Moving on

Our first day at the Kentucky Dam marina, we started off by doing some jobs around the boat. I changed the oil in the generator, while Louise broke out the sewing machine. One thing we have found to be important on the boat is sun protection, specifically window sun-shades. The salon can get really hot in the sun, even with the windows open, and having sun shades can really knock down the temperature, which makes things easier on us, and on our air conditioner. The boat came with some sun shades that were fastened to the outside of the boat with snaps, however they were nearing the end of their life and starting to break down, so we got rid of them. They were not my favourite thing to use, as they mounted to the outside of the boat. Overnight they would get covered with spiders and their webs, making them a bit unpleasant to work with. They also took up a fair amount of storage space on deck. 

We have seen several solutions to the window shade issue. Many boaters go with canvas shades that snap-on to the outside of the windows. For us however, this was our last option for the reasons mentioned above. We have seen others use canvas tents that clip to the front of the boat, this is an option very popular with sailboats, and was also the solution that Steve used on Miss K. This type of shade has an added benefit that it serves as rain protection for the front hatches. This will be our first fall-back option.

The option we decided to try first was to make some interior window shades. This way we could more easily put them up and take them down, and we would have less issues with bugs, spiders or bird crap. A few weeks ago on a trip to an auto-parts store, I saw some car-window shades on special. They were silvery and reflective on both sides, and really cheap. I bought a pair of them for less than $30, and over the past couple of weeks have been using them on our front windows, just propping them in place. This has worked pretty well for us, except that each time I put them up I have to juggle things around on the window, and also since each install is jury-rigged, we cannot cover all the window area. 

Now that we were in a marina with some time on our hands, Louise rigged these up for a better install. She cut each one in half, and sewed on some straps so that they could be fastened onto the window. I installed some snaps to hold them in place and voila, we had MacGyvered some interior window screens for less that $30. The final version looked a bit home-made, but it was functional and really inexpensive. 

Installing our new redneck sun-shades. They work well and did not cost us much. I really like that they are inside the boat, makes them much easier to install, take down and store. We need to buy some more of these to do the side windows.

Just as we were finishing the window shade install, Rich and Melanie arrived back from Florida. They spent some time checking Jewel to make sure everything was clean and dry inside, then we went with them to go grocery shopping. Both boats were depleted in terms of food, so we each stocked up, and then went out for dinner. 

That night a cold front came through, it got windy in the late afternoon, and the temperature dropped. I put the heat on in the evening to warm up the boat before we went to bed. It was pretty cold overnight, and we had to snuggle to share warmth. 

The next morning was another chore day. It was kind of cold, so I dressed in layers, although Louise was fine with just a hoodie. Louise did laundry while I spent some time updating our inventory, then I hosed down the lower decks of the boat. It is amazing how quickly dirt builds up, especially since we have had so little rain to wash it away. I just had time to pressure wash the decks, so will need to do a more aggressive cleaning session soon, especially on the upper deck which is covered in spider stains.

Rich and Melanie had to return their rental car, so we all went shopping at Walmart quickly, then went to the airport to drop off the car. The rental company drove us back to the boat, whereupon Louise set about cooking Thanksgiving dinner. In addition to cooking a turkey breast, she made soup, mashed potatoes and stuffing, plus blueberry pie for desert. Melanie and Rich came over for dinner, so we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving together.

We brought lots of spare parts with us on this trip, since we will be in lots of places where access to shopping is not so good. One of the spares we brought was an air-fryer. Louise had both of them fired up, plus the blender-cooker to make Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! We got to enjoy a great dinner, turkey, soup, dressing and even blueberry pie.

With all the cooking Louise did, plus all the associated cleanup, we emptied our water tank! Normally we can go much longer on a full tank of water, but since we were in a marina, Louise decided to use lots of water. I had to fill the tanks a little after supper so that we would have enough water to flush the toilet overnight and make coffee in the morning. This also entailed re-priming the pump, and flushing some air bubbles out of the system.

That night a real cold front came through, it got windy in the evening, and the temperature dropped. It went down close to freezing overnight, and in the morning I had to wear gloves to fill the water tanks. Once the tanks were re-filled, we each grabbed a shower and got ready to go. Getting out of the marina was pretty routine, as was the first half of the transit, but the last hour of our trip to our destination the wind and waves started to build to the point we had whitecaps. We were going with the waves, so it was not rough for us, but did require a lot more work to handle the boat, as following seas tend to broach us. As we approached our destination, we had to run parallel to the waves for a short distance (about a minute or so). Well, we rolled really bad, which caught us by surprise. Some things went flying off the counters, and we had to hold on to stand up. Travelling on the rivers has made us complacent. We have not been securing the boat for travel like we did on lake Michigan, since the rivers here are pretty calm, and we have had really good weather. Well, that one minute of roll was a wake-up call - always expect stuff to happen when on a boat. Luckily nothing got broken, but we will need to pay more attention to travel discipline, and spend some more time getting the boat ready to get underway.

We got to the anchorage and set our anchor, then Jewel rafted onto us. I set out a lot of scope on the anchor, an 8:1 ratio of chain, as the winds were gusty and we were getting blown around. We never moved of course, the anchor was set well into the mud and we had lots of scope out, but Rich and I kept a close eye on the GPS for the rest of the afternoon. Finally the winds died down around sundown, and we had calm conditions the rest of the night. We visited with Rich and Melanie, and planned out our next week or so of travel. The area is filling up with loopers in anticipation of the looper rendezvous next week, so we had to make sure we made reservations at our planned marinas for the next few days out, especially those on Pickwick lake. A consequence of the two hurricanes going through Florida is that we are unsure of the state of facilities that await us down south. The AGLCA posted a message about this on the looper forum, and we expect to get some detailed updates sometime next week. We will take a bit more time around here however, and we anticipate starting the run to the Gulf sometime in mid November.

