Had a great experience with Terry, the outboard mechanic at Buzzard Rock, on Saturday. New outboard has its initial service done. Really dug the long dock at this place. Took the dink up to Hu-B’s restaurant and bar at Kattawa Marina for a cocktail. Beautiful marina, and a fabulous bar with a beautiful view of Lake Barkley. Back to Buzzard Rock and met with Kent and Heather of Heartbeat for Happy Hour. They said they were taking their boat Sunday…
So, this is for my friend Jackie Clement, who is super impatient. Wednesday morning, while at our beautiful anchorage at Lick Creek, Mike and I took a ride around the Creek in our dinghy. Waters are very skinny here, and we need to heed that. While dinking about, we ran aground a little bit with our outboard; no harm…no foul. The even more scary part was an Asian Carp that was maybe 20 inches long that flew out of the…
Left Clarksville at 8:30am in calm weather. Beautiful, and uneventful, trip down the Cumberland. We had far more commercial traffic than our trip up, which was interesting. Most of the vessels that passed were tows and their gigantic barges. One was the Queen of the Mississippi. When you come upon a commercial vessel here, you hail that vessel and ask upon which side you should pass them. The skippers of these boats have been so nice and talkative, and will…
Departed Nashville ~ 1930. It was gloriously overcast and relatively cool. At least 20 degrees cooler than it has been, which is so welcome. The part of the Cumberland upriver from the Cheatham Dam is so damn stunning. I just love the homes scattered along the coastline. This one had its own motorized lift for a pontoon boat: Stunning scenery: We’ve had so little commercial traffic. Today, we passed by a couple tugs (called tows here) pushing some ginormous barges….
Yesterday, had an Uber drop us off at Union Station and Hotel, an old railroad station. Stunning place with stained glass ceiling panels and such ornate woodwork. Decided to have a beer at the lobby bar. Weren’t planning on eating there, but they had some small plates that looked too damn good. Had a collard green and artichoke dip (with cheese and bacon) and pita chips, and avocado toast with marcona almonds, a pineapple white balsamic glaze and micro greens….
Checked the weather forecast which looked good, so we headed out around 7:30. Clarksville Marina was a great stop. Super exciting day as we were going through our first lock. I called the lock operator, Mark, advised we were a few miles out and asked for any advice and instructions as this was our first time. Mark was awesome and told me he would fill slowly as we ascended 27 feet. The wall was super gummy. Mike stayed at the…
Upon awaking this morning to ~10,000 dead gnats (or something similar) in our cockpit, Mike hosed down the boat, and we took off. Beautiful morning, albeit hotter than Hell, with no wind and really calm water. We were all alone on the river today. The most mellow waters I think I’ve ever been in. The sun was behind the clouds much of the day so, with the bridge doors open, we were able to keep the bridge reasonably un-hot. The…
Mike here (just for a paragraph!) We’ve been reprovisioning for the past week after “splashing” our boat. Needing to reinstall our GPS, AIS antennas, and anchor light, we patiently waited for a very busy marine electronics specialist to fit us in his schedule. Yesterday he spent 6 hours on our boat, performing electrical wizardry that resulted in our chartplotter working better than ever. Enter Wednesday morning…visit fuel dock for diesel top-off & we’re off…take it away Cap’t Mary: Departed Green…
Here’s an interesting little bit of trivia: Did you know more people climb Mount Everest each year than complete America’s Great Loop? Mike here: Here it is, Labor Day 2018, and I just noticed Mary has not updated this blog for 3 days! Saaaay what? We told friends and family that our postings would be a tad, well…sporadic–until we actually got underway on the loop. But 3 days? Really? Ok, we may not be underway “officially,” but we’re…
No time in a boatyard is fun. Period. Add that you came from 2000 miles away, and are used to things getting done on California time (our boatyard in Newport Beach is so damn efficient), you can expect that the experience likely won’t be grand. It wasn’t. Our boat was left in the boat sling over the weekend (which pretty much is a no no, but if you HAVE to do it, you block the boat so she doesn’t swing…