Sunday, September 26, 2021.
Temp: 79/48, Humidity: 35/99%, Top Wind: S5 mph, Precip: a little morning rain, Miles Traveled: 64
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Do you remember being a little kid (or maybe a teenager) and telling your mom that you’re too sick to get up and go to school? Yeah – that’s kind of the story I get every once in awhile from the crew here. But today, it was a little more pre-school in nature, after playing peek-a-boo on the video chat with our toddler grandbabies the other day. I got up and checked the weather and found out that it was cold and damp with a little bit of fog/steam rising from the water. I went down to tell the Captain that it was time to get up, and all I found was covers completely pulled up with a big lump in the bed and a small quiet voice that said “you can’t see me”. 🙈 Where Gwampa? “He not here”. Oh dear. 🤦♀️
I went upstairs to the fly bridge with a dock pole and kind of poked around under the helm to make sure we didn’t have a stowaway. Then I swabbed the windows and got ready for departure. Fortunately, somebody in the transporter room must have beemed the Captain in, because he was here now and getting ready to go as well. As has been our mode lately, we pulled away from the dock around 7:15 and were on our merry way.
The channel into the marina cove isn’t very long, so we were out on the big lake in no time. There was a bit of fog rising from the water, but it seemed to be rising and dissipating, which was good news. It was really a pretty fall morning, and a little chilly, but actually not as bad as yesterday. We kept the windows open and it wasn’t uncomfortable. The tiny little whisper breeze was following us, so that helped.
After about 22 miles of going with the current down Lake Barkley, we turned left just before Grand Rivers and the Green Turtle Bay Resort & Marina. We passed three other looper boats that had just left Green Turtle, and they were all headed up the Cumberland to Nashville. We turned left and took the cut between the lakes, and were fighting a pretty good 2mph current against us that was flowing from the Tennessee River to the Cumberland River. (Or maybe Kentucky Lake to Lake Barkley?). Then turned left again, and now we were going south on the Tennessee River/Kentucky Lake. We were happy to see that we were only fighting about a half mile per hour current on this lake. It is much wider, so maybe that’s why.
I thought I cleaned up after Rocky Racoon, but I found a few more foot prints that he left behind for us.
After another 44 miles, we arrived at our destination – Paris Landing State Park Marina. While we were traveling south, the little breeze was in our face, so we wore our jackets all day. When we slowed down and turned west to go into the marina, we got WARM! It was really a nice afternoon, with low humidity and comfortable temperature!
The Coast Guard has a station here, and big piles of navigation markers!
We got all settled in and decided to go into the store/Marker 66 restaurant for dinner. We’re staying here two nights, but the restaurant won’t be open tomorrow. I had pulled pork tacos and Kenny had fried catfish…. and a Bloody Mary. Holy Smokes! That was a meal all in itself!! The staff are incredibly friendly here and it is a nice place to be. It’s like night and day better than the Prizer Point KOA – wow! PLUS, we filled our fuel tanks – diesel is $3.09 here which is the least expensive anywhere in the lakes. Shoot- it’s $3.79 at Green Turtle, where everybody seems to fuel up. We got 160 gallons…. that’s a savings of $112 for coming down the lake 43 miles. On top of that, it’s only $.80/foot/night including power. THAT is the least expensive we’ve seen since…I don’t know when!! ☺️
The green/yellow line was our route today. I drew in the blue that shows where we came from yesterday…. and the little purple line at the bottom that would have been nice to do if we could go on the highway and save about 100 miles! The yellow line shows that we went fast for about ten minutes, just to give the engines a chance to stretch out. It’s been at least 50 hours since they’ve zoomed.
We’ll just be hanging out here tomorrow with no agenda. It might be breezy from the south, so we’ll just chill. It’s cheap and a nice place, so why not?
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Monday, September 27, 2021.
