View Larger MapLocation: 35 47 50.00 N, 84 14 14.00 W – Ft. Loudon Marina, Lenoir City, TN

WE HAVE ARRIVED! We had only a 25 mile run to the Ft Loudon Lock winding along the river under the Rt 11 bridge in Loudon and in view of some familiar landmarks as we got closer to the Ft. Loudon Lock and our marina of the same name. After we were secure in the lock we were welcomed on arrival by the Ft. Loudon pooch. We don't know the pooch's name but he/she was just about ready to jump aboard.


After a month and a half onboard we had mixed feelings of bringing our cruise to an end. Our crew were excited to be home but later indicated they are ready for the next chapter of exploring Tellico Lake and experiencing some of the Tellico anchorages.

As the lock gates opened we found we had a real welcoming committee. Our friends and fellow members of the Tellico Cruising Club were waiting to provide a super welcome for Persistence and her crew.

It's great to finally have Persistence on Ft. Loudon lake. Our welcome committee included Ed Smith, Jane Masterson, their friends Arlo and Alicia, Eric Strom and Ginny Cross. Jane Masterson handcrafted the "Welcome Persistence" banner. These last few photos were taken by Ed Smith. We all landed at the marina and celebrated our arrival with lunch at Stephen's Deli.

We would like to thank you all for joining us on our cruise from Punta Gorda to the Knoxville area. We appreciated all your comments, e-mails and phone calls along the way. You were great company and speaking of good company, we really enjoyed cruising with Carolyn and Mac McDermott who were teriffic cruising companions. We look forward to becoming more active in the Tellico Cruising Club, meeting new friends in the Marina and cruising the inland waters surrounding Persistence's new home.

View Larger MapDelayed Post for June 13, 2009 - We were in a dead zone with no signal.
Location: 35 47 20.00 N, 84 26 36.00 W - Anchorage - Little Painted Rock Creek, only 25 miles from our destination.


We are anchored in this long embayment a little more than a half mile from the river. The entrance from the river is about 16 ft deep and gradually shallows to about 10 ft where we anchored at the junction of a small cove. There is a fish camp nearby and it was not occupied. We did see later at night a light on the shore further down the embayment most likely from a fisherman. The entrance to the creek in this photo is on the left just before the hill as we approach from the south.


For our Florida friends who live on the water take a close look at the photo of the home on the hill and the dock down below. The detail is not too clear but there is a path down to the dock from the home. Can you imagine making the trip down and back to load and unload the boat? Now you can appreciate even more the nice situation you have with your dock right near your back door. Many of the homes along the river have stairs or even railways to get down to the water. We have seen some with golf cart pathways switching back and forth.

Another thing we have noticed when anchoring here is that we do not seem to get a firm bite with the anchor as we did in Florida. The bottom seems to be a loose mud so the anchor seems to pull through the mud. However, there is enough resistance to hold the boat in mild current. We have not encountered any raging wind and waves as we have seen in Florida waters. All anchorages have been well protected by steep, wooded banks and hills.

We settled in for the evening, had another great dinner that the ladies prepared and played a game of Jokers and Pegs before turning out the lights. Tomorrow we will be on the home stretch.

View Larger MapLocation: 35 37 19.00 N, 84 47 47.00 W – Anchorage Lowes Branch – near Watts Bar Resort

Today was a fine day for cruising. It was partly sunny with low humidity and in the low 80’s. We would cover 60 miles today, transit the Watts Bar Lock and find a cozy anchorage for the night. We are within 70 miles from our destination and expect to arrive around mid-day on Sunday. We all enjoyed the passage especially on a nice day. We all realize that we are getting close to the end of our journey so were soaking up every sight and savoring every moment along the way. Mac and Carolyn took the helm and enjoyed spending some time helping Persistence find her way to her new home.

