On to the Tennessee River

Saturday, September 13

We plan to pick up my sister and brother-in-law on the 23 in Guntersville. We started out having time to burn when we got to Nashville, but the delay with the lock closure burned most of our extra days.

Today’s plan was to run down Lake Barkley cross over to the Tennessee and run up (South) Kentucky Lake to an anchorage at Clay Bay then tomorrow run to Pebble Isle Marina, runs of 58 and 42 miles. When I got up this morning I checked the weather, today looked hot and windy (90 with 10 to 20 and gusty) tomorrow the remains of Ike are suppose to effect this area, winds of 20 to 25 gusting 30 to 45 and 90% chance of rain some of it heavy.

I decided that Sunday looked like a day we might not be able to move and I didn’t want to spent it at anchor in rain and high winds. So we quickly got under way, ran to the Barkley canal, headed up Kentucky Lake past Clay Bay and twelve miles further stopped at Paris Landing State Park Marina. It was 70 long miles; our preference is to run no more than 50 to 55 a day.

We ran the last forty miles up Kentucky Lake with the wind on the nose at 20 to 25 and open stretches of 18 and 20 miles. We had steady 2 foot chop with the occasional 3 foot roller. It was a long day for the Captain and the Admiral was a little uncomfortable, deck hand Oreo suffered from both the heat and the motion and had a really bad afternoon.

It was our first experience with relatively heavy weather. I was pleased with the way the boat performed.

Paris Landing looks like a good marina. State park price is $.70 a foot, they have laundry and showers in the marina building and an Inn at the other end of the Park serves Sunday brunch and will pick us up.

We will make use of the weather day.

There are no pictures today with the high winds and a kitty that needed special attention the camera never came out.