TX TO TN CRUISE 
TRIP 4
In the Knoxville, TN Area
July 31 - August 16, 2004

July 31, 2004, Saturday, Fly to Knoxville, TN

     We used our return tickets on Delta to fly back to Knoxville.  Again there were delays in Atlanta.  I resolved to try and schedule future flights to avoid the Atlanta airport.  The way we saw luggage being thrown around, we hoped to avoid Delta in the future, too.

     We arrived about 4:45pm, and our friend Lloyd picked us up.  He dropped us at the yacht club, and we moved the boat over to the club side of the cove.  The yacht club personnel were great in checking on our boat (every other day we were told); the refrigerator and all other electrical issues were fine.  I could not get the generator to start; the battery was very low on water.  I added distilled water to it and used jumper cables to get it started.  The other batteries seemed okay with a spot check.

     Lloyd Archer and his wife, Lisa, and their daughter, Julie, and her daughter, Kaylie, went to dinner together.  Angela took pictures of all of us, and we later found out there was no film in the camera!  We bought a few groceries and returned to the boat.

August 1, 2004, Sunday, Slow Boat Ride on the Tennessee River

     The boat was dirty, so I got up early and washed it.  A term that is used in this part of the country applies to that wash – “a lick and a promise.”  I could not do a great job, but I got it clean enough so we could slide along the rails and not get dirty.  I got most of the spiders and their residue off the boat; it looked a lot better.

     My brother Will Magill lived in Greeneville, TN with his wife Tammy and their two boys.  Mathew had just turned 12, and Mitchell was 8.  They came down to see us after church, arriving about 1pm.  They took us to a great place for lunch called Puleos Grille.  We had a good meal there and then went to the grocery store. 

     After that we took a slow boat ride a few miles up and down the Tennessee River.  You don’t have to travel far on the river to see the high rocky banks that I like so much.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves; it was hot and humid, but it was August, right?  The boys were all over the boat, checking everything out.  They had just returned from a vacation at the beach, so they had some new suntans, on their faces particularly.  We had some light rain about 6pm.  Will and his family visited until 7pm and then headed back to their home.

    

August 2, 2004, Monday, Lay Day in Knoxville

     I wanted to make sure the dinghy and its outboard were working properly before we set out for the mountains, so on Monday I removed the cover and lifted the dinghy into the water.  The engine started and ran well, and I filled the tank plus a spare tank with gasoline.  I ran the dinghy all over the cove and out into the Tennessee River.  Without my shirt on I soon felt the sun’s effects on my shoulders and arms.

     The Fort Loudoun Yacht Club had received other members of Lakewood Yacht Club over the years.  The members and staff were friendly and glad to have us there.  It was an attractive place, and we took some photographs of the clubhouse, the Rooster Dock, the fuel dock, some covered slips, (shown below), etc.

        

        

     I met the Club Manager, David, and I thanked him and Jim for their help in checking on our boat.  Polly was in, and I visited with her a little while.  She was friendly and funny.  She asked the commodore if I could leave out boat there for the winter.  Mike Sullivan, Commodore, came by himself to welcome us and give us the go ahead if we wanted to use their dock space for the winter.

     We visited with several other people, and we heard the name Eric Skates come up often in regard to cleaning and waxing boats.  I got in touch with him, and Eric came over to see us.  He brought his young son with him, a youngster who often repeated his father’s sentences as if to authenticate what Eric was telling us.  He was cute.  Eric and I agreed he would clean the boat and wax it during our next trip home.

August 3, 2004, Tuesday, Knoxville to First Anchorage, Tellico Lake

     Our friend, Dick, who was so helpful to us on our 1998 cruise to this area, was out of town.  We cruised by his home, and boy, had it changed.  Mainly the trees and other vegetation on the bank down from his house had been trimmed back and landscaped.  It looked good.

     I called Ron and Eva Stob, who lived on Tellico Lake, to see if they were home.  They were, and we were able to arrange to meet at noon for lunch.  The Tellico Village Golf Country Club was located on Tellico Lake at Mile 5.5.  We both arrived about the same time, tied up to the same dock, and walked upstairs to eat on the balcony outside.

        

     We were so glad to see Ron and Eva.  They are busy people who write, publish, and lecture about cruising in boats like ours and like theirs.  They started America’s Great Loop Cruising Association and ran it from their home near Greenback, TN.  They were very nice to us and made our trip more enjoyable.

     After lunch we explored a little, going up Sinking Creek and back to the main lake, while the Stobs got some fuel.  Then we followed them to their cove, about Mile 13.3, where they have a dock for their boat.  We passed their dock and went further into the cove for an anchorage.  I dropped the dinghy into the water, and we took a nap.