As we approached the Watts Bar area it is difficult to miss the Nuke plant’s cooling towers. The crew prepared Persistence for the Watts Bar Lock. The Lock has a 48 foot vertical lift. We had to move our fenders from the starboard side to port at the instruction of the lockmaster. Apparently the lock has three bollards on the port side and one on the starboard side.
After setting the fenders the crew waited on the foredeck for the lock doors to open.

Our anchorage was just a couple of miles beyond the lock. The water depth was deep at 36 ft well into the embayment (cove). We anchored in 23 ft of water and had plenty of swing room. We settled in for a quiet night had a great spaghetti dinner by Chef Mary.

View Larger MapLocation: 35 05 44.00 N, 85 13 09.00 W – Chickamauga Marina, Chattanooga, TN

Today was overcast with severe storm warnings being announced on the VHF by the Coast Guard. We switched to the WX (weather) channel and listened to the details. They were forecasting Thunder, Lightning and high winds until mid-afternoon. We plowed along for much of the day all zipped up in moderate rain and an occasional lightning strike. We felt reasonably secure since we were down in the valley with mountains on both sides. Visibility remained good and we were dry inside.

We planned on taking fuel in Chattanooga and called Marina Max to check on fuel price ($2.59 / gal.) and the possibility of an overnight tie-up. There was no space there or anywhere in downtown Chattanooga. The annual River-bend Festival was raging in Chattanooga and every available space was taken. Tennessee Aquarium looked like ground zero for the event. There was a huge floating stage barge sponsored by Coca Cola moored behind the Aquarium.

We cruised through Chattanooga taking in all the sights and listening to the music and wished would could have taken advantage of the good times on shore. Marine Max handles the boat space assignments for the city so if we want to participate next year we will have to give them a call.

We called the Chickamauga Marina for their fuel price ($2.18 /gal.) and Transient tie-up ($1.00 /ft) Considering the weather forecast and possible severe weather we decided to stay in the marina tonight. We approached the Chickamauga Lock, locked-thru without incident and turned into the marina for the night. We were able to take a courtesy car again, went to town for dinner at The Olive Garden and then went to WalMart for some provisions. We settled in the evening with the intentions of watching another old-time classic movie.

View Larger MapDelayed posting for June 10, 2009 – no signal – anchored in the dead zone.

Location: 35 00 58.00 N, 85 35 46.00 W – Anchorage – Little Cedar Mountain


It was a stormy day today for our run to Carolyn and Mac’s first anchorage. Getting there required Carolyn and Mary to get soaked where we had a major downpour in the Nickajack lock. The crew is getting plenty of lock-thru experience. This lock had a 39 ft lift.

The anchorage was quiet, isolated and beautiful. Birds were chirping in the nearby forest. We sat on the bow for a while to soak it all in and took some time to become comfortable with the anchor’s hold on the bottom. We tried to make a few phone calls and had mixed success. We found our position was a partial dead zone. We turned on the anchor light and settled in for the evening. We found a mystery collection of classic DVDs and watched an old movie starring Ray Milland – Bulldog Drummond Escapes. (1930 Vintage in B&W).


Morning brought a heavy mist with low lying clouds hugging the Tennessee Mountains surrounding our anchorage.

View Larger MapLocation: 34 34 49.00 N, 86 04 46.00 W - Goose Pond Colony Marina - Scottsboro, AL

We topped off our fuel tanks last evening and filled our water tanks this morning for a 50 mile run today. Ditto Landing was very affordable. Fuel was reasonable at $2.50 /gal. but the overnight tie-up was a bargain at $0.50 /ft.
We were back on the Tennessee this morning at 7:55 AM and had a one and a half hour run to Guntersville Lock. This lift was only 39 ft. and we were instructed to use the auxiliary lock. We normally tie-up on our starboard side and we were rigged that way as we entered the lock. We were advised by radio that only two bollards were available and they were on the port side. So our crew had to do a quick shuffle to move all fenders to the opposite side. It is nice to have the extra crew on board to keep our 40,000 pound boat off the wall. The ladies did a great job of protecting the forward section of the boat.

