We kept washing.....
                                                   
The flybridge gear shifter had been sticking in gear, but Green Turtle Bay mechanics were all booked up.  Kelly remembered Todd and Debbie Wright had purchased their boat near here.  Todd was so nice to call the owner and he told us to come on by.  Thanks Todd!!!

Tuesday:  We left GTB about 8:30 and made the 3 hour run to Sunset Harbor Hill Marina.  After lunch, the mechanic Troy worked about 3 hours on our boat.  It ended up being a loose gear linkage support bracket.  He also found a small leak in the steering fluid line and the alternator bracket was loose. Excellent service and a reasonable repair bill.

Wednesday:  Again we only traveled about 3 hours to Paris Landing State Park.  Kelly wanted to buy a Tennessee fishing license and it is miserably hot again.  I will let you know how the fishing goes!