Log 40 Day 129 9/27/2008 Pebble Isle Marina

Log 40
Day 129
Saturday, September 27, 2008

6:50 AM CDT
Location: Pebble Isle Marina; New Johnsonville, TN
Weather: 60* with light winds; forecast is for sunny and 84* and a 10% chance of rain

At 5:30 yesterday I wrote...It’s Friday afternoon and I’m going to start this log. I don’t normally do a log in the afternoon because we don’t get in early enough for me to take the time to sit and write any notes. And...I’d rather relax and do other things than think about what to write. Today is not necessarily any different, except we got in early (1:30) and did not have anything to do. So I’ve done all the relaxing I can, and now I’m waiting on the back deck for us to go to dinner, and I thought I’d write down a few thoughts.
· Bailout...I make it a practice not to discuss religion or politics...but wow...is this messed up or what? With so much time on our hands during cruising, I end up listening to Sirius most of the day and tune in to Fox News Channel and Bloomberg, which means I hear many views on what is going on in our world. Too much information, but the right and left views are so polarized that Deb says “it’s like we’re in a civil war”
· The weather...continues to be near perfect. I feel so bad for all the folks who have to deal with the floods. At the harbor where we spent much of the summer (Heritage Harbor in Ottawa, IL) there are at least 26 Loopers waiting to continue their trek south. A minor inconvenience verses what some have to go through...but we have had such great weather so far, I feel bad for others behind us.
· On our own...Deb and I are very comfortable being alone...or said another way...not traveling with anyone or looking for fellow cruisers in every port. We always enjoy meeting other people and hearing their stories...but once we do...we love going back to our boat and enjoy our time together. We both feel fortunate that is the case.
· Living on a boat...we love it. Obviously, it’s not for everyone...close quarters...not all the comforts of home...weather is always an issue (some great, some bad). But we continue to understand we need fewer and fewer things, and lighten our load when we can. We have always known we are simple folks...and this trip supports that.

This afternoon was very low key and not much to report at all. We arrived...tied up the boat...and went in to relax mode. Deb got her book and took a chair and sat on the dock and read for a while. I worked on some cruising planning.

Tonight...we are heading to the restaurant at the marina for catfish. Yesterday I sent an email to the Great Loop email list asking for any opinions of where we should stop along this stretch of the Tennessee River. I got about 15 responses...all of them said to stop here, (Pebble Isle Marina) and most of them said to make sure we go up and eat at the restaurant...and have catfish. We don’t normally eat out...but tonight we’re going for catfish. I’ll report the verdict tomorrow.

Saturday morning...not up very early, slept in till about 6:30...must have been the catfish. Man was that good. We both ordered catfish (the smallest plate they offered) and we brought home enough for the next couple of days for us. Between the catfish; slaw; white beans; hush puppies; and fries...it was quite a meal. It was so good I decided to go back this morning and have breakfast. It was just as good as last night’s meal, and I’ll have enough extra fried potatoes for another breakfast or two.

Today our plan is to head south for another 70 miles to Clifton, TN. The river continues to be wide, and easy to navigate. It is such a pretty morning that it’s hard to describe. My plan is to quickly wash the boat and fire up the engines and get out there and enjoy this beautiful day.

I’ll keep you posted.

BK.

We say so many of these shots along the water today...fishing boats everywhere

This building was in the middle of the river...it was there before they created Kentucky Lake and the rumor was it was so hard to tear down...they didn't
Our boat sitting at the transient dock in Pebble Isle

Log 39; Day 128; Paris Landing Marina

Log 39
Day 128
Friday, September 26, 2008

6:50 AM CDT
Location: Paris Landing Marina
To see our exact location on Google Maps (click here)
Weather: 60* with light winds; forecast is for sunny and 84* and a 10% chance of rain

What a great morning I have already had. I have spent the last 45 minutes talking to one of the top bass pro’s in the country. His fishing name is “Brody on the Lake” and here is how this started.