Melanie made some cookies after supper, and they brought over some hot chocolate to our boat to go with them after supper. After visiting for a bit, we all retired for the evening. That night we slept well, but the temperature went down again close to freezing. Louise was comfortable, but I was cold and so we decided to break out another blanket - I keep her awake when I am cold, as I try to "steal" heat from her under the blanket. Getting out of bed was like getting out of a sleeping bag in the spring - you get up quick and get dressed as fast as possible. After some leftover blueberry pie for breakfast, it was time to move on. 

With it being near freezing overnight, each morning we wake up to thick fog. Here is the view outside our boat just after sunrise. The fog is so thick you cannot see the water.

We had a bit of a malfunction when we were raising the anchor. We use a chain grabber to connect our snubber to the anchor chain. An anchor snubber is a piece of rope connected to the anchor chain, and to both sides of the bow of the boat. The snubber takes tension off of the anchor windlass, which protects the windlass, and the anchor roller, from damage. Since the rope is a bit elastic, the snubber also serves as a kind of shock absorber for the anchor chain. When we raised the anchor chain to remove the snubber, the metal chain grabber hit the anchor roller and broke. We were pretty surprised by this, as we expected that this part would be pretty strong, but I guess it hit just right and snapped off. Oh well, add one more thing to the shopping list.

Coming out of the anchorage, we noticed that this stand of trees looked like they were "frosted" - some kind of white coating. We thought it could be bird droppings, or perhaps some kind of caterpillars or bugs, although the chemical plant that was just across the river could also have been involved.

We travelled down the river about 3.5 hours to the Fort Heiman anchorage. Very different boating to the previous day, the water was calm, and we had blue skies and sunshine to warm us up. Jewel went in and anchored up, and then we shouldered off of them. This anchorage is really well protected, and is probably the nicest one we have stayed at in this part of the loop. Louise and I each had a nap, and then we visited with Rich and Melanie for a few hours before having a pot-luck style dinner together. Louise made quesadillas while Melanie made pizza casserole. Yum.

We are usually awake before sunrise. This morning at anchor when we got up, the anchorage was lit with moonlight. The photo above is showing the moon at about 5:30 in the morning, at least an hour before sunrise, and you can see the mist surrounding the boat.

This shows how much the moonlight was illuminating the anchorage. 

We were up pretty early the next morning, as we had a bit of a run to our next destination. There was a full moon and lots of surface mist around the boat. Really neat to see the front of the boat and the bay lit up only by the moon. As the moon went down and the sun came up we could see the extent of the fog around us. Again, it was near freezing and this generated a really thick fog bank. We ran the heat in the salon while we made breakfast and waited for the fog to dissipate. After our mis-adventure on the Illinois river, we were not going anywhere until the visibility improved significantly.

"Some pig!"

We noticed that Eevee was really slowing down over the past few days. She jumped up on chairs, but other than that she was kind of lethargic. She is 14 years old, so I guess is starting to feel her age. At the beginning of our trip she would climb up a stack of boxes I made beside our bed to sleep on the bed, but had not done this for quite a while. When we were out shopping, I bought some materials at Home Depot to make her a ramp to access the bed. This way she can get some warmth from us at night. Louise also planned to pick up a covered cat bed for her at our next stop.

Sunrise in the anchorage.

Our next stop turned out to be the Pebble Isle marina. The transient dock was full of loopers, with more arriving after us. Together with Rich and Melanie from Jewel, and Tom and Jen from Sol Mate, we took the courtesy car to go shopping. We got some groceries, but were unable to find a cat bed for Eevee. On the way back to the boat, we stopped off at a Mexican restaurant for lunch/dinner. On the way in to the restaurant, Jen joked about going to a place where the margaritas cost $25, and how they only found out how expensive these were after they got the bill. Well, Melanie and Louise decided to get margaritas since we got there just at the start of happy hour. When we got the bill, guess how much the margaritas cost? LOL $25.

Back on the boat, we made a bed for Eevee using some towels and a mattress to make her a "fort" where she could be a bit warmer when she slept. I felt this would give her some more warmth at night, and also give her a place where she could feel protected. She found it right away, and slept there for the next several days.

Since it has been so cold at night, I have noticed that our dingy looses air pressure in the morning. You can see this in the wrinkles that form on the air chambers. Once the dingy warms up in the sun, the chambers re-pressurize and all looks fine, but I will check the pressure on the dingy the next time we want to use it. It is important not to over-pressurize the inflation chambers, so I decided not to add air to it when it is cold. As it turned out, this was a systemic thing. As I was walking along the dock, I noticed that everyone else's dink was also detumescent, so I did not feel too inadequate.

Next morning was not as cold, but it was super-foggy, like being in pea soup. The fog out in the river was super-thick, and was kind of "pouring" into the harbour where it evaporated when the sun hit it. You can see the effect here, with the thick fog soup pouring into the bay.

As the fog burned off boats started leaving the dock. Most of them were travelling much further than we were planning, so we took our time with breakfast, enjoying the cinnamon buns that they make for transients here. A couple of boats left before they got their cinnamon buns, so we each got one, and promised Billy that we would ensure they got to the 'right place'. In fact they did, we each got to enjoy another cinnamon bun for breakfast the next day.

When we finally got underway the fog was almost gone, and we enjoyed a really pleasant cruise down the river. It reminded me a lot of cruising on the Rideau, calm water, nice scenery and easy boating. Of course, the river here is a bit bigger than the Rideau, and once in a while you pass large tows, but the sensation of boating on a relaxing fall day was still there.

