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Overview

Hello again,
Now that we are almost all the way down the rivers and on our way to the ocean I thought it would be nice to do a lil overview on my experiences so far. First of all, it has been an incredible journey and I wouldn’t trade this for anything. However, it’s been challenging. Personally leaving is always the worst. And like most trips this one was not too fun. I met some amazing people this summer and saying goodbye to them was definitely hard. We spent 3 years in our past house and some people we met I know I will stay in touch with forever and ever. Another big change was the house. With a few weeks of school left, the one and a half hour commute was not too fun. All of my teachers were very supportive and I am so lucky to have had them. This past summer was spent with lots of family and friends. Couldn’t have asked for anything better. To all of my friends who are reading this, I am so lucky to have met you and I can’t wait to see you at high school or whenever our paths may cross again. I’m only me because of you guys. Can’t thank you enough. To all of my famILY, I love you guys so so so much and without the constant reassurance, laughter, and love I don’t know where I would be right now.
Now onto the rivers. Oh man so much has happened. However, I think we have done a relatively nice job at keeping this blog updated. We have met so many incredibly nice people and I’ve been to so many different and new places. All of this being spent with some of my favorite people ever. I have had so much fun and have learned so much about locks, Asian carp, stray cats, mashing of rice and lentils, and YMCA showers. I am looking forward to the deep blue sea and all of the adventures that follow. Can’t wait to update you from salted water.

“Our lives changed like the weather but a legend never dies.” -Jimmy Buffett, Last Mango in Paris

Cya when I see ya,
Heidi

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Making the best out of a cold, grey day

A post by Mark

Note: I wrote this a few days ago – just got a good enough cell signal to import the pics. On to the post…

Today was a great day (still is)! 
24 hours ago, it didn’t look so promising – making today all that much better… Here’s the story 

Yesterday, we made the 30-mile journey up the Cumberland River – from the junction of the Cumberland and Ohio rivers to the Green Turtle Bay marina just past the Barkley Dam in KY. It’s a really pretty ride – narrow, curvy, and scenic. According to the guidebooks, the 30 mile trip ‘should’ take a little less than 5 hours. This is important – as we were trying to get to the Marina (a luxury for us these days) before the weather turned. The day before, it was absolutely gorgeous – in the 70’s and sunny. Yesterday morning, the temperature started to drop – and the forecast was to get really cold and rainy around 2:00. Knowing this, we left at sunrise (about 7:15) – so, we felt like we were in pretty good shape to be at the marina – maybe even have the laundry done and a nice hot shower – before the weather turned nasty.

Well – we were wrong. Instead of the typical 1-2 knots of current in the river, we faced 3-4 knots coming right at us. Apparently, the dams started releasing more water to drop the lakes to their winter levels. In the winter, the lakes and rivers are drained a few feet lower than the summer levels so they can accept the increased water from the spring thaw. This additional water flow from the dams created the extra current which added an additional 1 1/2 to 2 hours to our journey.

Fast forward a few hours, we’re in a string of 4 PCs (pleasure crafts – as they are known by the tow captains and lockmasters). We’re spread over ~ a mile or two – or 20 – 30 min of running time. We’re 3rd in the line – so we figure we’re in a great spot to get through the lock quickly, as they generally group PCs together – and we’re close enough that they’ll wait for us. It’s still looking good to get into the marina before the rain. 

Again – we were wrong. The boat behind us slowed down – turns out they had an engine issue and was running on one engine. Because of that gap, the lockmaster decided to lock-through the two boats in front of us first – meaning our boat and the boat behind us had to wait about 45 min to an hour to get through next. Normally – not a big deal, as an hour wait for a lock is pretty good. However, this meant that we were waiting outside the lock at 2:00 – and, unfortunately for us, the forecasters were very accurate on the timing of the rain. The cold front arrived at 2:00 on the dot – and along with it, a significant drop in temperature, kicked-up wind, and cold, hard rain. So, we pulled into the marina around 3:30 in a downpour and 40 degree weather. Burr… 

We eventually dried out, warmed up, got greatly appreciated showers and clean clothes. 

Next, the conversation shift to ‘what to do tomorrow ‘. We have 3 options- 1) take a ‘day off’ and enjoy the marina, the mediocre wifi, the electricity (and thus,the heater), and take a walk into town. 2) Head out for a short day on the water (about an hour or so) and stop in the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area to go for a hike, or 3)  power through and keep making progress towards warmer weather. 

By the end of the evening, we’re still undecided (although #3 was looking less and less likely). 

This morning, we woke up to really cold weather – so cold that there was ice on the docks. Hmmm – is leaving this morning really such a good idea? Should we just stay put, keep our heater plugged-in, and walk around the town? Around 8 AM, Julie and I decide to borrow the marina’s courtesy car and head into town to get a few groceries and see what there could be to do if we stay put. Grand Rivers KY is a cute little town. It would be fun to walk around – but probably for an hour or two. Thinking that we’d be ‘done’ by noon or so, we decided to stick with ‘plan A’ and to head to the Land Between the Lakes.

Around noon, we pulled into Pisgah Bay and anchored just off the shore by a boat ramp. After an easy dinghy ride to a dock, we hopped out and went for a 4 or 5 mile hike through really pretty, hilly, truly ‘woodsy’ terrain. It was great – here’s some photographic proof!

 


A walk in the woods

The crew by an old navigation buoy

Julie and Mark having fun 

 
We even found a playground with a swingset
Willie had a great day too. He really liked being in the woods for a long walk. To top it all off – Willie saw his fist deer (and his 2nd through 5th). He was intrigued – I think he made a connection with other skittish 4-legged creatures. Watching him watch the deer was really funny. I wish we had pictures – but it was too fun to watch him to look away get the camera.  

He was exhausted after all the excitement. 
 
