Final Prep – Nancy and Rick Unplugged

Saying Goodbye to Green Turtle Bay

We are excited to be starting the Tennesse River portion of our adventure. Before we leave, I have a few fun facts from GTB that I would like to share.

turtles-3 — The bay is named after the thousand of green turtles that live here.

gbtmalgaecontrol — The marina uses electricity to control the algae in this area.

gtbmmidgescontrol — The little container that is next to our boat is used to control midges, these insects are similar in appearance to mosquitos, but they do not bite. The marina fills hundreds of these containers with larvicide each year at a cost of $40,000 per year.

partydock — The covered dock next to the boat ramp is definitely the “Party Dock” for GTBM. These boat owners live here in the summer. They have their boats, tiki bars, grills, patio furniture, and more.

houseboat — On the party dock, Rick was invited to tour a boat similar to this one, only much bigger. Deck, living room, kitchen, 4 bedrooms, and 3 1/2 baths, not to mention the slide on the back. The cost of the one he toured – $800,oo0. A little different than living on our little tug.

1dance-8 — Our goodbye gift, a prancing blue heron at sunrise.

2dance-5 3dance-7

Exploring the LBL National Recreation Area

If all goes well, this will be our last full day at Green Turtle Bay Marina. Sunday, with our to-do list almost complete, we explored the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. We visited Woodlands Nature Station, did some hiking, and explored a possible anchorage for Tuesday night.

woodpecker — We watched this little guy fly between an acorn tree and his “winter storage shed” for several minutes.

The squirrel was also preparing for winter.

One of the rescued owls at the nature station.

fort-d-eagle — Bald Eagle at Fort Donelson

Returning to GTBM we had dinner with Susan and David, (Veritas) at the Commonwealth Yacht Club. The food was good and David shared information on marinas and anchorages between Chicago and Mobile, which will undoubtedly be very useful in the future.

Civil War History

To protect Tennessee, and its crucial rail system from the union, the Confederacy built Forts Heiman and Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. Their labors were not rewarded, on February 6, 1862, Fort Henry fell to the Union and ten days later Fort Donelson. These battles, the first to use ironclad gunboats during the Civil War, marked the first significant Union victories and established General Ulysses S. Grant as a major figure of the war.

fd2 — Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River

AIS Day

Our week stay at GTBM has turned into a two-week stay. It seems that every time we marked off an item from our “to do” list we add two more. Of course, part of the issue is that it is beautiful here, the weather is perfect, and we can’t go below the 35th parallel until November 15 unless we want to pay more insurance because of hurricane season, so we are in no hurry to leave, the sunrises are incredible.

gtbmsunrise Today has been Automatic Identification System (AIS) day. Rick and I (I was more like the sous-chef) installed our AIS. This sounds simple, however not so much, we had to remove the port side front seat, remove the refrigerator, and in general move everything around.
About halfway through Rick said, “So sorry I started this, the AIS is just not worth it,” I know that once it is over he will be so happy. Below are a few pictures from the process.

ais1

ais2 — So, this is what is behind the refrigerator.

ais3

Green Turtle Bay Marina

Tuesday was a bit stressful. . .

When we checked into the marina we were told that the lake water was low and that it was “dangerous” to put our boat in at this time. “Be careful, there are rocks under water on both sides of the ramp, stay centered, and when you put the boat in you will need to take it to the end of the dock to tie off because the water is too shallow at the beginning.” I’m thinking, where is the next place that we can put the boat in? However, we took three deep breaths, prepared the boat, and in she went. All went well, what a relief.

A major accomplishment on Thursday, we finally located an affordable storage shed for the truck and trailer. We put the trailer in on Friday and will put the truck in the day before we depart GTBM.

What a great Friday, both productive and fun. We moved most of the items from the truck to the boat, installed the canvas, and in the evening visited with other Looper’s and listened to live music from the Stronghold Band. Our slip is right below the Commonwealth Yacht Club and the band was playing for their annual Halloween Party. Really good music.

Historical Facts:
The area where we are staying is called “Land between the Lakes (LBL).” These lakes, created by the Tennessee Valley Authority, Kentucky Lake in the early-1940’s and Lake Barkley in the mid-1960’s, run a parallel course for over fifty miles creating a border for the 170,000-acre Land between the Lakes National Recreation Area.

This is a wonderful recreation area and was “formed to demonstrate how an area with limited timber, agricultural, and industrial resources could be converted into a recreation asset that would stimulate economic growth in the region.” However, it is not without controversies, before it was LBL it was known as “Between the Rivers” and was home to over 800 families that were misplaced and some still feel the government discounted them and stole their land. Is it true that “progress” always has to have casualties?