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!

19 COVID Boat Projects

So OK...I don't know if we've done 19 projects yet but it sure feels like it. Guess I was just looking for a catchy title.

As things were getting serious with the Rona we decided to travel back to the boat which is in a pretty low population area in NW Alabama. Figured we'd get some more projects done on Chasing 80 before heading out for a summer cruise. Well we dove in head first and really got some things done in a couple of months.

We started off fairly easy with a new microwave install. The old one was original 1986 vintage and beginning to sound louder every time we used it. 

Next we decided to repaint the forward hatch since we had some Hatteras Off White left over from painting the back door. The prep was pretty easy since there was no paint left on the aluminum anyway.

Next it was time to break out the buffer for a coat of wax. This is a week long project in itself. 

And we wax on..... I'd almost forgot about the new horns till I saw this picture. The old ones mainly squeaked when you honked them.

 

So while we were working on the hatch and waxing I kept looking at the decks which had been bugging me for a couple of years. Jill was a bit skeptical when I told her it was time to repair and repaint all the non skid but I assured her that I had watched several YouTube videos and was sure we could pull it off!

I ordered all the materials from a company in Maine so had a bit of time to do more research. Frankly, I was terrified I was going to screw something up.

We decided to do the bow pulpit first since it was the smallest area and had no defects to repair. This gave us a chance to learn the technique of working with the product. The company recommends 3 thin coats. We removed what we could and taped the rest and got it cleaned up for painting. Just like most projects the time is spent in the preparation. We went with a more "sand" color to give the decks a bit of contrast.

With a bit of concern after the first 2 coats I called the company who suggested switching from a foam roller to a short nap (their directions call for foam). I was very happy after the 3rd coat and we decided to press on. 

 

The pulpit was the easy part of the project. Next we were about to do what really scared me...taking a Dremel tool to the deck!! The deck had several dings and chips from 30 some years of traffic and they had to be fixed before painting.

First you have to grind out the defects.

Then fill with epoxy fairing compound.

Next you sand most of it off to get a smooth surface.

And apply primer and sand again.

Last step is applying miles of masking tape.....

But again, it's all about the prep to get a great result! We are both very happy with the way it turned out.

The only downside to this project is matching the 34 year old Hatteras Off White to the current color on the shiny parts of the Toe Rail. This is turning out to be a bit of science project adding a drop or 2 of color tint to the base color trying to get close. We're closer but not quite there yet.

Several of the other projects involved changing filters and impellers on the engines and generator to get ready for the season. One thing that was above my pay grade was pulling the injectors and having them rebuilt. We had a bit of unburned diesel fuel in the exhaust of one  engine at the end of last season and I felt the injectors were the problem. Luckily I found that we are docked right behind the famous Diesel Don and happened to run into him on the dock. He wasn't busy (which is rare) and was on the boat a few days later. The next week all injectors were re-installed and the valves adjusted so we're ready to roll.

 

After the work we actually got away from the dock to test things and she ran great. Best of all, no more fuel in the exhaust.

We also had some "fun" projects along the way. While getting ready to wax the hull we decided to rehab the CCC badges from the front. They were looking pretty sorry including one missing tip from a gulf crossing that was rougher than forecast....

Before,

And after...

Jill also decided to rehab our trusty "Shut the Box" game that lives on the flybridge and has seen many years of sun.

And since we had non skid paint left over it was time to finally remove the old davits from the swim platform, repair the holes (arrow) and paint on.....

So there you have the latest update on projects, did we make 19? I didn't even mention the new shower pumps (x2) or the ice-maker install or washer/drier door repair or the re bedding of deck hardware.....no pictures=didn't happen ;)

We're now touching up a few areas with wax and waiting for the return of our windless (it'll get a separate entry). Hopefully everything will be complete and we can get moving around July 4th. We plan to start with a trip down river to visit our old friends at Green Turtle Bay and we'll see where the weather and virus takes us from there....