Great Loop Day 062 Oct 29, 2016, Green Turtle Bay Resort to Panther Bay Anchorage
Green Turtle Bay Resort to Panther Bay Anchorage
“It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
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Day 62 Saturday, Oct 29, 2016. Getting ready to leave this paradise. It's 9:00 am and some friends come over to say goodbye to Mickey and me. Last night Susan from Veritas offered me some chicken soup. I accepted. Words can not describe how good it was! Large chunks of chicken, I had Mickey taste it, and he's now begging for more. Ok, I’ll give you a few more pieces but the rest is mine!
Now it is time to be saying goodbye to Green Turtle Bay Marina. Heading to Panther Bay anchorage. Bright sunny morning, a little chilly but know it would warm to near if not over 80. Shorts and a tee shirt.
Saying goodbye to Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina.
Taking the short canal that connects Barkley Lake with Kentucky Lake. Water calm. Noticing small waves on Kentucky Lake means the wind is present. But in which direction? Ready with jib if the wind is right. Making a turn to my port I’m heading southwest.
Kentucky Lake is just around the bend.
I check the wind vane at the top of the mast. Pointing a little to the starboard. Need a little more to give the jib a chance to be effective. Motoring a little further. The wind getting a little stronger. Seams a good time to hank on the jib. Grab the sail bag and both jib sheets from the storage bin. I point the boat south, winds from SW with light gusts from West South West. Looking better. Run my jib sheets thru the jib cars and lay them on the foredeck. Walk back to the cockpit and get the folded jib and walk back to the forestay. Clip in the tack and hank on the sail, attach the jib halyard, and run the downhaul line thru the hanks to the head of the jib. Good. Now unfold the jib and tie bowlines to the clew. Breeze is coming from my right. Going to be a starboard tack. Walk back to the cockpit always remembering one hand on the boat. Release the jib halyard from the cam cleat I pull on the halyard. The jib goes up. The wind catches the sail. Stops short. What the hey! The bottom of the jib gets caught on the claw anchor I have in a PVC pipe attached to the bow rail. Walk up to the foredeck, and release the jib. Finish hauling up the jib from the mast. Back in the cockpit I tighten the port jib sheet around the winch and cleat it off. Lower the centerboard. Now she's flying. Check the sail ticks, and adjust the tension on the jib sheet so both ticks fly straight when the left port tick is flat up releasing the tension on the jib sheet if the port tick flies up pull in the sheet. Check the depth, 4.8ft. What??? I sailed into the shallows while getting the jib up. The outboard is running giving me 5mph. I turn more southeast getting me in deeper water. More adjustment on the jib sheets now going 5.5mph. Good. As I get into the deeper water I have to turn more south to stay in the channel. The wind shifts south, my jib is luffing. For sails to be effective they need to stay in an aerodynamic shape, much like an airplane wing, that's what keeps planes in the air. Sails are wings but vertical. The wind is what keeps the sail shape, but the winds are coming straight on the sail and it luffs and loses that shape. The gusts are coming from the SW and add to the boat's speed but when they die out all I have is laundry flying in the wind. Not good. I play the wind gusts which are very short lasting less than a minute. I'm steering, watching the depth, eyes on my cell phone navigation chart, adjusting the sail all at the same time. For now, the winds are fickle, not much help. Grabbing the jib downhaul I lower the jib. Maybe later. So staying inside the channel I'm enjoying the scenery and watched for wildlife onshore.
For several hours we motor down the Kentucky Lake, just me, Mickey, and the Sea Marie. Maybe the wind will get better and better it did. By afternoon the winds picked up and up went the jib. Now it's much better. For several hours it grew steady and at times overpowered us. The gusts almost buried the port rail in the water I had to release the sheet. The battery-powered wind gauge I got for Christmas from my son was reading gusts at 20 mph. Luckily the wind gusts didn't last long, less than a minute or so. For 3 hours we sped along at 6.5 to 7 mph with the motor at 1/4 throttle.
Funny to see other sailboats on this river turned into a lake. Once I get into the Tennessee River the sails will be put away and not feel the wind until Mobile Bay in Alabama.
Always on the lookout for these guys.
Shoreline with interesting rock features. As long as they stay on shore and not under me we will get along just fine.
Wished I owned the property these boulders are on. I would hollow out the insides and put in a bay window in front and a back door and live on the lakeshore.
