We finally had a day we could travel and left Blue Springs marina in Watts Lake Bar and headed towards the lock. We had a two hour wait at the lock because they were locking through a barge. We tied up to the boat ramp dock(beautiful park and swimming …
Cruising Plans: South to Sarasota
We will be part of the annual migration of boats that spend summers in the north and then head south in the fall. For us it will be the mid fall with a planned departure date of November 4. I will be joined by my friends Dick and Phil for the run…
New England Adventures: Portsmouth and Kittery
On Monday, October 6, we decided to go north to show Kodi the fall colors as part of her Birthday celebration. Turns out it was still just a bit early as there has not been a fall freeze and we stayed to close to the coast. Heading northwes…
Oct. 14 – Moore Haven, FL
Moore Haven City Dock
“The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.” —Carrie Jones
Today we headed across the state of Florida on the Okeechobee Waterway. We’ve done a lot of locks, but I was a little nervous when we entered our first lock today on Texas Pearl. I worried for nothing because we did just fine on all three locks…just like old pros. We crossed Lake Okeechobee with a little wind, but our ride was still comfortable and it was an uneventful day. We even got docked, lines tied and electric connected, before the rains started. The Moore Haven City Dock is nice with picnic tables and grills with the city hall and library right across the street, but it didn’t look like there was anything else around. So we had a peaceful evening on the boat.
Day 277…Ruddy Turnstone
Welcome to day 277 of 365 photos…Ruddy Turnstone is a shore bird that turns stones (hence the name, I guess), algae, sticks, and other items to find food underneath. Probes in cracks. Pecks at food on surface of rocks. This particular one was probing for bits of food left on the railing at the pier. […]
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Port #30: A Favorite Stop…
Great Loop II Date: 10/06/2014
Day # 67 (Monday): 38 miles (1737 total miles)
Locks: 0 (12 total locks)
Port #30: New Johnsonville, TN
Marina: Pebble Isle Marina
At sunrise, the skies cleared and the wind subsided making for a better day for travel. We pulled anchor and headed OB for our next destination, Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN. Pebble Isle was one of our favorite stops during our 2014 Loop. It is run by some of the friendliest, most conscientious folks we’ve run into on the Loop. Besides that they have the best catfish and hushpuppies I’ve ever had.
On the way we passed the Bridge to Nowhere closely followed by the old abandoned granary. Many structures of a civilization that used to reside in the area lay on the bottom of the Kentucky Lake. Construction of the dam began in 1938. It was completed in 1944 and the land alongside the Tennessee River began to flood and eventually became Kentucky Lake. The old Louiseville-Nashville RR Bridge was one of those structures as was the granary that resided just down the road.
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| Ft.Heiman anchorage is behind this bluff. It looked like a great place to drop the hook. |
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| Some nice homes began to appear on the shoreline here and there. |
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| The Old Louisville-Nashville RR Bridge…the Bridge to Nowhere. |
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| The abandoned granary. |
OB came into Pebble Isle amongst a dozen other Looper boats. Pebble Isle is currently in its off season and the restaurant is only open on the weekends. The management told me if I could gather enough folks, they’d call the cook in and serve us dinner. Loopers love to eat out and gathering 14 people was easy. That night we enjoyed a wonderful catfish feast.
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| OB’s home amid the gathering of Loopers. |
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| One big happy family awaiting the catfish feast. |
Introduction to Scarlet’s Cruising Blog
My name is Scarlet and I’m a Scarlet Macaw. I was given to Diane & Captain Ted Greene as a gift in November 2013 from their friends Murdoch and Melody from North Carolina and now I live on Boatel I. … Continue reading →
Port #29: Leaving the Turtles Behind…
Great Loop II Date: 10/05/2014
Day # 66 (Sunday): 38 miles (1699 total miles)
Locks: 0 (12 total locks)
Port #29: Fort Henry, TN
Anchorage: Panther Bay
With OBs shiny wheels on, the crew was more than ready to get back underway. We pulled away from the dock at Green Turtle Bay at sun up. The buoy markers were confusing coming out of the marina into Barkley Lake. We picked our way through the area, moved through the cut from Barkley Lake and were soon in Kentucky Lake and headed south.
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| Another gorgeous sunrise. |
Land Between The Lakes (LBL) was on our port side (to the east) as we moved down Kentucky Lake. The landscape was changing with more hills filled with dense woods. The skies were clear, the sun was shining and the wind was so strong out of the south, there were white caps on the lake. We saw very little commercial traffic.
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| We passed this interesting looking commercial vessel, the Delta Mariner. This boat carries Delta and Atlas V rockets from Decatur, AL to Cape Canaveral, FL. We may see her again during our trip up the AICW next spring. |
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| The hills disappear right into the lake. I made me wonder what this looked like before it was flooded to create the lake. |
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| The sailing line kept us near the Land Between the Lakes. |
The LBL area was engineered by Tennessee Valley Authority with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers to create a recreation area on a peninsula of land created by the Cumberland River and the Kentucky River. Prior to that it was known as ‘Between the Rivers’.
The Confederates built Fort Henry on LBL during the Civil War. That fort fell in 1862, Kentucky declared itself a neutral state and the area saw little war action afterward. FD Roosevelt developed the New Deal, created the TVA, dams were built on the Tennessee River, Barkley Lake and Kentucky Lake were created.
We had planned to anchor in a cove called Fort Heiman, another Confederate installation during the Civil War. It was well protected on all sides but the south, the direction the strong wind was coming from. So we changed our plans and decided to anchor in Panther Bay, an anchorage we used during our 2010 Loop. The south bay of Panther is tucked in and well protected from the south.
When we arrived at Panther Bay, a lone sailboat was anchored at the opening into the south bay. We passed him and moved further in the bay to anchor. Well protected from the wind, we had a quiet night. A thunderstorm came through early in the morning. OB moved around her anchor but the anchor held her firm.
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| Panther Bay, our home for tonight. |
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| The mastless sailboat anchored at the opening of the south branch of Panther Bay. Sailboats doing the Loop usually have their masts shipped from Chicago to Mobile Bay because of fixed bridges with low clearance along the route. |
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| Sunset on a fantastic evening at anchor. |
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| The thunder woke me up before the alarm clock. That black star is OB. No problem…we were anchored well and very protected by the hills around us. |
Wrapping up our days at Green Turtle Bay
Our days are numbered before we pull in the dock lines and start the trek south leaving what has been our summer home for this year, Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, Ky. (www.greenturtlebay.com) It’s a bitter/sweet feeling since we have made some…
Oct. 13 – Port St. Lucie, FL
Tarpon Bay Yacht Club
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”―Mahatma Gandhi
We had another short day planned so we had time to enjoy coffee on our aft deck again…this could become a nice habit. Today we went down the ICW and took a right into Stuart and the beginning of the Okeechobee Waterway, from here to Fort Meyers will be all new cruising ground for us. When we came through in 2011 we went down to the Keys and back up the east coast.
