October 31, 2009 Pebble Isle Marina to Clifton, TN

October 31, 2009
Pebble Isle Marina, New Johnsville, TN to Clifton, TN

Finally a beautiful day to cruise!! We started the day with a buffet breakfast at the Pebble Isle Marina, and got underway around 9:15 AM. We were not in a hurry as we were only going 62 miles with no locks to Clifton, TN. We were able to thoroughly enjoy the beautiful Tennessee River. The Tennessee is deep with few channel markers needed, and lined with colorful bluffs, coves and sloughs. Although it was a Saturday, we encountered two tows – otherwise we were nearly the only cruiser on the river. We arrived at the Clifton Marina at 4:30 - The river current took about 2.5-3.0 knots off our speed. The Tennessee River is a north/south river that flows south to north.

Happy Halloween.

Our intent tomorrow is to stay in Clifton and visit the town – stay tuned for our landside adventures. Or we may just read our books.

October 29-30, 2009

October 29-30, 2009
Pebble Isle Marina, New Johnsonville, TN

Our trip to Pebble Isle Marina was indeed mostly uneventful. As we were leaving Green Turtle Bay Marina at sunrise, a fishing boat pulled into the mouth of the marina channel and stopped to start fishing. We thought we were a rather obvious sight, but needed to use the horn to ask the fishermen to move aside a bit in order to get out. Again the day was overcast and we also encountered some rain squalls so the beautiful autumn colors we were able to see, did not look as good on camera. We needed to slow down for a car ferry and passed an abandoned dock. Pebble Isle has a rather interesting channel to get into their well-protected harbor, but it is well marked.

We enjoyed dinner and conversation with Andy and Frank of Brightwater – a beautiful Fleming trawler that was next to us in Green Turtle Bay and made the trip with us today. This is the third time they have made this part of the river trip. They had great information and promised us that the rest of the trip will be beautiful. They had come down the Illinois River and had also encountered debris from the above average rainfalls with a damaged prop to show for it.

Today, Friday, it was our intent to visit Civil War historical sites as part of our day. The nearest park with some historical remnants apparently had been disassembled recently so nothing going there. There were two museums – one in Waverly that was open by appointment only, and one in the Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park that was approximately 30 minutes away. We waited for the courtesy car and started our adventure at noon. Off to the State Park we went (since we didn’t have an appointment in Waverly) with directions from a marina patron. Everything was going well and we were about 5 miles from the park when we witnessed a transformer on a telephone pole explode with sparks and then a wire came down into road (probably due to the extreme winds we had today). We were able to stop on time, but 2 seconds sooner…. A local guy gave us instructions to take some backroads around the incident and we were on our way. We found the state park and got directions from the office to the museum at the top of Pilot Knob Hill (highest point in West Tennessee), only to find a sign in the locked door that the curator was out to lunch for another 45 minutes. Sheesh!

We took some pictures and, truly, the views were spectacular – we were able to see the Pebble Isle Marina harbor from this peak. We decided not to wait for the museum to open because our time was limited with the car. Instead, we drove back to Waverly to eat at Tequila Johns, for very good Mexican cuisine. This tiny restaurant was recommended to us by another marina patron who knew that the chef had received his training in the Dominican Republic. Just made us go, “Hmmmmmm…..” But every part of the meal was commendable!!

I did a web search for the Civil War Battle of Johnsonville and you can find out more at the following link. We were told that this was the only battle in which an Army Calvary defeated the Navy.

http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/tn/tn032.html

http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/tn/tn032.html

Who is BUD?

October 28, 2009

Green Turtle Bay Marina

Who is BUD?

I’ve been wondering who BUD is all week. He obviously needs help knowing where to go, and there are signs here that help him. He should left, then right, and then how can he go both ways?? Whatever way he goes, apparently he is OK.

Anyway, we head out tomorrow to Pebble Isle Marina on Kentucky Lake. We have no lock and dams and only 70 miles to go. It should be uneventful. Both Barkley and Kentucky Lake are beautiful areas. It would be interesting to be able to spend more time here exploring the coves and anchorages.