We arrived at our anchorage, which was behind Denson island on the river. The water was fairly deep here, so we snugged up near the island. There was a pretty good current flowing, which kept us aligned straight, so there was no worry about us being pushed towards the shore. It was very much like anchoring at the Wendover anchorage back on the Ottawa river. 

Louise is out on front of the boat raising the anchor as we get set to leave the anchorage.

We had another pleasant cruise the next day after the fog dissipated, and then we pulled into Clifton marina for the night. The slips here were really tight, our beam is a bit over 14 feet, and I think the slips were only about 15 feet wide, so we brushed on both sides. We had some drama getting lined up on the slip, Louise kept telling me to slide the stern over, and I was on the thruster switch the whole time trying to do so, but nothing was happening. I cannot hear the stern thruster motor from the helm, so I asked Louise over the headsets if she could hear the motor. She could not, and we were not sliding the stern, so our thruster had tapped out. Had to then go to plan B and use the engine and rudder, after which we got ourselves aligned and slid into the slip.

Once we were tied up and set, I went into the engine room to see what was up with the thruster. Turned out that one of the wires connected to the fuse holder had pulled loose, and this caused the fuse to blow. On this style of fuse holder, the cables are held in place with locking screws instead of lugs. Closer inspection showed that not enough insulation had been stripped from the cable, so it was not all the way into the housing, and the set screw that was supposed to hold it in was actually forcing the cable loose. By this time, Rich had stopped in and so we stripped off some insulation from the cable and re-installed it in the holder. Luckily I had brought spares for every fuse type we have on board, so was able to replace the fuse (400 amps!) and the thruster was now working. However, I am not happy with the cable working loose, and will monitor this connection more carefully.

This was the first time we had ever docked in a covered slip. It was nice to be out of the weather, but it also cut off our Starlink internet. Luckily, Jewel's Starlink antenna was not completely covered, so we could mooch internet from them. We went for dinner with Rich and Melanie at the marina restaurant, then Rich and I retired back to the boats while Melanie and Louise went out to karaoke night. 

The river here had lots of cliffs, and each one had houses built on it. Some interesting designs, and lots of steep steps if you want to go to the water.

In some places the banks were pretty eroded. I don't think this house is going to be there for much longer.

The next morning we ran into a snag when departing our slip, literally. When I put the engine in gear, we moved forward and then stopped. Luckily I had used only a short burst of power, so no damage was done. We initially thought we had hung up on a fender, but after Louise brought in all the fenders, we were still stuck. Rich came by to help and noticed that we had a line tied on our port side. When we came in, we secured the boat on the starboard side only, but a person from the marina staff had helped us and had tied off a rope on the port side. We did not realize this at the time, so we were unaware we had this extra rope on. At marinas where there are docks on both sides of the slip, it is common for boats to be secured on both sides, but we don't do this unless it is really windy, so never thought of it. After the rope was removed, we were free to go.

The first time we were at Pebble Isle, there were 5 couples leaving to go home for a while. Each of them had to clean our their fridges, and Louise inherited some perishables from them. For some reason, all gave us potatoes, onions and Swiss cheese. Louise decided to use up some of the onions and cheese by making French onion soup for the crews of Jewel and iFloat.

It turned out to be really foggy when we got out into the river, but this was just a passing bank and did not last long. Pretty soon we were at our normal speed. After another nice cruising day, we arrived at the Wolf island anchorage. We set the anchor in fairly shallow water and put out lots of scope. The current was really heavy here, and so we made extra sure we did not move. 

Once Jewel rafted up to us, Rich asked why we had anchored in the shallow spot in the middle. My reply was that our charts did not show detail in this part of the river, so I had to make a best guess. He suggested we turn on SonarCharts. This is a feature that came with our electronic charts. The company that produces the charts, makes a second set of charts using sonar data submitted by users. People get discounts on charts if they upload their sonar traces to the company. The company uses these sonar traces to make detailed charts. After checking our GPS manual, I discovered how to turn this feature on, and so we now had better detail available. NICE!

When you are in a lock, you tie your boat to a floating bollard that raises or lowers with the water level. Many boaters leave stickers or other mementos on the bollards of past lockages.

The next morning was pretty standard. As soon as the fog cleared out we hauled anchor and set off south, going through the Pickwick lock and entering Pickwick lake. We got to Grand Harbour marina right around noon and got set in for the day. They had a courtesy car here, which we took advantage of to pick up some groceries and get some dinner. We went to a place called the Rib Cage, and each had a rack of BBQ ribs. The style here is that the ribs are cooked with a dry rub, and they give you a choice of sauces to put on top to season them how you like. The rub and the sauces are both very tasty, with different flavours, so we really enjoyed our dinner. The place was small, they only had about 8 tables, and built on stilts. We noticed that the parking lot had a couple of semi-trucks parked, so you know the BBQ had to be good. Inside, we ran into the crew of Hudson Ranger and chatted with them for a bit before our food came out.

The rib cage restaurant was pretty small and built on stilts. Very tasty ribs though.

iFloat at Grand Harbour marina.

From time to time people include graphics with their boat name. I thought this one was especially good.

Now THAT'S a houseboat.

Back on the boat, Louise did some laundry while I set up a cat bed we had found for Eevee at a local discount store. She went in and sat for a bit, but preferred her mattress-bed down stairs. We'll see if she decides to use it over the next few days. I suspect I will have to put her new cat-bed somewhere different. After sundown we took our lawn chairs out onto the dock to meet with some other loopers who were here at the marina. We visited with the crews of Jewel, Hers IV and Short Circuit until it got cold, then turned in for the night. Tomorrow we will be heading towards Chattanooga for about 10 days before we start to head south towards the gulf. This way there will be no danger of hurricanes when we get to salt water, as the Gulf season will be over. Since this will be a side trip, the markers on our map will be blue - so you know its good.

