Cumberland River 9/1 - 9/13

We decided that since we were starting back on a portion of the Loop that we hadn't yet done and that we would be meeting other Loopers on their way down the rivers that we would re-attach our AGLCA burgee on our boat.

We had met new friends Bill & Charlotte on "Omega" a couple of weeks before we left and said our goodbyes to them. We will hopefully see them again in the near future.

After traveling through Guntersville Lock we came to Bay Hill Marina to visit with other boaters that we had met before. These guys come up to Bay Hill during hurricane season and then go back to Florida over the winter. Since we are planning to go to Panama City over the winter this year we got together with them and talked about the different marinas there and plans for when everyone would be going down. Some of us plan to be at the AGLCA Rendezvous at the end of October and then go down and others will be just heading down after the season. The boats represented are "Eagle One", "PatsyRay", and "I Love Lucy".

We continued down to Joe Wheeler State Park where we met "NO MO YD WK", "KAOS", and one more that I can't find my information on. We had an informal get-together on our boat and talked of cruising plans and past experiences. It was good to meet more crusers.

After leaving Wheeler we once again traveled through Wilson Lock. This is the deepest lock on the Tennessee system and it really gives you a sense of perspective once you are inside.

After leaving the lock we passed by a beautiful waterfall landscape at a house on a prominent point. We then anchored in a cove adjacent to another waterfall that is one of the most popular spots on the river on a weekend. We took the dinghy over to see the waterfall since we could not possibly get SEASEA into the cove with all the boats (we were there over Labor Day weekend). The cove we anchored in was busy enough and even had a pontoon boat rigged to look like a Tiki Hut selling hot dogs and hamburgers with a "waiter" driving around in a dinghy. We had a great deal of entertainment those two days watching people try to anchor that had obviously never been taught the correct way. There was no use trying to tell the the proper way as most did not have enough rode to lay a proper scope anyway.

We stopped at Cuba Landing Marina to meet some friends, Gary and Mary Kay, that we met at Goose Pond some months ago. They have a houseboat at the marina and we stopped in for the night and had dinner with them. It was, once again, good to get back together with people we met before.

We had seen on the Local Notices To Mariners that the Army was to be conducting exercises near Paris Landing so we chose an anchorage close by and watched as guys jumped out of an airplane to do water landings. Others in small inflatables ran around picking up the paratroopers. The notice said that they would be jumping from Chinook helicopters but they jumped from a plane instead. I was looking forward to the helicopters.

On Thursday my computer hard disk crashed so I got online on my navigation computer (something I don't like to do for fear of any virus on a computer I rely on for navigation) to see if I could find a Best Buy or something in the area. The closest larger city was Paducah, Kentucky so we headed for Kentucky Dam Marina where we could get their courtesy car to go into Paducah. I found a Best Buy and purchased a new laptop. I am not as thrilled with it as I would like but it does work and will be a good backup for the navigation computer.

Since we had already paid for a slip at the marina we decided to use the car again the next day and drive over to Green Turtle Bay marina where we came in on our trip into the Tennessee River on our Loop trip. While there we experienced something that I hope to never experience again. We were talking with a Looper at his boat when, about 150 feet away, a boat exploded after being fueled. It had taken on gas and moved about 20 feet away from the fuel dock when the explosion took place. We both ran to the fuel dock screaming at anyone on the boat to jump off. A woman did jump off but a man was killed on board. The woman was airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical and the marina, through a series of bad decisions in hindsight, almost had a major catastrophe in potentially setting ablaze an entire dock of boats.
It was a very disturbing day and I did not sleep well for the next couple of nights. This photo was taken by Bob DeGroot, another Looper that we had be talking with just prior to the accident.

After we left Kentucky Dam Marina we headed through the canal that connects the Tennessee River to the Cumberland River. We are now finally on the Cumberland River.

One of our stops on the Cumberland was in a bay by the small town of Kuttawa, KY. We had read about the maximum security prison referred to as the "Castle on the Cumberland" so we took the dinghy around to see it. There is a museum on the grounds that gives a history of the county and the Land Between the Lakes region. We toured the museum and got a shot of the "Castle" as we left.

We met some really nice people in the town when we took the dinghy over to see a park. They came out to the boat for a get-together and we have planned to stop back there on our way back with our friends from the PNW and have a barbeque with them. I hope the weather and our schedules will allow us to stop. You meet some of the best people when traveling to the smaller towns.