We entered Guntersville Lake and found it to be expansive. The feeling was like a large lake and certainly not a river. There were lots of islands and coves to explore but we couldn’t stop on this trip. We were warned in Fred Myers Tennessee River guide that the lake was being over-run with hydrilla and milfoil weed which was not obvious until we entered the channel to this marina for fuel. We were going to top off our tanks and then move on to the anchorage. The channel was clear and the weeds outside of the channel and in the area of the marina were intimidating. The TVA had a barge nearby “mowing the lawn” to keep the weeds under control. We topped off our tanks at $2.39 /gal and found that overnight tie-up would be less than $0.75 /ft. We decided to skip the challenge of anchoring in the weeds and tied up at the marina. The bonus was a nearby restaurant called The Docks for dinner. We all had a good meal and retired to Persistence for the evening.

Still at Ditto Landing Marina – Huntsville, Alabama

Today tuned into a bit of a bust. Last night Tom did his usual fluid checks following our cruise and he noticed the area in front of the generator was very wet and was tinted red. He determined that there was no immediate risk but this discovery was going to set his priority for today. He encouraged the rest of the crew to go as planned to the Rocket and Space Center and they instead decided to stay, provide support and do other tasks including laundry.


Tom jumped into the bilge again and once again dismantled the generator sound shield (it is really a pain in the *%&) and started to diagnose the problem. He suspected and was right that the new clamps on the new exhaust hose needed to be retightened. The leak was at junction of the exhaust manifold. It turned out to be an easy fix. The next problem was to find the reason for the red tint to the water. The reason was also pretty obvious. It was a fuel leak. Off-road diesel does not have a road tax in the price and is dyed red to distinguish it from taxed fuel. We did have a small leak somewhere.

The leak was found at a connection in a line from the electric fuel pump to the primary fuel filter. Wiping down the connection several times with the generator running and the line under pressure we could see fuel weeping from the top of the fitting. So the logical thing to do was to get a wrench and tighten the fitting. What followed was one of those “oh S%&*” moments because there was a tactile snap when Tom tried to tighten the fitting. Fuel was spurting everywhere and since Tom was in the hole, Mary got the scream to shut-r-down. A post mortem of the fuel line and connections determined that the line which was a hard copper tube about 6 inches long had a flare on both ends. The flare broke off the end that Tom was trying to tighten. Now what?

Tom & Mac took the line and fittings to the Marina office and asked for a referral to where they could get a replacement. A call was made to a local mechanic, Chris and he stopped by after an hour or so to put an eyeball on the problem. He left to find the parts and returned with a solution that seems to work just fine. Tom reassembled the sound shield, cleaned up his mess and we are back in business once again. We will leave the dock early again to run to our next destination.

View Larger MapDelayed Posting for June 7, 2009
Location: 34 34 39.00 N, 86 33 33.00 W – Ditto Landing Marina – Huntsville, Alabama

We got an early start for our first day cruise with our new cruising buddies. We called the Wilson Lock at 7:00 AM for their availability for a lock-thru. The lockmaster said to make the run now so we were off the dock at 7:15 AM and in the lock around 7:30 AM. If we were impressed with the 82 ft lift on the Tenn-Tom we were awestruck with this 93 ft lift. This is the highest lift on the Tennessee and was once the highest single lift in the world but now ranks sixth in the US. Construction of the Wilson dam began in 1918 and was completed in 1925. At the time it was the world’s largest dam.

We then had a 20 mile run to the Wheeler lock for a 72 ft lift to bring us to nearly 600 ft elevation. Rather than anchor tonight we decided to run about 80 miles to Huntsville to stay a couple of days to tour the Space and Rocket Center, the world’s largest space museum. We hope to bring you some details and photos tomorrow.

