Temps were warming quickly even on the early morning hours. We have been very fortunate to not have excessive heat to bear over the majority of our trip. The highs today are projected to be at or above 90 and for the coming week up into the upper 90’s.
Sunrise at Kenlake
There was more time spent this morning drinking coffee and catching up. Erik cooked “empty the fridge omelettes” along with sausage patties and frijoles (refried beans) that Felicitas had brought from her sisters restaurant in Arkansas. After packing up the small amount of things that we were planning to bring home and getting them into dads car we ventured out to take our guests on a short ride. We cruised down the river a couple of miles before turning around to head up by Kenlake where we slowly circled through the large cove next to the marina and heads back in. Dad and Felicitas then drove their car 5 miles down while we navigated the boat down to have it lifted out of the water.
When we got to Sunset Harbor, as promised, Dennis and Rebecca (marina owners) had the travel lift in place so that we could slowly pull right into the lowered slings. A few last minute preparations; turning off all systems and batteries, getting out spare props and anodes, etc and we then were lifted out of the water where the light moved us just out of the lift bay and up onto land.
Boat lift getting Happy Destiny out
She’s out
An inspection of the bottom of the boat showed pretty much what we expected. The props both had small songs and chunks out of them. The boys bottom showed some signs of very minor electrolysis, but nothing to be concerned about. The cutlass bearings (spot where the shafts go through the struts) looked to be in good condition. The multitude of threw haul fittings appeared to be in good shape. Brief conversations with the marina owners about the work that we wanted done and shortly after we were on the road home to mcconnelsville. We are already looking forward to leg two of our 2022 adventure. We hope to be back aboard and cruising on July 23rd. Until then….
Port prop. Has a small chunk out
Starboard prop…a chunk out of it and obviously not perfectly straight
Even with the rowdy party crowd on the docks just a hundred yards or so from our anchorage we had peace and quiet down in our aft cabin and we rested well.
Sunrise and sunset never get old!
Erik and Riva headed to shore for their morning business Also to see if there were any survivors from the shenanigans last night
Our anchorage last night The docks on the left of this picture was party central last night
Shortly after a quick dinghy ride to bring Riva to shore to potty we pulled anchor and headed toward Kenlake Marina where we would be meeting up with Erik’s dad and his wife later in the day. It was another breezy day with very comfortable temps. At about the 12th mile of the ~30 mile cruise we crossed over in to Kentucky which made for the fourth states waterways we navigated over the past two weeks.
Large bridge in distance is visible for many miles coming up or down river. Kenlake Marina is right at the base of the left side of it
About 3 miles from our destination for the day we passed by Sunset Harbor Hill Marina where we will be having Happy Destiny taken out of the water for a bottom job tomorrow
We arrived at Kenlake Marina at 11:30 am and tied up on the face dock which is where all of the transient slips are at Kenlake.
Trip stats for the day
It was getting warmer so it was a Nice change from the past couple days to be able to hook up to shore electric and blast the AC units. After settling in we rounded up all our laundry and headed up to get all of it started. We wanted to wash all of the bed clothes and clothes because w e planned to leave most of it onboard rather than take stuff home and back again next month. We had leftover burgers for lunch and after rotating laundry to dryers we headed out in the bicycles to check out “The Hitching Post Old Country Store”. It is actually two separate general stores/souvenir shops/antique markets. The first mile of the 2.7 mile ride there was a real uphill leg burner….whew. We were hot and happy to be up out of the state park and on to flatter terrain. We were running low on coffee so we got 1/2lb of a specialty coffee and shared a small cup of homemade coffee ice cream before heading back to the marina (almost all downhill for the return trip 😃).
Our slip on the face dock at Kenlake Marina
About 3:45 pm dad and Felicitas arrived after their 7 hour drive from Springdale Arkansas where they had been visiting with Felicitas’s family. We enjoyed each other’s company for the afternoon and evening. Grilled two porterhouse steaks and a big fillet of salmon for dinner. It was a nice time sitting on the aft deck for the evening visiting and catching up. We are grateful that they came to spend a day on the boat and to transport us home tomorrow after we bring Happy Destiny back up river a few miles to be dropped off at Sunset Harbor Hill Marina where she will be getting a bottom paint job and some work on the props.
