Clarksville, City Dock

Friday, June 13

Since we were 30 miles further from or reservation at the Clarksville, TN city dock than we had planned originally, we were up and away early this morning. By 6:30 we were backing out of the slip and ahead out of Little River. It was a pleasant morning with the temperature in the low 70’s and enough cloud cover to hold some of the sun off. We ate a light breakfast underway, and enjoyed a pleasant morning on the last of Lake Barkley and on into the Cumberland River.

As we got further up the river there started to be some elevation to the surrounding shoreline, see picture. There is also a noticeable decrease in the water bird population. The ospreys just disappear and the heron population is much thinner. My guess is that it is a reflection of a much smaller food source. In the lake there are lots of changes in water depth and huge areas of shallow water, while in the river it is channeled and a rather uniform depth from shore to shore.

The captain is always on the lookout for debris in the water, though we are seeing much less than earlier in the trip. The small log seen this morning seemed to be moving across the river. The admiral quickly identified it as mammal with the help of the binoculars. Sure enough when we got to it, it was a squirrel. We don’t know if the acorns are thicker on the other side of the river or maybe he thinks there are more girl squirrels there.

Here is a picture of the captain hard at work driving the boat and navigating all at the same time. He even had time to get a picture of the admiral hard at work.

Since there was a 60% chance of showers for the day, we considered ourselves lucky to get tied before any rain. We had not been settled in more than five minutes when the first light shower hit. When it ended we hurried to the bridge to secure everything there, get the bimini down and the covers on since it looked like it might blow.

We had a car rented for the night. We picked it up, had a light dinner, and headed back to GTB to get Diana’s van. It is about 75 miles and we were only 20 miles out when we ran into a huge thunderstorm. The wind was moving the car around on the road, there was torrential rain and lots of lighting. By the time we exited at the freeway at GTB the sun was out and we had a beautiful full double rainbow (cameras back on the boat). We got the van and headed back the way we came. We were driving into the back of the storm and there was more lighting then I have seen in a long time. Fortunately no more high wind and only heavy rain.

Saturday, June 14

We got up this morning and double checked in the daylight that there was no storm damage we had missed in the dark last night when we got back. We then took both cars and headed for Nashville. This was a shorter trip then last night, about 60 miles. Daylight and no rain made it a lot more pleasant.

We found Rock Harbor Marina where Gibson recommends we leave the boat when we come home. They will do some warranty work and repairs while we are gone.

We returned the rental car and enjoyed the afternoon walking along the Clarksville water front. The city has down an excellent job of creating a park along almost a mile of river.

The Deck Hands continue to be great help standing watch and keeping a sharp eye on things.