OK Boat Trip, Day 3, 4/27/08

Since this was an "easy day" (good weather, no locks, no problems, etc), thought we'd note some things about travelling by boat. This is the pilothouse where we spend most of the day. There are 2 bench seats, 2 countertop areas, and we also keep our freezer here since it just so happens to fit in an available storage space. Pilothouses are nice because they are fully enclosed and protect you from the elements with a hardtop, glass windows, fiberglass/wooden walls. Some boats come with an upper and lower helm, meaning you can pilot the boat from the top deck and inside the salon area, and some only have the upper helm which can be open-air or enclosed with canvas and flexible glass materials. We have 2 VHF radios for communication with other boats, marinas, lockmasters, etc. There are 2 depthfinders to display the depth and contour of the river bottom. We also have radar which is very helpful in fog, bad weather, night-time travel (we don't recommend any of those but radar is nice if you find yourself in those conditions). Even though we have paper chartbooks for all our routes, we also use a computer program called MapTech which is a digital version of the same charts. Our GPS is coupled with the MapTech charts on our laptop and a digital "boat" displays our current position and updates as we progress along our route. That's enough of Boating 101.

We left Clifton Marina at 6:40 AM so we could get ahead of some bad weather forecast for the afternoon. Rhonda was a sleepyhead this morning so I did it all and she joined me in the pilothouse about 9:30 after getting everything downstairs organized. The pic above is approaching twin bridges in New Johnsonville, TN, about 5 miles from our destination for today at Pebble Isle Marina, mm 96 on the TN River. We had previously passed under the I-40 bridge also. So, we traveled 62 miles today and we did beat the weather. Since we missed church this morning, we managed to get to Trace Creek Baptist Church in New Johnsonville for the evening service. Most marinas have courtesy cars available for transient boaters for any supplies, needs, or interests they may have while in the area.

Help Me Rhonda at Pebble Isle Marina

Our destination tomorrow is Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, KY, close to the end of the TN River. Green Turtle Bay is actually on the Cumberland River which is connected to the TN River in that area by a short man-made canal. We'll probably continue to the Ohio River via the Cumberland since several boaters have recommended that route over the last few miles of the TN, primarily because the lock on the TN in that area is usually heavily congested. There's also a good anchorage at the Cumberland and Ohio rivers intersection for our first night on the Ohio.