Groundhog Day

We have been in a holding pattern for a while now. To save on the budget, we have been staying on anchor rather than in marinas. This way we save on the marina fees, and also on the temptation to eat at restaurants, win-win. For various reasons, we got to Kentucky a bit earlier than we should have, and now need to stay in the area to avoid getting nailed by any potential hurricanes that may move up the river system from the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane season runs until the end of November, but we will start moving south before then, as hurricanes do not form in the gulf during October. The good news is that this is a really good place to hang out on anchor. There are lots of good anchorages, there are large state parks so the scenery is nice, and there are also very good marinas close by in case we need to go to one.

Our stay at Standing Rock anchorage was pretty quiet. Winds were light and our anchor never moved. So far in Kentucky lake we had seen very little boat traffic, pretty much only loopers were moving. We had only passed one tow when we were in the main channel, and had only seen one or perhaps two tows pass by on the river during our stays at anchor. We have been alone at almost every anchorage, with the exception of fishing boats coming and going.

Morning mist. The nights have been cooler, and so every morning is misty on the water. This usually is not heavy, and burns off quickly. We have not had any really thick fog in the past few days.

At the Standing Rock anchorage there was a steady stream of bass boats coming in and out of the bay. One of the local marinas was hosting a 3-day fishing tournament, and we seemed to pick one of the hot spots, although we never saw anyone catch anything. The bass boats travel at warp speed everywhere. They zoom into the bay, fish for about half and hour or so, then zoom out to the next location. Each time a boat leaves, another soon comes in to take its place. Interesting to watch how they all seemed to fish at about the same locations in the bay. Not sure if they have pre-scouted each bay, or if there is something on the Garmin charts or similar, that sends all the different boats to the same areas.

After two nights at Standing Rock, we pulled up the anchor and made our way to Paris Landing State park, which was really close by. This place was easily the cheapest marina we have seen on Kentucky lake, so staying here a night would not break the bank. Louise wanted to get out and walk around for a while, while I will do some chores and re-fill our water tanks. 

The bottoms of the anchorages we have been staying at are clay or mud, so when we bring up the anchor, there is always lots of mud to wash off. When we got to Paris landing we found a chunk of dried mud on the anchor we had missed, so had to scrape it off. Louise found that the mud contained various shells.

During the trip up the river, we encountered lots of butterflies. These were big monarchs, and we assumed they were part of the annual migration since all of them were moving south-west. Whenever we were going in their direction, they would fly "in formation" with us, and we even had a couple land on us to take a rest. Pretty cool to see, you don't see them at anchorage, or at marinas very much, they seem to be using the river as a natural highway to fly down and we encounter them when we are out in the middle of the lake.

Around mid-day, I checked the weather as usual, and discovered that tropical storm 14 had formed in the gulf (eventually becoming hurricane Milton). The predicted track showed it moving eastward, so it would not be a concern for us, but would hit Florida in the same area that Helene went through.

Louise went for an extended walk around the park, while I did some cleaning in the lazarette. There is a design issue with this model of boat in that water tends to accumulate in this area. This water is rainwater, that leaks in through various places near the stern and collects in this storage area. Last year I added some weather-stripping to the hatch, which prevented most of this water ingress, but the weather strip got damaged over the winter and was no longer working. I replaced it with a different type, which leaked, and then I found a type which did not leak, but I didn't buy enough so some water still gets in. I also suspect there is another leak, but need to figure out how to test for it. Luckily it had not rained much on our trip (except for the two hurricane remnants), but it will need to get dealt with.

We took the time in port to defrost the fridge, since it had not been done for several months. With the humidity on the water, frost gets built up, and the efficiency of the refrigerator goes down. Since we use batteries to power the fridge and freezer, we want them working well. The fridge was somewhat empty, so it was a good opportunity to do this. It was 31 degrees C that afternoon, and I shut off the AC when Louise went for her walk which heated up the salon pretty fast, and so the defrost did not take a long time. There were a couple of big chunks for sure.

During the day we saw several bass boats slowly circle the marina, with the fishermen casting towards the boats. We thought they were trying to attract fish who were in the shade of the docks or boats. Annoying for boaters though, as hooks can damage canvas or inflatable boats, and fishing line is not good for shaft seals. A few times over the years, especially in the Rideau, we have picked up fish hooks in our lines from the docks - not fun. A few local owners got irritated at the passing fishermen. One of the people who works at the marina told me that the fishing tournament was actually a college tournament. Wow! I never suspected that fishing would be a college sport.

They had several special disposals for fishing line placed around the marina here. Smart to have a separate place for hooks and line.

After a quiet day at Paris landing, we travelled a short distance to Fort Heiman Bay and set our anchor. This was the first "small" bay we have stayed at here, basically there is only room for one or two boats in this bay. We anchored right in the centre, because why not? The winds were forecast to change direction overnight, so we put out some extra chain to handle the swing. During the day, several small boats and pontoons cruised by or anchored in the bay with us. It was super hot, about 31 C and there was no wind at all. Louise went swimming for a while, while I read in the shade on the flybridge. Lots of locals were swimming also. 

Fort Heiman bay. Our view at this anchorage was really "isolated". Most of the other bays we have stayed in have had houses or boat ramps, but this one was just trees. It was also the smallest bay we have stayed in here. Most places here we have to anchor fairly far from shore, because it shallows out close to the banks. Staying in the middle gives us less protection from the wind, but this way there are no grounding issues. Wish I had a fish finder for the dingy, so we could scout around some of these places for deep spots closer to shore. The water is silty and so it is impossible to see the bottom. You have to rely on your depth sounder and charts, and the chart info is not up-to-date in the anchorage areas, so we play it safe.