     That area was being developed rapidly, and the sizes of some of the homes were amazing.  It was hard to imagine what someone could do with all that floor space, except clean it, that is.  Some of the houses were pretty, and most had boathouses down on the river’s edge.  Tellico Village itself was well populated, and the older sections were built out.  New homes were being built on bald hills, with no trees in sight.  Other sights were more like Ron and Eva's; the trees were dense along the river and in front of the houses.

     About 5pm we showered and changed and took the dinghy over to Ron’s dock.  He met us there and led us up a steep hill to their home.  We were tired by the time we got there, and the lake view was completely blocked by the trees.  We had cheese and crackers, wine and diet coke and water, and we visited about all the things that had been going on since we last saw each other.

     When we left Ron and Eva’s home, Ron drove us around their subdivision and showed us some views of the lake and the clubhouse, marina, and community pool.  Then they took us across the dam at Ft. Loudon to a restaurant called the Cross Eyed Cricket.  You could order from the menu or catch your own trout or catfish and they would cook it for you.  It was very pleasant under the large trees; we sat on an outside patio and ate our meal, ordered from the menu.  Then we walked around the unusual place, around the lake and back to the car.  We got back to the boat about 10pm after a most enjoyable day.

     On our first day on the water, except for the 10 miles covered on the slow boat ride, we ran 3 hours and covered 40 miles.  We left the generator off from 5 – 10pm, but otherwise we ran it all night.

August 4, 2004, Wednesday, First to Second Anchorage, Tellico River

     When I lowered the dinghy, a rubber piece which fit between the boat and the foot of the outboard engine, fell off the boat into the water.  I said at the time I was going to retrieve it – it floated - but I didn’t do it at the time and it was no longer in sight.  So, I ran the dinghy in and out of every indentation in that cove, but I never found it.  On the way I saw some homes and home sites.  One vacant lot had a “For Sale” sign on it, so I called the number.  The lady gave me a sales pitch and mentioned they had a website set up for this property, which was 0.8 acres.  The asking price was over $800,000.  Inflation had hit Tennessee as well as Florida.

     Ron called and offered any other assistance, but we were ready to explore and anchor, which is what we proceeded to do.  Tellico Lake is not really large, and its main body of water is also called the Little Tennessee River.  The LTR is navigable for about 31 miles.  At Mile 19.2 the Tellico River intersects the Little Tennessee River, and we went up the Tellico River about 6 miles.  We anchored at first in Kennedy Branch, where we had anchored in 1998, but we soon moved out to the main river and anchored.

     I noticed some oil residue on the water and investigated what might be the reason.  The starboard fuel tank had “burped” some fuel out the overflow, probably due to the hot day.  I had been running on the forward tank, and the two side tanks were full.  I went into the engine room and opened the valves between the forward tank and the two side tanks.  After a while I closed them, and that solved the problem.

     In 2 hours we covered 13 miles, with the dinghy alongside the boat.  We ran the generator all night; it was hot and humid and clear.  I had to face an unreasonable expectation I had when planning that trip.  I though we would get away from town, anchor, open the windows, and enjoy cool breezes throughout the night and possibly the days, too.  No way – this was August, and it was hot.

August 5, 2004, Thursday, Second Anchorage, Tellico River

     We did not move from that anchorage all day.  It had rained a little overnight, and it rained on and off all day.  I got up early but went back to bed – after making coffee, it seems.  Angela got up much later (I was asleep) and tried to make coffee, but the machine was On and had timed out.  So we had “warmed up” coffee.  We began a habit of sleeping late, which is Angela’s idea of a vacation anyway.

     I was reading Michener’s ALASKA, and it was especially interesting since we had just visited there.  The book was 1070 pages long, and I wanted to complete it on that cruise.  We read, listened to music, and watched some television, which we almost never do at home.

     A cold front had come through, and the high for the day was 77 degrees F.  I began to think we might have some cooler than normal weather after all.

August 6, 2004, Friday, Second Anchorage, Tellico River

     The weather was cooler, and we turned off the generator about 11am.  We turned it on and off as needed during the day and slept with it off during the night.  With the windows open, it was pretty comfortable.

     Angela and I ran the dinghy up the Tellico River to Ballplay Creek and the upper limits of the main branch of the Tellico River.  We hit a stump with the outboard at Mile 8 (+/-), but it still functioned fine.  There were stumps sticking out of the water and some trees, too. 

