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.