Port-A-Gee

Wed, Oct, 10 (63.1 miles) Hurricane Michael is threatening the Panhandle, and we are beginning to feel some of the residual effects on Kentucky Lake.  It's very cloudy, muggy, and the barometer is dropping.  We decided to get a early start with the hope of avoiding cruising in the rain.  We left Clifton about 8:45 a.m. and headed downstream on Kentucky Lake.  Locks and Dams are in our rear-view mirror, so we shouldn't encounter any delays.   Hurricane Michael must have sucked up the front, because the clouds gave way to sunshine and another hot day 80+.  Our 63-mile run to Pebble Isle Marina, New Johnsonville, TN (mm 95.6) was delightful.  We passed a crew dredging the lake and noted that the bottom of the river was surprisingly sandy.   At mm 130 we came across Lady Finger Bluff.  Legend has it that in the pioneer days, a lady chose to leap to her death from this bluff rather than be caught by attacking Indians.  We love these ...

Mon, Oct. 8 - Columbus Day! In observance of the national holiday, we decided to enjoy the hospitality of Grand Harbor Marina for another day.  Everyone is soooo nice!  After a lovely breakfast aboard Port-A-Gee Brian did some boat maintenance, and Loral went for a run.  The hills of Alabama have nothing on the mountains of Tennessee/Mississippi!  Cardio/Strength/Endurance training, check, check, check. After doing a couple loads of laundry, we used the courtesy car to visit Shiloh National Military Park.  The magnitude of war fought on US soil is sobering.  Nearly 110,000 American troops clashed in a bloody contest that resulted in 23,746 casualties; more casualties than all of America's previous wars combined.  The soldiers were buried at their place of death on the battlefield and remain to this day.  Most of the grave markers simply stated the soldier's name and state that he represented.  Remarkably, the Midwest was well represented...

Sat., Oct. 6 (56.9 miles) After another restful evening under the stars in Hunstsville, AL, we cast the lines to continue downstream to Joe Wheeler State Park (mm 277). It's yet another summer day - 90+ and sunny. No locks today, so we enjoyed an uneventful float down Wheeler Lake to the State Park that lies just outside of the Wheeler Lock and Dam. JWSP is a beautiful resort that includes camping, cottages, golf, restaurant, and of course the marina with a pool - where we enjoyed cocktails with our Looper friends.  This is our second visit to JWSP, as we attended the Looper Rendezvous in 2016.  We learned a lot that year, and it helped us prepare for the trip.  The 2018 Rendezvous is about to begin Oct 15th, so Loopers are beginning to arrive. We docked next to our new friends, Joe and Sue Frattinger (Fratt House), and met James and Mary Jane from Orilllia, ON aboard Late Harvest (Bayliner 38).  James and Mary Jane began their trip in Canada having completed the ...

10/5/18 -45 miles)  (All refreshed and ready to go! We untied from the dock at Goose Pond to continue our trip downstream to Guntersville.  Another "Summer" day in Alabama - sunny and 90+ - it's really hot! As soon as we hit the channel, we were once again drawn in by the beautiful scenery.  The expanse of water between bluffs and forested hills rising to 600 feet above the lake invited us to look, admire and explore. After 30 miles we arrived at Guntersville Lock and Dam (mm 349).  We radioed the Lockmaster and were informed that a barge was coming up so it will be about an hour wait.  This was the first time we didn't go right in, but we won't complain about an hour's wait.  It was a beautiful day and floating between the bluffs was delightfully serene.  We caught up with Loopers, Skip and Trudy aboard their Cameno Troll and locked through with them. We continued for another 15 miles to Ditto Landing (mm 333.3), Huntsville, AL ...