We had a good nights sleep in a calm marina spot at Clifton Marina. No AC necessary as the night time temps fell to a very comfortable level.
The morning sun rose over the hills on the eastern banks of the Tennessee River offering us yet another splendid awakening!
We will surely meet some of you
Time lapse video of sunrise from Clifton Marina
We hung out on the aft deck, Renee covered in her blankets to ward off the chilly morning air. The marina staff had said the gas pumps would not open until 9am and we wanted to top off our tanks because their price was as reasonable as anywhere. Also, Renee is still working on calibrating the readings on the Simrad for our fuel flow sensors that we installed. Having an accurate gauge on the fuel consumption will become important to us later this summer when the second leg of our journey this year will have us traveling up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, against the currents.
The marina staff showed up an hour early and after topping off tanks we were headed north for a relaxing, perfectly calm cruise. Water was like glass. The forecast called for cooler temps but more sun. In reality it remained pretty cloudy all day which is much easier on the eyes and skin. We’ll take it! For the first 40 miles of todays trek it was still largely a true river. After that the waters spread and opened up into a much more lake like appearance as we got closer to the ‘Land Between The Lakes’ region. Also, where there were houses lining the banks for the first 35 miles now we entered remote territory where we cruised for miles and miles without seeing a home or structure. It is a very pristine and beautiful landscape.
Many, many home on stilts along the banks for the first several hours today
This one was pretty
Baby butt smooth waters almost the entire day today
Shortly after entering into the Kentucky Lake region....beautiful area!
The long cruising day called for a mid day stop off for both Riva and us. At 3:30 pm we pulled into Pebble Isle Marina for an hour or so We took a short walk into the state park and then went to their restaurant, The Blue Heron, for a late lunch/early dinner. The food and atmosphere were good and this made for a nice break.
Interesting boat at the entrance to Pebble Isle Wish there was a sign or something with the history of this vessel
Erik hadn't realized that they don't take walk ins and he had not made an appointment for Renee
Lunchtime visitors while we dined on the patio at the Blue Heron; bluegill, turtles and the occasional gar/pike looking thing??
Leaving Pebble Isle we had a jet skier playing in our wake so we sped up a bit for him to give him a ride
Back on the water we scoped out several options for anchorages for the night that would have good dog access and that would get us reasonably close to our final destination of Sunset Harbor Hill tomorrow. Continuing on for another 25 miles and until just about 30 minutes before sunset to Leatherwood Cove is what we eventually chose.
remnants of a 5 story grain elevator that sat along the banks of the Tennessee River prior to the dam creating Kentucky Lake with only the top 2 stories now above the water
Erik's red neck Go "not so" Pro
Time lapse of the last 25 mins of our cruise and coming into anchorage
Immediately after setting our anchor we were greeted by TJ and Jessica who came out from a nearby marina to say hello. They tied off their dinghy to us and came aboard for a nice visit. They are Loopers, currently stationary due to high fuel prices. They had been watching us on Nebo and we’re excited to meet other Loopers. They are a younger couple from the U.P area of Michigan. TJ is retired from the the military (Navy) and Jessica is a nurse who quit her job last year when they departed and is home schooling their 8 yr old son who is aboard with them. They had laid up here on the Tennessee River late last fall with intentions of continuing on south but have paused for now.
After settling into the anchorage and making our evening coffee we ventured into shore (the marina) in Trudge to let Riva do her business and visit with the folks at the docks. The marina was rowdy! The bar had a group of people drunk as skunks and jammin to hillbilly rap. The party moved down to the docks where we briefly visited with the partying bunch. It was not long however before we had enough of a contact buzz from all of the lefty cigarettes and were now having trouble comprehending the drunken Tennessee dialect. 😂 A short trudge back to Happy Destiny, and to our sanity, made us grateful for the gift of sobriety that we have! TGCHHO
Trip stats for the day; our longest day of this leg 85.7 miles
It was a very pleasant night at a peaceful cove. No wakes and comfortable temperatures made for a restful nights sleep. Erik even slept in until 6 am!
