Blue View 7-10 October

October 7th

Well after seven days at Green Turtle Marina in Grand River Kentucky it was time to hit the rivers again or I should say the lake.  Also sadly, we parted company with our good friends on Bliss II as we really wanted to take our time in this part of the river and lake. Hopefully we will meet up again in Mobile Alabama so we can compare notes. We are still in the Tennessee river but will be going down the Kentucky Lake/Tennessee River for almost 70nm or 80 statute miles.  This lake is not like our Great Lakes at home. It's mostly a very wide rive with a channel and you have to be very carful if you venture out as it shallows very quickly.   Today was a short day as we only traveled 18nm.  We spent the night in a cove on anchor (finally) in Kenlake state park.  Don't get me wrong I like being at the dock, meeting new people but I love anchoring.  It's all about relaxing the quiet and freedom. Also it's a lot cheaper.  Believe it or not we have met many people on the Loop that had never or almost never anchored.  Understandably not everyone is as blessed as we are in the North Channel.  

October 8th

We did almost 40nm today and as per Skipper Bob manual we found a great anchoring at mile marker 87.5 in the middle of A group of islands in Harmond Creek. Great spot with secondary channel markers. We have to be careful as the water level is low this year and we have 5ft less than the charts. Found a spot near one of the island in 12 ft of water.

So much for seeing the marker

October 9th

We were a little lazy today and didn't  leave until 10 am.  There is and old sailing saying when you're racing "if you haven't broken anything during the race you haven't raced hard enough". Well there is another quote for Loopers " if you did the loop and never ran aground you haven't Loop properly". Well guess what, we did Loop properly.  Lol.  This morning when we left the anchorage I was following my trail back out and got a little stuck in the mud.  Nothing major, I put her in reverse and slipped right out.  I was only a few feet off my trail and that's all it took.  Back up, move to starboard, et voila, 10 ft of water.  So a word for the wise.  When entering or leaving an anchorage the slower the better because if you run a ground you should be able to back up.  If you can't you may need a tow or better yet, an experienced Looper told us to ask any power boater going by to make as much wake as possible which could lift your boat enough to free you while reversing. It wasn't a heavy day today as we only traveled 14nm to anchor in Birdsong Creek.  There is a marina but we only wanted to see the fresh water pearl farm and museum. (See the Pink View for details) The anchorage was great, off the secondary channel to the marina turn to port after the second marker off the channel in 20 ft of water close enough to shore to tie a line.  

October 10th

Last night we decided to leave early in the morning to try and do a few more miles.  I was up by 6:00 am and ready to go.  Looked outside I could not see across the 100 foot channel due to fog.  Went back to bed.  Had a great breakfast cleaned the top deck and finally the fog burned off around 10:00 am.  Raised the anchor and got on the way.  So far not too much exiting other than nice homes, cottages and landscape. Did I mentioned the sport fishing boats.  Everyone we talk too tells us about the locks, the barges, the currents and the anchoring.   But know one ever said anything about the sports fisherman.  We are talking about hundreds maybe thousands everywhere.  They all have these high power bass boat going 100 miles an hour to go fishing. I have even seen some wearing helmets.  When they are stopped to fish they don't move for anybody but the barges and even then, one time the lock master was talking to a barge captain telling him that hopefully they have enough sense to get out of the way.   It's almost 3:00 pm I'm sitting on DevOcean with the Autohelm on cruising at about 5.5 knots.  No responsibility other than to our families, my wife, the kids and DevOcean.  I have been retired now for 4 months and have enjoyed every second.  Also anyone that may have some questions about the Loop or getting ready just ask on the blog or email and I will do my best to answer as per my point of view.  The Blue View that is.......

There are more bass fishermen on the Tennessee River on a saturday morning than there are boys getting stinko on a Sudbury saturday night