The entrance to Fort Heiman bay.

One interesting thing we saw were cyprus trees. These trees grow in swampy areas and their roots "breathe" using knees. It is not swampy here, but the river level does vary quite a bit, so I guess this favours them. We also saw lots of jumping fish. Some were asian carp, but many were smaller fish. There have also been lots of turtles here, they are constantly swimming past the boat.

It is October here, but it only recently has started to feel like fall. Temperatures fell overnight the second day at Fort Heiman, and it felt like early September back in Ottawa in many ways. The sunlight is more fall-like, which is something I have always found striking. Suddenly in early September the light is "different", and the leaves start to turn colour. Flash-back to football and hunting seasons in Sudbury. Well, this effect just started here, a month later than "usual" for us. First twinges of fall - the sunlight is "different" and a small number of tress have started to change colour. Still pretty warm during the afternoon though, we have hit 30 degrees C pretty much every day.

So, what is a day at anchor like in Kentucky? We are usually up around 6:00, when it is still really dark. First priority is checking our location. We go up to the helm and check the GPS and also our outside surroundings to make sure we are where we supposed to be. Once confirmed we are OK, we get dressed and then I check the status of the "house" batteries. We have a battery monitor which measures the amount of power that goes into and out of these batteries, so it acts like a kind of "fuel gauge" for our house batteries. House batteries on our boat power everything that is not connected to the engines or thrusters. Important to keep an eye on them as they power our fridge and freezer. When we sleep overnight at anchor, these batteries also power the GPS (anchor alarm) and our anchor light (navigation light for safety). We know approximately how much power all these systems use overnight, and monitor our nightly power use each morning. This way, we can spot any issues if, for example, the freezer stopped working, or if a system that was not supposed to be running was left on by mistake. 

With this check done, we start up the generator which gives us AC power to recharge the batteries, and also to make coffee and breakfast. I always turn on the water heater at the same time. This not only provides us with hot water, but also puts a load on the generator. Generators on boats are usually much larger than what you actually need. This is what sells in the showroom, but it has the consequence that you end up with underloaded generators that tend to have more mechanical problems than those that are properly loaded. Therefore, whenever we run the genny, we try to load it as much as possible to keep the engine as healthy as possible.

With the genny running, we turn on our Starlink system, which, on our boat, is battery powered. This system draws a lot of power, and so we shut it down at night when on anchor to save battery capacity. Our batteries are big enough to power the system all night, but we find that if we let the Starlink run too long that it triggers low voltage alarms on our inverter. After some troubleshooting I found that this is actually a problem with the remote switch that controls the inverter, not with a lack of power in the batteries. We have a new switch on order, but in the meantime have to be careful to turn off the Starlink system at night if we want a good night's sleep. Believe me, when you are on anchor in a pitch-black night, ANY kind of alarm sends an instant adrenaline rush through everyone, so false alarms are to be avoided if possible. 

While Starlink boots up, I make coffee for Louise and I, and then we each sit down to read and watch the sun come up. My first stop each morning are apps for local weather. The hourly forecast for the day and the next day are checked, then the longer term local forecast for our area, and any areas we plan to travel to in the next week. After that, the hourly wind forecast is checked in our local region for the next 3 to 5 days, along with any region we plan to visit soon. The wind forecast includes not only wind strength, but also wind direction, both of which are useful to know when on a boat. Based on the upcoming weather (sun, rain etc) and wind (speed & direction), we will decide if we should stay where we are, or move to a better protected location. Next, the National Hurricane centre is consulted, to see if any dragons are hatching in the Gulf. We check the weather like this at least three times a day, and are constantly revising plans based on it.

If we are planning to move, or need to move because of incoming weather, then the next step is to consult various sites to select our next anchorage. We use a couple of online tools for this, including the AGLCA map, Active Captain, as well as our GPS charts. If we are planning to move to another anchorage, then we select our desired location, plus two or three alternates in case there are issues when we get to our first choice. Based on where we want to go, and what the weather forecast says, we then decide when we want to leave. We always prefer to travel early if we can. This way, we arrive at our destination with plenty of daylight left to go to plan B or C if necessary. Probably overkill, but that is boating, basically hopping from safe location to safe location. I get stressed out when our arrival time is late in the day, especially this time of year when the sun goes down around supper time. We don't know this area, so it is important for us to navigate during the day. We have done some navigating and set our anchor at night at home, but this was in an area we knew really well. Very different experience when you are moving around a place you have never been before.

Assuming we are staying put, we take our time having coffee, reading the news, catching up on email etc. Breakfast gets made and eaten, and once the batteries have been re-charged, we shut down the generator. Normally, we have to run the generator for about 2 hours to fully re-charge the batteries. Once the genny is shut down, I usually open all the windows on the boat, both to keep things cooler, but also to cycle some fresh air through. This is important, as humidity builds up if you don't air out the boat, and you also want to get rid of that day-old-boater smell. Depending on what is happening that day, we may or may-not shower. As part of our morning routine, I usually check the bilges, engine, holding tank and water tank. The rest of the day, we do whatever - reading, swimming (Louise) or doing small chores around the boat. We are both old, and so we usually each have a nap.

