Follow me, Left marathon for Tennessee

I turned on my ais and threw the lines..it was a hard decision to leave but I gotta get to some fresh water. I wanna clean things up a bit. And I miss the mountains. I've got crew this time my girl friend Dawn took a couple weeks off. I'm going to teach her to use the forum to keep friends and family informed along our journey. I invite any and all to come along with Carter's Cove. Please help with any local info or breaking news as we don't have cable. Also if I could get a contact or two along the river systems to keep us informed on its condition that would be great. We hope to get as close as we can to fort Myers Beach today.



I'm gonna have to break and jump in for swim call. I worked up a sweat throwing the lines off and I don't want to waste our fresh water supply. We only have 100 gallons and Dawns not use to having a limited supply of water.

We re leaving the Atlantic heading for the seven mile bridge. On the other side is the start of our trip in the Gulf along Florida's west coast.

What river are ya'll going up?

Threw a Bally hoo out let's see if I can feed the crew

David, enjoy the trip. I hung out inside Indian Key for the night and that should be a easy ride for you today. Tomorrow it's an easy ride to Marco Is or Ft Myers. Then onto to Pelican Bay for the night. The next night its a 55 mile run up to the north end of Longboat Key to our favorite local anchorage in front on the Mar Vista Restaurant.
That's as far as I can take you. You should have great weather, enjoy the trip and keep us posted.

A person could spend years cruising the inland rivers, some boaters don't know what their missing when they stay in the salt. The Tennessee river is on my list of places to cruise someday, have fun.

David, how far up the TN River are you going? We are on Chicamauga LAKE Just north of Chattanooga. The river system is pretty high right now with a lot of floating logs. Should be better by the time you get uo north. Safe travels.

We re approaching Marco Island. I'm debating weather to go in and call it a day. Or to make Ft. Myers. They're having afternoon thunderstorms and it was a pretty wild light show last night. We stopped at Shark river and we were just south of the storm. We could see big lighting bolts hitting the water. I'm glad we stopped when we did its noon now I'm cruising at 10.5 kts.

Last night. I believe the clouds just developed and really didn't move. It must have been cool air from the water meeting the air from the land. I gotta learn more about weather. I was a little nervous last knight I didn't wanna go into the cove at shark river for fears of big bitting bugs but after I set anchor and saw that lighting to our north I was a little asared the lighting would bite my boat The good lord took care of us and we had a good nights sleep. For those mothers out there we were safe even if lighting would have hit it wouldn't hurt the crew. It would ruin the electronics on the boat tho I didn't catch any fish so we took taco meat outta the freezer.

David Carter said:

What would you old salts do when you see a system like that develope in front of you. I thought a bought trying to head out west and pray it stayed along the the coast. I was a few miles out so it took a while to get in to shore. By the time we got in it didn't look like it was moving south or anywhere for that matter. It just rained lightly where we were and I think that saved us from the storm. But I anchor off shore in 8ft and let out all I had.
Gotta protect that crew her mommy is watching this forum....

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That far South in Florida by this time of year easterly winds start to prevail. That means many times on the west coast storms move from on shore to off shore. I try to find a sheltered place, and anchor as you described. I will start the engines when the storm hits to take strain off the anchor.

If caught off shore, batten down. I don't like shallow water because of the steepness of the chop that develops quickly. I don't anchor as long as my engines will run. Head into the waves adjusting the throttles for best comfort and steerage.

Moonstruck said:

That far South in Florida by this time of year easterly winds start to prevail. That means many times on the west coast storms move from on shore to off shore. I try to find a sheltered place, and anchor as you described. I will start the engines when the storm hits to take strain off the anchor.

If caught off shore, batten down. I don't like shallow water because of the steepness of the chop that develops quickly. I don't anchor as long as my engines will run. Head into the waves adjusting the throttles for best comfort and steerage.

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By sheltered you'd go into the cove 1st choice. Then you would have motored threw rather then anchor even tho 8ft of water and 200ft of anchor. Wouldn't motoring threw a lighting storm be asking for a hit I unplugged everything and turned all power off, I lowered my antennas and stayed centered away from anything that could conduct a kick.
You were right about the easterly winds, they were pretty strong outta the east. The clouds didn't seem to move. They seemed to just develope along the coast. So do the storms usually move the opposite the wind?

