Home Sweet Home

My brother, Curtis, wanted to join us for the home stretch run. He would have enjoyed spending a week as a deckhand but he was needed at work and home. Daddy delivered him at 7:00 this morning so that we could shove off at first light. Well, do you remember the fog delay I told you about yesterday? It has happened again... just shy of another three hour delay.
Finally we shove off at at 10:15 and within minutes the engine runs hot again so we slowed down, with the very strong current against us we were only doing 5.5 to 6 mph. All I can say is this gave us more time to enjoy the beauty of the Tennessee River Gorge. The swirls caused by the strong current and giant boulders on the river floor made for a scary trip in a boat with only one engine that was running hot at times. We covered the twenty five miles through the canyon admiring the scenery, taking pictures and just talking. A good deal of the numerous  conversations went like this... me to Shawn - "How's the temperature?", Shawn to me - "Good." We were so close to home that I just knew something was going to break, the closer we got the more I worried.
Since we were running so far behind schedule and Shawn had someplace he had to be, we dropped him off at Ross's Landing in downtown Chattanooga. I don't normally brag about my boat handling skills but I pulled within a foot of the concrete dock and stopped for 2 seconds while Shawn jump off then hit the gas and was back in the river again, a beautiful touch-and-go if I say so myself.
Now it was just me and Curtis heading another eight miles up river to Chickamauga Lock where we had a quick passage to the lake and where my pucker-factor started to slowly dissipate, only one mile to the marina, what could possibly go wrong now?
Well, I'll tell you... the dock roof looked much lower to me now than it did when I scoped the place out a month ago. Not knowing for sure that we'd fit under it I decided to tie up to an end-cap where Curtis took the mast down while I helped Daddy find us, he was there to pickup Curtis. Within a few minutes we had our new-to-us old boat in our new-to-us slip at Gold Point Marina.
Now that the boat and I are home I look back and ask myself... "What in the hell made you think you could deliver a boat to Chattanooga, Tennessee from Melbourne, Florida?" I had no idea what I was in for at the time, but, even as stressful as it was at times it was one of the most adventurous and educational experiences of my life. Now I'm looking forward to getting the boat in top notch condition and starting the loop with my lovely wife, Kim.
A big thanks to Bill Slattum, Sam Boozer, Rob Cantrell, Shawn Witt and Kim Witt for spending their vacation time helping me to make this trip a success. Also a big thank you to Roger Hennicke for assistance in navigating the Florida panhandle during my first week as captain of my own ship.

I started out in Melbourne with about a quarter tank (70 gallons) of diesel then add 422 gallons over the course of the trip, finished with about three quarters tank (210 gallons) remaining. Therefore, she used 70+422-210=282 gallons of fuel for 197 hours operation and 1500 miles traveled.

Average burn rate…   282 gal / 197 hr = 1.4 gph
Average speed…      1500 mi  / 197 hr = 7.6 mph

Melbourne to Chattanooga

Pins and Needles

Shawn and I awoke to a heavy fog this morning which put us three hours behind schedule right off the bat. We shoved off at 10:45 into a narrow waterway leading from Goose Pond Marina out to the Tennessee River, a light-foggy quarter mile journey choked with water plants on each side and beneath, my depth sounder read 3 and 4 foot at times due to the congestion below. Once on the river we had about a 50 foot ceiling with descent visibility and a 53 mile journey ahead. We were making good time and thought we could make it to Hales Bar Marina with time to spare before darkness set in but I had an anchorage picked out about two miles below Nickajack Dam if we ran out of time. We were making good time and had fallen in company with two other boats, Moon Dance and Weigh Of Life. Hadn't seen a barge in days but wouldn't you know it... the day we are three hours behind we see a barge about four miles out in front of us headed east and we are twenty four miles from the lock. We have got to beat this guy there with enough time that the lock-master doesn't give him priority... let the tension begin. All three boats dogged that rascal and final had a chance to pass him but there was a low railroad bridge coming up which caused the tug, and us, to slow until it was raised. This would have been a great time to overtake him but Moon Dance, who was between us and the tug, thought the bridge was too low so they made arrangements with the big fella that we'd all overtake him after he'd passed the bridge. After a short delay, which we didn't need because we were already three hours behind, the bridge was raised and the tug went under then Moon Dance overtook him followed by us. Weigh of Life had fallen behind and was held up when the bridge lowered with a train approaching. Ok, now we are out in front and desperately trying to reach the lock well ahead of the priority traffic but we only had nine miles to do so. We felt that we had a good chance to do just that... but then suddenly we had another contender. From behind comes a large boat, Spin Doctor, doing about fifteen miles per hour and swamps every boat he passes but the big issue is the timing, he's going to get to the lock just in time that the gates will close and he'll have the system tied up thereby making us wait thereby giving the green light to the tug... my-oh-my the plot thickens. We could wimp out and go ahead and anchor or we could be bold and go for it... we chose to be bold cause that's the kinda guys we are (insert laugh track here).  So, we reached the lock and sure enough the Spin Doctor was in the chamber and had not reached the top yet. We idled and waited and waited, then we hear the lock-master come over the radio speaking to the swamp-master... "Cap, we're having trouble opening the gate, we'll let you out as soon as possible" (insert my crazy-man laughter here). After a short time they open the gates and let the guy out, whew. The lock-master informs me that he'll get me in before the tug but he still has to lower the chamber. I'm not believing him until I'm in there but alas, the gates open... we go in... he raises us up... and then guess what, the gates won't open. We are running out of daylight and still have six miles to go... errr. After several minutes we are set free and head across Nickajack lake with no more threats, we'll you'd think. Do you remember how I praised the engine temperature just yesterday? Damn if it didn't start running hot, approaching 200 degrees, with us still five miles from our destination with darkness approaching and a tricky unmarked entry into the marina. We backed down to about five mph and watched as the temperature and the sun made a slow descent. The temperature held around 187 and the sun disappeared behind the mountains. It was still twilight as we reached Hales Bar Marina and I received instructions over the radio to take a narrow opening between the first rock pile and some moored barges... this was not looking safe to me so I double-checked with the marina guy and proceeded. The depth sounder revealed what was happening below... 15, 12, 8, 6, 5, 4 ...brace for a sudden stop... but wait... 5, 6, 8, 12, 15... wow, that was spooky. I'm in, now the radio guy directs me to a covered slip but I remembered the incident from Bay Springs and inquired about the clearance... 18 feet... we need 24... he puts us on an end-cap with open sky above. We made it, whew!!!