     We ran the dinghy downstream to Mile 4.5 and turned up into Notchy Creek.  Angela was with me taking pictures.  We ran to the end of Notchy Creek, about 3 miles.  I could tell it was the end because there were stumps sticking out of the water the water turned to weeds.  There were high hills on the south side of the creek and low land with houses and a road on the north side.

     When we rejoined Tellico River we went back to the boat in generally a southerly direction.  We got a great view of the Smoky Mountains.  We took a number of photos to see if we could get a new one for our calling cards.  The cold front had washed away some of the summertime haze, and we could see the mountains more clearly.

August 7, 2004, Saturday, Second to Third Anchorage, Little Tennessee River
 
     We pulled up our anchor, which was almost clean, except where the chain had been lying in some brown mud, about 1:30pm.  We tied the dinghy alongside and motored down to Mile 2.5 on the Tellico River.  We moved about 4 miles.  We saw a museum which I had just read about in one of our guide books, probably the one by Fred Myers, his is excellent; and we stopped to check it out.  There was a dock about 75 feet long with 12 feet of water alongside.  The Indian museum was named Sequoyah Birthplace Museum.  We spent a couple of hours there.

     The museum was on an island shared by Ft. Loudoun.  There was a bridge for Highway 360 connecting the mainland to the island on both ends.  On the south end there was a small boat passage, and the north end had a wide bridge with well over 30 feet clearance.

        

     We rejoined the Little Tennessee River at Mile 19.2 or so, and we turned right and went upstream.  At Mile 20 there was a marina up Ninemile Creek, where we planned to stay on Sunday night.  The foundations to the Tellico Blockhouse were visible on our left at the junction of the river and Ninemile Creek.  A little further upstream we could see the Smoky Mountains and we could look back on our starboard side and see Fort Loudoun.

        

     There were a lot of boats on Tellico Lake.  It was a pretty day, and the lake is not all that large.  It occurred to me that it would be interesting, in the future, to see if the lake filled up with boats before the available land was all built up with houses.  In other words, which might occur first?  There were only a few wide spots for water skiing on the upper portions of the two rivers.  Very few boats capable of running at planning speed did anything else, so large wakes were common, not only there but also on the Tennessee River.

     Our anchorage was at Mile 31, the upper limits of navigation on the Little Tennessee River, just below the abandoned trestle that crossed the river at that point.  Along the way we passed several of the sites of the Cherokee Indian villages that used to be there.  A memorial to the towns of the Cherokees was located on a point at Mile 26.5.


     We anchored and took the dinghy up to get a photograph of Chilhowee Dam.  We had been there in the dinghy in 1998 but without a camera at that time.  The water in the Little Tennessee River was cold.

     Anchoring in that rocky bottom was not easy, and I left the GPS on to check and see if we were moving.  I had let out plenty of chain, perhaps too much; for when the wind picked up and the boat started swinging, we could hear the chain dragging on the rocky bottom.  The wind was strong all night, and we heard that chain moving back and forth.  We were well hooked though, and our GPS showed the same reading the next morning.

     Motorcycles, cars, and trucks were still making their noisy ways up and down Hwy. 129, as they had when we were there in 1998.  I believe The Dragon is still there to tempt motorcycle riders from far and wide.

     We played the board and card game, Sequence; Angela beat me 4 games out of 4.

August 8, 2004, Sunday, Third Anchorage to Tellico Harbor Marina, Maryville, TN

     We slept without the generator, and I got up at 10am and turned it on for coffee.  At 2pm we went down the river to Mile 20 and turned into Ninemile Creek.  Tom, at Tellico Harbor Marina, had said he could clear a spot out for us, and he did.  At 4:30pm we tied up next to the restaurant and filled our tank with fresh water for washing clothes.

     Royce Norman was the owner; he loaned us his Suburban to go to Vonore, TN for groceries, about three miles away.  The grocery store (Sloan's) was also a BP service station, but it had more to offer than at first met the eye.  It really had two grocery sections, one much larger than the other.  It also had a large hardware store.  We got most of the things we wanted, and we bought a few extra things since we had transportation.

      

     We drove down to the City dock and were grateful we didn’t have to walk from our boat down there up to Sloan’s, where we bought groceries, and back again with a load.

     We ate dinner at the restaurant.  Angela beat me 3 to nothing at Sequence.

August 9, 2004, Monday, Tellico Harbor Marina to Fourth Anchorage, Baker Creek

     We washed clothes and filled up our water tank.  I changed the oil and filter on the generator and did some cleaning and housekeeping in the bilges.  I met a boater named Jim, and we talked for a couple of hours. 

