First Cruise on Best Mate to Knoxville

Total Miles Traveled 123.9

Yes, we have changed the name of our blog from Cruising with Moni Jean, to Cruising with Best Mate.  It’s been a busy summer since returning to our home port at Green Turtle Bay last May; we have sold our house, and our 390 Mainship, and have purchased a “new to us” boat, Best Mate. 

This was not a spur of the moment decision for us, since starting the Great Loop in 2015 we have spent more time on a boat than at home.  When we return home in the spring, we spend most of the summer with home maintenance projects, just in time to leave again in the fall, and then start over again the following spring.  We’ll still be returning to the Midwest in the spring, but will now have the opportunity to spend more time with our family and friends and exploring the inland waterways.

“Best Mate” is a 2005 forty-five foot DeFever raised pilot house trawler (DeFever 45 RPH).  We purchased her in October near Lenoir City, Tennessee. 

After fitting her with a new name and port of call, we conducted a christening ceremony with our new friends at Fort Loudon Marina. 

We even had friends stop by that we met on our Great Loop in 2015, Rob and Sandy from “Sandrobber”.

We started our new adventure October 30^th and planned on an early departure, but Mother Nature had a different plan for us.

This is a very scenic and mountainous area of Tennessee so we decided to cruise about 45 miles from the Fort Loudon Marina to Knoxville.  We weren’t disappointed in our decision to go farther North, as the cruise up the river was beautiful, especially with the colorful autumn foliage.

We arrived at the city dock in Knoxville with plenty of room to tie up.  We checked the football schedule before leaving as the locals told us if there was a VOL’s home game the docks would be full.  We decided to stay another day and visited downtown and the Farmers Market. 

Knoxville is a hilly town.

My Best Mate at the helm of Best Mate.

We left Knoxville on November 1^st and headed back down the Tennessee River to the Little Tennesse River and anchored in a quiet cove called Dead Cow.  We didn’t see any dead cows but suspect there must have been one here at some point in time. 

On November 2^nd we continued up the Little Tennessee River and anchored in front of a replica of a 1700’s British Fort, Fort Loudoun.  The fort was built to help garner Cherokee support for the British at the outset of the Seven Years War; the fort was one of the first significant British outposts west of the Appalachian Mountains.

 

We were fogged in this morning but as the fog cleared we had a beautiful day and cruise to our next anchorage at Turtle Cove.

Tomorrow we will start our journey south starting with our first lock at Fort Loudoun Dam.  Fort Loudoun Reservoir is the uppermost in the chain of nine TVA reservoirs that form a continuous navigable channel from here to Paducah Kentucky, 652 miles away.  We will travel about 400 miles on the Tennessee River before turning south on the Tenn-Tom waterway eventually ending up at Mobile,  Alabama and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.