Time Well Spent

Things went so well today that I really don't have much to report once again. All my gauges were looking good, even the Volts gauge was holding at 12v. I still grin everytime I look at the Temp gauge and it's sitting on 174... such a good feeling after all the trouble we were having. We set sail at 7:55 ET in a light fog rising off the warm water into the cool morning breeze, we kept an eye out for any barges that might try to sneak up on us from thicker clouds. As the morning sun rose above the mountains the fog burned away in no time at all and we had clear sailing all the way to Guntersville Lock which was 15 miles away. We made good time through the chamber, about 45 minutes, as there was no other traffic in the area and once up onto the lake our speed picked up to a little over 7.5 mph... we were running about 6 to 6.5 in the narrower parts of the river. We had a 28 mile ride from the lock to Goose Pond Marina located near Scottsboro, Al. It was a beautiful ride because we are now seeing some mountains, some of them slop right down to the waters edge and suddenly end with a spectacular rock cliff. Not nearly as spectacular as the mountains but impressive in their own right were the large expensive homes on the rive banks, each with it's own pier and boathouse. I am always amazed that I rarely see anyone outside enjoying the fruits of their labor, maybe it's more enjoyable to imagine owning it than to actually own it.
We are tied up at Goose Pond Marina and we used the courtesy car to go to the grocery store then to Ruby Tuesday's where we enjoyed a very good meal. Tomorrow we head for Hales Bar Marina which is 53 miles away with one lock. The weather looks to be great for the next couple of days and I'm looking forward to getting back to my wife and home.

Ditto Landing Marina

Guntersville Lock

Guntersville Lake

Spectacular

Spectacular

We Had a Good Day

Not much to report today... everything is looking good except the Voltage gauge is squirrely. After acting up yesterday it was looking good this morning but then it moved from 12v to 13.1v. A little later it moved up to 14v but it was jumping around a lot. Sometimes it would peg-out at 16v but when I tapped the gauge it would drop back to 14 and act jumpy again. I'm kinda suspecting the gauge is screwed rather than the alternator or voltage regulator, but then again I guess a voltage regulator that's about to go out might cause the gauge to act this way.

By the way, we covered 60 miles today.  The current gets strong in the narrows, we struggle to do 6.0 mph sometimes.

Here are our goals:

Sunday) Ditto Landing (333.7) to Goose Pond Marina (378) is 45 miles with one lock.

Monday) Goose Pond Marina (378) to Hales Bar Marina (431.2) is 53 miles with one lock.

Tuesday)  Hales Bar Marina (431.2) to Gold Point (472) is 41 miles with one lock.

Sunrise

Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant

Railroad Bridge in Decatur, Al

Captain Shawn

Captain Shawn

Happy Trails To You

A Twenty Mile Day in Nine Hours

I must apologize for having thought a five hour wait on my last three Tenn-Tom locks was excessive, because today Shawn and I waited on Wilson Lock for 2 1/2 hours and Wheeler Lock for 3 1/2 hours. We had about two hours of daylight left when we pulled into Joe Wheeler State Park's marina but we were wore out from the wait. We traveled up and down the channel outside of Wheeler Lock with wind gusts that must have been 20 to 25 mph accompanied by the resulting whitecaps.
One interesting thing did happen along the way. The America's Great Loop Cruisers Association known as the AGLCA holds an annual rendezvous at Joe Wheel State Park ever year and this years event ended last evening. So, this morning twenty of the boats headed west in a big heard and we passed said heard while traversing between Wilson and Wheeler locks.... it was a site.
The boat did great today except I did notice my voltage meter was pegged out at 16 volts, I'm not sure what to do about it though. I have switched over to my other battery and if the same thing happens tomorrow I'll know it's not a problem with a battery. Both batteries are brand new by-the-way.

