Guntersville Lake, Caney Hollow, AL

September 28^th, 2015
Monday
Miles Traveled 0
Total Miles Traveled 580
Day 19
 
We have been anchored in the same spot since Saturday afternoon, what a beautiful place!  It rained most of the afternoon so today was another project day, we installed new shelves in the galley, made up a new device to make catching a bollard in a lock easier, and hung a mirror that we have been moving around since we started (thankfully we haven’t broken it yet).

Today we had the big Guntersville Lake fish fry.

 

Okay, we didn’t catch them; this is fish we had frozen that our grandson Eyan caught at Kentucky Lake.  Thanks “E” for bailing Gramps out!

 

 

Guntersville Lake, Caney Hollow, AL

September 27^th, 2015
Sunday
Miles Traveled 0
Total Miles Traveled 580
Day 18

Another cloudy morning, but you can’t beat the view.  We watched “I think I can…” slowly disappear through a narrow pass around Goat Island. 

 

While eating breakfast on the fly bridge this morning, we watched an eagle swoop down several times trying to catch breakfast.  I took a few pictures, but he was too far away to get a good shot.  We didn’t see him catch anything but it was interesting to watch.  He finally moved down the shoreline out of site.

 

We took the dingy out for a little exploring and fishing this afternoon.  Moni caught 2 Bluegill, I caught zip.  Isn’t there an old saying, when the wind is out of the east, fishing is least?

The sun did try to break through late this evening.

 

 

 

Goose Pond Marina, AL to Caney Hollow, AL

September 26^th, 2015
Saturday
Miles Traveled 27.2
Total Miles Traveled 580
Day 17

You can track where we are on your computer or from your smartphone (by downloading a free app) called Find Ship.  This app is not real time, but if we are underway, it will show our location, usually within the hour. After downloading the free app, type in Moni Jean in the box at the top of the screen and it will show our location.  I turn off our AIS transmitter when anchored so it will show our location an hour before we anchored. 

We departed Goose Pond Marina on Guntersville Lake at 10 a.m this morning after spending 2 days next to  “California Girl” and “Hallelujah”, both doing the loop.   “Hallelujah” had already completed the Loop once, so when they complete this leg of their adventure, they will have completed the Loop more than once and fly a Platinum Burgee.

It was cloudy with intermittent drizzle most of the day. 

We passed this barge today hauling a huge motor; I wouldn’t want to pay the electric bill to run that thing. 

 

We only traveled 27 miles today to a great anchorage behind Goat Island on Guntersville Lake.  This area is known as Honeycomb Creek and is one of the most beautiful places we have anchored since starting the loop.  It is surrounded by mountains and Goat Island and we anchored at Caney Hollow in about 19 feet of water.  

 

We dropped the dinghy in the water and tried our luck at fishing this afternoon, of course Moni caught a Bluegill and I came up empty handed.  We had fun going around the shoreline and taking in the scenery.  After an hour or so, a trawler came into the bay with a Great Loop Burgee, so we pulled in our lines and went over to meet “I think I Can….”.  They started the Loop in Florida so they are on the last leg of their adventure..

This is the US Hwy 431 Bridge going into Guntersville, AL.  We are going down stream on the river, so we keep the Green Buoys on the right and the Red Buoys on the left.  There is a green square on the bridge support on the right and a red triangle on the bridge support on the left.  This information tells us that this is the section under the bridge that we need to cross.  The vertical clearance scale is on the bridge support on the right is indicating 60 ft of clearance.

 

 

Goose Pond Marina, Guntersville Lake, AL

 

September 25^th, 2015
Friday
Miles Traveled 0
Total Miles Traveled 553
Day 16

The rain and cool weather moved in overnight so I think we made the right decision to make the long cruise to Goose Pond Marina.  Today we did a little housekeeping, planned our next few weeks on the Tennessee River, completed our laundry at the marina laundry mat, and used the marina’s courtesy van to resupply our groceries.  After we top off our water tanks tomorrow, I think we’ll be ready for a few days on the hook.

                                                 Cool and rainy morning at Goose Pond Marina

 

 

Chickamauga Lake, TN to Guntersville Lake, AL

September24^th, 2015
Thursday
Miles Traveled 93.6
Total Miles Traveled 553
Day 15

We left Chickamauga Lake this morning just after sunrise and followed another trawler into the lock.  This was the earliest start that we have had so far but I called a long time friend that I haven’t seen for several years, and found that he had an office inside Chickamauga Dam.  I told him we would be at the lock at 8 a.m. and he came to the lock to see us through.

Sorry, not a very good picture, we were dropping in the lock and I snapped this while trying to keep the boat off the slimy wall. I tried to rotate this with a picture editor but every time I downloaded it to blogger, it uses this format?

