Lost in Time

After two or three days without cell phone service and Internet access, I feel lost in time… Is it Friday? Saturday? Sunday? Is this how retirees feel after awhile? A few days off the grid, and which day it is no longer seems to really matter…

Friday and Saturday were Tennessee cruising days. LONG cruising days. WHEW!


Friday: A full day of cruising Kentucky Lake. The lake is wide and LONG. Most of the large lakes that we have boated, have very few channel markers. But, Kentucky Lake is still navigable waterway (used by tug boats and such.) So, it has a clearly-marked channel (red buoys on one side, green buoys on the opposite bank.) So, while the lake looks deep from shore-to-shore, it actually has a “sweet spot” between the channel markers (where the original river runs/flows below.) The day seemed ENDLESS. We cruised, and cruised, and cruised… Since the lake is so wide, the banks pass more slowly, and time seems to stand still.

Since there is essentially no current here, I pushed the motors a little harder today (to see how fast we could cruise.) But, after about six hours or pushing them, one of my alarms went off! The motors looked good, as did the generator. The water temps were still cool (even cool enough to touch bare-handed.) And, the oil pressures were perfect. So, the alarm had to be someone else.

Our FIRST reaction to ANY alarm is to power-down (slow-down) and edge our way towards the bank (out of the main shipping channel.)

We cruised at idle speed for awhile, as I went below to investigate the cause of the issue. From what I could tell, the starboard transmission was running a little warmer than the port transmission. The slower speed caused the alarm to go quiet again (we were back within specs.) So, we backed off a few mph for the rest of the day, and all went well.

As the sun began to fade, we flipped through our Quimby’s Guide for a nearby marina/anchorage. In it, we found a pair of waterfront restaurants with safe/deep anchorage. What we WANTED was a place with decent shorepower (electric hookups) and a decent bar/restaurant to enjoy as well. Unfortunately, the electrical power at BOTH facilities was lacking. We had to move the boat around three or four times in an effort to find two outlets that wouldn’t pop breakers or would even WORK!

Just when we thought that we found an acceptable spot, and took a shower and such – a breaker would pop and we would loose power. So, we would disconnect all the lines, move the boat to another spot, hook everything up again, settle-in – then POP! I was about ready to toss something/someone into the river!!!

It was SUCH an inconvenience, that I didn’t want to reward the owners’ with our patronage at their restaurant. I was PREPARED to buy hundreds of dollars worth of diesel fuel, plus a full dinner + drinks for the two of us, plus overnight docking fees, tips, etc. – HUNDREDS of dollars. But, after a couple of hours of playing dock-hop with power cords and dock lines, there was NO WAY that I was going to spend another cent at either of these two places. (Well, I did purchase two bags of ice the next morning upon our departure…)

Saturday: Another FULL DAY of boating/cruising up the Tennessee River. Today, Kentucky Lake narrowed all day, and returned to a river-like waterway. Kentucky Lake is FULL of houseboats. Whereas, the river above it is FULL of pontoon boats.

It was a Saturday (weekend) after all. So, everyone who owns a boat, seemed to get out on the river today. All day long we were buzzed by jet skis, ski boats, runabouts, pontoon boats, and various other pleasure craft.

Around every bend, seemed to be another sandbar, with yet another Redneck Yacht Club assembly. The weekend boaters seemed to swarm us like gnats and mosquitoes – often following/training us to jump in our wake as we passed along.

We were like a semi-helpless big elephant, moving slowly through their turf. They would literally do circles around us to jump in our wake. We couldn’t out-run nor out maneuver them… We just had to accept their swarm…

By Saturday evening, it was apparent that we were nearing the end of this waterway. We had one last lock to pass-through, into the next “lake” on the Teneesee River.

We hadn’t seen a tug/tow/barge (underway) in what seemed like days. So, as we approached the lock, we assumed that we would have a quick lock-through (maybe with a handful of other pleasure boaters?) WRONG!!! Instead, they were locking a tug/barge down as we arrived. This meant that we had to wait about an hour for them to spit it out of the locks in front of us.

It was then our turn to lock-through, and to our surprise, we were again the ONLY boat to lock-through.

The sun was setting as we exited the lock. We made a quick bee-line run for what appeared on the charts to be a state park area. Instead, it appeared to be newly-developed with several multi-million-dollar homes. It was too late to hunt for another cove, we were going to have to make the most of this situation.