While simultaneously making a pot of coffee and running the microwave for a moment the inverter/battery bank started to flake and go on and off. Renee checked the status on the inverter amp and it in fact was indicating a ‘fault low battery’. We started the now working generator to charge batteries. The hope was that with the new agm bank we would have enough amp hours for anchoring out for a couple days with no issue without having to run the generator; maybe not. We got out our amp meter and started plugging in devices to determine how much each was drawing. We’ve had some concerns with the efficiency of the refrigerator because it seems to run a lot. It was determined that devices we use regularly draw: refrigerator 1.56 amps, portable fan (usually runs all night) .2 amps when running and .02 amps while charging, microwave 12 amps! , coffee pot ? Forgot to check, computers/phones charging .06 amps. Essentially our determination, for now, is that when we brew coffee or microwave things we will usually want to have either the generator or boat engines running.
Erik took Riva to the marina/shore for her to eat goose poop…..I mean do her business lol. Ugh, this dog is hard to keep from munching on darned goose dung. Disgusting! After returning to the boat the dinghy was put up and breakfast of eggs and bacon followed. While eating we noticed a large tow and barge headed to the lock; uh oh, that likely would mean a wait for us to lock down. Upon calling the lock master this proved true. They had one barge going into the chamber and another large one behind it. He stated that it would likely be 3-4 hours before they would out any recreational boats through. Oh well…left usplenty of time to chill, relax, check engine fluids, make some phone calls etc.
Riva has decided that steps are not her thing
We called him back two hours later and he said if we could get there pretty quickly he would get us down. Anchor up and engines started we cruised the 1 mile or so to the lock entrance and awaited him to open the gates for about 15 mins. After a smooth ride down when thanking the lock master on the VHF radio he told us to check out the Pickwick Dam FB page where he had posted several picture of us in the lock. Nice of him to share with us! Pretty cool pics.
Happy Deatiny outside of Pickwick Lock Taken by lock master
Inside the chamber and partially lowered down
One more from the Pickwick Lock FB page
It was a an uneventful but beautiful cruising day down 48 miles of the river. We passed by, but did not stop because there was no good access, the Shiloh National Military Park and the civil wartime home of Ulysses S Grant. In this area of the river the houses were nice but modest The river bank landscape changed significantly to tall muddy banks. Most all of the homes were built up on high piers making them almost look like costal homes.
Quintessential puffy cloud, low humidity day
Very cool house
After 30+ miles of mostly flat muddy banks the rock wall cliffs were returning the last 10 miles or so
We arrived at Clifton Marina at 4:30pm. We had debated on whether to fuel up (lowest gas prices around) and cruise on for a couple of hours to another anchorage. Instead it was decided that we’d stay here for the night and get our bikes off of the boat to get some exercise and see what the town of Clifton had to offer. After a dinner of loaded nachos made from leftover taco salad fixins we took off for a ride. Clifton turned out to be a VERY sleepy town. Small and quaint but not a whole lot to see or look at. The exercise was nice though.
Back at the boat we enjoyed a relaxing evening of each other’s company and had a typical boaters early bedtime.
Trip stats for the day Averaged over 1.3 mpg at 10 mph Not bad for us 😂
Following a busy day yesterday Renee, Erik and Riva all had a restful and much needed night of sleep.
Most of the forecasted rain from last night apparently skirted our location. We spent and couple of hours walking Riva, showering, planning and eating breakfast. The forecast for the day had altered some and now was indicating the storms to hold off until after noon so we decided to cast off from Florence Harbor to make our way toward Pickwick State Park area. We would decide when we get there whether to anchor (preferable) or get another marina slip.
The temps were perfect and the cloud cover and nice breeze at our 9.5 mph cruising speed kept us very comfortable. About an hour into the trip the skies ahead darkened and we began to be able to see the rain moving up the river at us. We zipped up the isinglass on the Flybridge enclosure and cruised right through some heavy rain accompanied by a few claps of thunder and lightning ⚡️. This is where we realized the payoff in the investment of the new canvas and enclosure. Money well spent to keep us and everything dry and happy!