 

After locking through, we talked to the boat that we were in the lock chamber with and found they were having engine trouble and were trying to make it to their home port at Goose Pond Marina, this would make a 90 mile day for us, but with rain in the forecast for the next few days, we decided to follow them to their marina instead of anchoring out on the river during bad weather.

This was another perfect boating day; the water was flat with a light breeze, clear skies, and a downstream river current.  We sounded our horn when cruising past the Chattanooga riverside dock, as our new friends that we met during our stay there waved at us.

This is lookout mountain with I-24 at the bottom when leaving Chattanooga.

 

 

 

 

 Although this looks like a tight squeeze, we have plenty of room to get under the railroad bridge.  We have charts that tell us the bridge vertical clearance at pool stage and the concrete bridge support on the right has a scale to show the acutal clearance at the current water level, which was about 35 feet.

We locked through Nickajack Lock with only a slight delay.  This is "Miss Kaylee" waiting for the lock to open wiith us.

 

We cruised all the way to Goose Pond Marina, located just south of Scottsboro, AL.  This was a good test for us because the route we will take from the Panhandle to the West coast of Florida will be about the same distance.  Our boat performed well, we had beautiful scenery, and listened to our Sirius radio and Bose Sound Link Mini (Thanks Guys!)

 

Oh yes, another airplane event………we were cruising down the Tennessee River in a very unpopulated area enjoying the beautiful scenery and we both looked at each other in total confusion as a loud screeching noise came from nowhere.   We looked all around and saw a private jet flying low to the river that zoomed right over the boat.  Wow!  That was totally unexpected……….but awesome.  I can see how the Air Force can strike a target before they ever here the jet coming.

Chattanooga, TN to Chickamauga Lake, TN

 

September 23^th, 2015
Wednesday
Miles Traveled 10.4
Total Miles Traveled 459
Day 14

Our original plan was to leave Chattanooga early and head down the Tennessee River to Nickajack Lock & Dam.  We met several very nice people this morning associated with the Great Loop and talked about different marinas, boats, and Chattanooga.  I also checked the fuel prices around the surrounding marinas and found diesel fuel at Chickamauga Lake was $2.02 gallon, that’s the lowest price anywhere in the Midwest.  Chickamauga Marina was only about 8 miles upriver, so we decided to go there instead, top off our tanks, and anchor out tonight. 

About 3 miles from the Dam, the current started to increase, and our speed dropped about 2 mph.

 

 

We spent the afternoon relaxing, planning our next few days on the river……and updating our blog.  Chattanooga is a great town and is defiantly a place we will return to someday.

 

Chattanooga, TN

September 22^nd, 2015
Tuesday
Miles Traveled 0
Total Miles Traveled 449
Day 13

We spent the day touring Chattanooga, starting off with the free electric trolley system that the city provides.  Our first stop was the Chattanooga Choo Choo, Chattanooga was a important part of rail travel in the United States from the mid-1800’s when the Western-Atlantic railway was the first to arrive.   Others lines soon followed. Eventually, virtually all trains going to the south passed through Chattanooga.  In 1880, the first non-stop service to Chattanooga was made from Cincinnati, by a steam locomotive of the Cincinnati Southern Railway. It was dubbed in a newspaper article as the “Chattanooga Choo Choo.”  I see the chief engineer has a familiar face.

We caught the trolley to connect with a city bus to take us the Incline Railway.  The Incline is a technical marvel that at its extreme reaches an incline of 72.7%, making it one of the steepest passenger railways in the world. The original coal-burning steam engines were replaced by two 100-horsepower motors in 1911, but other than that the railway hasn’t changed very much in its more than 100 years of operation.

This is the view from Look Out Mountain of Moccasin Bend on the Tennessee River.  The portion of the river on the right is the place I took the picture on Monday's blog when we arrived at Chattanooga with interstate 24.

 

On November 24, 1863 the Civil War Battle of Lookout Mountain was fought on the slopes of the mountain. The majority of hand to hand combat took place near Cravens' house about halfway to the summit. Lookout Mountain’s shape and location can in some conditions cause a unique weather phenomenon in the area: after dawn, fog will sometimes descend from the cooler mountaintop and stop about halfway down. Such an event which took place the day of the battle and is the reason for its romanticized name, the "Battle above the Clouds." The battle was won by Union forces, enabling them to lift the Confederate siege of Chattanooga. 

 

 

We attended a very informative three-dimensional electronic battle map presentation of Chattanooga's Civil War history featuring 5,000 miniature soldiers, 650 lights, sound effects and exceptional details of the major battles which were fought in November of 1863.

This rock climbing wall is constructed on the outside of a parking garage, pretty cool.

