Log 37
Day 125
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
5:45 AM CDT
Location: Green Turtle Bay Marina, Grand Rivers, KY
Weather: 65* with calm winds; forecast is for 89* and a 10% chance of rain today
Sitting here at Green Turtle Bay is like being home again. We are back at MM32...after going up the Cumberland to MM190 at Nashville, and now back down again. From here we will cross over to the Tennessee and head south (up the Tennessee River). The weather in this area is unseasonably warm. NOAA weather said yesterday that this weather will be with us “for the foreseeable future”.
Sunday...we left our slip at Rock Harbor Marina at 8:30 and headed down river. The trip was uneventful, and we enjoyed the beautiful river and ever changing scenery of the hills along the banks. Our plan was to go to Clarksville, TN (55 miles) where we had stayed only a few days before. We also planned to head into town and eat at the same bar and pizza joint we ate last Tuesday. But, when we arrived in Clarksville at about 3pm we changed our minds and decided to just relax on the boat and have dinner there. On the dock in front of us was a boat called Domestic Squall from Frankfort MI. After the NASCAR race I took a short walk over to their boat and talked to the captain for a while. Quite a story (long story)...the short version is he bought the boat because he had the dream of doing the loop, but his wife did not share the same dream (hence the name). His brother in law was traveling with him at the time and he thought (hoped) his wife might join him somewhere on the Tennessee in the next week or so. His boat was 30 years old, and he had just spent several thousand dollars at Green Turtle fixing a transmission issue he had and now they were on their way to Nashville. Another nice boater...another story.
Yesterday...was one of those good news/bad news type of days. It did not start off good at all. When I woke up about 5 and went out to make the coffee the kitchen faucet just spit out water and had lots of air in the system. I went to the power panel on the boat to see how much water we had left and it showed empty. I knew we had a problem...possibility a big problem. You see the Clarksville dock has no water, and I knew that so I filled both tanks at Rock Harbor before we left on Sunday. We used water on Sunday and when I went to bed I checked to see how much water we had left and it showed one tank completely full and the other about 1/4 full...probably about 100 gallons. Now the gauge showed no water in either tank. The fact the water just spit out of the faucet said this was true...but where did the water go? This could be bad...or very bad. After turning off the water at the panel (so we did not burn out the pump...if we hadn’t already) I started looking everywhere for water...front bilge; engine room; any low lying area. Not finding anything, I woke up Deb and started taking off panels behind our bed to be able to see in the aft bilge. As I took off one panel I felt something wet on my face and saw that a fitting on our aft water filter had broke and was spitting water everywhere in that area. I had to take off another panel to get to the fitting and when I did, I could see the problem. After lying there staring at this for a minute or so, I thought I could by pass this filter and possibly fix the problem...which I did. The next problem was we did not have any water left in the tank to see if it was really fixed. (At this point I assumed all 100 gallons had leaked in the bilge and pumped out...while we were sleeping just above it. Wonder why we did not hear this?)
With the problem identified...and hopefully temporarily fixed...we could get on with our day. But with no water (and no way to get any) made it more difficult. The major issue was going to the bathroom...no water to flush with. So Deb and I visited the port-a-johns at the top of the ramp...a real treat at 6 am...on a Monday after folks have been using them all weekend. There are lots of words to describe this...you pick one.
Knowing we had a long trip ahead of us (over 100 miles) we decided to head out at first light. Next problem was fog. Cool nights and a warm river don’t mix well, so we had to wait till the sun came up a little to burn off some fog and we could leave...which we did. Things were going well until we came around a bend and all of a sudden we were in dense fog. As you might be able to tell from the picture, I could not see a thing. I used my chart plotter to tell me I was in the middle of the river, and my radar to tell me if there was anything in front of me. The good news was there was not much out on the river, but all of a sudden I got saw a blip on the radar. Checking the plotter I could see there were no markers to cause this blip so I knew there was something...but I could not see anything. So I hit the horn a couple of times and slowed down to an idle while Deb stood on the side of the boat to see if she could see anything. All at once I could see the blip moving and it was going out of the channel...and in a minute we passed a fishing boat just off our starboard side. Deb saw it just before we got to it, but I did not see it until we were along side it. Thanks to our instruments there was no danger...but tough going for a while.
After a while the fog cleared and we had our next challenge. Because we had to go so slow (due to the fog) I decided we would get up on plane for a while and make up some time. When I did that Deb went below to make sure everything was ok...and she came back up and said there was a terrible clanging noise in the back. I went below to check it out and after a lot of investigation I still do not know what the problem is. There is no noise until you get to 1700 rpm. Even then there is no vibration...just a terrible clanging sound that seems like metal on metal. So we went back to 1000 rpm and went that speed for the rest of the day. I called Green Turtle and talked to Gary their service manager and he said he could have a mechanic look at it first thing this morning.
Today...to early to tell what this day will be like. The mechanic will be here about 8:15 or so, and we will do a sea trial to see if we can figure out what the noise is. (It could have been like this for a long time but we cold not hear it because the panels were up...but with the panels down (to dry out the back area) it was very noticeable). We also need to go into town and get groceries, and do a few loads of laundry before we leave on Thursday.
Side notes;
· When we took of on plane the first time (and the boat tilted towards the aft) I could see the aft bilge pump come on automatically and it ran for quite a while...telling me the water from the water tank should now be fully drained from the boat
· When we got to GTB I put water in the tank and checked out all fittings...things worked just fine, and we did not burn out the pump or the water heater.
I’ll keep you posted.
BK.