Guess I'm probably gonna have a repeat. Don't tall clouds mean chance of a storm.

David Carter said:

Guess I'm probably gonna have a repeat. Don't tall clouds mean chance of a storm.

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Yep, cumulus tall clouds mean a lot of moisture build up. A tall anvil shaped cloud is a strong indication of a thunder storm. If you have radar, turn it on, and try the track the storms movement.

David,
Safe travels! What a great trip! The river should hopefully be more calm one you get up this way from down south.

Soggy....I believe we met in downtown Chattanooga a few months ago when my friend and broker (Steve aboard the blue hull Jefferson 48 Legacy) and I were down on the downtown waterfront with our families (I was aboard our boat Watermark).
Hope you are well and welcome to TF!

I must figured out how to find a ship before I hit it. Looks like I'm getting the shore line I can't really tell the storm clouds and shore are about the same. Guess I gotta git the instructions out again. I'm glad to be leaving those clouds.

Where's Daddyo. I thought he said throw out a couple of anchors with 100ft of chain and ride her out. Maybe that was a hurricane

Those Florida squalls can be a tad nasty & they'll sneak up on ya.

Keep up the nice pics.

Woodsong said:

David,
Safe travels! What a great trip! The river should hopefully be more calm one you get up this way from down south.

Soggy....I believe we met in downtown Chattanooga a few months ago when my friend and broker (Steve aboard the blue hull Jefferson 48 Legacy) and I were down on the downtown waterfront with our families (I was aboard our boat Watermark).
Hope you are well and welcome to TF!

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I'm a little worried about coming up from mobile. As far as the debrie. Guess we better throw in a few extra swim calls now its probably dirty and cold up there. My crew can't win. It's either beautiful warm blue water and be scared of sharks or that. I tried to tell her there's no sharks in the gulf. Although we went skinny dippin last night for bathing purposes. But I got out faster then I got in when I realized the fish might think I was carrying bait

When do you expect to be in Mobile? We have a client/friend that just brought his 47 up from destin...hit a stump near the top of the ten-tom and should be resplashing this week with new transmission and shaft. It wasn't debris related though I don't think.

Rains have definitely been crazy but should work itself out soon enough. Chickamauga lock is currently open- that one tends to be the first to close when flooding is bad.

I got a dam mutiny my crews gone

Wow that came up quick

Run Forrest run

Where'd she go??

I didnt realize this is you Tony. Have a safe trip, we will see you agin up Chat way.

David Carter said:

I got a dam mutiny my crews gone

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She take the dinghy?

soggy said:

I didnt realize this is you Tony. Have a safe trip, we will see you agin up Chat way.

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Just to make sure we aren't getting our "people" crossed...David is the one on the bayliner coming up to the river, I'm just a moderator here on TF and boat addict. Sounded like from your post you may think I'm the one cruising up from FL but I may be the one confused.

Hope to see you around the river this summer- we plan to go up to Tellico and who knows where else.

beachbum29 said:

She take the dinghy?

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No I had it locked. She was hiding below. Wow that was intense. No lighting but rain wind and the waves were easy 4 to 6 in just minutes. If you look close at my marine traffic you can see I almost got into the marina area but changed my mind and took her back out to sea. Now we know what we have to do to get ready for ruff water. Everything on the floor has to be stoed away more securely my crew got some learnin She may be wantin a plane ticket. I think she was a little surprised I couldn't tell I think she was scared and thrilled

One of the things we realized early on was only a couple cabinets actually latched shut. They all have latches now! Our checklist includes stowing a few key items where they can't get tossed around, too. It's all a learning curve! Glad she's hanging in there.

Now I am un confused, I thought Tony was transporting a boat, I want to go the other way next year. David seeks fresh water, we need SALT

Well we are now tied to ball in Ft. Myers Beach. I told the crew if the cabin gets clean while the captain showers We'd have an admirals feast