We ended the day with some hot soup and warm bread, listened to a few chapters of Tom Sawyer, and a great night sleep (wearing just about all the cold weather clothes we have – as the temperature dropped even further last night). Good thing we brought our sleeping bags, hats, etc.

All in all – a great day – and one that very easily could have been a dull, cold, dreary one had we stayed put.
Glad we made the right call!

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Hi

Hi everyone reading this,

This is Lucy! To start off I am going to explain how all is now. It honestly seems like we have been living on our boat forever and we havenever been anywhere else. IWe hve finally got everything down-school, anchoring, docking, etc for the most part! It is really hard to believe that when I am writing this we are rigth here in Tennessee! TENNESSEE! It seems that we are just going from place to place so fast. Well, if you think about it though, we are going EXTREMELY slow compared to a car! So lets do some math-if you haven’t had enough after this I can always hook you up! It seems tht we alway have a math problem to solve on the boat! Back to topic……..

the average a car goes is about 60 mph, right

well here we are going 6-7 mph!

So if you do that math you can find that we actually go about 10x slower in a boat then a car!! Now going in cars seem unsafe-WAY TO FAST!!!!!!!!!!

But it is still hard for me to take in that we are going to another place everyday and we will be in Florida in about 2 weeks. The traveling part is so cool- even though it is cold. Taking about cold…….

WEATHER:

So in a house you normally just check the weather each day or for the week to decide small choices. “Will I wear shorts or pants today?” “Capris maybe” or bigger things like, “Will softball be canceled?” “Can I walk or bike to school today?”

Well if you every decided to move on a boat, first off your parents have to quit their jobs then you can make bigger descions abou the weather!!! Also you can stand outside and steer in the rain- what Dad has bravely been doing! I probally should sound more convincing…If you stop at marina’s we can plug in our heater and have wifi!!! Just kidding! We all are excited to get some warmweather soon!

Imagine this, you are sitting down in your hammock at the end of  a hard day of either school or work. The sun glistens down on the trees and makes them glow an orangey, rustic color. You gently swing back and forth the wind softly against you. You read a book, or write a blog post, or write in your journal or whatever you want!

Those parts of the day are my favorite, they are priceless.

I decided to end my post with a quote

 

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Hey friendos! I recently realized how much time has passed since I last wrote. I’m not gonna make this too long because everyone else has been doing a fantastic job explaining our adventures so far. In addition to flying off swings, getting extremely scared by fish, and school work, we have had a blast. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been two weeks with these crazy people. There was one night in Ottawa where after a nice day of rain and exploring the town we went grocery shopping and I realized how crazy we really are. To most this is a pretty simple task, get in the car, drive to store, buy good food, put food in car, drive home. Right? Well, when you don’t have a car it gets a lil more exciting. We walked to the store, with our rain gear on. And rain gear is not only a rain jacket. Oh no haha we are covered head to toe in rain gear. So the family in the rain pants and coats makes it to the store. We find and purchase food like normal and then we start walking home. With all of our groceries in hand. It’s a relatively short walk but with all of our food it seems a little longer. As we began crossing the park nearest to the boat, mom had the wonderful idea of a lil arm workout. 1, 2, 3, LIFT! 10 more secondssss. Hold! Urgggggg. You got this! So here we are, a family of five walking through a park, lifting grocery bags above our head. Quite the sight. We are that family now, and we love it.

“If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.” -Jimmy Buffett

Till next time,

Heidi

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Carp update 

Hi – if you were wondering what a bunch of flopping carp look like, check this out!  This picture was in a local newspaper. 

Note: we may not have encountered this many – but it sure sounded like it

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Poem

Beginning
By: Lucy Vannini

I’ve done so much,

From biking to swimming,

I’ve learned a lot ,

even though we are just beginning.

So much has happened,

Sometimes good, sometimes bad. 

Some things make me really sad.

I like the boat, 

I swim and float

I like that a lot.

School is okay,

I’ve had better days.

I keep on thinking,

where are my friends,

I look around in all the bends.

But no one shows, no one yet, I’ll have to wait and see.

Waiting is hard, and so is change,

but nothing not within my range.

I’ve moved twice now, I’ve learned a lot,

even when I am crying and my nose is covered in snot.

I am with the people I love everyday,

which is grand,

there couldn’t be a better way.

I will make new friends a new path as well,

not forgetting anyone, making my heart swell.

The sail will fly, I’ll feel free, very happy,

with my family.
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First Sail

Hi, this is Lucy, on Saturday we did our first sail! Here’s the story-from my  perspective:

I woke up late at around 10 and did the usual morning stuff (brush teeth, comb hair, eat breakfast, etc.) After that we started our sail. At first we just motored out of the marina. Right as we got out of the marina the waves started tumbling on our boat. Our boat went up and down each time my stomach jolted. I apparently didn’t have my sea stomach yet!! Me and Willie lay on the ground both of our stomachs hurting!  We changed to sailing a little bit later and from then on my stomach was fine! I sometimes sat on the  bow (front) of the boat on the seats and let my legs dangle untill they got splashed by the cool water.  We had lunch and then continued to our destination in Milwaukee Wisconsin.  Once we got to the place we were going to anchor at, the sound of music was blasted super loud. We knew that the noise wouldn’t be over all night so we decided just to go back. By then it was about 4:45 so we would have to motor to get back before dark.  We motored the way back meeting lots of nice boaters and sailors. We saw a beautiful moon and sunset while we were motoring! (I will post a picture soon) It was very fun!  We came back to the dock and some nice boaters helped us get tied up. When we made it back it was about 9:15. It was very fun to learn some different things to do to sail. I helped with a couple of things. The first time I helped put the sail down and once I helped put it up. I am excited to continue learning lots of things about sailing and how to do it.