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The river is very wide and does not wander as did the ten-Tom so we felt like we were making progress. The shore line is also more developed than on the Tenn-Tom and we saw a variety of sights along the river. It was Sunday so there was more boat traffic than we have seen since we left Florida Along the way we saw the Browns Ferry nuclear plant with its unique spire. The spire is not a cooling tower. It is designed to provide lightening protection for the plant.
We saw another lift span railroad bridge that had a 10 ft clearance in the down position and lifted for us upon request. As we approached the bridge we had to chuckle. We were talking on the radio to the bridge operator and we actually were able to understand what he was saying.
He spoke in a very heavy Alabama twang. So while he was “fixing” to lift the bridge we were fortunate that we had lots of practice listening to our dear Florida friend Nancy. We also saw the Meow Mix plant in Decatur. Most folks have seen their ads on TV.

Mac enjoys driving so he gave Tom an opportunity to relax and do some other tasks on today’s trip. Mac’s had plenty of help to get him through the day. This photo of Tom and Mary was taken at Tennessee mile marker 326 which is the mid-point of the Tennessee River between Peducah, KY where the river joins the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers and just east of Knoxville where the Tennessee River begins.

Location: Still at Florence Harbor Marina – playing tourists
Today we had the opportunity to visit the birthplace of Helen Keller. Helen Adams Keller was born a healthy child on June 27, 1880, to Captain Arthur H. and Kate Adams Keller of Tuscumbia. At the tender age of 19 months, she was stricken with a severe illness which left her blind and deaf. Anne Sullivan, called the miracle worker, was Helen Keller’s teacher and what she did was truly a miracle.

Anne Sullivan was standing at the totally blind and deaf Helen Keller's side and was steadily pumping cool water into one of the girl's hands while repeatedly tapping out an alphabet code of five letters in the other—first slowly, then rapidly. The scene was repeated again and again as young Helen painstakingly struggled to break her world of silence.

Suddenly the signals crossed Helen's consciousness with a meaning. She knew that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the cool something flowing over her hand. Darkness began to melt from her mind like so much ice left out on the sunny March day. By nightfall, Helen had learned 30 words
We have all seen the movie “The Miracle Worker” with Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft. Today we saw where it all started. Go to http://www.helenkellerbirthplace.org/ to learn more.

Location: Still at Florence Harbor Marina

The first half of the day was dedicated to boat maintenance, cleanup and reorganizing our provisions. Carolyn and Mac McDermott arrive around mid-day after driving for 5 hours from Tellico Village in Tennessee. They will finish the remainder of our Cruise to Fort Loudon Marina.

We borrowed the courtesy car again and escorted Carolyn and Mac with their rental car to drop it off at the local regional airport. We stopped at the WalMart SuperCenter to restock the boat with groceries and headed back to the boat for a quiet evening.

Location: 34 47 19.00 N, 87 40 30.00 W – Florence Harbor Marina – Florence, Alabama

The usual Satellite photo has been omitted because the Google photo obscured the Marina with clouds. They should snap another image on a clear day. So in its place is this stock photo of the marina. Today it was just a 25 mile run from our anchorage to the marina. We are expecting Carolyn and Mac to arrive tomorrow so we’ll take advantage of our time here to clean up a bit after a month of cruising. We should have brought our Little Green Machine carpet cleaner after all the generator work we had done. We tried to protect the salon carpet from all the work that was done but it’s impossible so the carpet needs a good cleaning. It will have to wait until we reach our new home port.

We were greeted at the dock by Eva and Tom and they helped with the lines. Eva was running the marina today and Tom is a live-aboard who arrived a year ago after doing the loop and decided to stay awhile. We topped off with fuel and they helped us move into our slip. Overnight tie-up is $1.00 ft. and diesel was $2.63 per gal. The marina is very well protected with virtually no exposure to traffic on the Tennessee. There is a restaurant at the marina with catfish as their specialty. This marina is very convenient to downtown Florence so we’ll borrow the courtesy car and check the area out tomorrow.

