We left Green Turtle Bay yesterday after a fuel up, and traveled through the Barkley Canal to Kentucky Lake. We went a mere 12 miles down the lake (traveling south, but going upstream, very little current) and dropped the hook in Sugar Bay. As you can see from the pictures, the leaves are turning and it's a very beautiful anchorage, even with the cloud cover. We went for a dinghy ride, pulled the dinghy up on the shore and went for a hike. Marty and Jerry (from Monarch) were anchored there as well and they came over to our place and went through all the Florida Gulf Coast charts with us so we could mark their recommended anchorages. They've cruised there several times and had great suggestions for us.
Today, we traveled another 30 miles down the Lake and are at Paris Landing State Park Marina where they only charge 75 cents per foot for transient overnight dockage and they have WiFi. Absolutely no cell phone signal. It's about 70 degrees and partly sunny (or is that partly cloudy). We just got back from a walk around the campgrounds and docks. After a couple of "short" driving days, we are feeling ready to put some miles on tomorrow. We'll look at the guidebooks tonight to figure out how far to go. Moon Beam and Monarch went further than us today, but we're sure we'll encounter them somewhere down the line.
We continue to learn more ways to make life aboard better. Steve learned that the anchor windlass has a "clutch" in it that he can tighten, so today when we raised the anchor ... whamm, it pulled it right up and all the way into the anchor thingy that holds it. We continue to be enamored with our navigation electronics. The "chart plotter" is like your car GPS, obviously for a boat and we also have all the charts for the trip on Steve's laptop which has a little GPS on a cord that plugs into the USB. We run them both as we travel and they show you exactly where you are. As we get further south, we are getting more detail on them, like showing depth and even all the buoys. So we are constantly checking the charts and staying on the lookout for the buoys. Even though the Lake is 3 miles wide, there is a marked channel that a boat with a 3 foot draft (us) should not stray out of. Good thing we have Auto (Pilot) holding the course for us so we can do all this, plus eat and read and stuff.
We continue to learn more ways to make life aboard better. Steve learned that the anchor windlass has a "clutch" in it that he can tighten, so today when we raised the anchor ... whamm, it pulled it right up and all the way into the anchor thingy that holds it. We continue to be enamored with our navigation electronics. The "chart plotter" is like your car GPS, obviously for a boat and we also have all the charts for the trip on Steve's laptop which has a little GPS on a cord that plugs into the USB. We run them both as we travel and they show you exactly where you are. As we get further south, we are getting more detail on them, like showing depth and even all the buoys. So we are constantly checking the charts and staying on the lookout for the buoys. Even though the Lake is 3 miles wide, there is a marked channel that a boat with a 3 foot draft (us) should not stray out of. Good thing we have Auto (Pilot) holding the course for us so we can do all this, plus eat and read and stuff.
But the BEST improvement is my new seating discovery. I've been complaining that I have to stand all the time at the lower helm in order to see, and yesterday, i realized that i could sit on the port side counter top and put my legs through the pass through and have my own personal "pilot house". If you've been on our boat, perhaps you can imagine it, but here's a picture and wow it's great. Necessity is indeed the mother of invention, can't believe i didn't think of this sooner.
2 comments:
Love your new perch Liz! The way you write makes this come alive for those of us stuck in cold country.
I have been enjoying your blog. I am happy you have this. I keep checking up on you and your adventure.
Take care...
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