Temp: 83/57, Humidity: 47/95%, Top Wind: SW10 mph, Precip: NONE!, Miles Traveled: none
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This was just a relaxing day with no place to go and nobody else around. So we did some research about shipping Island Girl to Washington, and research about where to dock her when we get home. I also talked to my friend April about places they like to stop and stay in the Florida panhandle since we’ll be there in a couple of weeks. We read a posting on the AGLCA forun about the limited availability at marinas on the way down the TennTom waterway. It is the same that we’ve encountered this whole year long…. marinas have way less transient availability due to so many more long term lessees. Everybody bought boats during Covid! It’s good for the marinas, but makes it tough on us travelers. I’m glad we’re traveling ahead of “the pack”!
Here’s the captain in his spot. At least we have some wi-fi here, so he can do research in his office. And yes…. we popped out some mimosas today, and had bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns for breakfast! Stay home days are nice. 😊
In the late afternoon I took a little walk around the Paris Landing State Park. It is HUGE, with a marina, camping, cabins, golf course, new lodge being built, swimming pool…. I didn’t walk all of it. This is just a piece of the marina where we are.
This new big lodge is under construction and is supposed to open in 2021…?
I wonder what it will look like when it’s done.
The white area near my blue dot is where the lodge is being built. To the right of me is where the pool is. There is a bridge over Hwy 79, which is a good thing, because it is a four land divided busy highway. I think the marina needs to have golf carts available for tootling around the property!
The evening sun was casting a really pretty golden glow on my way back to fix pork tenderloin in the InstantPot. 😋
This marker is at the marina. The bottom cross piece says Summer Pool, and we are quite a bit below that right now. The top cross piece says TOP OF DAM. I found this info about the Kentucky Lake levels. We are already almost at winter pool at 355’ which is an elevation reference above sea level; it is how all of the lakes are measured.
From the TVA Kentucky Lake Operating Guide:
* Summer Pool 359.0′: May 1 – July 4
* Winter Pool 354.0′: December 1 – March 31
* Kentucky Lake Record High: 372.49′- 5/04/2011
* Kentucky Lake current level: 355.0’
So this explains why the river current was running so hard. With all of the rain that we had, there is more water, but the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) wants to maintain certain levels in the various pools above the various dams. So the pool above the Cheatham lock that we were in at Nashville didn’t change much in elevation, but there was a lot of water running through the dam to keep the water level static. As the volume of water diminishes, the spillways let out less water to maintain the desired elevation. AND, I learned that we can look on a TVA website to see what the discharge amounts (cubic feet per second) currently are and what they are projected to be for the next few days. So that means that if it’s going to be Niagara Falls for a few days, maybe we just want to sit and wait instead of fighting the current. Well – we’re almost done going up stream, but it’s still a good little mini science lesson for us. And I discovered that at our next lock upstream on the Tennessee River, (the Pickwick Lock) they’ve been discharging at a rate of 111,000 cf/s yesterday, but predicting to be down to 52,610 on the 29th. That’s good! We’re planning to go through that lock on the 30th and would rather not swim upstream through whitewater rapids.
This afternoon we were pleasantly surprised to see some familiar friendly faces. Our friends Dick & Louise on their catamaran boat Nine Lives pulled in next to us. We first met them in North Carolina in the spring of 2018. They live in Hilton Head SC, and graciously invited us to come stay at their yacht club this year when we were there, and they had us over to their home for dinner. They are very nice people. They are still on their first loop. They usually spend about 3-4 months a year on their boat, and extensively explore what ever section they are in. Then they’ll park the boat at a safe and trustworthy marina for 8 months, and come back next year to explore the next section. Everybody does this adventure in a different way, and they have a fantastic time exploring every section in depth. Not a bad way to do it!
We only visited for a bit when they first pulled in, but long enough to learn that they have the same itinerary as us for the next three days. They said there were SOOOO many looper boats back in Green Turtle – over 25!, and it was nice to not be traveling in such a large crowd now. We’re the only ones here!
Only 50 miles to go tomorrow, but the temperature is forecasted to be 86* and SW wind (in our face) of 5mph. We’ll putt out at our normal time and try not to sweat too much. It is surprising that we’ll be hopping into October in just a few days, and it’s supposed to be in the 80’s all week.