Loopers in the distance

I Like To Be Alone When I'm All By Myself

This was day two of sitting there for hours trying to stay awake, this is much more fun when someone is there to take the helm ever so often. I don't have an autopilot like most trawlers therefore I have to stay diligent with the wheel. Shawn will be here in the morning so tomorrow will be much easier. I pulled out of Aqua Yacht Harbour at 9:30 this morning and was on the Tennessee River within 20 minutes, pointed my bow into the rising sun and clicked my heels three times... there's no place like home... there's no place like home...  there's no place like home. Well that didn't get me home but at least I'm heading in the right direction, more so than I have been in a long time.
I covered about forty miles today but at a slower pace than days past. Yesterday I was going with the current and therefore was hitting those lightening speeds up in the 8 mph zone, but today I was going against the current and my speed went from 7 mph to 5 mph as I got closer to Wilson Dam. I was about ready to get out and push.
I arrived at Florence Harbor Marina, located just below Wilson Dam, around 4:00 and was greeted by Eva, her family owns the place. Shes one of those people who doesn't know that she doesn't know you, she treated me like an old friend before I even stepped off the boat. When we got to her office she gave me all kinds of good information concerning marinas along the Tennessee River, things to do in Florence and even what to order in the on-site restaurant... I recommend the Island Chicken followed by the Italian Cream Cake.
That's about it for today, we should be locking through Wilson and Wheeler dams tomorrow and hopefully can get fifty or so miles under our belts to boot.

To The Top Of The Tenn-Tom

I pulled out of Bay Springs Marina at 9:30 ET this morning and motored on over to the Whitton Dam area where about five motor yachts were waiting for the lock. Fortunately for me I was turning north and headed for a day with no locks. This was my first day to travel alone so I made sandwiches and gathered everything I thought I'd need and took it all up to the pilot house.
It was a cold cloudy day with a stiff breeze at times, I had a heavy coat on with the hood pulled over my head as did some of the other boaters I passed along the way. I ran her at about 2250 rpms which pushed me along at 8 mph most of the time while the engine temperature never even hit 175 degrees, I was ecstatic (another thank you to Chris and Greg).
After the loopers at Whitten I only saw about four other motor yachts on the trip, however I saw two barges which is two too many. One was headed south and was no big deal to pass but a few minutes later I came upon one headed north which was a big deal. Once I finally caught him we were headed into a curve so I sat on his right rear quarter panel until the canal straightened out then I called on that mighty 90 hp power plant to lay down some rubber, we jumped from 8 to 8.5 mph in no time. That may sound fast but it didn't seem so while running along side that rascal in a skinny little canal, I think he opened her up to about 8.4 mph because it felt like an old fashioned drag race. It takes a long time to overtake a barge when you are just barely out running it.  I was getting kinda anxious about the next curve, I didn't want to be beside him going into that thing, luckily once I crashed through his bow wave I started picking up more speed... got up to a blistering 8.7 mph and left him eating my dust, ha!
Once I left the canal and entered Yellow Creek I had to keep an eye on the buoys, everyone said to stay in the middle of the channel and they'd throw in a story about so-and-so running aground. I don't know if there were several so-and-so's running aground or if everyone I spoke with knew the same so-and-so, I just knew I didn't want my name mentioned the next time they were on the subject.
I managed to snake through Yellow Creek with no problems and pulled along side the transient dock at Aqua Yacht Harbour at 2:30. I made a quick trip to the grocery store then stopped by the Rib Cage for some BBQ.
I'm aiming for Florence tomorrow, should be another short day but I don't want to lock through Wilson by myself... Shawn will be joining me Thursday evening or early Friday morning.

Bay Springs Marina.... What a Great Place

Everyone I've met on this trip has been extremely nice and Bay Springs has some of the nicest. I spent almost two weeks there and was invited to dinner one night, a marina end-of-year party one night, a birthday party one night and a meeting of the "Old Farts" club one morning. Chris and his entire family and staff are as friendly and helpful as can be, plus he and Greg did a great job of solving my overheating problem with reasonable solutions to each obstacle they encountered.
Thanks to everyone for making my stay as enjoyable as possible under the circumstances.

And Away We Go...

Actually there's no we, just me but "and away me go" didn't sound right. Ok, Greg installed the new hose from the raw water pump to the oil cooler and we took her out for a test spin. Same as yesterday, ran her up to 2300 rpms and the temp looked great. Ran on up to 2500 rpms and see held steady at 175 degrees. Pulled back into the slip and looked for leaks but found none. Do not say this next sentence out loud, the boat gods may hear you. I think the boat is fixed.
I plan to leave in the morning and aim for Aqua Yacht Harbour or another marina close by. The next day I'll shoot for Florence and hopefully Shawn can join me Thursday evening... he's planing to stay with me until Monday, by then we should be pretty close to home.

