Adventures (and Misadventures) of Elliott and Mary

Issue 20 - October, 2005: Up  the Tennessee (heading South) from Green Turtle Bay to Pickwick Lake and Aqua Harbor Marina

 
 
 

We left Green Turtle about 8am on Sunday 10/2/2005. We stopped at the fueldock to say some last "good byes" and then set out. Green Turtle is on the Cumberland River but there is a channel just around the cornor which connects with the Tennessee.     We were actually in that part of the Tennessee named 'Kentucky Lake', a beautiful, wide expanse of water. The water is reasonably  deep but the TVA has started their winter 'pull-down' and the lake is down about 5 feet from normal pool. There are now more shallow parts along some of the edges that are to be avoided. We pulled a sailboat off one of them in a somewhat stressful exercise.

 

Part of our reasoning behind staying up here for the winter is that we want to explore this part of the country next summer. It is absolutely gorgeous.
 

This is on Kentucky Lake.
 
 

We were like the old horse heading for the barn. We were in the "moving on" mode. Our winter quarters were just a couple of days journey ahead  and we'll be back through here next year anyhow. 70 and 80 mile days are long since Letitia is a 'full displacement' boat. This implies that out TOP speed - no wind, no current - is just a shade over 9 miles per hour. The furthur we went up the river the narrower it got and the faster the current was against us. We were down in the 7 mph range and sometimes less than that.
 

The Paris Landing State Park Marina was a nice stop and we saw what looked like a good anchorage for the next night.
 

Double Islands (probably two at one time, looks like just one now) is a fairly big piece of land in a bend of the river with a channel behind it. (Think the letter 'D' with the top being the upstream end). The upstream end looked shallow enough that we came in from the bottom and left the same way. Spent a good night before heading off as the early morning fog lifted.
 

We got to Pickwick Lock and Dam about 4pm and into Aqua Harbor a few minutes before 5. Just in time, they close at 5pm.
The dockmaster was able to give us the slip number and we were home!!

We will spend the winter in Austin, Texas and head back here next spring sometime. We have a 6 month lease so we'll probably be on the road again (so to speak) next April.

We will keep you informed.
 

Till Later!!
 
 

The Captain and Mary