Rain....Rain....Rain....Staying Dry at Goose Pond Marina (9/22-9/26, 2018)

We left Hales Bar Marina on Saturday morning at 9:30 and we have a 53 mile ride to reach our next destination, Goose Pond Marina on Lake Guntersville.  Within 6 miles of leaving Hales Bar Marina, we reach our only lock for the day, Nickajack Dam.  We call the Lockmaster and within 15 minutes, we are inside the Lock.  Another boat behind us calls the Lockmaster and lets him know they also need to go downstream through the lock so we wait for at least 15 minutes for the other boat to reach Nickajack Lock so we can start our 40' drop into Lake Guntersville.  

You can certainly tell it is a Saturday because there are fishing boats everywhere.  The clouds from yesterday's rain have lifted and the skies are bright blue.  The mountains are so beautiful and on both sides of the river, the view is absolutely amazing.  Within an hour of getting thru Nickajack Lock, we leave Tennessee and go into Alabama.  

This 1,000 foot power plant is TVA's Widow Creek power plant and is one of the tallest structures in the Tennessee Valley region.   It is a beautiful sight to see on the river.

TVA Widow Creek Power Plant

We then see a CSX Railroad bridge -- and as luck would have it, a train comes across the bridge as we approach the bridge on the River.  It was a very cool sight to see -- and the train Conductor blew his horn at us as we stopped to watch the train go over the train tracks.

CSX Railway Over Tennessee River

We then travel another 34 miles on Lake Guntersville to our next marina and by 3:20 Saturday afternoon, we arrive at Goose Pond Marina.  The farther we get away from Chattanooga, the shorter the mountains get, but they are still very impressive and are on both sides of the river.

Gene and I are having the best time of our lives on this 8-week trip along the Tennessee River.  We like to kid each other and make each other laugh -- I took a picture of him who was taking a picture of me!!

Kathy Taking a Picture of Gene Taking a Picture.....

As we always do, we keep checking the weather to see if we need to stay an extra day or more because of heavy rain.  We can certainly handle rain showers, but torrential rain is something we want to avoid - especially since we are not on a deadline.  The weather forecast starting Sunday was for heavy rains in SW Tennessee and northern Alabama -- exactly where we are located and where we are going.  So we decide to stay here at this marina where we are in a covered slip to see what happens with the heavy rains.  It is now Wednesday afternoon, and it has rained non-stop for 2 days with over 3.5 inches of rain on Guntersville Lake in Scottsboro, AL.  The saving grace we have at this marina is that we have a friend that has a boat here and he has graciously offered his car to us to run errands, go to the grocery and do laundry.  We've spent a lot of time cleaning, decluttering, and rearranging things inside the boat and also our boat cleaning supplies.  We have had a lot of time on our hands to get things done.  I've even cooked up a few things for us to eat over the next few days.

Also in the Scottsboro, AL area is an Unclaimed Baggage Center where this store buys unclaimed baggage from airlines.  There is everything from luggage, laptops, ipads, clothes, shoes, jewelry....anything you can think of that someone may have packed in their luggage is sold in this store.  This store is kinda overwhelming, and you'd need a lot of time to sift through things to find something you may need.  It is a store you could visit every day since they have thousands of items arriving daily.  We spent about 2 hours looking around and Gene found a couple of things he "needed".

On Sunday afternoon, the ominous clouds are forming at Goose Pond Marina near sunset -- lots of rain is on its way.

 And this is the full moon coming up over the river on Tuesday night after we had returned from dinner.  Within 15 minutes the clouds had covered the moon and hard rain had set in for the night and all day on Wednesday.  We had more than 3" of rain today so we stayed put in a covered slip.

We are hoping the heavy rains will slow down enough for us to leave Goose Pond Marina on Thursday and head to Ditto Marina in Huntsville for the night.  Once we arrive in Huntsville, we will be half way home.

We are ready to get going again.


Love my Captain....Love Cloud Nine....

Chicakmagua Marina to Hales Bar Marina (9/21/2018)

We left Chickamauga Marina at 10:15AM and will have 1 lock to pass through today on our way to Hales Bar Marina - a 40 mile trip.  Hales Bar Marina is about 20 miles south of Chattanooga by road and it is 35 miles south of Chattanooga by River.  We would not have minded traveling farther today, but there are no marinas to stop at for another 53 miles -- so we will happily stay here.