Around 17:00 we turn on the generator again to re-charge the batteries, make supper, and cool off the boat. Pretty much everyday, the sun heats up the boat interior, and so we need to run the AC to knock down the temperature. Again, the water heater is switched on both to provide hot water and to put a load on the genny. Usually, while Louise makes supper, I inspect the boat decks to make sure everything is secure. We normally open up the flybridge every day, either to drive the boat, or to hang out in the breeze in the afternoon, so I spend a few minutes closing up the canvas enclosure upstairs. This will protect the canvas in case it gets windy (the canvas is stronger when zipped together), keep the flybridge dry, and keep it clean in case of rain or dew. Since Louise likes to swim, we also launch the dingy each day so she has easy access to the swim platform. I make sure each evening to put it back on the davits before it gets dark, both to protect the dingy, and also to keep it out of the way in case we need to maneuver the boat in the middle of the night (if the anchor drags for example). The sun has been going down around 18:30 these days, so just around sunset I turn on the anchor light. After supper, we often watch TV, streaming various shows using Starlink. By 21:00 we are normally getting sleepy (this time is known as looper midnight) and so we shut down the TV and Starlink, then head to bed.

Next day, rinse and repeat.

Louise had been in contact with Melanie during all this time, and she and Rich were scheduled to return to Jewel on the Thursday of that week. However, they were in Florida, and we did not know if they would be able to travel then because of Hurricane Milton. We made marina reservations anyway to meet them, assuming we could change these reservations if necessary.

After two nights at Fort Heiman, we moved on to Ginger bay for one night, and then Newby Cemetery cove. This latter anchorage was a really nice one, extremely well-protected and quiet. We got to this anchorage on the day that Hurricane Milton hit Florida. Well, it turned out that that same day, Rich and Melanie's flight got re-scheduled due to the weather, so we had to rearrange our marina reservations. Bit of a challenge here, as we had no cell service, but we do have a good internet connection (Starlink) so Louise figured out how to make calls via Wifi. This was really important for us to figure out, as we expect to be in many other areas with no cell service in the future - in fact we have been in many of those so far on this trip.

One side-effect of being at anchor is that Louise gets bored so she has been baking. She made chocolate cake one night, which we also ate for breakfast the next day. Another evening she made blueberry pie - also excellent for breakfast, and then she made apple pie. A side-effect of making pie is that the leftover dough can be used to make cinnamon rolls.

There is a pack of dog-like animals (coyotes we think) living in the Newby Cemetery area. They howl at sunset and sunrise, and you can hear the pack yipping from time to time. First time we have ever heard anything like that in real life. We have seen deer coming down to the lake to eat and drink, and also we once saw what we think was a coyote, too big for a fox and there are no wolves in Kentucky.

One morning just after sunrise we saw this buck come down to the lake for a drink and a quick swim. Lots of wild-life here. Many big herons that fly around and fish in the shallows. They sound like pterodactyls - kind of look like them too. Lots of buzzards, eagles and ospreys, a product of the amount of fish here. Lots of carp jumping, pretty much all the time. These things are really big. We also see lots of turtles, and during the day we have schools of small fish under the boat in the shade.

I set up the GPS so that each day's recorded track was a different colour, then decided to take this picture to record the magnificence of the image, because art is dead. No, you may not touch my monkey.

With the return of Rich and Melanie postponed due to Milton, we ended up staying at Newby Cemetery for two more nights. This was a really nice spot, well protected and isolated, and so why bother moving? We have wolves singing to us each night!

Eevee likes our chairs, and splits her time between the recliners and the lawn chairs. 

One Evening we saw a conservation officer setting out some nets. He came into our bay, and then set a net across the entire opening, with floats every 40 feet or so. This was just around supper time, just before the sun went down. The next morning, he came back at sunrise and hauled in whatever he was looking for. We thought it was some kind of fish population monitor. There are some huge fish here. The asian carp hang out in the shallows. We took a dingy ride around the bay and saw a couple swimming along the bottom. Once one of them is startled, the whole bay erupts in a fish-jumping frenzy, the movement of one sets off a chain-reaction of jumping fish. Kind of fun to watch.

The last evening we were in the anchorage, a super-yacht came in in the late afternoon and anchored deeper in the bay from us. According to AIS it was 80 feet long. Amazing to see such a big private yacht this far inland. In the marinas here, there are lots of houseboats that are in the 60 to 70 foot range, although we did not see any out and about when we were anchored.

Finally, our stretch at anchor came to an end and we set off for Kentucky Dam marina for a few days. We parked next to Jewel, and are looking forward to hanging out with Rich and Melanie again. We actually came back to port a day before they were scheduled to arrive, as the forecast was for windy conditions on the lake the next day. Because of the long fetch, we expected that it would get choppy, and we prefer to avoid anything nautical if we can help it.

Boat name of the day: A Loan Again

Hurricane Helene

We began preparations to leave Green Turtle bay in the evening, filling up our water tanks and tidying up around the boat. In the morning, we were up early as usual, had breakfast, then went into wait mode. Rich and Melanie had decided to go home to deal with a family issue, and while they were making arrangements to store their boat Jewel, we decided to wait at the marina with them. The marina staff were very helpful, and made arrangements for them to store their boat at a sister marina that had much lower rates. With this done, we untied our lines and went over to the fuel dock to get pumped out and filled up with fuel. We then left the harbour with Jewel, to accompany them part of the way to the other marina. After about 45 minutes or so, we parted ways. We will really miss Rich and Melanie, and we hope to see them again on the loop.

The Monday predictions for tropical disturbance nine (which eventually became hurricane Helene). We are right on the Kentucky-Tennesee border, near the track for Saturday. 

