Week 17
Week 17
Nov. 3- Nov 9
Monday
We left Decatur Alabama before 8 am. It was a bit foggy and quite cold. It was still really cloudy.
We traveled 48 nautical miles under a railroad bridge that had to be lifted for us, and through one lock to Guntersville, AL. As the day went on the sun came out and it was the most beautiful calm ride. It was a long day. We tied up to the city harbor dock at 3:30pm.
So many establishments are closed on Mondays. The others closed at 5 pm.
We walked up a couple of blocks to main street. It was only about 4 blocks long but really nice.
Tuesday
We walked almost 2 miles to an Ace hardware to get a part for our leaking water heater and a few other things. Ace didn't have the correct fitting for our boat since it's a French boat. We'll have to order the correct part. Ed bought something to coble together a solution for now.
We cruised 48 nautical miles to battery hills anchorage. We took 5.5 hours to get there.
We are at mile marker 412 on the Tennessee river.
It was a beautiful cruise. It just gets better and better every day.
After we set the anchor we did boat chores and work. Ed put his part on the water heater for a temporary fix. The water was perfectly smooth so we didn't have the slapping sound all night. We were by a train though. Ugh!
Wednesday
We were delayed from departing for almost 2 hours due to heavy fog. We pulled up anchor and in the process lost the forward pulpit roller in the anchor. The screw must have come loose or broken off. It fell in the river! We secured the anchor but now we can't use it until we get the part. We'll have to order it and have it delivered to a marina. We can't leave Chattanooga until we have an anchor we can use because we have to anchor down the Tennessee river.
Between our delayed departure and the anchor problem we were in a bind to teach our institute class. We were planning on just dropping the anchor and teaching for an hour! We had a lock to get through and couldn't get service down in there. With 5 minutes to spare, we got out of the lock, hooked up the starlink and Ed started class while I drove the boat. Then when it was my turn to teach Ed drove. We managed to teach the class without any problems.
We traveled just 12 nautical miles to a free dock in Shellmound rec area, Tennessee. We could stay the night there for free! We crossed the stateline back into Tennessee. It was a gorgeous warm sunny day, around 70°.
We went for a beautiful walk in the woods, Ed worked on our stereo system and helped another looper boat tie up. Tonight the moon was the brightest it has been all year. We got some pics.
Thursday
The water dropped 2 feet over night on the river. They let it out the dams to plan for rain upriver. No warning. The boat got a few new scratches where the fenders were no longer protecting it against the now much higher fixed dock. We didn't realize the river would go down so much over night.
This was the prettiest cruising we've had yet on the whole loop. Where the river narrows there's some tall sheer cliffs. It's called the gorge. The fall leaf colors are absolutely beautiful. We were traveling against the current and had a headwind. We burned a lot of fuel.
We traveled for 6 hours and 33.4 miles to reach Chattanooga. We got fuel and a pumpout and tied up to Erwin's river front bluffs dock. It's not free and right downtown. It's super convenient. But lots of homeless and shenanigans in the area. At least the dock has a security code and gate.
We walked to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. It's fantastic, Wooden City. We took an Uber to Ace. Ed needed parts for the broken anchor roller. We walked a couple of miles to go to the grocery but the path got blocked by a do not enter sign in a closed park with thick woods in pitch dark. We ended up getting an Uber the rest of the way to the grocery and then another Uber ride back to the boat. Uber is not too expensive here and our distances were pretty short.
Friday
Ed fixed the anchor roller this morning. See the YouTube video. Yay! We went to another favorite restaurant for lunch, Puckets. We even sat at the same table we did last March. We especially came for the deep fried brownie sundae! You just can’t believe how good it is.
We spent the afternoon cleaning the boat. I did all the non skid surfaces on both levels and then put a wax on top. Ed did all the white that had teak oil drips by using paint thinner and lots of elbow grease. It looks really good. I also did the starboard side of the hull.