Chickamauga Lock/Dam is located within 500 yards of the Marina so our first endeavor for this Friday morning is to get through the lock.  I called the Lockmaster as we left the marina no-wake zone letting him know we were arriving and needed to lock through going downstream.  When we arrived at the lock, he started opening the doors -- now that is service.  Luckily we already had the bumpers on the boat to protect us from nudging the sides of the lock (they are very dirty and made of concrete and we don't want to scratch Cloud Nine).  Within 10 minutes, we had been lowered 48' and ready to cruise down Nickajack Lake.

Doors inside Lock Close with waterfall on back wall

Doors Opening as we are lowered 48 feet

Doors Open -- See Railroad Bridge in the distance

Train on Railroad Bridge right as we leave Lock

After we leave the lock, we look at our GPS and with Cloud Nine in neutral, the water current is moving us 4.92 MPH.  Look at the top number on the right side of the picture below.  The water temperature is 80.88 degrees, depth is 14 feet and the time is 10:49AM.  See picture of our boat also in the picture.  This GPS is our "lifeline".

Screenshot of our GPS showing speed, water temp, depth and time

Within 7 miles (or at 11:15), we arrive in downtown Chattanooga.  We take a few parting pictures and keep heading downstream.

Downtown Chattanooga Riverfront and its 3 Bridges

Aquarium at Riverfront in Downtown Chattanooga

As we leave downtown Chattanooga, the scenery is nothing but mountains, Signal Mountain, Lookout Mountain, Racoon Mountain, etc, etc.  Mountains everywhere....

Interstate 24 with start of rock formations and mountains

Now beautiful blue skies and mountain ranges everywhere.  Signal Mountain, Racoon Mountain, and Lookout Mountain.  Mountains for as far as you can see.  Mountains in front of us....and mountains behind us!!

Also after we leave Chattanooga, the clouds are gone and it is blue skies for as far as you can see.  This is a house along the way that we fell in love with.  The landscaping, back deck, spiral stairs, and yard was just beautiful.

 Within an hour of beautiful blue skies, we could see storms headed our way.  Luckily we were within sight of our marina for the night.  We made it into the marina, got fuel and we could see the rain shelf coming quickly toward us.  We quickly got on board, left the fuel island and headed for our covered slip for the night......ahhhh we had dodged another storm.  This one lasted for over an hour so we are so glad we got under cover before we got drenched.  Where we are is the blue dot and the huge storm is right over us.

 This is a view from our bedroom window in the rain!!

Rain and clouds make for a gorgeous sunset -- and that's exactly what we saw tonight.

  

God is good.....

Tomorrow we will head to Lake Guntersville which will be a 53 mile ride.  Hopefully we can dodge rain another day....  

Good Night and Sweet dreams from Gene, Kathy and Cloud Nine at Hales Bar Marina.

Love my Captain....Love Cloud Nine.....

Chattanooga's Chicamauga Marina -- Spa Days for Cloud Nine (9/18-20/2018)

Tuesday, September 18 the rain has passed and it is supposed to shape up to be a beautiful day.  After the rains on Monday, there is a lot of fog on Tuesday morning, so we will need to wait until the fog lifts so we can see the water.  By 9AM, the fog has lifted enough for us to shove off with Chickamauga Marina near Chattanooga our next destination.  We have scheduled a spa day for Cloud Nine that she so deserves for taking such good care of us on our excursion up and down the Tennessee River.

As we leave the marina, the fog has lifted enough for us to start our journey.  There are some gorgeous pictures of sailboats at the marina.

Fog lifting from Sailboats

Fog lifting from the River.

We have the river all to ourselves.  The water is flat, no wind, no sun yet, but we know it is coming.  Within an hour, we arrive at Watts Bar Lock.  We will be lowered 59 feet into Chickamauga Lake.  It only takes us 25 minutes to get in and out of the lock.

Doors start to open as we are ready to exit the Lock

Doors are open and we are ready to leave the Lock

We just love Watts Bar Lake, the water is clean and clear --- and the houses are very nice but not huge and look like they are built into the hillsides -- like they belong there.

We once again see Watts Bar Nuclear Plant.  With the skies so blue and soft fluffy clouds, the smokestack from the Nuclear Plant just blend into and look like clouds in the sky.

Watts Bar Nuclear Plant -- the smokestack looks like Clouds in the Sky

Now that the sun has come out and there is no wind, the light clouds and tree leaves are reflecting in the water and making a beautiful view for us.