Williams Island, Tennessee River to Chattanooga, TN

September 21, 2015
Monday
Miles Traveled 8.07
Total Miles Traveled 449
Day 12

The wind picked up last night and although we were anchored with a current holding the boat along the shore of the island, the wind swung the boat around, heading us downstream.  We twisted and turned for awhile but our anchor held tight.  I can’t say enough about the Rocna anchor we selected for “ Moni Jean”.   We also have an anchor alarm that uses a GPS signal to track our position, if we swing outside of a predetermined radius of the anchor an alarm goes off……that you will not sleep through.

We kept looking for Bob on Williams Island, but only saw these bathing beauties as we were leaving this morning.  Moo!  Where's Bob? 

 

 

Ugh, civilization, I think we have the best lane on the planet.  This is interstate 24 to Chattanooga.

 

We had a short cruise to Chattanooga this morning and tied up to the Riverfront Dock located at the heart of downtown.

 

We found this guy waiting for us at the dock.

 

Just kidding…………

We walked to town for lunch, and then walked a half block to the Tennessee Aquarium.   The Tennessee Aquarium is a non-profit public aquarium.  When it opened in 1992, the River Journey building was the largest freshwater aquarium in the world.  It was established as part of the revitalization of the Chattanooga Riverfront.  The Tennessee Aquarium's River Journey and Ocean Journey buildings are home to more than 12,000 animals including fish, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, birds, penguins, butterflies, and more. 

We spent all afternoon going through both buildings.  An escalator takes you to the top of the building, and a sloped walkway meanders through all of the exhibits to the ground floor.  If you are within driving distance of this aquarium, it's a must see.

 

 

 

 

We had a great day, looking forward to another day at Chattanooga.  "Moni Jean" is the boat in the middle of the picture.

 

 



Guntersville Lake, Bridgeport Island, AL to Nickajack Lake, Williams Island, TN

September 20^th, 2015
Sunday
Miles Traveled 43.3
Total Miles Traveled 441
Day 11

Another great morning on the Tennessee River, we were only underway a couple of miles and crossed under the Seaboards System Railway lift bridge, we had over 30 feet clearance so we didn’t have to call them to lift it higher for us.

 

We crossed the Alabama Tennessee state line just past the 416 mile marker; this ferry didn’t appear to be operating on Sunday. 

 

 

The river started to narrow and the opposing current increased as we were approaching Nickajack Lock and Dam.

 

 

We  waited about 20 minutes before entering the lock chamber.  While tying up, 4 boats from Georgia entered the lock with United States Power Squadron burgee’s flying.  They were also heading to Chattanooga but had much faster boats than us.  Maybe we’ll see them tomorrow.  This was our view after leaving the lock and entering Nickajack Lake.

 

The view cruising up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga was awesome, here are a few pictures to give you an idea of its beauty. 

 

 

 

 

We passed the Raccoon Mountain pumped storage facility.  The Raccoon Mountain project is TVA’s largest hydroelectric facility. Water is pumped to the reservoir on top of the mountain and then used to generate electricity when additional power is needed by the TVA system.  The plant works like a large storage battery. During periods of low demand, water is pumped from Nickajack Reservoir at the base of the mountain to the reservoir built at the top. It takes 28 hours to fill the upper reservoir. When demand is high, water is released via a tunnel drilled through the center of the mountain to drive generators in the mountain’s underground power plant.

 

I don't know why we seem to attract aircraft, but this guy circled around us a couple of times, then took the plunge behind us.

 

 

We see all types of boats on the river, this couple seemed to be having a nice afternoon.

 

 

Our AIS alarm helped us again, this tow was around a sharp narrow bend in the river, we pulled back at idle and waited for him to come into site, then waited for him to pass.

 

 

 

We are anchoring tonight behind Williams Island, just a few miles from downtown Chattanooga, TN.

 

Goat Island, Joe Wheeler Lake, AL to Bridgeport Island, Bridgeport, AL

September 19^th, 2015
Saturday
Miles Traveled 58.7
Total Miles Traveled 398
Day 10

Another nice cool night with the windows open, I know it won’t be long before that changes.  It was a little foggy this morning at Goat Island, but it didn’t take long to start clearing.

 

This boat slipped in and caught a nice bass behind us this morning.  We plan to get an Alabama fishing license since we’ll be in the state for several weeks.

 

Here are a few pictures of the Milfoil and Hydrilla that is really chocking off a beautiful lake.  I’m sure the homeowners and marinas are very discouraged.  There are miles of this stuff, we have seen this all the way up the Tennessee River but not as bad as Gunterville Lake.

 

 

 

I bought Moni a drawing kit for our anniversary in July, she opened it up today and this is her first masterpiece of a solo cup.  I think this is her first drawing since high school; yes I will be taking orders for prints.

 

I think this guy was looking for a meal

 

How would you like to drag a cooler up and down those stairs to the boat....oh, I see they have a rail system next to the stairs.

We anchored this afternoon behind Bridgeport Island near Bridgeport, AL