Day 125
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
5:45 AM CDT
Location: Green Turtle Bay Marina, Grand Rivers, KY
Weather: 65* with calm winds; forecast is for 89* and a 10% chance of rain today
Sitting here at Green Turtle Bay is like being home again. We are back at MM32...after going up the Cumberland to MM190 at Nashville, and now back down again. From here we will cross over to the Tennessee and head south (up the Tennessee River). The weather in this area is unseasonably warm. NOAA weather said yesterday that this weather will be with us “for the foreseeable future”.
Sunday...we left our slip at Rock Harbor Marina at 8:30 and headed down river. The trip was uneventful, and we enjoyed the beautiful river and ever changing scenery of the hills along the banks. Our plan was to go to Clarksville, TN (55 miles) where we had stayed only a few days before. We also planned to head into town and eat at the same bar and pizza joint we ate last Tuesday. But, when we arrived in Clarksville at about 3pm we changed our minds and decided to just relax on the boat and have dinner there. On the dock in front of us was a boat called Domestic Squall from Frankfort MI. After the NASCAR race I took a short walk over to their boat and talked to the captain for a while. Quite a story (long story)...the short version is he bought the boat because he had the dream of doing the loop, but his wife did not share the same dream (hence the name). His brother in law was traveling with him at the time and he thought (hoped) his wife might join him somewhere on the Tennessee in the next week or so. His boat was 30 years old, and he had just spent several thousand dollars at Green Turtle fixing a transmission issue he had and now they were on their way to Nashville. Another nice boater...another story.
Yesterday...was one of those good news/bad news type of days. It did not start off good at all. When I woke up about 5 and went out to make the coffee the kitchen faucet just spit out water and had lots of air in the system. I went to the power panel on the boat to see how much water we had left and it showed empty. I knew we had a problem...possibility a big problem. You see the Clarksville dock has no water, and I knew that so I filled both tanks at Rock Harbor before we left on Sunday. We used water on Sunday and when I went to bed I checked to see how much water we had left and it showed one tank completely full and the other about 1/4 full...probably about 100 gallons. Now the gauge showed no water in either tank. The fact the water just spit out of the faucet said this was true...but where did the water go? This could be bad...or very bad. After turning off the water at the panel (so we did not burn out the pump...if we hadn’t already) I started looking everywhere for water...front bilge; engine room; any low lying area. Not finding anything, I woke up Deb and started taking off panels behind our bed to be able to see in the aft bilge. As I took off one panel I felt something wet on my face and saw that a fitting on our aft water filter had broke and was spitting water everywhere in that area. I had to take off another panel to get to the fitting and when I did, I could see the problem. After lying there staring at this for a minute or so, I thought I could by pass this filter and possibly fix the problem...which I did. The next problem was we did not have any water left in the tank to see if it was really fixed. (At this point I assumed all 100 gallons had leaked in the bilge and pumped out...while we were sleeping just above it. Wonder why we did not hear this?)
With the problem identified...and hopefully temporarily fixed...we could get on with our day. But with no water (and no way to get any) made it more difficult. The major issue was going to the bathroom...no water to flush with. So Deb and I visited the port-a-johns at the top of the ramp...a real treat at 6 am...on a Monday after folks have been using them all weekend. There are lots of words to describe this...you pick one.
Knowing we had a long trip ahead of us (over 100 miles) we decided to head out at first light. Next problem was fog. Cool nights and a warm river don’t mix well, so we had to wait till the sun came up a little to burn off some fog and we could leave...which we did. Things were going well until we came around a bend and all of a sudden we were in dense fog. As you might be able to tell from the picture, I could not see a thing. I used my chart plotter to tell me I was in the middle of the river, and my radar to tell me if there was anything in front of me. The good news was there was not much out on the river, but all of a sudden I got saw a blip on the radar. Checking the plotter I could see there were no markers to cause this blip so I knew there was something...but I could not see anything. So I hit the horn a couple of times and slowed down to an idle while Deb stood on the side of the boat to see if she could see anything. All at once I could see the blip moving and it was going out of the channel...and in a minute we passed a fishing boat just off our starboard side. Deb saw it just before we got to it, but I did not see it until we were along side it. Thanks to our instruments there was no danger...but tough going for a while.
After a while the fog cleared and we had our next challenge. Because we had to go so slow (due to the fog) I decided we would get up on plane for a while and make up some time. When I did that Deb went below to make sure everything was ok...and she came back up and said there was a terrible clanging noise in the back. I went below to check it out and after a lot of investigation I still do not know what the problem is. There is no noise until you get to 1700 rpm. Even then there is no vibration...just a terrible clanging sound that seems like metal on metal. So we went back to 1000 rpm and went that speed for the rest of the day. I called Green Turtle and talked to Gary their service manager and he said he could have a mechanic look at it first thing this morning.
Today...to early to tell what this day will be like. The mechanic will be here about 8:15 or so, and we will do a sea trial to see if we can figure out what the noise is. (It could have been like this for a long time but we cold not hear it because the panels were up...but with the panels down (to dry out the back area) it was very noticeable). We also need to go into town and get groceries, and do a few loads of laundry before we leave on Thursday.
Side notes;
· When we took of on plane the first time (and the boat tilted towards the aft) I could see the aft bilge pump come on automatically and it ran for quite a while...telling me the water from the water tank should now be fully drained from the boat
· When we got to GTB I put water in the tank and checked out all fittings...things worked just fine, and we did not burn out the pump or the water heater.
I’ll keep you posted.
BK.
This was a large group of Pelicans who seem to be migrating.
May be hard to tell but if you click on this picture and blow it up you can see how many Pellicans there were
This is the Clarksville free dock...that is the motor vessel Domestic Squall sitting there, and we parked right behing him.
Here is a shot of the fog. You can see I used the wipers, but can't see anything. Deb calls this picture "trust your captain"
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