See the reflection of clouds and trees in the water.  Just amazing

We are within 30 minutes of our destination, we see the funniest thing ….. a small "work boat" pushing a dock!!  By this time, the winds have picked up and the clouds are looking like rain....something this boat driver wasn't anticipating I'm sure.

An entire Dock being pushed down the Tennessee River.....a Unique Siting for Sure

Another fun-fact of the day is that we see the US Coastguard boat working the River putting out new River Channel Markers.

We arrive at Chickamauga Marina at 3:15PM and get settled in.  Cloud Nine is "ON Cloud Nine" knowing she is getting a "spa day" with an oil change, a tune up and a nice bubble bath.  She will be purring like a kitty after her pampering here.  Erwin Service is a well-known and exceptional Sea Ray service dealer so we are excited they will be taking care of Cloud Nine.  Gene was hoping we could go to Wally World, but we settled on Sea Ray World instead...Cloud Nine is "over-the-moon" happy we settled on Sea Ray World!!

About Sunset, Gene and I take a walk around the marina and see this "wall of electric meters".  Here is a picture of the electric meters for resident boats at Chickamauga Marina.  We've never seen this many electric meters in one place before!!

And Gene is such a fan of Sea Ray and Erwin being a premier Sea Ray dealer, he just had to have his picture taken here.  He could likely go back into the workforce if Sea Ray would hire him to sit on boats and maybe even sell one once in a while!!

And we cant end a night without taking a sunset picture or two.  Sunsets in the fall are so colorful and gorgeous.

Sunset overlooking Power Lines to Chickamauga Dam

There are more Sea Ray model boats at this marina than any other marina we have been in.  Gene is truly in Sea Ray Heaven.....

This is the largest Sea Ray boat at this marina -- and the largest one we have seen in person.  It is a 2018 Fly Bridge 55' plus swim platform boat that was bought in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and had a Sea Captain drive it to this marina.  It took 9 days on the water to come up the west coast of Florida, to Mobile, up the Tennessee Tom Bigbee River and then to Chickamauga Marina....and oh yes, the fuel bill was $12K. A boat of this size/type costs in the $1.8M range.

Friday morning we will leave this marina, pass through downtown Chattanooga and stop at Hales Bar Marina Friday afternoon -for the night - a 40-mile ride.

It should be a great travel day and we are looking forward to getting back to traveling on the water after Cloud Nine's spa day.

Love my Captain.....Love Cloud Nine.....

Ft. Loudon Marina to Blue Springs Marina (9/14-18, 2018)

As we start our descent down the Tennessee River toward home, we are really just going back the same way we came up the River, but the scenery looks different and there are things we didn’t see coming up the river!!  So the trip is still gona be AWESOME!!  We had 55 miles to travel to our next destination, Blue Springs Marina on Watts Bar Lake.

We haven’t seen TV in almost 2 months, but we do keep up with the weather continuously.  With Hurricane Florence slowing down as it reached land also slowed us down.  We found a great covered slip in Blue Springs Marina on Watts Bar Lake so we stayed here for 4 days.

Our first order of business once we left the marina last Friday was to lock through Ft. Loudoun Dam.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day, bright blue skies, light winds and 75 degrees….a gorgeous day for a ride aboard Cloud Nine….and she was ready for the trip.  As we are now going downstream, we are going “with the current or downhill” meaning it is a much easier ride for both us and Cloud Nine.  We will gain speed without using as much gas as we did getting here a few weeks ago.  We call the Lockmaster to make sure there will be no delays as we lock through.  He says the coast is clear so come on down.  We wait about 15 minutes for him to get the lock ready for us and by 9:45AM we are inside the lock ready to be lowered 72 feet.  Within 25 minutes, we are through the lock and on our way.  All 8 locks we will travel through will be a much faster process going “downstream”.  That is because water drains out of the lock much faster going downstream than when you are in a lock and the Lockmaster has to fill the Lock for you to be raised….think of it as a bath tub.  Water drains out of the tub faster than it takes to fill the bath tub up!! 