The rain stopped after about 30 mins and the remainder of the cruise to an anchorage that we had scoped out to stop at for lunch was pleasant while cruising along listening to an Eagles playlist on Pandora.
Mouth of the TennTom (Tennessee Tombigbee River) that heads down to the Gulf ....Not this year for us
The lunchtime anchorage did not disappoint and we enjoyed a nice relaxing swim followed by lunch with a view.
If a waterfall doesn't make you smile we can't be friends!
After lunch the cruise to another anchorage adjacent to Pickwick Landing State Park was about 6 miles. After ensuring that our anchor was set well we lowered the dinghy and took a 3 mile cruise aboard Trudge. We stopped off at the marina to bring Riva ashore and checked out their gift shop We motored on to the main lodge where we walked around and checked out the facilities.
Trudge at the State Park lodge dock
Returning to the boat from our dinghy adventure
Returning to the boat at 4:30 pm we all three were tired and enjoyed a nice afternoon nap in the breeze.
tired mama
Shortly after cooking and enjoying dinner on the aft deck we were visited by a couple from Arkansa, Mike and Debbie, who motored up to our anchorage to chat for a while. They were out in their dinghy baiting catfish lines in the cove, they have a Marine Trader Trawler here at Pickwick Marina that they are planning to start the loop on this fall hopefully. Very nice, down to earth people. Maybe our paths will cross again.
It was an absolutely perfect evening with yet another splendid sunset and nice gentle breezes. And….no storms :-) After sitting for a while and doing some planning for the coming days we brought Riva to shore in Trudge under the stars.
There cannot be a blog post without a sunset picture
or two
Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day. We will be transiting our last lock of this leg of our journey almost immediately after leaving the anchorage. The trip is getting too near to completion.
It’s been a busy couple of days aboard Happy Destiny so there was no blog time yesterday….double up today.
Monday 6/6
Yesterday we awoke to our boat being TOTALLY covered in mayflies. They swarmed in right after sundown and made themselves at home. This seems to happen to us somewhere along our travels each year at least once. Hoping that this will be the one and only time for this trip! The first hour and a half of the morning was spent using our small shop vac to vacuum the pesky things off of the carpets, bimini tops and the rest of the boat before departing.
Our planned trip was only for ~43 miles but it included two locks the second of which (Wilson Lock and dam) had restricted hours for locking recreational vessels. We called ahead to the first lock (Wheeler) and were told that they didn’t foresee any commercial traffic if we headed that way and were there within the next couple hours. We also called the second planned lock (Wilson) to ensure that the navigational posting was correct and they would only lock rec boats through three times a day (7am/1-3pm/7pm). They informed us that this was accurate. We headed out hoping to get through Wheeler early and leave plenty of time to be at Wilson by 1pm. Our planned destination of Florence Harbor was just a couple miles below Wilson lock.
Riva has really struggled to acclimate...lol
The lockmaster gods were looking after us today much better than yesterday. We arrived at Wheeler lock and were hailed right into the open chamber where we quickly descended the 48' to the lower pool and were on our way toward Wilson Lock. When we exited Wheeler we called again to Wilson to check on what the barge traffic was looking like and whether they could tell us if the afternoon locking of rec boats would be closer to 1pm or 3pm. The lockmaster informed Renee that if we picked up our pace and could get there in the next 20 mins or so that he would lock us down with a small commercial tow. Nice!!!! This would shorten our trip and likely have us to Florence Harbor by shortly after noon. Things went as planned and about 10 mins after arriving at Wilson Lock we were allowed in and given a ride down to the Florence pool. The Wilson Lock is interesting on two levels; it is a very large drop (98 feet) and also rather than doors at the top it has a gate that is lowered beneath the surface of the water deep enough to allow boats into the chamber. This is the only lock we have seen like this of the hundred plus that we have traversed.