View Larger MapDelayed Post for Wednesday June 3, 2009 – no internet access
Location: 34 53 32.00 N, 88 01 16.00 W – Ross Branch Anchorage

We reluctantly left Zippy Creek this morning. What a beautiful location.
When we made our turn for the final mile or so of the Tenn-Tom, we saw the Grand Harbor Marina to our left. This marina together with Aqua Harbor is a testament to the interest in boating and the strength of the boating market in this area. The Sternwheeler Pickwick Belle makes her home in Grand Harbor. Later in the day we saw the Pickwick Belle steaming by our new anchorage.

We finally turned onto the Tennessee River, Ya-Hooo! The junction of the Tenn-Tom (Mile 450) and the Tennessee (mile 215) is marked by a steeply wooded shore. On the left is Tennessee, ahead is Alabama and to the right is Mississippi. Now that we are on the Tennessee River we will begin to cruise southeasterly down into Alabama again and we will not be back into Tennessee until we are approaching Chattanooga.

Our anchorage tonight is a cove off the Tennessee. The entrance to the cove is through the center of two rock piles just outside the cove. The river navigation channel was around 40 ft deep. When we were astride the two rock piles the depth was 15 ft. and then dropped quickly to 30 ft as we went over an old canal along the river. On the other side of the canal the depth returned to 15 ft. There are two white crosses (one on each side of the cove) and we anchored on the imaginary line connecting the crosses. The white crosses indicate that the cove quickly shallows beyond the imaginary line. The crosses are on the chart. The crosses have reflectors to show brilliantly when lighted at night. After sunset the weather turned nasty with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. We checked our GPS and we were holding like a rock. It is a nice anchorage and large enough to swing on one anchor.

Tomorrow we will be heading for Florence Harbor Marina, in Florence, Alabama where we will wait for our friends Carolyn & Mac McDermott (members of Tellico Cruising Club) to join us for the remainder of our cruise to Fort Loudon Marina.

View Larger MapLocation: 34 58 59.00 N, 88 13 10.00 W – Zippy Creek anchorage, Pickwick Lake, Mississippi/Tennessee Line

After completing the installation of the new muffler for the generator we left Aqua Harbor Marina yesterday afternoon and traveled about a mile to our Zippy Creek anchorage. The marina service department arranged for us to be charged for only one overnight tie-up charge. We had stayed for 3 nights through the weekend waiting for the installation on Monday.

When we arrived at the marina we wanted to find a couple who we did not know but were referred to by a mutual acquaintance in Michigan, They keep their 50 ft Carver in the marina full time. The boat name was Paula Faye. We asked at the fuel dock when we arrived and they didn’t know. We had mail forwarded that we picked up in the office and we asked Bonnie there as well without luck. On Sunday as we were walking through the parking lot Sanford and Faye Flack saw our Punta Gorda T-shirts and introduced themselves. We finally met but they were heading home with a 9 hour drive to Ohio. It was a shame that we did not connect earlier in the weekend.

Our Zippy Creek anchorage provides great protection from all directions with the exception of NNW. Water depth is 20 ft + through two-thirds of the embayment. We are anchored where the boat is located in the Google photo. There is a very slight current flow from the creek out to the north so the boat does not swing much if the wind is light. The anchorage is exceptionally quiet except for bird song in the forest. We are going to enjoy this spot and stay for another night before moving onto the Tennessee River and closer to Florence, Alabama.

Delayed Post for Sunday May 31, 2009 – Still at Aqua harbor Marina
We took advantage of a quiet day to visit the Civil War Shilow Battlefield and National Cemetery. The National Cemetery has 3584 graves with all but three for Union Soldiers. There are 1227 Known and 2357 unknown soldiers. Confederate soldiers are buried in multiple mass graves outside of the cemetery proper and are therefore all unknown soldiers. Below are a few photos. Click on the images to enlarge: