September 2021 – Page 2 – Stark Adventures

Day 184- Football in enemy territory

September 19, 2021September 20, 2021karenstark

Sunday September 19, 2021.
Temp: 76/68, Humidity: 85/100%, Top Wind: E8 mph, Precip: Yep! rain, Miles Traveled: none

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When it comes to the NFL, I am first a Seahawks fan. After all, we are Pacific Northwest natives. Today we’re sitting in Tennessee, just 30 miles from the Tennessee Titans stadium in Nashville. So althought the Titans are playing the Seahawks in Seattle today, I thought it best to wear my number two team shirt today… Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 😉

It’s been sprinkly rain most of the day, so we’ve hung out at home all day. We’ve been studying marinas both in Florida and in Washington, trying to figure out what to do with Island Girl when we’re done with the Loop. Our spot in Sarasota is no longer available, so we need a place near home for a few months. We have a couple of quotes (cough, cough, choke, choke) for shipping her to Puget Sound. Yikes. Not for the faint of heart or wallet. But – it is still cheaper than selling her and buying another (likely bigger) boat, right?

Day 183- Barkley & Cumberland

September 18, 2021September 19, 2021karenstark

Saturday September 18, 2021.
Temp: 76/70, Humidity: 85/100%, Top Wind: NE7 mph, Precip: rain for a few hours, Miles Traveled: 70

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🎶 Take the last train to Clarksville / And I’ll meet you at the station / You can be here by four thirty / ‘Cause I’ve made your reservation / Don’t be slow / Oh, no, no, no….. 🎶. Hey, Hey we’re the Monkees! 💁‍♀️. Yep …. showing my age. If you listened to music in the 60’s, you sang along with that, didn’t you?!

Today’s journey was long and wet, humid and warm. We left the State Park marina around 7:30 and headed out to the big lake. The channel in here is well marked and deep, but it is sqiggly, because it follows an old stream route for the deepest water. We kept watching the weather, and it looked like the thunderstorms were going to stay south of us. Except one big problem. We were headed south. 😳 The clouds were a little threatening, but the forecast didn’t look terrible.

Day 182- Wet day on Lake Barkley

September 17, 2021September 18, 2021karenstark

Friday September 17, 2021.
Temp: 76/67, Humidity: 91/100%, Top Wind: E6 mph, Precip: rainy off & on all day, Miles Traveled: 29

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Yeah – look again at that humidity. 🥵. We knew it was going to rain this morning until about 10:00, then maybe give us a little break, so we took our time getting ready to go. We weren’t going far… only a few hours of travel. And since we’re going to have lots of opportunities to get rained on this week, we took the covers off of the front windows during a lull in the rain. Along with that, made some other preparations for the possibility of driving from downstairs. We cleared out the helm and got out our raincoats. and got Baby Gladys out, charged, and hooked up. That’s our old little iPad that didn’t have enough memory for Navionics, so got replaced by Big Gladys. But – it still has Garmin Helm on it, which is an app that transmits through wifi exactly what is on the upstairs Garmin. Pretty sweet. So Captain can sit at the downstairs helm and view the upstairs Garmin that has the AIS and radar integrated in its display.

Day 180 & 181 More days at Green Turtle

September 16, 2021September 17, 2021karenstark

Wednesday September 15, 2021.
Temp: 86/73, Humidity: 57/92%, Top Wind: SW8 mph, Precip: mostly cloudy, Miles Traveled: none

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This morning I went to the spa for an hour long massage. AHHHH! How nice! I like deep tissue massage, and the therapist always seems to find all kinds of sore muscles! In the last few months, I’ve had two bum shoulders at different times, and a rib stabbing me for awhile. I will certainly feel better now! And then, guess what?! I got my Costa Rica book! Book #2 arrived! So I called Alton marina and left them a message that they can open the package that came for me there, and offer the book to anybody who wants it. Now I get to start planning a future trip 😁 in my spare time…. Captain says I can’t stop working on the one we’re in the middle of!

Day 178 &179- Green Turtle Bay

September 14, 2021September 15, 2021karenstark

Monday September 13, 2021.
Temp: 87/69, Humidity: 55/93%, Top Wind: S7 mph, Precip: None- hazy & sunny, Miles Traveled: none – but we’re at 4200 exactly for the whole trip so far.