Couple of videos at the top and bottom of Wilson Lock
We arrived at Florence Harbor Marina at about 1pm and got safely secured in our slip for the night. This marina has a courtesy car that is available for use which was nice for us because we wanted to do a few errands. We hung out at the dock for a while and did boat chores; Erik washed the outside (remnants of the mayfly invasion) while Renee concentrated on the interior. We then relaxed in our lazy chairs in the A/C and took brief naps before heading out to run errands. The stackable washer/dryer at the marina was not working (Renee found out the hard way) so we loaded our laundry and while it was in the machines at a local laundry mat we went next door to a Chinese restaurant (The Rice Bowl) for a nice dinner of Chinese and Sushi. We left miserably full but very satisfied with the good grub. In the same shopping center as the food and laundry there was a small market that we walked to and got a few needed groceries.
This bird hung out around our slip both days occasionally letting out a loud squawk to let us know we were in his fishing grounds
We headed back to the marina where we enjoyed a cup of coffee before retiring. Erik planned to awaken early to attempt to figure out why our onboard generator was not working. The next several legs of the journey we are planning to anchor out so it would be really nice to have it functioning as it should.
Our Nemo track for the day
Tuesday 6/7 - Day/night 2 at Florence Harbor
Erik awoke at his usual dark thirty and was busy by 5am digging into the generator to diagnose what the issue was . He awoke Renee and Riva about 5:30 when he made his first attempt at starting it after checking wire connects, filters etc. No luck :-( Based on a single clicking noise that it was making when the fuel pump manual switch was used he thought there was a good chance that the electric fuel pump was bad.
We utilized the courtesy car and went to a local AA meeting at 7am before heading to an auto parts store and Lowes to get new spark plugs, starter fluid and some material to make screens for the windows. It was nice to get to a meeting. We had been to that same meeting four years ago when we were here and really enjoyed it. Our old friend, Gary "Buck" Buckwater (now gone but not forgotten) used to often say, "Seven days without a meeting makes one week (or one weak)". He was correct and it had been 10 days since we had been to a meeting. Was nice to be amongst friends.
TGCHHO We believe this same picture is in our blog from four years ago when we visited Yep....still pertains
Love and tolerance of others Renee needed to apply this in dealing with Erik turning wrenches and busting up knuckles today
Back at the boat, the generator would start when starter fluid was sprayed in the carb, but it would only run for a few seconds until that fluid was used up. This pretty much confirmed that the issue was with the pump. We made calls to multiple marine service shops and RV/marine generator shops only to determine that the needed fuel pump was not stocked anywhere. Additionally, we were informed by the one marine service shop that even Onan (generator manufacture) said the pump was out of stock....ugh. At about 2pm a gentleman from Duke Marine Service whom we had spoken with earlier in the morning stopped by the marina to take a look and tell us what he thought. After 30 mins of diagnostics he also determined the pump was bad. He left to go back to his shop (only 1/2 mile from our marina) and check with his suppliers. He returned to the marina about 45 minutes later with a used fuel pump that he pulled off an old generator at his shop. Nice guy! He only charged us $50 for his time and the pump which was a great deal. Erik spent the next couple hours removing the old pump (and busting up his knuckles.....he LOVES working on engines....NOT!) and installing the new one. Finally, at about 6pm the generator was back up and running. Another accomplishment for the day was to make and install two new screens for the windows in the salon area.
The culprit bad fuel pump on the generator The pic doesn't do justice to just how tight of a spot it was in to work on
Riva had been acting funny and not eating well. Renee suspected she had a urinary tract infection. She had called around to a bunch of vets earlier in the day but all were booked up. There was one emergency clinic not far away that opened at 6pm and would start taking walk ins on first come first serve basis. After indulging in a nice taco salad dinner that Renee cooked up we again headed out in the courtesy car to the clinic. Renee's diagnosis of Riva's issue was as good as Erik's on the generator fuel pump and the vet confirmed a UTI. It is official, both boating AND dog ownership while traveling is expensive. An hour and $260 later we left the vet clinic with antibiotics for the Diva. She is worth every penny though!
