Pebble Isle Marina to Pickwick Lake

Two more days to Pickwick Lake,  where the Tenn-Tom waterway starts the run toward Mobile.  We are not going that way this time. We intend to go toward Chattanooga, past Joe Wheeler State Park where the AGLCA rendezvous is to be held later in Oct.

We left Pebble Isle in the morning around 9:00 after breakfast (all-you-can-eat) .  It was clear, but rain was forecast for the afternoon.  We had planned to travel around 50 miles to an anchorage behind Double Island on the Tennessee River.  I figured that to make it before the rain hit, that I would need to go about 8 mph.  To do that I would need to run at 9 mph to make up for the current that we were facing. 

I forgot it was Sunday, every bass boat and Jon boat in the state of Kentucky was on the river today.  We don't make that much of a wake but I still slowed down a bit for some of those little Jon boats with a lot of people.  The go-fast bass boats that don't seem to care about the wake that they make, not so much!  Three or four cruisers coming down river came blasting by without a care.  No one seemed to get too upset.

Since the autopilot is doing most of the driving now, it gives me more time to get out the camera and take pictures.  As long as the isinglass is down, no problem, other wise I need to go unzip one far enough to get the lens through.

It's hard to tell from a distance just how much clearance there is on a bridge.  Especially if you are not paying attention to your paper charts.  From this distance, the bridge looks pretty tall.  Plenty of clearance right?

 

From this distance, not so much.  Actually we had 20 or so feet, but it came upon us so fast, I'm sure glad it wasn't 17 feet, or we may have scraped a few things.  From now on I'll pay more attention the night before when I'm plotting my course.

 

We got to our anchorage at Double Island just as the rain started.  We anchored in 13 feet of water behind an island just off of the Tennessee river.  I also put out an anchor on our stern.  The wind and the current could not make up their mind which one was stronger, the current facing us south or the wind trying to spin us around facing north.  With the stern anchor out we settled down facing west.  At least for a while.  As we went to bed, I had sight of a white light on the shore off to our port side.

 

In the middle of the night, I heard the wind beginning to blow and the rain really starting to come down hard.  I got up and looked out the window.  No light!!  I went on deck and saw that the wind had won the battle and we were headed straight north.  The anchor chain was making so much noise that it woke up Pat.  I think she stayed up most of the night because of the noise.

 

Note to self, finish the anchor snubber!!  It is a piece of 5/8" nylon line that takes the stress off of the anchor chain and windlass.  It protects the windlass from the pounding of the waves and quiets things down a lot.  I had started it before we left, but was missing a key component and was waiting until I could find it.  Now I realize that I need to finish it so we can use it, and make another proper one later.

 

We got started at 9:00 the next morning.  It rained all day.  It rained so hard for a few minutes, that I slowed down to a crawl,  turned the radar on, and set the plotter to 1/4 mile range just to make sure we were in the channel and that nothing was coming.  I could tell by the AIS, that nothing bigger than us was coming our way, but we slowed down anyway.  Luckily, the bad rain did not last long, and the rest of the day was just a slow drizzle.

 

The plan when we left that morning was to anchor out again, this time behind Diamond island.  It was about 8 miles away from Pickwick Dam.  The plan was to get up early, call the dam and see how soon in the morning we could get through the Dam.  After last nights anchoring fiasco, we were thinking that anchoring behind another island with the wind and the rain might not be a good idea.  I gave the Pickwick Lock and Dam a call and he said that he would have the lock turned around and waiting for us when we got there.  So we decided that we would continue through and anchor in Pickwick Lake in an anchorage listed on ActiveCaptain.com. 

 

Pickwick Lock and Dam

Open Lock

Doors closing

Lock full

Doors open and we leave

Peanut gallery watching the action

First  boat we met after Pickwick

 

 

 

We made it through Pickwick Lock (traveled up 53 ft)  and pressed on to our anchorage in Dry Creek,  arriving just before dark at 5:30.  By now the wind and rain had subsided.  During the day while the autopilot was driving, I completed the anchor snubber and we would use it tonight to see if it worked as it should.

 

 

 

 

Display as we enter Dry Creek anchorage