A Lock Too Far....

 Apologies to the late Cornelius Ryan for bastardizing his title but that's truly what it felt like... 

Our planned trip to Pittsburgh and beyond was dashed when the Corps moved a scheduled lock closure up a week. We could have made it there but getting back would have been an ordeal and several days waiting to get through. We ended up 90 miles short in Wheeling, WV. OK...enough of the whining and on to the trip!

As I said in the last post it was a whopping 8 mile day to the anchorage behind Riverbend Music Center and the Jimmy Buffett show! We were the first ones there at noon and got a good spot.

 By concert time there were more boats and a great crowd inside from the sound of it. We were joined by looper friends on Still Waters II who happened to be on their way back down from Pittsburgh.

And friends at home were watching the concert on the computer and captured a few screen shots of the river. Thanks Bryan & Vickie!!

So the next day we were on our way upriver. Part of the charm of the Ohio above Cincinnati is how many small river towns there are and many have free docks or walls where you can tie up and visit the town. One of the early stops was Point Pleasant, WV. I'm sure you are all familiar with this town and the legend of the Mothman. You have heard of him, right?? We made sure to get to the museum before it closed so we could have at least 30 minutes for the tour...

Outside is the pride of Pt. Pleasant, the Mothman sculpture...

One of the things we were faced with on the way up was debris in the river. There had been rains upriver before we started up and some areas still had logs and such floating down. Below is one example at the Pt. Pleasant dock.

This one was from a different storm but it's an example of what can happen when the streams that flow into the river get a heavy storm. The big "blobs" in the picture are actually round bales of hay floating in the river!!

There are few marinas that handle a boat our size in this part of the river but the ones that we can get into have a ton of charm and "character". From the collection of "dock carts" at Holiday Point...

...to this fine whip we were able to use for a grocery run in Portsmouth, OH.

Another interesting dock we spent the night was an old lock wall. When the Ohio river locks were modernized many of the old locks were turned into parks by the local communities. 

The scenery just kept improving the father we went upriver. The mountains come right down to the river and something new is around every bend.

Passing on the "two".

Speaking of Tows (I am now), we had an interesting experience after passing one heading upriver. I got a call on the radio to ask if I could "help him out". You never leave a boater needing help so, of course, I said yes! Turns out he had launched a crew boat (jon boat) to put a guy on shore and it quit running and was drifting down river. We went back and got a line on the boat...

And towed them back to the tow. I've never done a touch and go with a moving tow but we made it OK and Jill was calm and cool under pressure!!

And this is the price you pay for being a "nice guy". Aluminum and fiberglass don't play well together!

So, as I said before, Wheeling was the end of the trip for us. One bonus that helped ease the sting a bit was that we got there just in time for their annual Italian Fest held right on the riverfront!

 On the way back we stopped in Marietta, OH which is a cool little town with a rich steamboat and river history. We took the dinghy a few miles up the Muskingum River to the first dam. The locks are some of the few hand operated locks still operating in the US.

 On the way back downriver we tried to stop in the towns we didn't see on the way up. One morning we had a bit of delay due to fog. Even though we have AIS and radar it's supposed to be pleasure boating. The tows don't stop running in the fog and it would have been pretty stressful. Do you see the tow in the picture?

So we're back in Cincinnati for what has been another way too short visit. We didn't get to see people we had hoped to visit but hopefully we'll catch up with you all soon. We're heading out tomorrow for the run down the Ohio and back to the lakes of Kentucky and Tennessee before, eventually, continuing south to Florida for the winter. Tune into the tracker and NEBO to follow along...

BTW, the Mayflies are back in Cincinnati.

Green Turtle Bay to Cincinnati

 We left Green Turtle Bay on Lake Barkley bright and early since we knew we'd have a push against us once we hit the Ohio and headed upstream. My sister Kathy joined us for the trip up. We made good time through the first lock and down the 30 miles of the Cumberland River. Once we made the turn onto the Ohio our speed dropped to just over 5 mph since we were right below the Smithland Dam. Above the lock we were able to get back to about 8.5 mph and made our first stop at a little floating restaurant in Elizabethtown, IL. Glad that there wasn't another boat there already....

 The next day we made a long run to Evansville, IN. and spent one night in each of their smaller marinas. We topped of fuel since we wouldn't have many opportunities until Louisville. Inland Marina has a small floating tiki bar and we had plenty of entertainment on a Saturday night.

The next day we met back up with our friends on Best Mate for a short day to a free dock in Owensboro, KY. 

A bit above Owensboro we were reminded of why you don't want to travel when the rivers are running high. A bridge we passed collected plenty of the bigger debris that is in the river and you don't want to find.

