Kentucky Lake Tennessee River 7 Oct-12 Oct

We slowly left Green Turtle Bay and headed out to Kentucky Lake.

Kentucky Lake is beautiful and very much like the north shore but totally different. I loved it! It is one of the largest man made lakes in the world covering about 160,000 acres. In many places there are washed away shores with exposed roots, next a beautiful cliff, followed by sandy stretches.  There are miles of beautiful green then an exquisite house or a row of stilt houses  will rise. “Creeks” and small hideaways run off the lake continuously. 

This house was barely hanging on in that front corner

The square in the centre was a roof of some sort of shed.

This tree was off to our port side one morning in a cove and I couldn’t help but think how beautiful it was.

We made a stop at Pisgah Bay that was a quarry that was flooded when Kentucky lake was formed. The rock walls are covered with graffiti. You would think it was an ugly sight in this beautiful area but really it wasn’t it was just unique. 

Bill told me if I had a dollar for each Heron I saw down the river I would be rich! He was so right.

 

Cool autumn morning on the water with my handsome skipper

Abandoned dockage: it looks wood but it was actually cement

Abandoned railroad bridge with the span gone

The Skipper Bought me A Freshwater Pearl Necklace!

The plan has been to travel between 40-50 miles a day finishing between 4-5 to give us some time to explore the anchorage. Well today was a beautiful morning  and the skippers book was extra good so we didn’t leave until 10 o’clock. We figured that we would just enjoy the day. No sooner had we started when I found a posting for a fresh water pearl farm in Lake Kentucky. So with only 13 miles completed we found a great little anchorage put the motor on the dingy and took off to explore Birdsong resort, marina & freshwater peal farm. This marina is nestled in a quite corner surrounded by many little islands about two miles off the main river.  When we arrive there was a gentleman sitting on a golf cart and we asked him to tell us where the pearl farm and exhibit was. The gentleman was Bob Keast the owner. Once again southern hospitality abounds. Though we weren't staying at the marina he had his marina manager come pick us up, take us to the marina office, gave us a courtesy car, and introduce us to Judy. Judy was a gem or the pearl of the visit. She spent about an hour sharing about pearl fishing and the history of Birdsong pearl farm. 

The story goes that the wealthy John Latendresse met the daughter of a Japanese pearl farmer made her his wife and brought her home to Tennessee. When she saw the country she told him that she could cultivate pearls here. They established eight pilot sites looking for the right location. All failed but one only miles from Johns home. So in 1979 the farm was established. in 1984 John and his wife Chessie harvested there first pearls and the home of North America’s only freshwater pearl farm was established

Mussels found in the Tennessee River have a thicker shell. Nuclei for seeding cultured pearls are created from the mollusk shell making the finished product nacre through out. 

Diver Collecting Mussels

Tennessee annually exports in excess of 50 million tons of mussel shells to foreign countries for their cultured pearl seed collection. Pearls from all over the world wether grown in Tennessee or not originate from Tennessee mussel shell.

Mussel Cage 

I hope I have this right. Live mussels are implanted with nuciel into the membrane of the mollusk shell. Over the incubation period 4-7 years nacre continues to coat the implant. This will create a dome pearl, a mother of pearl and pearl combination. 

Boat with mussel catchers 

This was so interesting. Mussel farmers would drag theses nets (metal rigging)  along the bottom. As the tines would touch the mussels they would close on them and the farmers would harvest the mussels. 

What can I say. It doesn’t look like much but it was fascinating! 

Pearl Farm 

We have been spending most  evenings in a cove away from lights enjoying the stars.The weather has been perfect, cool at night warm in the day.  We usually wake about 07:00 but surprisingly have been sleeping in till 08:00 because of the cool air and great sleeps. Mornings have been heavy with fog. One morning it took until 10 for us to see a 100' so we have been waiting for it to lift over breakfast & coffee

Sunset on the Tennessee

We Know Better But...

Today the plan was to travel to a small island just north of the Pickwick Landing lock & dam but when we arrived it was only 15:00 and there were already three boats tucked in. We knew we could make it to the dam about five with a small anchorage on the south side. So off we went. We did make it to the dam by five but waited until 18:45 to lock through. Making our trek to the unknown anchorage a little nerve racking. I just had to take some pictures of the lock at night.