Hey, just got back (in case you didn't notice) from the "Gorge" trip!
It was a total hoot! There were some surprises though. Shortly after I locked through Chickamauga, I found myself surrounded by hundreds of boat women!
Seems there was some big national skulling regatta with teams from all over the country, maybe even the world. The only negative was a no-wake zone that stretched for what seemed to be about 20 miles! I did okay going downsteam, 8mph and barely a ripple! Coming back up was a different story going 4mph against a 4mph current. Yeah, you guessed it, I was leaving a wake like I was running 8mph.
I got an earful of handheld airhorn through my hailer which was set to listen, and I got fussed at by a duck trooper. I tried to explain that I would make a wake even if I were anchored in that current! The duck trooper suggested I "walk" the boat as if I was in a marina with big diesels that idle at 8mph (been there, done that). He even gestured by twisting his two hands back and forth as to show me how to do it. Yeah right Bubba, like you've ever run anything but a single engine outboard! No way am I going to do that for five or so miles! I'm considerate, but not THAT considerate. Besides, it made things more interesting for the paddlers. They seemed bored until I showed up! They were actually going faster than I was headed upstream!
To answer the question as to how long it takes to get to Chattanooga, it varies. Sometimes you hit the locks (Watts Bar, and Chickamauga) right, sometimes you don't. It's about 90 miles from my marina to the city waterfront, and I cruise at 20mph @3,000rpm. You can do the math!
We went as far as "Steve's Landing", a waterfront restaurant in Soddy Daisy, and spent the night at the marina there. We didn't get there until about 7pm, so I asked our waitress about transient dockage. She came back to the table after checking, and she told me it would be $8.00! I asked if I could stay forever, and she said no, I could only stay one night for the $8.00! No, she didn't get it (kind of like some of you guys on here). She came back a few minutes later with "Steve", the owner. He said he was sorry, but there had been a misunderstanding as to the rate. It was $20.00 per night! I said no problem, and I had to giggle to myself remembering what Carl paid to dock the GuzCruzer in South Beach per night.
The next day, we got up bright and early and headed downstream. We locked through, waded through the paddle boaters, and headed to "The Gorge". It was absolutely beautiful with more color than I can ever remember. No, I was with Mamma and little Bubba, and I didn't have anything to drink! Everybody I called had plans for the week-end. It is football time in Tennessee you know. BTW, SwissMiss called me to rub it in when LSU cheated and beat us at home!
Another surprise awaited us at Hale's Bar Marina, the designated turnaround point and unofficial end of "The Gorge". Seems they were having a little fall color festival with rides for the kids, and lots of good food! It was good being able to use my Southern accent, and I fit right in with the locals finding myself engaged in various topics of conversation. We hung out there for a couple of hours, and then headed back to the dock for the return trip to Chattanooga where we spend the night on the MarineMax dock ($41.00).
It's always interesting to see what you will run into when you're out on the river. At the dock at Hale's Bar, there was a new Fountain 35 or so footer. I made small talk and told the "Elvis" story about me and Chris meeting Reggie in FTL. Around the corner was some sort of go-fast boat with twin Viper motors peeking out from under an open hatch! Beside him were a couple of 30 foot or so cats with Merc 300's. These guys would catch up to us on our way back up to Chattanooga. Michelle was handling the camera, and she was about one half second too early on the trigger or she would have caught the Fountain's outdrives about 5 feet out of the water crossing our wake!
As always, I had the only Hatteras to be seen. Ole' Nancy Cay always draws plenty of onlookers when she makes an appearance. People can't believe she is a '65 model when I tell them. I sure did enjoy running her this week-end, even though I had to replace all three batteries as my automatic battery boiler lived up to it's name! I hadn't run the boat in over two months, and I forgot to switch the stupid thing off. The batteries were dry as a bone. I tried watering them, but I couldn't even jumpstart with the marina's battery pack.
The trip back home was uneventful, just more beautiful scenery viewed from a reverse angle. We stopped at Twin Cove Marina and had lunch at the restaurant there. My little fellow, Ryan (3 years old), has become quite the lady's man (wonder where he got that?)! A couple of nights ago, I heard his first pick up line. He asked a pretty girl sweeping the floor if she would like to go to his house and see his John Deere tractor bed! He found another pretty girl at the restaurant at Twin Cove. He asked if she wanted to go see "Daddy's big boat"! That's my boy!!!
Oh well, are ya'll sorry you chastised me for one liners now?
I've got Michelle trying to figure out how to post pictures on here, so I'll show ya'll how things looked once we get that part figured out.
