Voyages of Annie, The Great American Whistle Hunt, December 2

I have arrived at the rather astonishing conclusion that when you are river cruising there are only two ways to go…upstream and downstream…..so why do I need all of these complicated nautical charts???

We have made Guntersville, Alabama a center of our river travels as there is a nice marina here and there is a Walmart not too far away. We have done day trips both upstream and downstream from here. We spent a few days up in Chattanooga and did all of the touristy things. They have a very nice water front and art museums the Imax and the aquarium are within a few blocks of the waterfront.

Took two days to get up there and the trees were just starting to turn colors. It’s a little hard to see but if you look at the second image taken through the pilot house window you can see the trees tuning colors. After returning from Chattanooga we decided to go downstream to Decatur , Alabama… about 50 miles downstream. Decatur has a lot of old homes and civil war history. In addition, there was a large cotton industry there at one time with cotton warehouses. We put our bicycles ashore and spent a few hours riding around the city.. I explored some old warehouses but came up with nothing in the whistle department.

Just got back to Guntersville two nights ago. Tonight (Saturday) was the annual Guntersville Christmas boat parade and with nothing better to do we decided to go ahead and enter. Off to our favorite store….. Walmart… for Christmas lights. We threw a few lights up and as luck would have it came home with the first place for boats over 41 feet. First place had a cash prize which was enough to cover the bill at Walmart plus a gift certificate for dinner for two at a local steak house. And it was a lot of fun.

See first image.

I have also learned a another interesting phenomena about river cruising. Water levels are subject to change without prior notice depending on how much water there are letting out of the dams upstream and downstream. The amount of water being let out from the dams is a function of hydroelectric power generating needs and the weather.. In cold weather people use more power for heating and with the shorter days use more lights at night which increases needs for power. In terms of practical consideration on our way down to Decatur we decided to spend the night in a little river called Painted Rock River that feeds the Tennessee. It’s not much of a river… more like what we would call a bayou in Texas. Nevertheless it was good protection from the wind and off the main channel of the Tennessee River. The river was probably no more that 150 feet wide at the widest point and averaged more like 75 feet wide and had trees overhanging the water on both banks but the center of the river was plenty deep. . I decided rather than to drop the anchor, since there was no room to swing, I would just push the bow up on the mud bank and stay there for then night. Seemed like a good plan until Carol work up in the middle of the night and discovered that the boat was high and dry because the river had dropped about a foot and a half of water. We were like a beached whale. After careful survey of the situation, and considering it was 2 o’clock in the morning, and also since there was not much I could do about it anyway, I decided the practical thing to do was to go back to bed and reconsider options in the morning. I had a hard time going back to sleep as visions of being stuck there for a week or more waiting for a flood upstream to take place danced through my head. I was finally able to get to sleep and the next thing I remember was the sun had come up and was shining in the window to our cabin. I tried to ignore it but soon noticed that the trees outside were going by the boat rather quickly. This got my attention as they were not supposed to be moving. After another quick survey of the situation I soon realized that the water had come back up to a higher level than when I had beached the bow the prior evening and we were now floating unrestrained downstream back toward the Tennessee River. Now I am sure that there is probably some moral to this story. Unfortunately it alludes me. But, for whatever reason, I find it rather amusing.

Carol is driving back to Houston tomorrow with her mother and will probably not be back till after the first of the year so I am alone again…just me and Annie. I am trying to come up with a plan. There a three options: upstream, downstream or stay here. The later is probably not great as I have seen all of Guntersville several times and am over it. May head downstream and take the Cumberland River and head to Nashville….Christmas in Nashville sounds sorta interesting…we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

rb aboard Annie…Guntersville Alabama