Grateful is ready to go. The engines sound great and seem to be in good working order. Mark has cleaned Grateful thoroughly on the outside, and he has redesigned one panel of Grateful’s controls. Yes, Don, Mark has used his skill saw at least two times already on this trip. We are ready for more adventure!!!

October 22-29, 2009 Green Turtle Bay Marina

October 22-29, 2009

Green turtle Bay Marina, Grand Rivers, Kentucky

We have been here for 5 days and plan to be here until the morning of October 29. We will then begin the last 600 miles of the trip to Mobile Bay. We have enjoyed our stay here and have been doing little projects on Grateful. We have had a couple of sunny, warm days so Grateful is clean inside and out. We have taken the dinghy off the top of Grateful and put it in the lake, and taken a harbor cruise. Green turtle Bay is a huge marina – Mark estimates over 500 boats. Transients come and go as we relax here. The Emily E has made it here and we have re-united with Jim & Debbie and their new crewmate, Irv. Tonight we all went to dinner at Patti’s for the famous 2” pork chop with them. Mark has reconstructed one of the dashboard panels in teak as it had disintegrated on one of the first days of our trip – it looks MUCH better.

Today, the diesel mechanic came to inspect the port engine and help us figure out why we had the loss of RPMs on Thursday when we came up the Cumberland River. As he work and Mark “went to school”, it was determined that the primary and secondary fuel filters were the culprits, and changing or draining was all that was needed. We have since ordered replacement parts for these and will continue to have them on hand as we travel.

Just know we are well and taking a break. Keep in touch – we love to hear from you. I have attached pictures of the Green Turtle Bay Marina area. Dea and Dave, I expect to see an autumn display similar to some of these pictures next fall with the harvest from your gardenJ

October 22, 2009 Ohio 945.0 to Green Turtle Bay

October 22, 2009

Ohio mm 945.0 to Green Turtle Bay Marina, Grand Rivers, Kentucky

Well, we made it through the night, and Mark thinks it may have been his best night of sleep. We are all getting better at the morning anchorage routine and Port knows what he is supposed to be doing once ashore. At least this morning we didn’t have frost to deal with. Yesterday, I was leaving my footprints on our canvas as I wiped the condensation off our windows.

Mark did some maintenance on Grateful. As we were coming to the end of our day yesterday, Grateful’s port engine was surging, and increased RPMs did not increase our speed. Mark drained the fuel filter on the port side. Grateful began the day running well.

We followed our GPS track back into the channel – we made it into the anchorage safely last night so going back the same way made the best sense – slick. We made it into the channel ahead of a 28-barge tow. Even at 7.0 knots per hour, we travel much faster than upstream-bound tows. We passed Metropolis, IL, with a Harrah’s casino boat, Ft. Massac, and the remains of Lock & Dam #52. As we passed over the remains of the dam, the turbulence was incredible.

We made the junction of the Ohio and Cumberland River at 11:30. It took 2:45 to go 22 miles. We were sure that we were going up the Cumberland because of the red/green marker. The going was slow here as well. There were very few channel markers as the river was narrow but depth ran at 30-60 feet. River industry, bluffs showing autumn colors, a Halloween scene (big birds in dead tree) and a helicopter being refueled mid-air were some of the highlights. A lowlight was that Grateful’s port engine started acting up again. In a clear stretch of river with no tows in sight, Mark shut down the port engine, went below and drained the fuel filter again while I kept Grateful in the channel with the starboard engine. We had both engines again, but something was still wrong. We were able to get through the huge Barkley Lock & Dam with a lift of 57 feet and made it to Green Turtle Bay. We pulled into the fuel dock for diesel and pumpout just as it started to rain. We took on another 304 gallons, but had only traveled 250 miles. Because we were Great Loopers, we were able to save 15 cents per gallon.

It is great to be safely tied in a marina with power and water. I worried about the last hour of our trip waaaayyyy more than Mark. I am glad he had things under control. He has made arrangements to have the diesel mechanic from this marina check out Grateful’s motors on Monday. So we will stay put at least until then.