As we are in the lock, there is debris everywhere.  There are huge trees in there, tree stumps at least 4 feet in diameter, tree limbs and leaves, and even an orange Home Depot bucket!!  There is a lot of debris because the lakes in East Tennessee are releasing water in anticipation of the rain from Hurricane Florence.  Ft. Loudoun Dam was releasing 43,000 cubic feet per second from its dam.  That is a lot of water.  All of their Slues were releasing water and once we got out of the Lock, the current was phenomenal and the debris was following us downstream!!  We had Cloud Nine in “neutral” and we were still moving at 5 MPH – and we typically travel at 10 MPH so we were going to make great time without using a lot of gas!!

If you remember the picture below owe posted n our way up about 3 weeks ago, we see a hillside in Kingston, TN area that has a big “T” cut into the grass as they are UT fans!!  As we pass today, they are mowing and updating the shape of the “T”.  Since it was a Friday, guess he was freshening up the shape for the UT Football fans that will be passing through on the Tennessee River for the football game!! 

 

Mowing the "T" for other Vol Fans to enjoy in Kingston, TN on River

Perfect Day for a Boat Ride Aboard Cloud Nine

Our trip was absolutely gorgeous and we knew this would be the last perfect weather day for at least 5 days so we took in all the sights and beauty Watts Bar Lake had to offer.  We arrive at Blue Springs Marina about 4PM.  After we fill up with gas, we find our covered slip where we will stay for the next 4 nights waiting for the rains to pass through.  Like we have encountered in every stop, the locals on the dock we will be staying at welcome us with open arms, help us get tied up, ask where we are from, where we are going, etc.  We are actually 2 slips down from the Marina owner and we have a great conversation with them.  After a nice dinner at the marina restaurant, we come back to the boat and mingle with the locals.  I promise you, boaters are THE BEST.  They love to hear your stories and tell you their stories.  That is the most precious part of our travels.  The boater community will offer anything you need and will take you anywhere you need to go.  

Blue Springs Marina on Watts Bar Lake

Silo in middle of our Dock.  It was there before it was flooded to make Watts Bar Lake

Picture of Sailboats in the Marina at Sunset - View from our Boat

Saturday is SEC game day – or better stated up here, it is just UT Football game day!!  The UT football game starts at 1 PM Eastern time and these folks are up by daybreak getting snacks, BBQ, beer on ice, bottle water, a Keg, ready for kickoff.  There are at least 60 people on the dock and a big screen TV set up.  They are dressed in UT Orange from head to toe and ready for the game.  Their tradition is to play the Rocky Top theme song at the start of the game and you immediately see everyone put their “game faces” on.  It was so much fun to spend the entire afternoon with these folks.  They also had a 2^nd reason to celebrate as one of the family’s son graduated from US Coastguard boot camp – so there was not a lack of celebrating, smiles and laughter going on all afternoon and into the night.  

UT Football Dock Party!!

We got to spend a lot of time talking with a couple of boaters on this dock that like to travel too.  Two of the boats take a trip each winter and spend at least 4-5 months in the southern breezes of “somewhere in Florida”.  Last year they took their boats to Orange Beach, Florida (panhandle of Florida).  They would travel back and forth 7-8 times between October and April spending time on their boat in Orange Beach and some time at their homes in the Knoxville area.  We were intrigued with that plan so that may become our 2019 Bucket List Destination!!

Beautiful 47' Grand Banks Boat that Traveled to Orange Beach. FL last Winter

Sunday was a quiet day for everyone on the dock.  It was cloudy but still not raining.  It was a day for us to wash Cloud Nine, vacuum, clean up the living area (which is the entire boat!) and do laundry.  To top the day off, we had a visit from our dear friends from our previous marina we had spent 13 years, Center Hill Marina.  Terry and Susan Colson live in Cookeville, TN and drove 1-1/2 hours to see us at Blue Springs Marina in eastern Tennessee.  We had an amazing visit for about 4 hours and we took them for a ride on the river.  They were amazed at all the beautiful houses and boat docks on the river.  We were so excited to see them and grateful they made the trip to come visit with us.

Our Good Friends, Terry and Susan Colson Come to Visit us at Blue Springs Marina

Monday was the rainy day at the marina.  It rained most of the day but was to move out by Monday night.  It did, but Tuesday morning was very foggy which burned off by 9AM so we loaded everything up and headed to our next destination, Chickamauga Lake.

Love my Captain……Love Cloud Nine

Bitter Sweet Volunteer Cove to Tellica Marina - 9/11-12, 2018

It was a bitter-sweet day -- the day we say goodbye to the good friends we made at Volunteer Cove in Knoxville (we stayed at this marina 13 days), and also say goodbye to our "bucket list" dream we completed, but time to see a highly recommended lake just north of Fort Loudoun Marina, Lake Tellico on the Little Tennessee River.

