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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Magnificent Views of Great Smokey Mountains |
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| 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.
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| 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....
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