     About 4:30pm we dinghied over to see Fort Loudoun.  The gift shop was closed, but the tour of the fort is self-guided and the fort was open until sunset.  It was interesting, and we got some good photos.  We took the dinghy back to the marina and got a few pictures of the marina.  It was larger than I had expected it to be.

        

        

     We left the marina about 6:45pm and motored over to the Morganton Recreation Area, Baker Creek, about a mile away from Lake Tellico at Mile 13.5.  That was the site of the clubhouse, marina, etc. for Ron and Eva’s subdivision.  We anchored where we could see those facilities yet be well out of the way.  Sunset was at 8:20pm.

      Angela won every hand at Sequence.  We slept with the generator off, but it was getting warmer and more humid.


August 10, 2004, Tuesday, Fourth to Fifth Anchorage, Bat Creek

     After lunch we pulled up the anchor and moved a few miles downstream to a cove just off the main Bat Creek.  Then I went exploring with the dinghy.  After a couple of hours I came back and got Angela and her camera.  Then we retraced my earlier route.

     The houses on the south side of Bat Creek were some of the largest on Lake Tellico.  They tended to be on the top of a ridge with no trees, and I imagine the view might have included the lake in two opposite directions due to their height and position.  I believe the north side is restricted by TVA for some reason, as there were no houses there.  There were a couple of marinas there, just covered slips for boats owned by the land owners in the area.  We saw several other cooperative "marinas" in several other coves; those marinas would not be listed in any guide book as they offered no services to transients like us.


        

     In my exploring I found a couple of roads that used to provide for transportation around the hills but now goes underwater due to the flooding of the area for the lake.  Between Miles 11 and 12 we went up into three different coves, each almost filled with homes and boathouses.  The next creek downstream was named Fork Creek, and we explored it well beyond the limits of the chart.  Beyond where the water goes under a low bridge, we went up a narrow creek, eventually to another, higher bridge.  We hit some barely submerged rocks, but the dinghy plowed on, seemingly undamaged.  We saw horses, rocks, trees, logs, flowers, and eventually the chocked-up end of navigation on the creek.

    
     The next creek down was Clear Creek, and we went under a low bridge to a straight creek with two side branches.  The end of one of the branches said Russell Store and Maple Spring on the chart.  There was a lot of water skiing in that creek.

     We went back to the boat and tied the dinghy alongside.  We grilled dinner, and I finally won more hands than I lost at Sequence.  It was a very nice cove.  The generator ran all night due to heat and humidity outside.

August 11, 2004, Wednesday, Fifth Anchorage to Sixth Anchorage, Tellico Dam

     I was up early, about 9am.  We began to hear about Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley about this time, and we were periodically checking on our friends in Florida.

      

     We heard about a marina called Lake Tellico Yacht Club, so as we moved downstream I looked for it and found it at Mile7.5 LDB.  We motored in there and checked it out.  The clubhouse was gigantic.  I talked to one of the members briefly; he said it didn’t open until 5pm.  I called the yacht club to see if we could get a slip and left a message on their answering machine.

     Power Line Cove at Mile 5.5 RDB was already occupied by a pair of boats rafted up, a single boat at anchor, and a barge.  We looked around there and went on downstream.

     Eventually we anchored at Mile 1.0 plus a mile off the channel, near the Tellico Dam.  There were a few coves in there that were small but attractive.  We anchored in 18 feet of water.  I was expecting another cold front and NW winds, and anchored accordingly.  Actually the winds were from the N and NE, but they were not strong.  Our anchor was holding us very well anyway.  The cold front would be welcome; it had gotten much warmer.

     We took the dinghy into and out of each of those coves.  We went looking for International Harbor Marina, but it was not where the chart said it was.  It was hot, and going fast in the dinghy cooled us off.

      Angela made crab cakes, which were very good.  I won most of the hands at Sequence.  We watched some TV shows that week, which was unusual for us; and we checked on the tropical storms via the Weather Channel and CNN.  That evening we experienced light rain and very light winds.

August 12, 2004, Thursday, Sixth Anchorage, Tellico Dam

     It was overcast and rainy all day, so we just stayed where we were.  It was cool, too – about 68 degrees F for a high.  TS Bonnie was supposed to come ashore at Perry, FL, which was SE of Tallahassee.  It turned out to be not too much of a problem.  Our friends, Marc and Cindy, were en route from TX to FL via boat.  They had just made the big jump across the big bend in the FL coastline and were holed up in Tarpon Springs.  They had to evacuate anyway due to Hurricane Charley, which was originally projected to come ashore around Tampa Bay.  Our friends, Willie and Michelle, were in Melbourne and presumably in no danger.