Oh What A Relief It Is

Greg arrived early and had my freshly cleaned oil cooler with it's shiny new threaded screw holes complete with new end-cap bolts installed in a jiffy. I added oil to replace what had been in the oil cooler and oil filter prior to removal then we fired that 90 hp beast up and let it run for a few minutes then shut her down. Greg wanted to check the oil level again seeings how the oil I added had now been pumped throughout the lubrication system. However, we heard a dripping noise coming from the front part of the engine up near the belts and thought it was oil, but then Greg said he'd found a pinhole leak on the oil cooler further back, it was still spraying water. Turned out to be a rather simple solution, he removed the end cap, took it to the shop and plugged the hole with solder then reinstalled.  We fired that baby up and took her for a test run. I started out slow and as the temp came up I'd raise the rpms, eventually I was running at my normal 2300 and the temp was holding at 175 degrees... YaHoo!!!
We are expecting some big storms this evening so rather than remain at the end of a dock with no cover Chris has allowed me to pull into a covered slip, so as I'm approaching the assigned slip I here some guy hollering at somebody, but he couldn't be hollering at me because I'm doing a beautiful job with my approach. The closer I get to having the nose in the slip the louder he gets and then he starts blowing his horn and I'm thinking what the heck man I'm trying to concentrate on this fantastic approach I've got going here. Finally I realize he's trying to tell me I'm too tall... my mast is about to crash into the dock roof. Holy-cow, I never thought about looking up... I put her in reverse and eased back out into the fairway and thanked him profusely. We located another slip on a dock with a higher roof and I got her in there, although it wasn't near as pretty as the other approach.
Ok, we are now tied up in a covered slip and Greg want's to look for the oil drip... what? I thought you said it was the oil cooler end-cap which you just fixed. Nope, that was not the cause of the dripping, that was spraying. Jeez, so now he's looking but instead of finding an oil leak he discovered that a copper pipe coming from the raw-water pump and going to the oil cooler has a pinhole leak and is spraying water to the underside of the engine which then drips into the bilge. That's the drip we had heard. This pipe is in a bad location as far as accessibility goes... there ain't none. Plus he and Chris are worried that a couple of bolts will break off as happened on the oil cooler. So, now we start talking about options... one of which called for pulling the engine. We are sitting in about 15 feet of water and that's just about how far my heart sank. I started getting that gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach much like I'd had back in Melbourne when things were not going so good. I think Chris could see how pale I was and this must have caused the MacGyver part of his brain to kick into gear (I've been bragging about all the MacGyver type fixes he's been coming up with). Anyway, he popped out with another approach which did not involve pulling the engine and should be fairly simple to implement. Greg threw in his two cents worth and made it even simpler. Tomorrow they will do basically what "T" and Alan had done with my fuel supply line back in Columbus, they are going to by-pass about 90 percent of the copper pipe with a high quality flexible hose. They both knew that this sounds like a great solution to me because I started getting some color back in my face.

Oil Cooler Update 3

The housing is back from the machine shop but one of the marina patrons broke down on his way to the looper rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park. Took Chris most of the day to tow him back. Looks like I'll be here over the weekend again.

Oil Cooler Update 2

The marina shop ran into problems removing the broken bolts from the housing. They had to take it to a machine shop, not sure when they'll get to it. I will probably be here a few more days.

Oil Cooler Update

I had them pull the oil-cooler. When they got it to the shop and were taking it apart three bolts broke off but they managed to pull the core out. The core consists of tubes that the raw water runs through and the oil circulates on the outside of the tubes. The core was in very bad shape, about half the tubes were completely blocked with crud and there was more of the kidney-stone type junk. They are going to run a solvent through it for a good while with a pump, it'll circulate and dissolve all the junk.
They will then have to drill out the broken bolts and re-thread the holes. Chris said they have the equipment on-site to do all of this. Not sure how long it will take but I'd guess at least the rest of the day.

Still Running Hot

My son and dad picked Kim up last Friday and took her home... she had to get back to work. I've stayed with the boat and my new friend Greg the mechanic, we've spent a lot of time together the last few days.
When we pulled in here last Thursday Greg and the marina owner, Chris, were quick to help. First thing we discovered was the fact there was very little coolant left in the heat-exchanger, the reason was due to a blown gasket where the heat-exchanger end cap attaches to the heat-exchanger housing. Greg tried making repairs but eventually had to pull the heat-exchanger and take it to the shop... it was very difficult to work on it in the small engine compartment while standing on his head.
The heat-exchanger housing, where it mates to the end cap, was dented and fouled from some previous (can't really say mechanic so I'll use the word dumb-ass) dumb-asses work. After damaging the housing dumb-ass had trouble getting a good seal so he used a lot of silicone (a paste that dries to a rubbery consistency) to get a tight fit. This worked until I reached Columbus Marina where it sprang a small leak when running hot. For some reason it never ran hot again until we reached Bay Springs at the top of our last lock, Whitten.
Chris came up with a very good resolution to the problem, he crafted a small aluminum spacer and obtained a slightly thicker O'ring, When mating the end cap back to the housing he installed the O'ring then the spacer then the end cap then a little silicone, the spacer applied enough pressure to the O'ring to make a good strong seal. When we performed a sea trial it held however the engine still ran hot.
So far we have inspected the through-hull, the strainer, the impeller and the oil-cooler. Everything looked good until the oil-cooler, it has kidney-stones. Well, they are some kind of calcium type chunks and there's a lot of them. Greg also fished out a two inch long strip of something that looks like duct tape, although it's not duct tape... just looks similiar. With everything cleaned out Greg replaced the plug and we did another sea-trial, looked real good initially but then started running hot again. We came back and Greg found quite a few more stones in the oil-cooler.
Tomorrow morning (10/8) he's going to pull the oil-cooler and take it to the shop where it will be flushed with some type of solvent. This is the only way I can have confidence that it's clean. This little problem is getting to be very expensive but the good news is that my old job has requested I return on 10/27 as a contractor to assist with a software upgrade. Worst case senario is that I leave the boat here for a few months, possibly all winter.

Engine Heat-Exchanger Woes

Well, well, well... my engine was running hot because the heat-exchanger has sprung a leak. The guys here at Bay Springs Marina in Mississippi have worked on it a good part of the day but are baffled by a component found on my unit that does not appear in the drawings we have located. I have written to a friend who used to work for Volvo and is quite knowledgeable about these things, so hopefully he can help. The core of the unit was supposedly replaced just prior to the purchase and apparently wasn't put back together very well.
We also have a problem with the gearbox leaking oil. This started around the middle of last week and I've been adding oil everyday since. It's leaking out the bottom somehow and appears to be getting worse. We checked for any obvious loose bolts or drain plug but all looks good, except the leak.
That's about it for now, we are just hanging out and probably will be for another day or two or three... who knows.
It's not all bad, we seem to have trouble in good places rather than the middle of nowhere, plus I'm gaining a lot of practical experience watching these various problems get diagnosed and resolved. The boat is basically very simple in design and I think I'll be able to handle most any problem that comes up eventually. Especially if everything on board breaks before I get home.

John Wooden — ‘Things work out best for those who make the best of the way things work out.’

An Eighteen Mile Day

This morning, just as we were getting ready to leave, I saw a slow moving tug headed north, do you know what that means? Well, that means we will wait at a each of the three remaining locks on the Tenn-Tom. These last locks are only five or six miles apart which means I can't beat him to any of them. I called Rankin Lock on the radio and he said to give it an hour, he also said there's another approaching Fulton lock so I'll need to keep ahead of him. Let me cut this short and just tell you that we spent an extra 4 1/2 hours waiting on three locks today. Then after we exited the final northbound lock on the Tenn-Tom I opened her up to 2300 rpms and within minutes she was sitting on a 220 degrees, och! Sat at an idle while she cooled down then limped on over to Bay Springs Marina arriving at approximately 3:45. Can't do much while she's hot so I'll sit and stew on it for now and deal with it in the morning.

Kim's First Day On The Water

We pulled out of Columbus Marina at 8:30 and turned north on the hyacinth choked Tenn-Tom. Then guess what... I noticed the temperture guage wasn't working. I knew it was slow to come up but was confident it would come up after I cranked up the rpms some more, well it didn't... crap!!! We turned around and went back to the marina AGAIN... errr. "T" was waiting on us and jumped on-board as soon as it was tied up. We pulled the hatch and right off the bat he spotted the problem, the temperature sensor line was disconnected. It was most likely a victim of the battery wrestling match, it's right near the arena... I mean battery box. Ok, not too bad, just a half hour delay. We headed out again and let me tell you just how clogged the main channel was with hyacinth... it was so clogged you couldn't drive a boat through it without sucking it up in the cooling water intake. That's right, I was running hot again, almost 200 degrees... double crap. I slowed to an idle and called "T" to inform him I may be coming back AGAIN. Before heading back I placed the boat in reverse long enough to start moving us backwards with the intent of dislodging anything that may be blocking the cooling water intake, then sat and idled for a few minutes until the temperature started to drop. Slowly I brought up the speed and held it at about 2000 rpms, the temperature was holding also at about 180 degrees... yeah, so we motored on. Finally we had broken loose from the evil forces that haunted the waters around the Columbus Marina. Honestly though, that was a great place to be stuck for a few days, everyone was extremely nice and helpful and the town has most anything you need.
There was no more drama for the rest of the day, thank goodness. We went through four locks (Aberdeen, Amory, Wilkens and Fulton) and each one was waiting with gates wide open, no wait time at all... it was a thing of beauty. Also, we passed no barges and only saw two boats, fishing boats, the entire day. We went from mile 335 to 394, that's 59 miles... pretty damn good considering four locks.

Nice Folks at Columbus Marina in Columbus, Ms

The marina manager "T" Caldwell and his mechanic son Alan arrived at our doorstep around 8:30 local time this morning ready to install my new battery. Remember that I had one installed when at Dog River Marina by "TJ" ...no relation to "T". My batteries are located in the engine compartment and are jammed between the engine and fuel tank in a box with walls that hardly leaves enough room to lift the batteries up and over the ledge... the engine compartment is only about two feet deep. Oh, and these are not your average car batteries, these are about three times as large and weigh around 150 pounds. After removing from the box the battery has to be lowered to the hull and snaked around the engine to a place with a large enough clearance to lift it up to the salon floor. The engine compartment is located beneath the salon and accessed via floor panels that are pulled up. Anyway, these two guys laid on their bellies working with that thing while mashing fingers and wedging themselves into very tight spaces. While going at it they discovered the other new battery, the one installed at Dog River, had loose terminal connections. "T" was not happy about their sloppy work and promised to call and tell them about it. This was definitely a two man job which I'll gladly pay someone to do.
Next they worked on the fuel line. In these older diesel engines, and maybe the newer ones too for all I know, fuel is supplied to the injectors through a supply line and any excess fuel is returned to the fuel tank via a return line. My metal tube supply line had been chafing against the oil pan for so long that it had worn a small hole. In addition, the fittings on either end are so corroded the mechanics were afraid to put a wrench to them. So, they made a parallel supply line from top grade very expensive federally approved fuel hose, disconnected the bad supply line and hooked up the new... works like a champ. They left the old line in case I ever want to replicate it, however we tagged each end so it would be obvious as to what we had done. We didn't want to confuse some mechanic down the road.
Next we attacked the control panel problem. Prior to Bobby's Fish Camp all my gauges worked, but as you may remember from an earlier post they were not working when I left Bobby's. The next day they all worked except the tachometer. In addition, when I pulled into this marina the engine would not stop when I turned the key off... even pulling it from the ignition. Finally did get it stopped by making several attempts and banging around on the switch.
For all our looking and crawling under the helm and head scratching we could not find an obvious problem. We poked and prodded until I pushed a button that's simply supposed to control the gauge lights. Guess what, all the gauges started working, including the buzzer which had also quit working.
However that didn't do anything to help the ignition problem so we just worked the hell outta the switch, even put a little W40 down the key hole. Eventually it we got it to where it would turn the engine off.... at least most of the time. "T" showed me a lever on the engine that would kill it if all else fails. It sounds like there's a lot of things breaking on this boat but they are all small things ...well the batteries and bottom job were expensive but those were known maintenance issues.
After T and Alan left Kim broke out the Murphy's Oil Soap again and started cleaning wood paneling, louver slats and drawers. She dug so deep into the grunge that she found some 1980 recipes cut from magazines.
Anyway, all work was completed by lunchtime but Kim and I decided to wait and shove off in the morning. We should be on Pickwick Lake by Wednesday evening then another 5 or 6 days to home. Kim has to be back at work Monday so I'm taking applications for a replacement.

Trouble in Columbus, Ms

First I would like to apologize for neglecting to post any updates for the past couple of days. I spent about an hour, a few nights ago, writing the best post ever written by mankind... it was informative, witty and dramatic with a slight overtone of comedy. It would have been an award winning post, however the morning after posting it I was cleaning up some files and apparently deleted it. I've been so P.O.'d about it I just couldn't bring myself to sit down at the keyboard again... until now.

While at the Demopolis marina we saw another Kadey-Krogen Manatee for sale, I had seen it on Yachtworld where it's advertised for $95,000. The exterior was in sad condition but the biggest problem was that the owner had not taken it out of the slip in years. The various systems on a boat need to be exercised much like the requirement of our bodies, otherwise they begin to deteriorate, much like our bodies.
The Demopolis Yacht Basin marina is actually two marinas, We were placed in a covered slip on one of the new docks complete with a new "clubhouse" containing showers, laundry and an area to just lounge around and read or watch TV.  This new facility is called the Kingfisher Marina. Shawn and I decided to checkout the New Orleans Bar and Grill for supper, it's located way on the other side of the compound so we made use of the courtesy golf cart. We strolled into the eatery and were surprised by the appearance, it was a dive complete with the smell of stale beer, cigarette smoke and a crew of regulars lined up at the bar discussing the days events. Rather than turn around and leave we grabbed a beer and a pack of smokes... just kidding. We sat at a table and the bartender lady brought menus which had been printed on regular sheets of paper and apparently been in use for quiet some time.  The prices were in line with restaurants of a much higher caliber so rather than be rude and leave we ordered some onion rings... they were greasy but good.
After loading up with 72 gallons of their finest diesel we pulled out of the Demopolis Yacht Basin marina Wednesday morning, within a mile or so we transitioned from the Black-Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway to the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway where we saw a deer swimming across the 150 yard divide between river banks. She started hauling ass when she saw us coming but we were good conservationists and keep our distance as much as possible.
We traveled for hours without seeing any other boats except the "Mr David" tug pushing about nine barges up the river, we were able to overtake him but also wanted to arrive at the next lock well ahead of him so as not to wait, the commercial traffic pays for this waterway therefore they receive top priority. Well, we made good time but when we arrived at Heflin Lock there was one tug in the chamber and another waiting, both headed upstream... crap. We had no option except to float around waiting and hoping we wouldn't have to wait on the tug behind us as well. I guess you could say we got lucky, after a two hour wait we were locked through, just barely ahead of Mr David.
About 7:00 we found a nice anchorage in the "Cooks Bend Cutoff" located at river mile 277.9. This is something called an "oxbow", it's where a shortcut is made by cutting a channel thereby lopping off one of the big curves that the river makes. The big curve is then no longer part of the main channel and looking at it on a chart it looks like an oxbow. The river was wide here so we put out both bow and aft anchors positioned to keep us as far from each bank as possible. This turned out to be one of the most beautiful nights I've ever spent outside. The skeeters never found us and we had a clear view of a clear sky and the stars were on fire, the view of our home galaxy was like a faint path of milk traversing across the darkness of space... the Milky Way, our home galaxy. There's no place like home.
Next morning, Thursday the 25th, we popped up the anchors and motored up river, all systems were looking good. Again we didn't see much traffic until we got to Bevill Lock, mile 306.8, again with the tugs and another two hour wait... ug. We made it through and again we didn't see much traffic but we did keep hearing airplanes, in fact we kept hearing them all day but never seeing them.
(These next couple of paragraphs were in a previous post which has now been removed) 
As we were approaching Stennis Lock there was a tug perpendicular to several barges pushing them into the bank to hold them in place. In this position he was cross-ways in the river with the only way to pass consisting of going through his extremely strong prop-wash. We slowed our approach and hailed him on the radio several times to no avail. I brought my boat to a near standstill when I saw a fellow making his way from one of the barges to the tugs pilot house where he eased up on the thrust enough for us to proceed. Even with the reduced force we were pushed toward the bank, which wasn't all that far away, but I had angled the bow so that I could accelerate back toward the middle of the river as I entered his danger zone.
Eventually we made it to Stennis Lock where we had just a one hour wait... never did know why because there were no tugs around. When we pulled into the chamber rigged for the port side there were all these floating hyacinth plants bunched up right where I needed to go, rather than move all the fenders to starboard I just pushed my way in and we secured the boat.
Columbus Marina (mile 335) was to the immediate right when exiting the lock and that's where we planned to stay for the night. As we were pulling into the marina I saw another Kadey-Krogen Manatee tied at the transient dock, the owner came over and introduced himself... Russ Kilmner I think was his name. He and his wife appeared to be in their mid to late seventies. They had been all over the United States and even Europe in there Manatee. He has a trailer to haul it places in the states but it was shipped to Europe. They have just recently returned to the states and are making there way from Jacksonville Florida to Mobile Bay via the Great Loop route then heading west to Galveston, Texas
Shawn and I had a good night and hit the main channel around 8:30 (Friday the 26th) but I immediately noticed the engine temperature was approaching 200 degrees, not good. Since I was less than a mile from the marina I turned and headed back. With some guidance from "T" Caldwell, the marina manager, I was able to clear the problem, one of those hyacinth plants had plugged the engine cooling water intake, I was able to blow it out by opening the strainer and using a garden hose. T and his son the mechanic, Alan, suggested we replace the impeller so I asked Alan to do it since I'd never done it before. It seemed simple enough and next time I'll do it myself. The impeller appeared to be in good condition so Alan didn't pull it all the way out and simply shoved it back into place and replaced the cover. However, while down in the engine compartment he heard something dripping... nothing should have been dripping at this point so we tracked it down and discovered a small hole in the diesel supply line. Someone had placed a small catch pan under the hole so this was apparently a known problem... to someone other than me. I had never heard it drip during my morning engine checks so this may only occur when the engine is warm. To resolve the problem requires replacing the metal supply line of course but the connector to the next component is so rusty Alan and T were afraid to touch it. They came up with a work around which involves another more experienced mechanic making a line from some fuel hose and routing it to where ever it needs to be routed too. This is Friday and the other mechanic can't get to it till Monday, so here we sit.
When Shawn's wife, Cindy, heard we were staying put she got with Kim and headed this way (Saturday the 27th)... she missed her man and couldn't wait another day. After we all went to dinner the happy couple left and Kim and I settled in for the night. Shawn was a huge help and I owe him big time, thank you so much. It's now Sunday morning and I'll be showing Kim the ropes, so to speak.
I have another issue I want cleared up before we pull out, remember the brittle wires and my control panel issues? Well, I want that resolved before I leave. I'm lucky my temperature gauge started working again when I wiggled the wires to get the anchor light to work. Had it not been working Friday I would have ruined the engine. I learned my lesson, keep those gauges working and keep an eye on them.

Typical Barge

Shawn

White Cliffs at Epes ...river mile 248

Shawn

Shawn

Covered Slip at Columbus Marina

Hyacinth Plants Choking the Lake

Lilly Pads

Columbus Fuel Dock

The other Manatee at Columbus Marina

Demopolis... Finally!

Yeah baby, after being setback 5 weeks due to lock closures I have finally made it through two of the twelve between Mobile Bay and the Tennessee River.
The day started with a couple of scares, normally when I start the engine I first need to warm the ignitors in order for the engine to fire up. This consists of turning the ignition key to the ignitor position located just prior to the start position in the key rotation and normally a buzzer sounds. This morning the buzzer wasn't sounding, plus when I tried cranking nothing happened. The silence of the engine not cranking was sickening. I thought we were in for a long day of sitting on the side of the Tombigbee at mile 164.3 waiting on a tow or a miracle worker to solve my dilemma. Well I tried one last thing, I switched back to my good battery, which I had already tried the ignitor position but didn't hear the buzzer and I still didn't hear it but cranked the engine anyway... well guess what, it started. Plop-plop fizz-fizz, or in this case it's crank-crank rumble-rumble oh what a relief it is. Right away I noticed the control panel gauges were all working except for the rpms. All I can think of is that when I wiggled the brittle wires at the base of the mast last night it not only solved my anchor light problem, it solved part of my control panel problem but also created my no buzzer problem.
Another problem I had prior to starting the engine involves the transmission gear oil. During my morning check I noticed the oil level was very very low on the dip stick, I had failed to check it the previous day. The only oil I had on-board was for the engine, I had no idea what the previous owner had been using. I checked with Tim, via text message, (Tim was the mechanic I used back in Melbourne) and he said to use the engine oil even though it wasn't the correct oil for the job but since I was in the middle of nowhere it was better than nothing. I haven't heard back from the previous owner about what to use yet. Later in the day I remembered a couple of other people to check with and they said the quarter cup of oil I poured in would not hurt anything. Just change the oil when you get home.
So far so good, now we are ready to pull the anchors up so we fed some slack to the bow anchor and pulled on the aft anchor rode until we were directly over it, then I applied some reverse throttle and it broke free from the bottom and was pulled back on-board. Now we ease up until we are directly over the bow anchor and I applied forward throttle but it would not release. Tried again but it still held tight. Tried from different angles and still no luck. One last mother-of-all-anchor-break-loose attempts from a desperate new owner of a 30 year old boat sitting in the middle of nowhere and finally it broke free and we were on our way. Oh yeah, I'm feeling much better now.
We pulled away from our anchorage at 8:15 EDT and passed two tugs and three pleasure crafts and one herd of wild pigs.
We reached the dam at 2:38 EDT and the lock attendant said it'd be about 30 minutes due to maintenance. I held my breath hoping that they weren't having trouble again but about 20 minutes later the gates opened wide... almost as wide as my smile.
We are staying at the marina tonight, it's just three miles above the dam, Last night we were eaten up by skeeters and other biting and blood sucking bugs. Tonight we can keep the windows closed and run the air conditioner.

