Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Tennessee River & Kentucky Lake

I'm going to hang loose in this marina by Kenlake state park in Kentucky. Thunderstorms with strong wind and rain are coming and going so what's the hurry! Besides that few other things happened the last couple days so I have to hang loose here! I don't know what to say about things that happened! I have to learn from this and make sure to prevent so it doesn't happen again! 
On Saturday night I anchored in Pisgah bay, very nice anchorage site. Sunday morning I woke up hearing the dinghy banging next to the boat. I realized the fender between the dinghy and the boat was not there. So I look around and I see the fender all the way by shore. I can not afford loosing stuff, so I got in the dinghy and rowed over to shore. It got very shallow close to shore so I had to get out and walk in the mud to get the fender. I thought, that was a good excitement & exercise of the day!
The winds were strong on Sunday, gust up to 35-40 miles! Within couple of hours down the lake the sky started getting dark of clouds and I could feel a storm coming. The bay I had in mind for anchorage was only couple miles away and I would be anchored mid afternoon and still have 3 hours of day light. Anyhow, the clouds were getting darker and darker and in few minutes it started pouring down. By this time i had everything moved in the cabin along with the charts. When I got close to the bay I spotted the buoyed channel. Kept my eye on the depth-sounder, I didn't want to experience running aground again. I've been running aground 4 times & I got myself out of it every time! I realize that the depth sounder is acting up and doesn't show the right depth. And suddenly, boom the boat stopped and yes I ran aground!
I tried to back up and it didn't work. Meanwhile I'm trying to back up, I hear some unusual noise in the engine room. I went down to the engine room and saw bunch of wires wrapped around the shaft and it's dripping water down there. So here I am stuck in the channel, it's raining, the depth sounder is not working, and I can't run the engine because the shaft is all wrapped in wires!
Anyhow, I cleaned the shaft, still leaking though, took an anchor out with the dinghy and dropped it and tried to haul myself out! But no, I was stuck pretty good. My phone don't have any reception. I tried to radio the Marina and TowBoatUS, and no answer. Finally I go on deck and get one bar on the cell phone and called the tow. I had to wait 2.5hrs for the TowBoatUS to come over and tow me out. Finally after 5 hours I get out! A less better day!
There are couple of projects that had to be taken care of before I leave this Marina. Yesterday, I worked on the shaft and fixed it. It's not leaking anymore. I installed the new sonar so I can see the depth. And to make this story better, lost my cell phone in the water yesterday! What a mess!

I'm in the middle of nowhere, the closest store is 20miles away and it's a Walmart. I met Ed yesterday. He is on a 39' Beneatau in this harbor and he was so kind and helpful. He drove me to town to get a new phone. My T-mobile phone didn't have much reception down the river anyway so this was a sign that I need a new phone with a new provider. So I got the iPhone 4 with at&t. I can't afford loosing this one and I really would like to take a break from shit happening.
Last night I invited Ed over to Earthling for dinner. I made the special shrimp & mushroom stew with rice and salad. Ed loved it and he said he is going to miss me when I leave tomorrow, which is today!                 

3 comments:

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  2. Yikes, that's a string of bad luck! Your story sounds like something out of a movie - all kinds of bad things happen and to top it all off you lose your phone in the water! Good luck to you on the coming days, George.

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  3. When it rains, it pours right!
    Thanks Randy

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