Headed for Chattanooga

We're On The Home Stretch

There is a stretch of the Tennessee River that I have often driven by on the highway.  The highway makes a long loop and follows the river for two or three miles.  In our goings and comings to the boat, I have often thought that one of these days I am going to be on the boat going up that stretch of river while the drivers in cars are that are driving by are thinking:  "How cool... I'd like to be doing that."  Well, today, I got to do it, and I savored every mile of it.  It was also the spot that we caught up with the Lady in Red.  I don't know if they pulled over someplace and had a bite of lunch or we were just pulling a couple more knots of speed.  However, I slowed to their eight knot speed and we followed them into Chattanooga.  Just before we got to the city docks at Chattanooga, we passed one of the party/dinner boats which runs out of Chattanooga.  I think my daughter and her husband, Chris, took this boat on a dinner cruise.

It looks like fun to me and someone else is driving

Once in the city, they radioed to the city docks, which are beautiful and right downtown.  Apparently, they were going to stay there and explore the city a little.  We on the other hand were looking for the VFW dock. We found the VFW dock covered in yellow caution tape.  It looked like a crime scene.  Actually, the dock looked like it had been damaged in one of our violent spring storms.  So we chugged up the river trying to decide if we should anchor out for the night.

We didn't stay at the city dock but I will sometime

A little farther up the river, we found ourselves in an area that had some marinas which didn't seem to be welcoming the public or transient boats as they had absolutely no signage even indicating that they had fuel for sale.  The good news was we were on a stretch of river that had many walled inlets and so we decided to stay on the hook for the night.   We got the anchor down and, while we swung to and fro, we seemed to be holding alright.


I kicked back and relaxed while the boys started catching fish.  When the sun finally fell behind the trees, the temperature dropped enough to become pleasant.  But before that happened, Mitchell was appalled when he saw the old fat man strip down to his "whitie tighties" and get into the lake.  Ah, instant heat relief.  And then for a cold beer and a cigar.  I got up twice in the night to make sure we weren't drifting away into the channel.  But everything was going according to plan.  We were right where we were supposed to be.

It's hard to beat a view like this when you're anchored out

The next morning after coffee and a few calculations, I headed out.  I say "I" because neither of my crew members had yet gotten up.  But upon hearing the engine start and feeling us move, they were soon up and around. That morning as we plodded along, I got to thinking that we had not had an engine problem since we left Orange Beach, Florida, and the fuel was now clean enough that, when I drained the sight glasses, I was able to put it back in and use it.

The only mishap had been that the Garmin simply quit working.  We determined that it isn't an electrical problem, so we are shipping it off to Garmin repair in Kansas.  For a mere $240 they will (reportedly) send it back as good as new no matter if it just quit or was laying in a hundred feet of water for a week.  We shall see.  I do have a reflection on the Garmin.  When I first got it, it was nice, however I had wished that I had a bigger, fancier one on the bridge.  Now, after having it fail, my thinking is going in a little different direction.  Since the beginning of the trip the device has gone in price from just under a thousand dollars to just under five hundred dollars.  Soon to be three fifty, possibly.  I am now thinking in terms of buying a second one , the same make and model that will accept the navigation chips that I own.  In this manner we will have an instant back up.  And the darn thing, like so many electrical items in today's world, does five times more than I am looking for anyway.  Being without one on the inland lakes and rivers is not a big issue but be in the Gulf of Mexico and it becomes a whole 'nuther story.

We hadn't gone too far when we decided we needed fuel so we pulled into Sale Creek Marina at Marker 495.2 on Chickamauga Lake.  It is a well marked channel and a pretty setting, well shaded.  If I had known about it ahead of time, I might have just made it my anchor out spot and fueled first thing.  There are no amenities there for the crew that I saw but they do repairs, have fuel and a few supplies for the boat.  Fueled up, we went back out into the main channel and headed for Euchee Marina on Watt's Bar Lake.