Log 49; Day 143; Oct. 11; Chattanooga, TN

The day AFTER the oil change I am in the engine room fixing things!

A night shot at the walking bridge just in front of us at the Chattanooga dock. They say the longest bridge of it's type in the US.
A cool map of the Tennessee River...if you click on this it should blow up and you can really see where we have been.
Log 49
Day 143
Saturday, October 11, 2008

10:00 AM EDT
Location: Downtown marina in Chattanooga, TN
Weather: 70* and partly cloudy; forecast is for 81* and mostly sunny

Another beautiful day in Chattanooga. Not up too early...7 am...and took my time with the computer and watching hunting shows on ESPN 2. Once the sun was up I washed down the boat and Deb and I wiped it down. We also cleaned all the isinglass and rolled it up to let the sun and fresh air in. After the boat was in great shape, I made a bloody mary, and now I’m going to take a few minutes to upload some pictures and a quick log before heading down river.

Yesterday...was a lazy day on HQ. After getting in the engine room and checking things out (and draining a couple quarts of oil out of the starboard engine, to fix the mechanics error) Deb and I did some organizing on the boat to get things back to normal from Chuck and Holly’s visit and the oil change. When you have not been cruising for a few days the boat gets a little un-organized, and we like to have it a certain way when we are traveling. Late morning we decided to walk back up to Porkers to get some more of that great BBQ, and then walked back to the grocery store and back to the boat. We talked about seeing a movie; visiting the IMAX; touring the aquarium; or visiting the museum. That’s all we did was talk about it. We ended up sitting on the boat and doing “boat stuff”. Oh yea...I got a nap in as well. Dinner was tilapia on the stove, and our dinner movie was an episode of “biggest fixes”...where they changed a thruster on a oil rig 30 miles off shore. Cool.

Today...we are sitting here at the dock this morning watching the annual Chattanooga rowing club races. This is an event that has 52 races of different folks in those long narrow rowing boats. Some boats have as many as 8 rowers (with a person in the front with a megaphone hollering row; row; row)...some with only 1 person. As usual, Deb thinks this is really cool, and is out taking pictures and hollering with the crowd. Me...I’m sitting on the boat writing this log, and looking forward to leaving the dock and going cruising. Sometimes I wish I had more of her perspective on things. At noon today they will break for lunch and I am supposed to contact the race safety coordinator (on the ship to shore radio) and ask permission to leave the dock. Once we do, we will head down river about 40 miles to Hales Bar Marina...a stop we made on the way up river...last Sunday (not much there...but a safe stop). Should be an uneventful trip...but as you may remember...the most dramatic scenery on the Tennessee River.

I’ll keep you posted.

BK.

Ps. While I have been writing this there are more boats going by every minute (we are sitting very near the finish line) and I must admit...it’s pretty cool to see the competition. But I’m still looking forward to heading out.