The next 2 nights we anchored in small rivers just off the Ohio. There aren't many marinas in the stretch below Louisville. With 2 boats each of us dropped anchors in opposite directions and we tied our sterns together. There isn't much room to swing in these spots.

It was in the 90's during this part of the trip so it was nice to spend a few hours floating in the water and cooling down before turning in early. This little fells seemed to enjoy our ladder for a rest...

We had a wait of a few hours for the lock just below Louisville and it rained hard while we were waiting but cleared up just before we got into the lock. It was nice to spend the weekend of the 4th in Louisville since there was plenty to see and do.

One interesting event was the annual hatching of Mayflies. One morning we awoke to quite a few covering the boat but that night at dusk they came out for real. I know the picture just looks grainy but there are thousands if you zoom in.

  It was 3 more easy travel days to our old home town of Cincinnati. We were very lucky to have family and friends along the riverfront to document our triumphant return! From the top if the Bengals stadium...

From the Kentucky shore...

And the riverfront park...

We were able to get a spot in our old marina and, amazingly, got all of our old E Dock crew together for a fantastic Sunday Funday!! I'll admit that I was a little hurtin' this morning. E Dock still rocks!!

So tomorrow we start the next leg of the adventure. It'll be a short day to anchor behind Riverbend Music Center for the return of concerts and Jimmy Buffett to town! It's always a party in the parking lot and on the river. I'll be sure to get some pictures for the next update. And yes, cheeseburgers are on the menu!

The Fog Lifts....

 While it's frustrating waiting out repairs while we want to be moving it's just part of boating. In the end we were delayed just under 2 weeks, no big deal. The last thing you're supposed to have on a boat is a schedule. With the rain having finally stopped (we got over 10") we enjoyed a nice sunset before heading out last Thursday.

We were underway early to be sure the repairs were all good before heading through our last lock on the Tennessee.

As we approached Pickwick Lock the gates opened and we were tied up in no time. We did have to wait a bit for 2 other boats but it wasn't long. We were soon down and let the other 2 out first since they seemed to be traveling faster than us.

So other than being hot it was a pleasant 3 day trip to Green Turtle Bay on Lake Barkley where we would catch up with friends and pick up sister Kathy for the trip up the Ohio. Along the way we passed a new paddle wheel cruise ship in it's first year of operation. 

The last day was a Saturday and the lake became alive the closer we got to GTB.

Sunday night we had dinner at the club to be sure Chasing 80 was still hiding behind the bourbon...it is!

Tomorrow we'll set off for the Ohio River. After making good time traveling down the Tennessee it'll feel pretty slow as we turn into the current. 

I'll leave off with a few pics of the work we did this year before heading out. We were so happy with the non-skid from last year we decided to tackle the fly bridge. It's a much smaller area but there were still plenty of holes to fill first.

 We also put a top coat on the teak so it will hold up in the summer sun.

And finally, we added some new lighting to complete the flybridge update. It's always fun to add a bit of bling to this old girl...

So tune into the tracker or NEBO starting tomorrow as we start up the Ohio. We're planning about a week to Louisville where we'll spend the 4th of July weekend. 

Boating Daze

 It seems that if you boat (or do anything, I guess) long enough you'll run into a stretch of bad luck. You know, days when it seems you just can't catch a break...the boat gods are against everything you try to do. That's the funk I seem to be into right now. The good news is it never lasts too long and no one will listen to you complain while you're living on a "yacht"...except fellow boaters...they have to listen.

The night before we set out on this years adventure was beautiful with a classic "red sky at night" sunset that seemed to bode well for our journey.

The next day we got underway a bit late as we wanted to take our time after a long winter lay-up. Everything went smoothly and we waved goodbye to good friends we have made during out time at Goose Pond. Before long we were 20 miles down river and passing under the Main Channel bridge one last time.

We got to the Lake Guntersville Lock shortly after the bridge and got through with no delay. Since we were making such good time and everything was working well we decided to bypass our planned stop in Huntsville and continue on to Decatur, AL. We hoped to shorten up our second day which had some rain in the forecast. The sad news was the Hard Dock restaurant was closed since they had been open Monday for the holiday...maybe this was the first omen?

The next day came with a light rain in the morning. We didn't get away from the dock until 11:00 when things cleared up. Immediately outside of the marina is the very busy Decatur RR bridge which we needed to open. He said there was a train coming and we'd get through right after...45 minutes later the train finally showed up! 