10/3/18 - (85.6 miles): Still stinging from our Cubbie loss the night before, we pulled ourselves together and got on with our life!!  Another beautiful day, sunny and 80+, what more can we ask for? We untied from the Chattanooga City dock and continued navigating downstream.  At mm 451 we arrived at the beginning of several miles of landscape known as the gorge because of the beautiful scenery that has been carved into the landscape over millions of years. I was delighted as we went under the I-24 bridge (mm 426) because over the past 30 years on many trips to South Carolina and Florida, I've looked out the car window and thought, "how cool would it be to be in a boat down there!"  Yep, definitely cool and beautiful beyond words. At mm 424.7 we arrived at the Nickajack Lock and again, the Lock Gods were on our side.  We went right in and dropped down another 40 feet without incident.  We continued downstream for another 47 miles to Goose Pond Colony Marin...

10/1/18 - (74.6 miles)  We enjoyed a restful night at Blue Spring Resort and Marina and were anxious to begin the next leg of our adventure.  We untied and ventured out on yet another gorgeous day, sunny & 80+. It was our longest day yet, 75 miles, brought us just outside of the Chickamauga Lock and Dam (mm 471).  Despite careful planning, we discovered that the Chickamauga Marina was not accepting transient boaters, so we had to scramble to find another harbor with daylight slipping away. Active Captain pointed us to Lakeshore Marina in Chattanooga, TN.  It was a small, kind of rough place - plus paid the most for overnight ever!  The people were very nice, and we were grateful for the power and water. We took advantage of a slow start because we were only traveling 12 miles to Chattanooga.  First, we locked through Chickamauga, dropping another 50 feet to Nickajack lake. After locking through, we tied up at the Chattanooga city dock, on the river,...

This is the day the Lord has made - another "summer" day in Tennessee! We began our day tagging along with our new friends from Blue Springs Marina in the Ft. Loudoun Lock.  The 3 boats fit easily in the 360 x 60 chamber, as we dropped a whopping 60 feet to Watts Bar Lake. While the scenary up to this point has be stunning, the truely breath-taking landscape was ahead of us.  Almost immediately after the lock doors opened, we began to see the formation of the Cumberland Mountains beyond the large expanses of water, islands, and low hills covered with farms and forest.  Watts Bar is considered by many to be the most beautiful lake on the Tennessee. We followed Larry Steidle to his marina (mm 547.7) and were pleased with the quaint family-owned marina on the Tennessee River.  We stopped in the bar and celebrated with the locals as the Titans eeked out a victory over the 2018 Superbowl Champs, Philadelphia Eagles. All the while, we've been monitoring t...

Good morning, Knoxville - it's another beautiful day, Sunny & 80+ We shoved off of Volunteer Landing, and the rest of our trip will be downstream towards Kentucky.  The current is nothing compared to the Mississippi, but it gives us approx 2mph assistance on our fuel economy. We will go past our friends at Duncan Boat Dock and Fox Road Marina on our 45-mile trip to Ft. Loudoun Marina (mm 602.3).  This was a lovely marina with showers, laundry and restaurants.  We docked next to 2 Grand Banks that were on the last leg of a week-long trip to Knoxville.  One of which was, Larry Steidle, proprietor of Blue Springs Resort and Marina in Ten Mile, TN.  They invited us to join them on their trip back and stay at Blue Springs the next night. But first, we enjoyed a great dinner at Calhoun's - not only was it delicious, but we also couldn't believe how reasonable to bill was! After a great night's sleep, we'll be escorted by our new friends to our next stop on ...

It's a beautiful day!!!  We thanked Chris and Phillip for their hospitality while staying at Fox Road Marina (mm 616), and we head upstream to begin our trip at the headwaters of the Tennessee River in Knoxville.  The Tennessee River is formed at the confluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers. Our first stop was at Duncan Boat Dock (mm 634.8) to visit with fellow Cutwater-28 owner, and Gold Looper, Bill Parsons.  Bill had graciously arranged for us to tie up to his dock for the evening.  Of course, we spend more time than we planned trading stories with Bill, so we departed Duncan mid-afternoon to our official starting point - headwaters.  As we arrived in Knoxville, we are first greeted by the spectacular UT, Volunteers football Stadium, and then interrupted the women's Rowing Team practice. Because the sun was beginning to set, we called an audible, and decided to stay at the downtown Volunteer Landing Marina, (instead of tracking back to ...