Back at the boat we touched base with Erik's Dad to see how there trip was going from their home in Mazatlan Mexico eventually to Ohio, but, with a side trip through Kentucky to pick us up. They are currently in Waco TX. After talking through our current schedule with him we determined that we would touch base again Thursday afternoon to make final meet up arrangements in Kentucky; likely on Saturday.
In the marina shower room hallway there is a cool board with a large map of the US showing home ports of all the AGLCA members who have stayed here at Florence Harbor I apparently messed up in taking the pic of the west coast side of the board
It has been a busy couple days and we are HOPING to depart Florence Harbor tomorrow. BUT, as we write the thunder is clapping and the forecast for tonight and tomorrow is not favorable for boat travel . They are calling for strong storms with high winds and hail. Not exactly a 'go' day for us. We will see what happens tomorrow.
The hum of the generator on the boat directly behind us last night did not bother us at all and we rested well. Erik was up his usual dark and early to enjoy the pre dawn hour and the morning light dawning.
Series of sunrise pictures… Just because
Wanting to do something crazy and different we sat for a bit and drank coffee! 😂 We downloaded a Simrad update to our chart plotter that supposedly will get the compass feature to work. Calling ahead to the Guntersville Lock we were told that they were just preparing to lock a large commercial tow through and that it would be about a 3 hrs wait. Not a big deal since we still needed to go across the lake to fill up the gas tanks at what appears to be the most reasonable gas we will see for a while and then it will be an 8 mile trip down to the lock; this would take us a couple hours anyhow.
As we were preparing to depart a couple in an absolutely gorgeous boat, ‘Cha Cha Cha’ came up beside us and greeted us after noticing our AGLCA flag. They welcomed us to Guntersville even though we were preparing to leave. More nice folks.
‘Cha Cha Cha’ a beautiful boat!
After fueling up with 162.8 gallons of gas at a bargain rate of $5.49 per gallon we headed toward the Guntersville lock. We hailed the lock master on the radio when we were a mile from it. Not good news. We were informed that he still had a barge in the chamber, another tow/barge at the top of the lock in front of us AND he was having mechanical issues with the lock. We were told to hang tight and he would be in touch with us when he knew anything. While floating and waiting for news we worked on logging our trips stats and scoped out potential anchorages near the dam in case that became necessary. The bright side is that it was breezy and a perfect temperature and we were in a very scenic area with many pretty rock walls, some of which had multiple caves in their sides. We read in our Tennessee River book that in the evening hours it’s not unusual to see thousands of bats emerge from them.
The two hour wait turned out to be five hours! It was now almost 3pm CST. Well…guess we won’t be making it to Joe Wheeler State Park after all. My good friend and coworker, Jason, shared with me years ago the Dwight D Eisenhower quote: “The plan is nothing; Planning is everything”. So true! No fear though, Renee IS a planner and thus had a plan B (likely C and D as well). Plan B was to make it to Decatur where there is free docking at their harbor.
It was nice to be moving again. We set the throttles at 10pm and made our way down river. Just down from the lock as we rounded the bend we had a nice, rewarding view ‘painted bluff’.
An hour or so later while Renee drove Erik prepared a gourmet late lunch/dinner of coney dogs and chips.
Shortly after we realized that by the time we reached our destination Riva will have been on the boat for well over 11 hrs with no land breaks. This meant time to burn some of that bargain $5.49 a gallon gas and push down on the throttles some. It was a gorgeous late afternoon/evening but as the sun got lower we were cruising almost directly into it which made it rough on the eyes.
As we pulled into Decatur we stopped a mile before the harbor where we would tie up for the night and topped off the gas tanks with gas that we found for $5.19 a gallon; bargain compared to all other marinas.
We took Riva for a walk up the road after docking and tried to find a convenient store to get something to satisfy our sweet tooth’s. No luck; nothing was open in the immediate area and we were too tired to get the bikes off of the boat
And then it happened, the invasion of the mayflies! Immediately after sunset the swarms came in and totally covered everything! We fled to the boat to get in and close the windows. (We have no screens!). We were too late. By the time we closed everything up quite a few had taken up residence inside so we spent the next thirty minutes catching and disposing of all the pesky boogers who made it in.