No big deal, the sky's were getting brighter and everything was going well. We had 2 options for the night and I was hoping for option #2 in Florence, AL which would put us through 2 more locks and make the next day easy. Well, we got to Joe Wheeler Lock with no other traffic in sight and he told us to tie up to the wall and wait, they were working on an electrical problem. So we waited...An hour and a half later I could see the afternoon showers and storms were starting to build ahead of us. I decided to go back to the state park and called the lock to let him know. Just then the gates began to open and he said to come on in. So in we went and down and out the other side in no time. Problem was, once out on lake Wilson the sky's turned that ugly shade of grey/green and I could see that we were about to run into a wall of rain. And we did...It was the ugliest weather I have ever experienced on a boat. The winds were so strong I thought the isinglass windows on the bridge were going to blow in, the deck chairs both flew up and got wedged in other parts of the boat (I don't know how we didn't loose them). There was zero visibility past the bow pulpit and radar was useless, just a big pink blob of rain. Thankfully we had been this way before and had track lines I could follow at idle speed, it was too dangerous to just stop as we were very near shore and probably would have been blown into it. And then the lightning started...it was about the only thing I could see outside the windows! 3 hours later we finally could see the sky getting brighter and make out the trees on the shoreline (OK, maybe it was 20 minutes but it felt like hours). I can honestly say that going through that lock was the dumbest move I've ever made in boating. Jill was kind enough to point out that there were no weather warnings issued until after we were in it. 

Once through the storm it became clear and very calm. It was actually a very pleasant rest of the trip except for the constant kicking of myself for being such an idiot.  We called Florence Marina and told them not to wait up for us, we knew where to go. 

So we finally got to Florence and tied up about 7:30. It had been a very stressful day and I was ready for a beer! Once we got the boat plugged in there was no power...uh oh! Turns out Florence had "upgraded" to the new ELCI current protection since our last visit and we tripped it. Funny thing is we had been to these types of marinas before with no issue and it tripped with the boat breakers off. That's not supposed to happen. I just chalked it up to water being where it wasn't supposed to be from the storm. At least the restaurant was open and the beer was cold. 

The next day was indeed easy as we traveled to Aqua Yacht near Iuka, MS. Our good friends on Best Mate were there and we were planning to travel together down the river to Green Turtle Bay. But first, a much needed off day. I did make a slight adjustment to the NEBO tracker (which seems to be working better) but other than that it was a kick back day.

Early Saturday morning we were off and headed toward Pickwick Lock which would be our last for awhile. Once close we were told to just hang out as there was a tow coming through and it would be a bit. As we idled in the lake I took a look out the back of the boat and there was a heavy sheen of oil on the water coming from our exhaust! It looked like we were floating over a wounded U-Boat!! We decided it was best to head back to Aqua to assess since there were no services where we were headed for a few days. 

Once back and into a slip I found Diesel Don (remember him) standing on the dock because he was working on the boat in front of us. He looked in the water at the oil and said "turbo". I couldn't believe it would be since it's the one I had rebuilt last year! Luckily it was raining the next day and he couldn't work on a boat in the yard so he came to us. After going through the possible problems he decided to check the turbo first. 

 The red circle in the picture is the outlet from the "cool" side of the turbo...it was full of oil...Apparently we got a very bad rebuild job from the shop in Paducah last year. Well, it was good to get a quick answer to the problem. We took it to a different shop yesterday and by the afternoon found out that the housing was cracked! How does that happen?? Now we just sit and wait for parts. And its been raining for 3 days with one more in the forecast...hopefully I'll be out of my Boating Daze by the weekend!

Stand by for updates....

<edit> The sun just came out!! Thanks for listening to my rant....

2020 Wrap-up

 So once again I've been a bad blogger....Rest assured that we're both fine and fully vaxed so the Rona didn't get us. Honestly, when we got back to the house last fall we just got caught up in doing house stuff and enjoying SWFL. Bad excuse I know.

I'll pick up with the windless project from last spring. In the process of painting the non-skid the windless came off to help clear the work area. It was looking pretty sad from 30 some years of use.

A search of the Google machine found a chrome shop fairly close in Rome, GA. Once we got it to him we found out that it would take 8 weeks to get back! Turns out everyone was now working on their long forgotten classic car projects. Well, we had plenty to keep us busy with the other projects so it was no big deal. It came back looking great and was a nice touch to the updates.

Our original plan for 2020 was to travel the Ohio river all the way to Pittsburg but with COVID shutting things down we decided to scale back and travel the length of the Tennessee instead. When they closed the swing set here at the campground we knew that it was time to get moving. Seems pretty funny in hindsight.