Ever since Monday when tropical disturbance 9 formed, we had been watching the National Hurricane Centre and evolving our plans for the next leg of travel. It was now Wednesday, and the storm was forecast to begin influencing our area sometime Thursday evening. Accordingly, we wanted to be secure in a marina by noon Thursday so we would not get nailed. Rich and I had scouted out marinas and anchorages a few days before, and we decided we would hunker down at Paris Landing State Park. This was a long day's journey away, so we decided to break up the trip with a night at an anchorage about half-way along the way. Even with the late start, we got to the anchorage just after noon and got set in. Although the winds were forecast to be light that evening, they would be changing direction late at night and so we made sure to anchor in a location with lots of swing room. 

We chose Vickers bay, which offered lots of space and also would give us protection from the north winds after the wind shift late at night. We pulled in and set the anchor, then each of us napped. Later in the afternoon, another boat, Etcetera, came into the bay and anchored in one of the baylets. 

As the sun went down we could hear thunder in the distance, and see lightning flashes pretty regularly. Although we got a bit of rain, we were just at the edge of that storm and had a pretty quiet night.

Louise made some carrot soup while we were running the generator. This soup-maker is basically a heated blender. It has various settings you can use to make different stuff. Basically, it heats what you are making, and occasionally the blender motor runs to mix and chop everything, while providing even heating to all of the soup.

We were up the next morning shortly after 5, and enjoyed our coffee while we watched the sun come up. The morning was fog free, with good visibility, and so we pulled up the anchor and set out as soon as it was bright enough to see well. The trip to Paris Landing was not very long, but the winds were going to come up, and we wanted to be well set-up before that happened.

As we travelled down Kentucky lake, the waves started to build. There was almost no wind, but the fetch was so long that it slowly pushed up the wave size. When we came into the marina, it was just short of whitecaps, indeed we saw a steady stream of whitecaps out on the lake after we tied up. The marina here was really well constructed with a large breakwater, so we had chosen a good place to hide. We added extra ropes to double up, and put out all our fenders. We were in slips with docks on both sides, so we set up some "spider-web" lines to keep us off the docks, similar to what we did at Petoskey in lake Michigan.

We are well-set for weather here. Each boat is in-between finger docks, so you can tie off on both sides of the boat. We are facing north-west, which is where the winds are forecast to be from. Later in the day, a couple of large boats arrived and tied on the other side of us, giving us some wind protection on both sides.

After checking in we went for a walk around the park, and checked out the lodge, golf course and restaurant. This place had a really nice hotel and golf course. The restaurant was nice, but upscale hotel-like and we didn't go back for food ($$$$). 

This is the Chalet at the State park. They have several campgrounds here for tents or trailers, but also this facility and a golf course. The chalet has several large meeting rooms, and I suspect that a lot of their business is weddings and corporate retreats. The entire park is extremely well-cared for. The campgrounds are immaculate.

The marina was full of law enforcement when we got back from our walk. There were fire department boats, sheriff's boats, fish and game boats, and the coast guard. Even a helicopter landed in the parking lot. I tried to ask one of the sheriffs what was going on, but all I was told was that they had a rescue operation underway. Later, we found out they were searching for a kid who had jumped off one of the nearby highway bridges. Just before dark they found his body.

Police helicopter used in the search. They also had about 5 or 6 boats out searching; police, fire and coast guard. The search lasted all day, and the parking lot was full of various types of first-responders.

Right around sunset the wind started to pick up a little bit, and we got the first sprinkling of rain. The boat also started rocking. Although there is a large breakwater here, some waves sneak around the harbour entrance and create small swells in the harbour. We experienced this as well in several places in lake Michigan. With the long fetch in the lake, there were now steady whitecaps outside, so it looked like our next three days would be a bit rocky. Before it got dark, I checked all our lines, and made sure we were "hovering" in the slip between the docks. Our bow was pointed north-west, and the winds were expected to be either from the north or north-west, so we were well situated for the incoming rain and wind.

Louise found a freshwater bryozoan growing under the dock. These are invertebrate animals, which date back to the Ordovician period, and so represent a very ancient type of multicellular life form here on Earth.

The rain started just around the time it got dark, and it kept raining for the next 3 days. Although the wind picked up at first, it died down quickly, and we did not notice a lot of wind the first night. We know when it is windy because we are near the bow when we sleep, and you can hear our looper flag flapping on the flag pole.

The next day was a grey rainy day. It rained pretty steady all day long. The rain was not super-hard, but it never stopped and never diminished. It was not really very windy either, except for the occasional gust that would push the boat around. The harbour here is well-protected from all directions, especially the north (where the winds were coming from), so we we not exposed to the kind of steady wind or gusts that we had experienced in Petoskey Michigan.

It was not worth going out in the wet conditions, so we stayed inside all day watching TV. Every once in a while we took a break to do some small chores like cleaning, organizing, or paperwork. Kind of like being stuck at camp (cottage for non-Sudburians) during a really rainy day.

We bought some barbeque sauce in Paducah, and since then we put that sh** on everything.

The wind and rain picked up for a few hours around supper time. There were a few pretty good gusts, but once again, these did not approach what we experienced on lake Michigan. We were spider-webbed into the slip so the boat was pushed around a bit by the gusts, but the ropes absorbed everything as we "hovered" in between the docks. The winds completely died out later in the evening and it stopped raining sometime around midnight for a few hours.

The next day the wind had completely gone, although the rain continued all day. We spent the day, like the last, in the boat watching TV and sleeping, another rainy day at camp. We decided to order pizza for supper as the marina staff had told us about a place that would deliver here. The pizza was a nice tasty finish to a long grey day.

During the day, we decided to revise our plans for the next few weeks. We will be spending most of a month in the area, and originally planned to go to Chattanooga by boat, and then rent a car to go to Nashville. However, one of the locks we needed to go through to do that was damaged, and was log-jammed with barges, so we will not even TRY to get through, as we would experience big delays both ways - we would need to pass this lock twice if we stick to our current plan. Therefore, new plans were in order, and since we needed to slow down, our best option was to stay where we were in Kentucky lake for the next week or two. There are lots of anchorages and marinas here, so this gave us lots of options. 