On the quiet side, these white pelicans are always welcome.
On closer inspection, these hills were recently eroded by the wave off of the lake.
Sailing among the hills. Something ocean sailors never see.
And another one. This one sneaks up from behind.
Maybe this was where they were heading for. Then I can’t blame them.
Almost to Panther Bay, I lower the jib. Run forward to cinch the sail with a short bungee cord to the rail. Motoring to the bay will be tricky. There's a narrow channel leading in with shallow water all around. Got thru without getting grounded. Depth 15ft. Looking for 10 feet or less. The Lowrance chart plotter/fishfinder is working great. It can read the bottom pretty well. But all I'm seeing are trees underwater. When they built the Kentucky Dam it flooded these creeks and also the trees lining the banks. So further in I motor looking for openings with mud bottoms to plant my anchor. At 9 ft the trees clear but I'm leary of getting my anchor caught on a stump. I set up a trip line on the anchor. The claw anchor has a small hole in the front. If it gets caught all I need to do is pull it out by the trip line. I cut off a 10-foot section of a small line and attach one end to the small hole in the anchor and the other to a fender. The fender will tell me where the anchor is. I put the motor in neutral. Run up to the bow, tie the trip line, drop anchor, play out 60ft of anchor rode, walk back and reverse motor slowly and watch to see if the anchor grabs the bottom. Something is not right. The anchor rode is coming off the side of the boat, not from the bow. I forgot to raise my centerboard and the anchor rode is caught under it. I don't want to turn around as the line will get caught in the prop. I grab my boat hook snag the line from the midship and tie that to the rail. Untie the knot at the end. Pull it from under and retie to bow. There, now go backward and set the anchor. It catches and stops me. done. Raise that centerboard. There's no wind here. The trees do a good job of blocking it. Not a big fan of anchor dancing and there are no other boats, I throw out my stern anchor. It sets, and now I'm between 2 anchors and the boat is holding steady.
Going to try and add Google Maps for an interactive view of the Land Between the Lakes. Let me know if you find it interesting and worthwhile.
Now to get Mickey his dinner and mine too. It's salad and hot dog and beans night.
I send a text to my kids but no AT&T cell phone signal. Lucky me to have a Tracfone. I’m getting 2 bars and calling Greg. Let him know all is well...
I'm alone now. No buddy boats to tie up to, no one to talk to, no beer or snacks to share with. Feels a little weird but in a good way. For weeks I had someone nearby to call if trouble should stop by but now I only have me and Mickey and he still hasn't learned to tie a bowline.
Evening in Panther Bay with Jupiter (upper) and Venus checking in on me.
Cleveland Indians playing game 4 tonight, I get out the battery-powered tv and run up the antenna to see if any stations are near. Nothing. Set up the powered antenna, and get one channel with 3 stations. None show the game. Get out the radio. Tuning on the AM band and I’m getting many weak stations. Finally, the static clears and the voice of a baseball announcer from Chicago comes through loud and clear. Cleveland is leading and the signal fades out by the 8th inning. Nooo! I have no idea what the final score was until the next day. And I find it was a nice win for the tribe... till tomorrow...
For Game 4, former Cubs pitchers Greg Maddux and Ferguson Jenkins threw the ceremonial first pitches before the start of the game while Cubs anthem singer John Vincent sang the national anthem, and actor Vince Vaughn sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch.
The Cubs struck first when Dexter Fowler doubled to lead off the first and scored on Anthony Rizzo's one-out single, but Kluber held them to that one run through six innings before Francona turned it over to the bullpen. In the second, Carlos Santana's leadoff home run off Lackey tied the game; then, with two on, Kluber's RBI single put the Indians up 2–1. Kris Bryant committed two errors in that inning. Next inning, Jason Kipnis hit a leadoff double and scored on Francisco Lindor's single. In the sixth, Lonnie Chisenhall's sacrifice fly with two on off Mike Montgomery made it 4–1 Indians. Next inning, Justin Grimm allowed a leadoff double and one-out hit-by-pitch before being relieved by Travis Wood, who gave up a three-run home run to Kipnis put to the Indians ahead 7–1. The Cubs got one run back in the eighth, on a Dexter Fowler home run off Andrew Miller, which was the first run he gave up in the post-season. With the victory, the Indians were just one win away from their 1st World Series championship since 1948.
2016 World Series Game 4 - Wikipedia