Let's Try This Again

While I was home I bought a few things....
Honda 2000i inverter-generator,  Yeti 110 Tundra cooler, aft anchor with chain and line.
My nephew, Shawn, is my partner for the week and my son, Dennis, has agreed to drive us to Bobby's Fish Camp, Daddy is riding along to keep Dennis company for the trip home.
We left Chattanooga around 5:00 am with the bed of Dennis' truck loaded with all my new toys plus the usual stuff such as food and clothes.
We arrived at the boat at 11:00 am and spent the next hour loading our stuff, getting fuel and paying my bill. The bill could have been much worse if Laura Jane of Bobby's Fish Camp hadn't had mercy on my soul. Her transient fee is $1.50 / foot / night, she more than cut that in half although it was still pretty dang high.
Shawn and I shoved off at noon... about noon:01 I noticed my rpm, oil pressure and temperature gauges were not working, I dove under the panel and poked and prodded for a while but never found the problem. That's something I'll deal with later, if I set my speed at just over 7 mph my rpms should be good and I checked the oil and coolant prior to starting the engine, I'll just have to trust that the oil pressure and engine temp will be good as well.
During the course of the day we passed one tug and two pleasure crafts. Shortly after dropping anchor at 7:00 pm another tug passed by. We anchored on the east side of the river just below a highway bridge at mile 164.6. I cranked up my new generator and plugged in my 30 amp shore-power-cable, the 1600 watts provided by the little generator allowed us to run everything except the a/c unit. I was even able to charge the dead battery.  Oh, I forgot to tell you that my old battery was dead but my new battery still had a good charge on it. Guess I'll soon have two new batteries.
Speaking of things not working,  well as darkness was approaching I turned on the anchor light... crap, it didn't come on. After fussing, cussing and flipping the breaker back and forth furiously I remembered some brittle wires at the base of the mast... that was the problem.
And the lord said "let there be anchor light" ...and there was.

Demopolis Lock Update

9-11-14 10:20 AM ...The lock attendant said they are now scheduled to open at 7:00 PM tonight, that's 24 hours later than the original plan. He did not elaborate.

9-12-14  9:30 AM ...The attendant said they opened last night... he has locked through 11 barges so far and has that many still waiting, mostly northbound.

9-12-14 2;30 PM ...I heard radio traffic while locking through Coffeeville Lock (9/4) indicating the problem at Demopolis may be more severe than originally thought, so I'm leery about resuming my trip without giving them some time, plus I'm concerned about the amount of barge traffic that's been held up, plus I don't have a deckhand to go with me until 9/22. I checked with the owner at the Fish Camp and she's okay with my boat taking up some of her limited dock space until the 22nd... I am very grateful to her.

Bobby's Fish Camp

When we woke this morning we were still in the same spot where we dropped the anchors, that's a good thing. We did however have an issue with the rodes, they had twisted around each other during the night. We had the bright idea of bringing up one anchor and unwrapping it from the other, I won't do that again. We spent over 30 minutes fooling with the problem... next time I'll try unwrapping the lines by swinging the boat around however many times is necessary. I put out both anchors because my beloved Skipper Bob book said to to so.... "if you've got two anchors then use them." Well, Sea Owl has two anchors on the pulpit, so why not use them?
Rob has been a huge help, he was a Sea Scout in his younger days and has a lot of knowledge about boats, navigation, docking and locking. Plus he's a fun guy to hangout with, I've been lucky to have him along.
The water was calm most of the way, not even a ripple... looked as though you could walk on it. We saw numerous egrets but not much else as far as wild life goes. The river banks changed from the previous day, no banks in the delta gave way to small rises in elevation and sandy beaches at most every turn.
We passed several tugs today and finally made it to the Coffeeville Lock and Dam just in time to start an hour and a half wait on a southbound tug, ugh.
Finally made it to Bobby's Fish Camp and will hang around until someone comes to pick us up on Sunday.
I'll check with the Demopolis Lock-master next Thursday to see how things are going, it's my understanding that the problem they're having could require a much longer outage than is currently anticipated.

Calm Water

Greenwave Tug

Jackson Railroad Bridge

Rob at the Helm

Rocks look out of place on the bank

Coffeeville Lock

Bobby's Fish Camp