We got moving in early July and headed downriver toward our old home at Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, KY. We had visited many of these stops on past trips but there is always something new along the way. One sight was a barge used to transport rockets from Huntsville, AL to points south. It has an interesting shape and must be a handful in any wind.

Another familiar stop is in Florence, AL. We were happy to see that the restaurant was open for outside dining.

 

Another favorite stop is at Aqua Yacht in Iuka, MS. This marina is just off the Tennessee at the top of the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway that leads to Mobile. We spent a few days here just relaxing after all the hard work. It's nice to be moving again! We took the dinghy out for some exploring.

 I'm not sure if we've ever crossed a state line in the dinghy but did on this trip.

A bit farther down the Tennessee we passed an area where there had been a landslide earlier in the year. The destruction was pretty sad to see. These homes had been high on a bluff and quite far from the river. It must have been quite a storm. You can read a bit about it here.

The last day of travel from Paris, TN to GTB brought a bit of unwanted excitement. Typically during our travels I'll go into the engine room to check on things and shoot various spots on the engines with a temp gun to confirm everything is operating normally. This day I noticed that the engine room was abnormally hot. Every temp on both engines was exactly where it should be but something was not right. Back at the helm we have a remote temp readout that said it was 130 degrees which is much warmer than usual. With all engine gauges normal we slowed down some and limped into GTB with no clear idea of what the problem could be. After giving the ER a day to cool down, I began investigating the next morning. After a bit of probing around I finally found the culprit. The fitting that connects the turbo to the exhaust had corroded away and separated. The turbo was just spewing hot gas into the engine room.

Luckily Paducah, KY was close by and has a very good turbo shop. It's actually the same shop that rebuilt our injectors. We dropped it off on Monday and by Friday had it back on the boat looking like new.

We had planned on spending a week at GTB anyway so there was really no delay, just a hit to the credit card... Also while there we picked up our most traveled guest, sister Kathy. She was joining us for the upriver leg of the trip. 

After the repairs we decided to take a short trip up the Cumberland river to check things out and visit friends. Along the way we passed the "big house", a place best seen from the outside!

Kathy Pic

Apparently they also keep an eye on us boaters to be sure we don't have nefarious plans...or maybe he's just wishing he was out here too...

Kathy Pic

All went well on the shakedown cruise and a few days later we were heading back up the Tennessee. It's nice to have a extra hand on board and Kathy helps out any way she can, including locking...

She also takes some great pictures to help with the blog. This Osprey nest is one of them.

One interesting thing we saw was the unique system they use when releasing water from the Wheeler lock. We were delayed while they locked through a split tow so we got to see this a few times. As they release water to lower the lock it churns up through a "pit" in the river. I've got a short video below.

While waiting for the lock Kathy was able to capture a bird doing some fishing.

Got It!

Get In My Belly!

There are also some very nice homes in this lower part of the river.

Kathy Pic

Sometimes while on a boat you have to wait for train traffic to pass just like in a car as seen here in Decatur, AL.

The following picture are just some of the impressive homes lining the river leading up to Knoxville. Most aren't my style but they are impressive!

This one is my style, do you see it?

Look closer...

A few more...

I do like the party castle on this one.

And one last one. I do like his daily commute helo.

Finally we arrive at Knoxville.

And we continued a few miles farther to where the Tennessee river is formed at the confluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers.

After a great trip along the length of the Tennessee Kathy jumped ship in Knoxville and left Jill & I to return the boat to Scottsboro, AL where we would prepare her for winter and drive back to Florida. We did take a side trip up the Little Tennessee river where we were in the foothills of the Smokie Mts. Too bad it was a bit cloudy.

So there you have our 2020 update. Not what we had planned (was anyone's?) but we had a great trip and found most towns "somewhat" open.

This year we "plan" on doing that Ohio river trip. We'll be underway about June 1 heading back down river to GTB where we'll prepare for the trip up the Ohio. I promise I'll try to be a better blogger along the way. As always, you'll be able to follow along using the Locate Us link on the upper right of this page along with the NEBO app if you use that (you should, it's free) just search for Chasing 80 in the app.

At the risk of being TL:DR I do have a bit of housekeeping.

1) I've been notified that Feedburner will no longer be supporting the feature that sends out e-mails of each update as of sometime in July. If you get updates from us via e-mail you may want to bookmark this page and check in every once in awhile. It says there is a way for me to capture the subscribed e-mails and send out the link another way but I haven't figured it out yet. 

2) Jerry A, if you see this the pump kit worked perfectly, thanks. Enjoy your retirement but I'll need you to send me your cell number for any further issues I may have. :)  Seriously, Thank You for all your help through the years!