Yesterday was an easy day of cruising. At 7:50 we untied the lines and moved the boat from our slip to the fuel dock. After putting 220 gallons of diesel on (note...we are getting 1.44 miles per gallon...very good mileage for a boat our size), and pumping out the holding tank, we left the dock at 8:30 and arrived at Paris Landing Marina at 1:30; a trip of 51 miles. This part of our trip is about as easy cruising as you get on the Loop. The lake is wide...the channel is wide...and it is very forgiving if you get out of the channel. We had PERFECT weather...and a great cruise. As we cruised south we saw a LOT of bass boats and I mentioned to Deb that there must be a bass fishing tournament somewhere in the area. It turns out I was right...it was at our marina! Almost as soon as we tied up I started seeing boats come in and then I heard a loud speaker announcing “let’s get started”. That was at 2:30...they kept coming in until 5:00. I did not count them...but my guess was there had to be at least 75 to 100 boats. I went over to the weigh in, and it turns out it is an official Bass Masters Tournament and ESPN was broadcasting. As they crossed the stage, they announced folks from at least 20 states surrounding Tennessee (from as far away as California), and they had every kind of boat, and every kind of sponsor. I stood behind the tent where the guys check in, and have their fish inspected by a bass master official. It was really cool to see these fisherman (who fish for a living) come to the check in. It was like being in the garage at a NASCAR race. I’ve never been to anything like this...and it was cool. It was also very interesting to see all these guys put their boats on trailers...you see every technique in the book. But mostly they use power...lots of power.
This morning I got up early to go out and see all the boats get ready for today’s tournament. I had planned to walk over to the ramp and watch all these boats put in, but as I got off the boat there was a bass boat tied right behind our slip with 2 guys in it, so I just said “hi” and for the next 40 minutes I learned everything there is to know about professional bass fishing. It was a fun discussion.
Here are some quick highlights:
· The guy I met is one of the top personalities on the tour and his web site is http://www.brodyofthelake.com/aboutbrody.html
· He ranks 125th in the world right now.
· He told me there were 175 boats registered for this tournament one of the bigger ones on the tour
· This tour is one step below the Bass Masters Elite tour where the top 100 anglers around the world fish
· The top 30 fisherman out of the 175 boats registered (based on the total weight of the best 10 fish you have caught in the last 2 days) will get to fish tomorrow for top prize money of $65,000
· Each boat pays $1000 to enter the tournament

Today...we are in no hurry...and will be heading about 30 miles south to Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN. The weather forecast promises another beautiful day and it should be a great cruise and a great day.

I’ll keep you posted.

BK.

Log 38; Day 126; 9/24/2008

Log 38
Day 126
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

7:10 AM CDT
Location: Green Turtle Bay Marina, Grand Rivers, KY
Weather: 61* with calm winds; forecast is for sunny and 89* and a 10% chance of rain

Another beautiful morning on Headquarters. The sun is just coming up over the marina now and, while it’s cool, it’s wonderful. As I mentioned yesterday...the extended forecast “for the foreseeable future” is for more of the same. Cool nights; warm days; no rain. Great for cruising. I didn’t go back and look at all the logs, but it seems to me that most of the logs (so far) have started out with how great the weather is.

Yesterday turned out to be a day of improving things. We got up early to get the boat ready for the mechanic to come aboard and go out for a sea trial to see what the clanking was at the back of the boat. We were told he would be there at 8:15 and at 9 o’clock (when he wasn’t there) I went to the service department to see what the story was. It seems the mechanic was late for work and they told me he would be there in 30 to 45 minutes. So Deb decided to put in a couple loads of laundry...and as it turned out got all the laundry done...improvement #1.
Although the mechanic showed up a little late (11:30 instead of 9:30) he had the problem diagnosed in 15 minutes and fixed in 45 minutes. It turned out to be the starboard rudder was a little loose, and we (I helped him) lifted up the rudder with a pry bar...dropped down the top collar a little bit and tightened it up...and no more clanking noise. Improvement #2.
The other thing we improved yesterday was our DirecTV. Too long of a story of why we can’t get certain channels...but one we could not get was ABC. No big deal normally, except that the NASCAR races are now on ABC, so my need to find a fix has been heightened. To help find an answer I went to the Great Loop blog I follow, and it turns out several people have had this problem. What some smart person figured out is that if you have a New York address you will be allowed to get NY local channels (including ABC) and for some reason it works with our satellite TV no matter where you are. So...I Goggled NY marinas...found one that had an address that made sense...and called DirecTV. It took me a couple of times to find an agent that would do what I wanted, but when I did, I told him I wanted to move my “installation” address to this New York address, and keep my billing address the same. He said no problem...and 5 minutes later we were getting ABC on our TV’s. Improvement #3...can’t wait to watch the race on Sunday!!

