The day started out well, we weren’t in a hurry, so we took our time departing. We filled the water tanks and made sure we were ready for possibly a few nights anchoring before we see a marina again. Our plan was to cross the Barkley Canal, which connects the Land Between the Lakes State Park from Kentucky Lake and the Cumberland River. This will allow us to turn south and head down the Tennessee River. Here is a bit of information: Kentucky Dam creates the largest man-made lake in the eastern United States. It backs up the Tennessee River for 184 miles and creates a lake that stretches south across the western tip of Kentucky and nearly the entire width of Tennessee. It is also one of the few rivers that flows north due to the dams. This means we will be fighting the current as we head south. It is also confusing to say the Tennessee River in Kentucky on the Kentucky Lake, then move and still be on the Tennessee River in Kentucky Lake in Tennessee. Something else to note is that everywhere we’ve been so far has had high water levels. Apparently the Army Corp of Engineers control the lakes and rivers as we move south with their dams and locks, and the water levels are very low right now- this will be very important to know soon.
We left the marina and made it through the canal with no issues. We turned south and was looking at anchorages on the GPS. We decided the best would be Pisgah Bay, it has good reviews for holding and land access; it also had a bonus of good cell phone reception. We have been okay with our cell service so far, and while it’s not very important to us, it does make it nice to be able to update a blog, check Facebook or news, or stream a movie if we feel like it. This trip was about six hours, and since we didn’t leave until almost 10:30am, we would arrive around 4:30pm.
We were coming up to the anchorage, and I was looking at the maps to see where we should be going. One of the reviews was “old quarry walls covered with graffiti”. As we were approaching, there was a green buoy in front of me, to the right of the quarry, which I was distracted by looking at all of the graffiti’d rocks around it. There was a rock wall between the quarry and the buoy so I was staying away from the wall and to the right of the buoy. I had throttled back as we made our entrance as I was unfamiliar with the area and don’t want to go charging into somewhere not knowing what is ahead. The maps showed a large bay with good anchoring in a few places and I was looking at the GPS trying to decide which way to go. SCREECH, scraping sounds and sudden loss of forward momentum snapped my head up and my immediate reaction was to simultaneously throttle down and throw it into neutral. OH SHIT!!!!! We just ran aground! On rocks, it sounds like! The sounds made were horrible- I can only describe the most horrific sound before coming to a dead halt as this: a knife scraping against a bottle, a fork on a glass, fingernails on a blackboard…you get the idea. Now we were stuck. I tried throwing it into reverse to try to back off of whatever we hit to no avail. We were stuck. At this point the winds of course had started to pick up and was blowing right on our stern, pushing us more and more up onto the underwater obstruction. I tried timing it with the waves that were rolling beneath the boat. I figured if we get a lift from a wave, I can maybe reverse off of it. Nope. I was full throttle in reverse and not moving at all. Lauren was starting to get the look of ‘WTF!?’ and I was feeling helpless. Nothing I did was helping, so I asked her to call for a tow. We have the BoatUS app on her phone which allows you to request a towboat online. It also will pinpoint your location so they can find you. We went through this and requested the tow, and I went back to trying to get us off. I tried rocking the boat side to side, waiting for the waves, anything I could do, but nothing was working. Lauren was getting afraid I would do harm to the engine revving it so much, so I backed off of that too. There was nothing left to do but wait. To our relief after about a half an hour, the bright red towboat was approaching us. When requesting a tow, I had to put in a tow destination. I had input Green Turtle Bay as a location, but told the driver I just wanted off, then would decide from there. At this point I wasn’t sure what damage had been done, but was sure there was no penetration of the hull and we weren’t sinking or taking on any water. The towboat came along side and tossed me a line which I tied to a cleat on the rear starboard side. He then had to give full throttle to try to come around and pull us off, working his way into the waves and wind. It was not an easy task, and he finally made some headway, trying to pull forty thousand pounds off of the rocks. Inch by inch, we started to heel over, then some more horrible scraping as we were pulled free and backwards. Yay! We were at least free and floating on our own. I explained to the captain we wanted to be let go, so we could anchor here overnight. He was agreeable to this, and set us free. I motored over to the anchorage, being very gentle with the throttle and steering to see if we had any damage. At first, it seemed good. Once I got over 1500 RPM, there was a definite vibration and thumping sound. Hmmm…. We normally travel around 1600 RPM, so a little slower won’t hurt us, but we clearly will have to get this looked at. The possibilities of damage are endless: it could be a propeller, a shaft, rudder damage, broken seals, who knows what else could be wrong….
We had motored over and anchored for the night still reeling from this experience we just had. In boating there is a saying: Those who have run aground, and those that lie about it. We definitely went aground, no lying about that. Once the anchor was dropped, we started looking for a marina that has a travel lift that can haul us out. The travel lift is a large machine used to lift boats. They come in different sizes and we are not that large of a boat, but we are a heavy boat. We need something that can lift at least nineteen ton, which is on the larger side. According to our research we have two options: either head back north toward a marina there, or head south about a hundred miles or more where there is a marina that can handle our tonnage. We had dinner and decided we would call in the morning and see who can fit us in for an emergency lift. This brought our day to an end, after walking Frank and cleaning up. This was the most disturbing day we’ve had so far, but we’re being optimistic about tomorrow.
I cannot imagine how you must have felt when you heard that
scraping sound telling you that you had run aground. The futility
you must have felt when your efforts to free yourself did not work.
At this stage you must have felt somewhat better when you were pulled free and you had no apparent damage on the surface.
I,ll have to wait and see about the damages on your next post.
Keep a positive attitude,waiting to hear the end of the story.