We found a small secondary cove (more like a nook) where we would be able to snuggle-in. It took us two or three attempts to get the bow (front) anchor line to “set” (hock-up) in the steep, rocky bottom. Since the cove was so shallow, we wanted a stern/aft (back) anchor line, too (to prevent us from swinging into shallow water or the shoreline.) We backed up as close to the shoreline as we dared, and tossed the anchor. But, like the bow anchor, it didn’t “catch” on the first attempt… The second attempt seemed promising (at first.) But, the anchor seemed to keep dragging… As I pulled it to the surface, it was heavier than usual. Sure enough, it had snagged onto a complete tree branch. But, the branch wasn’t enough to hold it to the bottom. So, I unsnagged the branch, and we prepared for our third attempt to secure the stern hook. We would try to get a bit closer to shore (in more shallow water) this time. We tossed the anchor as we approached the shallows, and then some IDIOT idles past us making the LARGEST WAKE possible!!!!! We were still in VERY shallow, rocky waters. We were at-risk of bouncing our hull on the hard bottom. We quickly maneuvered forward (into deeper water) to avoid disaster. But, just as we reversed our motors to stop our forward motion and halt us, we noticed that the entire spool of stern anchor line had gone over the railing during the quick-maneuver… GONE was out anchor, plus 50-feet of brand new anchor line.

But, wait! I could still see the spool floating on the surface!!! I ran to the stern to climb-down onto the swim platform, as Kelly reversed the motors to inch us backwards toward the spool. But, as we approached, it became too water-logged, and finally sank to the bottom – before we could capture it…

I was frustrated by the whole situation, and just wanted to hoist anchor and go to the nearest marina, and chalk this one up to Murphy and his laws. But, Kelly wanted me to make at least ONE attempt to find/recover the anchor. So, I secure the bow line/anchor, and had her back the motors against it – to keep it taunt and stationary in-place. I meanwhile grabbed my mask, fins and snorkel, and then jumped out into the now dark water.

I knew finding the anchor itself in the complete darkness was nearly impossible (distinguishing between a hard rock and a metal anchor with my feet would be difficult.) Son, instead, I decided to position myself between the anchor and the boat, and attempt to find the anchor line instead. I swam to the bottom, and then perpendicular to the line’s path. I couldn’t see ANYTHING. So, I just placed one hand on the bottom, and the other hand as high as I could (in case the line was semi-floating.) I then kicked/swam as long, had, and fast as I could. And, just when I was out of breath, I PUSHED and kicked/swam even HARDER – one last effort. Just as I was beginning to break-off my swim/search, my hand found the line, and I panic-swam towards the surface (not knowing how deep I really was anymore…)

But, I had done it! After all the chaos of anchoring, and then being nearly out-of-breath from swimming from the boat to the shoreline, and literally panting from the effort, I was able to muster enough air (and hold it) long enough to find our anchor line on my FIRST try!!!!

I traced the line backwards towards the shoreline to find the anchor. I then took it ashore, and literally hooked it into a tree/shrub. I then swam the line back to the boat, and BINGO – we now had a stern line, too! We were FINALLY dual-attached and safe for the night.

Mechanical Note: We are still battling alternator/generator gremlins. We spent our night at anchor without the generator, to see if the batteries would stay charged until morning. By morning, they had enough charge to only start ONE motor. So, there is something “leaking” our voltage overnight… (Still TBD…)

Also, as we anchored for the night, after a full day of cruising with the windows closed, and the AC on, the cabin was a bit “foggy?” I tried to troubleshoot the issue (assuming that it was maybe an exhaust leak from the generator all day?) But, couldn’t find any leak.

ENOUGH for one day! Time for bed!


Sunday morning, as mentioned above, we only hand enough battery power to start ONE of our two motors. So, we started the generator, too. (It has its own separate, brand-new battery.) With it started and running for about 60 minutes, we were then able to charge-up the house batteries and start the second motor.

We want to FIND/FIX these charging/electrical demons!!! So, today, we would only cruise a very short distance (about 10 miles.) But, it’s “key” 10 miles. During these 10 miles, we will exit the Tennessee River, and enter the Tenn-Tom Waterway. We will also exit Tennessee, and enter Mississippi & Alabama.


We will spend the next 24-48 hours at a boat slip in a marina. Swimming pools, hot tubs, courtesy cars, cable TV, free WiFi internet, etc., etc. I will spend much of my time down in the bilge, however, chasing electrical gremlins. (Wish me luck!) Oh, and that smoke-like fog that was filling the cabin yesterday? It turns out that it was an exhaust leak (two actually) on the port motor. There is a large-diameter, LONG host (exhaust hose) than runs from each motor, back through the walls of the cabin (each side) and then out the stern/back of the boat. The hose for the port motor developed TWO holes/leaks (one beneath the bed, and the other behind Kelly's bedside table.) I have fixed both of them. We have been pretty successful in ridding the boat of the smell of diesel fuel (except for our pillows.) Hopefully, this will resolve the pillow smell/issue, too... (Note to self: If it SMELLS like a problem, then it probably IS a problem!)


Nick (& Kelly.)