     I was trying to finish ALASKA and did also manage to work in a nap.  This trip was an experiment in a way.  I wondered if I were retired and had no schedule to meet, what would we do, and how would we like it?  Angela had been very clear about her desire to sleep late and not rush to the next airport.  So we were doing it her way, I thought, checking it out.

August 13, 2004, Friday, Sixth Anchorage to Seventh Anchorage, Ish Creek, off the Tennessee River

     About 1:30pm we motored over to Ft. Loudoun Marina and filled up with water.  It was a glorious day, just beautiful.  It seemed like Fall, when the wind blows in light gusts from several directions.

       We checked out the coves near the marina, and then we went upstream to a likely looking anchorage I had spotted on the chart.  Gallagher Creek was one possibility, and its neighbor was another – Ish Creek, the chart said.  We liked Ish Creek better, and we went down to the end and dropped anchor in about 14 feet of water.

     It appeared there was an old roadbed and bridge behind us, so we ran the dinghy over to check it out.  There was an opening for small boats that led us into a small lake with a slalom ski course inside.  We checked it out with the dinghy, observing some interesting wildlife along the way.  I had never seen a red fox while on a boat before then.  After we left there we went over to see Gallagher Creek.  We found International Harbor Marina, with a Friendsville address.  (We have a Friendswood, TX near us at home.) It had been moved there from its former location on Lake Tellico.

        

     We went back to the boat and tied the dinghy alongside, as we had done every day since we first anchored just off the main body of Tellico Lake.  We were the only boat anchored in the creek, which was the usual occurrence for us that trip.

August 14, 2004, Saturday, Seventh Anchorage to Ft. Loudoun Yacht Club

     As the morning wore on, more and more boats came into our immediate vicinity and dropped their anchors.  We wondered if some of them might swing enough on their anchors to run into us.  The outstanding feature of the visitors were the children – lots of them, very small, with life jackets, swimming around in the creek.  When we left there must have 8 – 10 yachts and ski boats anchored or rafted up in that area.

     I wanted to get back to the yacht club before 5pm, as that was when Jim left for the day; and we did so.  Our previous spot on the dock was occupied, so we asked and received permission from Jim to use the T-head on the finger piers dock.  We plugged in to electricity and to shore water, and Angela washed some clothes.

     Eric Skates came by and we discussed the wash, compound, and wax job he was going to do on the boat while we were gone.

August 15, 2004, Sunday, Prepare to Go Home

     The only big things I did for the day were to lift the dinghy up to the boat deck and set it on its cradle, and to lower the antennas and move the boat into a covered slip arranged by Eric so he could work out of the sun.  The weather was nice, and I enjoyed being outside, even though it was getting much warmer.

     Angela and I cleaned the boat, although she did most of the cleaning.  I added more distilled water to the generator battery.  We ate leftovers for lunch, and we threw away trash.

     That evening Lloyd and Lisa came by and picked us up for dinner.  We went to Puleos Grille again, where Will and Tammy had taken us a couple of weeks earlier.  It was a good place.  We all enjoyed our meals there.

August 16, 2004, Monday, Fly Home to Houston

     We were up at 8am, and Lloyd came by about 9:45 to run us over to the Knoxville airport.  We had a cup of coffee with him there, and we flew home via Continental, a direct flight on a regional jet.

     It had been a relaxing trip (a vacation, Angela) when sleeping late was more than allowed, it was standard.  We anchored in 7 different locations, spending 3 nights in one spot, 2 nights in another, and only one night in each of the others, for 10 nights at anchor.  We also rented a marina slip for one night, at $0.50 per foot per night; and we began and ended the trip at Ft. Loudoun Yacht Club.

Statistics for the trip:

Running Hours:  21
Miles:  155
Generator Hours:  177
Fuel Used:  N/A
Fuel Costs:  N/A
Running Days:  11
Lay Days:  4
Travel Days:  2
Total Days  17 
Average Speed:  7.4 mph
Average Fuel:  N/A
Average Fuel Cost:  N/A
Average Miles Per Running Day:  14
Average Running Hours Per Running Day:  1.9
Locks  0

Statistics for Trips 1, 2, 3, and 4

Running Hours:  149
Miles:  1,815
Generator Hours:  350
Fuel Used:  3,187 gallons
Fuel Costs:  $4,407
Running Days:  29
Lay Days:  11
Travel Days:  7
Total Days  47
Average Speed:  12.2 mph
Average Fuel:  N/A
Average Fuel Cost:  $ 1.38 per gallon
Average Miles Per Running Day:  63
Average Running Hours Per Running Day:  5.1
Locks  24
Generator Hours per Engine Hour = 2.3