Our friends from Avontuur came in today. We helped catch their lines. Later we all walked to the grocery a mile away and then got an Uber back. We are fully loaded now!
Funny story about our uber driver: we had him drop us at a parking lot. He asked how come out of four adults no one has a car? Kathy told him we live on a boat. His mouth literally dropped open. He couldn't seem to wrap his mind around it. Then Ed asked him to end the ride so he could give him a tip and he says oh no dude. You keep it. You need it more than I do. Ha ha ha. I don't know what kind of boat he thinks we live on!
Ed and I went back to Puckets for a salad and the Friday night live music.
Saturday
Wow! What a night. We got woken up at midnight to what sounded like gunshots right outside the boat in the trees near the homeless camp!! Startled the crap out of us. Super loud! They weren’t aimed at us they were to the side of us. Hulu shots shooting directly at you sound much different like a “crack” sound. Ed has head them many times. This sound is different like a boom. Then a couple of hours later it started to pour rain. It sounds like marbles dropping on the fiberglass top of the boat. It's quite loud.
But we woke up to a beautiful sunny fairly warm day. Our first order of business was a laundromat. We scootered to a Laundromat on the Riverwalk path. We were on a path that dead ended. We had to backtrack a mile and find a way under the freeway. It made our ride a couple of miles longer and we ended up in the projects at the most expensive laundromat we've been to yet on the loop. It was over $5 to do one load. It's usually between 2 and 3 dollars. It was an adventure. We met some nice folks from the projects.
This afternoon we rode our scooters to the incline railroad. It's a mile long going to the top of lookout mountain. It's the longest incline railroad in the world. At the steepest incline it is 72°. It was built in the 1880s. The views from the top were stunning, especially at this time of year. At the top you can take a short walk to point park. It's a national historic site. The gates were locked because of the gov't shutdown. People were just going around to the side and squeezing through a fence. We walked all along up there. The confederates held this spot at the top of this hill and the union just bombarded them for a couple of days from stringer hill and eventually were able to take it over. Chattanooga has the railway system to the south. It's called the gateway to the south. This was a very strategic spot to occupy for both sides.
For dinner we went to a restaurant called “the playlist”. It's really unique. There's a small center stage and all the employees take turns lip syncing songs and dancing. They allow the guests to do it also. They have a playlist up on the wall on a huge monitor. You can vote for your favorite songs to play next on the playlist on your phone and request songs. It was pretty entertaining. The food was not great and it was $60 per person. However, the music was great. We stayed about 2 hours.
Sunday
This morning, we got a ride to church from a single retired sister, Kathy. She was just 2 min away from us, but church was a 20 min drive. We were so grateful she was willing to give us a ride. Her bishop was so cute looking out for her. He wanted to know our names, our ward, and our bishop's name and number. Apparently we checked out o.k. and she was given the green light. LOL. We heard some great testimonies from 2 converts.
When we got back to the boat, we started to prepare lunch when Ed noticed a homeless man getting under a blanket by the dock. It was quite windy with a chill. So we made him some Mac and cheese, two servings, and heated up our leftover beef tortillini with a dinner roll and a bottle of soda. His name is Marty. His son died 3 weeks ago. Ed told him God loved him and cared about him and he could see his son again someday. It's so rough for some people.
Kathy was telling us that right where our boat was docked is where the trail of tears goes through. Right there on the river was where the Indians were loaded on boats to be relocated. There's a big cascading fountain with big Indian symbols on the walls commemorating this event.
Right after lunch we cast off to start our journey back down the Tennessee river to get back to iuka, Mississippi and the loop route.
We traveled almost 34 nautical miles to Shell mound, TN. Our trip back was almost two hours faster because now we are going with the river current. The weather dropped significantly. It was in the low 40s today. We had another rough night sleeping last night. It was so loud with cars and sirens and more gunshots. We should sleep better tonight! There is an extreme cold front coming. We are going to have 27 deg F tonight and 37 deg daytime tomorrow. Then back to 70 deg Wednesday.
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