Today...Deb is going to Paducah (with a courtesy car from the marina) to Kroger to get some things she could not get locally. She is also looking into getting her hair cut a local beauty parlor (that should be interesting...wonder how she will look with a Dolly Parton hair do). I am going to give the boat an outside cleaning, and then I need to spend a few hours planning our trip from here to Mobile. There are a number of reservations I need to make in order to be sure to keep us on track. I also need to make some reservations for the next few nights...at this point we have none, and we plan to leave here and head south in the morning.

I’ll keep you posted.

BK.

Log 37; Day 125; GTB

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.

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"

Log 36; Day 123 Rock Harbor Marina

Log 36
Day 123
Sunday, September 21, 2008

6:25 AM CDT
Location: Rock Harbor Marina M175 on the Cumberland River
Weather: 66* with calm winds and foggy; forecast is for 80* and a 40% chance or rain today

It’s a little foggy this morning. It rained some last night and the isinglass are wet and steamed up. Had to turn on the heater in the helm area...but it will warm up to a little over 80 later. The internet connection is operating very slow...so I hope this goes through ok.

Yesterday...We said good by to Ted and Billie on Main Course about 8:00 as they left the dock and headed back down river. We were going to just relax and take our time at the dock before heading out, but decided to untie and take off as well. So at 8:30 we fired up the boat and took off. It was a short 17 miles from the municipal dock to Rock Harbor Marina and we arrived about 10:30. Can’t say it was much of an arrival though...I could not raise anyone on the radio or on any of their phone numbers, so we just pulled up to the fuel dock and tied up. Two things we noticed...1) the fuel dock was closed on a Saturday and that seemed strange to us...2) diesel fuel was $5.75 @ gallon...maybe that is why they were closed. No one wanted pay those prices. When I called a couple of times I left a message on the owners cell phone, and about 45 minutes later he called me back telling me he was on his way to the marina and would be there in about 15 minutes and show us where we could tie up...which he did. The owner did indeed turn out to be the X husband of Wynona Judd and it did not take him long to let us know that, and the fact that he had 2 kids with her. Nice enough guy and was very helpful...and that was the last we saw of him. At 3 we had arranged for a taxi to pick us up and take us to Opry Land to get our tickets for the show. After getting the tickets we walked about 10 minutes to the Opry Land Hotel...part of the Gaylord Hotel chain and the biggest and most expansive hotel and convention center I have ever been in (I have stayed there before so I had a little idea how to get around...but it is very easy to get lost...and we did). We decided to eat at Tony Romas Steak House in the mall which was just across from the Grand Ole Opry...and then go over to the show which started at 7. All of these type of shows are about personal preference...but Deb and I loved every minute of it. The Grand Ole Opry itself is a great facility, and it is very obvious that each performer was thrilled to be there (all of them said so...and you knew they meant it). The show was 2 hours of back to back groups and singers. Some would sing 1 song and leave and maybe come out later and sing another one. Others would sing 2 or 3 songs (Alan Jackson was the only one to sing 3). So every 10 minutes or so you would see a lot of things happing on stage as new band members would come on stage and plug in there instruments and stage hands would rearrange the stage and set up new microphones. I was amazed at how fast this would happen and then the next group would just walk out...step up to the mic (without any sound checks or tuning of their guitars) and start playing a new song. It was awesome. We probably saw 10 different acts, including: Little Big Town; Jimmie Dickens; The Whites; Charlie Daniels (yes he sang The Devil went down to Georgia); Kathie Mattea; Darius Rucker (who used to be lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish...and was fantastic) and the final singer was Alan Jackson who brought the house down. All in all, it was an expensive day with tickets and dinner and about $90 worth of cab rides...but worth it.

Today...we’re back to cruising. Our plan is to head down river to Clarksville where we stopped on our way up river. It’s about a 50 mile run with 1 lock, so we may not be there until late afternoon and not sure we’ll go in to town. We blew our weekly operating budget in Nashville over the last few days...so it’s back to eating on the boat.


I hope everyone is doing well...I’ll keep you posted.

BK.

Here is Arch...Wynona's X...I guess this is what you do after you are married to a celebrity.

Charlie Daniels on stage at the Grand Ole Opry. You can see our seats were up in the nose bleed section...still great to be there.
This is a better shot of how far we were away from the stage. But they had large monitors so we did not miss a thing
Alan Jackson...a folk hero in Nashville...Deb took this shot from the large monitors they had