We leave Volunteer Cove at 10:30AM and start our 600+ mile journey toward "home" and back down the Tennessee River.  We have heard so much about Lake Tellico, we will spend 2-3 days here exploring this lake.  We go about 30 miles on the Tennessee River and right before we reach Fort Loudoun Lock/Dam, we "turn left" into the Little Tennessee River/Tellico Lake.  This River begins at the Great Smokey Mountains -- the water is deep and at least 15-20 degrees colder than the Tennessee River, and it's crystal clear.

We love to walk the docks at marinas and look at the boats and decorations.  Gene found at least one that "fit him to a tee"...

WOW is all we can say.  This lake is absolutely the most beautiful lake we have ever seen. The River is wide and deep and simply gorgeous.  We will stay at Tellico Marina which is 20 miles up the river which will take us about 2 hours to complete.  The houses are huge (they make the big and gorgeous houses on Pickwick Lake look small).  I'm not sure who owns these houses, but they are HUGE.  Most of the houses are clustered on one side of the lake making it appear they are in subdivisions.  The other side of the lake is totally untouched and covered in trees that drape onto and "kiss" the water.

We also see evidence that this area was once farmland before it was flooded since there are silos sticking out of the water.  The Tellico Lake area is becoming increasingly popular with people from northern states that choose  to retire in this area because of the water, mountains, moderate climate and nearby Knoxville.  These folks from the north are known as "half-backs" to the locals here because they are from the north, retire and move south (like to Florida).  Family doesn't come to visit and the climate is too hot so they move "half way back" which is in the Lake Tellico area.

Silos from an old barn in middle of River

About an hour into Lake Tellico, we see the MasterCraft plant -- which is a spectacular wakeboard boat manufacturer.  Also in the greater Knoxville area is the Sea Ray dealer (Cloud Nine's birthplace on April 6, 2005) and also Malibu (another wakeboard manufacturer).  There is so much water in the Knoxville area, we understand why there are so many boat manufacturers here.

 As we approach the marina, there are no channel markers and our Garmin GPS system says the water is 0-9 feet deep; however, our depth chart shows we are in water up to 35 feet deep.  The channel was marked well and we made it into the marina at 4PM.  The restaurant isn't open on Tuesday so we have a nice meal aboard Cloud Nine, take sunset pictures, roam all the docks looking at boats here and call it a night.

Blue Lights at Restaurant for Boats to Dock for Dinner -- Nice Affect

Wednesday morning we get ready to explore the upper end of Lake Tellico and find our way to the beginning of the Great Smokey Mountains.  We take a left out of the marina and head toward the Mountains.  For the next nine miles, we are in the Cherokee National Forest.  The views of the Great Smokey Mountains lived up to their name -- they were spectacular to see and the smoke/haze covered the tops of the mountains they were so majestic and tall to witness.  They were truly God's creation at its greatest.  By about 2PM, it looked like the mountain haze was turning to rain......and it did.  But we are getting pretty good at looking at the sky and clouds and deciding if we need to stop and let the storm/rain pass in front of us, or go fast and get in front of the storm.  We decided to stop and let the rain pass in front of us.  We didn't mind because we could stop and take in all the beauty of this lake.  When we see the rain has passed, we head back to the marina about 5PM.  You know you're in a great marina when you get close to docking Cloud Nine and the restaurant Chef comes out to help tie us up and the restaurant owner, hollers to another boat in our slip and tells them to move!!  This was truly a magnificent day.

Magnificent Views of Great Smokey Mountains

Rock Formations created millions of years ago at Great Smokey Mountains

We have a wonderful dinner at the marina restaurant (steak for Gene and chicken for me), talk with the locals, then we take some unbelievable sunset pictures.  This day could not have been more perfect.

Look at the reflection of the clouds in the flat and clear water.  Incredible sunsets here

Tomorrow/Thursday, we will leave here and travel to Ft. Loudoun Marina for the night.  From there, we will start our journey back home.  We are watching Hurricane Florence closely as it seems to be changing its course slightly when it gets on land in North and South Carolina.  Looks like the eastern part of Tennessee (Chattanooga and Knoxville), might see a lot of rain so we will want to be nestled in a covered slip for a few days when that happens.

Love my Captain......Love Cloud Nine....