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This was not an exciting day, but Kenny did change the oil. He’s using Amsoil, and had it delivered to Alton marina, so we’ve had it for about a week. He was going to do the project there, but decided to wait a few more hours and change the oil here. We have 479 hours total on this trip, and 245 hours since the last oil change back on the Hudson River at Shady Harbor in June. There is a boat yard here so it’s an easy place to dispose of the old oil. No pictures of that event. I hung around to be a tool helper, and when he was done, I went to see the turtles. There is a spot where the marina has official marine animal food that you can feed the turtles. I didn’t feed them, but they were looking at me like I should be! Their lil noggins were all sticking up giving me the look!

Day 177- On to the Cumberland

September 12, 2021September 17, 2021karenstark

Sunday September 12, 2021.
Temp: 84/66, Humidity: 54/90%, Top Wind: SW7 mph, Precip: None- hazy & sunny, Miles Traveled: 45, Number of locks: 1 with about a 50’ lift (Goin UP now)

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I’ve never lived someplace where the bugs pop out of the water over night and take over the world. But it happens! Would you look at this?! Mayflies! Bug-pocolypse. The Entomological Society says mayflies live most of their lives on the water bottom living on algae and decomposing matter. They finally get wings, fly out of the water, molt one last time, mate, lay eggs, and die in a matter of days. It’s called a Mayfly bloom. Not pretty.

Day 176-Out around Paducah

September 11, 2021September 13, 2021karenstark

Saturday September 11, 2021.
Temp: 84/64, Humidity: 49/83%, Top Wind: SW9 mph, Precip: None- hazy & sunny, Miles Traveled: a few on foot
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It was a rocky rolly night on the outside of the dock in Paducah. We both woke up several times as tows went by and rolled us. Oh well, we’re just thankful there is a marina here! It was just opened in 2017. Prior to that, it was nearly 300 miles between marinas, coming down from Alton to Grand Rivers, which meant at least three nights at anchor. This cuts off about 45 miles, which doesn’t seem like much, but it is the difference of a day on the marina-less journey! And they have fuel here, so for gas powered boats or boats with less than 300 miles capability, it matters!
This is the marina. Notice how tall the pilings are?

Day 175- Hello Kentucky!!

September 10, 2021September 12, 2021karenstark

Thursday September 10, 2021.
Temp: 83/53, Humidity: 34/100%, Top Wind: S19 mph, Precip: None- FOOOGGG!! then sunny, Miles Traveled: 54 in 7 hours, Number of Locks: 1, raised (Going UP River now) 10’
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I got up before the sun and looked outside. Just a bit of fog rising from the warm water. I received this nice photo of our Girl’s booty from Legacy, who was anchored behind us.

Day 174-Rollin down da riva – 111 miles

September 9, 2021September 13, 2021karenstark

Thursday September 9, 2021.
Temp: 80/54, Humidity: 39/94%, Top Wind: gust N14 mph, Precip: None- sunny, Miles Traveled: 111 in 8.5 hours 🚤,

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A LONG day. Yes, it was. It started out with the obnoxious sound of an alarm clock. It was barely getting light outside, but our plan was to get moving for our long day down the Mississippi. One nice thing about being tied up to a wall with no power. It makes for a really quick getaway in the morning! Just wipe down the windows, untie the lines and peel out! We don’t even make coffee until we’re under way, so it’s a little easier on the batteries. It was very peaceful and pretty outside this morning, and only about 55 degrees. We put on our fuzzies, and stealthily tootled away, leaving the other two boats to wonder what happened to us.

Day 173-Toasty at Kaskaskia Lock

September 8, 2021September 9, 2021karenstark

Wednesday September 8, 2021.
Temp: 83/64, Humidity: 33/91%, Top Wind: NW13 mph, Precip: None- sunny, Miles Traveled: 84 in less than 7.5 hours 🚤, Number of locks: 2, total drop of maybe 12’?… should be more like 35!

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As planned, the annoying sound of my alarm went off at 5:45. I wasn’t ready for that. 😴. But, up and attum and get with the program. Start the coffee. Check Amazon and see if my book came. Nope. Take the key to the drop box. Come back and go upstairs to open the windows. Check the Lock queue to see if there’s anybody there. Nope. Finish coffee. Unplug, get lines ready to go. Call the lock. He says ‘call me when you’re out of the marina’. Untie, back out, tootle out, call the lock again. He says ‘come on!’. Sweet! All of that before the sunshine even showed his pretty face!