So, just as Helene died out, another disturbance was forming in the gulf. We kept a close eye on this region as part of our weather monitoring, and factored it in as part of day-to-day planning. You really become addicted to weather forecasts when you live on a boat, especially wind predictions. Now that we are south of the great lakes, we also are monitoring storms like Helene, rainfall, and also check the river water flows and levels every day. But, at least we don't have to worry about freezing - in fact we have to run the AC every day it is so hot here. 

We had a non-refundable reservation at our next marina - Birdsong - so we planned to go there and then backtrack north for a while. Birdsong was an AGLCA sponsor, which is one reason we decided to stop there as part of our original plan. Since we usually try to reserve about a week out, we made reservations before we left Green Turtle. However, I do not think we would have gone there if our reservation was refundable. Why? Access. The water levels here are low, and we read several accounts of people grounding getting into the place. Looking at the chart, the entrance was long, narrow and twisty. In Green Turtle this detail got missed, but as we refined our plans, it started to become a concern.

On the navigation chart, you see lots of marks for old flooded structures. Train roadbeds, house foundations, bridge abutments etc. This was the top of an old grain terminal that we passed. It was on the side of the old river bed that forms the basis of the lake here, but because of the way the reservoir was created, you sometimes see these old ruins in the "middle" of the lake. Important to stay in the navigation channel though, as things get shallow quickly and there is lots of silting. The commercial areas on the chart are accurate, but outside the channel things have not been surveyed in a long time. Staying here has got me thinking about forward-looking sonar for our boat........

The trip to Birdsong was only 4 hours, so we took our time getting underway the next day. We ended up chatting with some other boaters on the dock, and so ended up leaving even later. The lake was a bit choppy, despite the fact that it was not windy. The winds have been from the north the last few days, and the current in the lake flows north. The current moving against the wind causes waves to scrunch together and makes for very short-period waves. The ride was not really rough, certainly not like Georgian Bay or lake Michigan, but it was enough to mess with the autopilot a little.

We were nervous coming into Birdsong as the info we had from Active captain suggested that the entrance was tricky, and several posters had reported grounding. Louise and I put on our headsets, and she sat up in the bow to warn if she saw any obstacles or changes in water colour. The channel was narrow and twisty, but the trip was not that difficult - was actually a lot like some sections of the Rideau. All you had to do was follow the markers and the GPS. Should have known. Over the years, when people have told us about groundings, they always say they were "in the channel". However, if you ask about details, it turns out they cut a corner, missed a marker (some are missing), or tried a short cut. The harbour at Merrickville on the Rideau is famous for groundings as people ignore or miss the markers coming in, or don't use their GPS properly. Still, we went dead slow as the depth finder did not show a lot of water under the keel. We pulled into Birdsong in mid-afternoon, and got set up.

Our view from the dock. This is an old paddle-wheel steamer that the resort bought, planning to turn it into a gift shop or something. However, it got damaged bringing it in, and sank. Looks like this happened a looooong time ago.

The docks at Birdsong look like the docks everywhere else, except for the boats. At one time this may have been a place for cruiser-type boats, but no longer. It is an RV park with a pontoon boat marina.

This pontoon had been converted to a floating duck blind. We saw lots of these sprinkled around the channel coming into this place. Hunting season starts in November here, so we should not be around when these become occupied.

The people here were super nice. Everyone stopped to chat, and they offered us the run of the facility. This place is primarily an RV park, while their marina is geared towards pontoon boats and house boats. We were the only cruiser-type boat on the docks. The RV park is very well maintained, and this is a large facility. We found the place to be very clean and neat. There was a pool, and small store.

They put us on the end of their linear dock beside this little gazebo,

One interesting feature here was the pearl farm and museum. Turns out that at one point this was the largest fresh-water pearl operation in the world. In fact, they still had some oysters growing out beside the place. Turns out however, that after the original owner died, it became too difficult to get permits to continue the operation, and so they no longer culture pearls here. They still harvest them though, at least for the next 10 to 20 years when the last of the oysters will be collected. 

Just before sundown, a younger couple came out to the gazebo beside us to smoke up. The smell was awful - I think they had a moldy batch - and so we closed all the windows to insulate us from the toxic fog, but Eevee was outside at the time and didn't seem to mind the smell so much, in fact we think she was inhaling.

Back on the boat, we took some time to plan out our next week. We wanted to reduce the amount of time we have been spending in marinas, so we will anchor out for a few days. The National Hurricane centre was predicting that another storm may form in the gulf in a week or so, so we kept an eye on that daily, ready to run for shelter if any nasty weather turns up. Basically the plan is to hang around in Kentucky lake for a week or two, then start our way south towards the Gulf towards the end of the month.

A nice feature of our GPS is that it records our tacks. You can then use these tracks as "breadcrumbs" to backtrack your steps exactly. Helps to avoid issues. On the above display, the left-panel is long range, the right is short-range. Our boat's position is the small boat-shaped cursor near the bottom, and our heading is up (black line ending in a circle). The blue trace is the recording of our position as we came into the marina. The water was all deep, and we had no issues coming in, so we followed our exact track we recorded coming in to get out safely.

A different view of the channel. The left panel shows just how twisty the entrance path was. Several markers were missing, so we followed the old creek bed on the chart. The marina owner wanted to get more cruisers to stop in. I think a good start would be putting out some more markers.

Hanging around Kentucky lake meant backtracking north, so the next morning we got underway and headed to Pebble Isle marina. This is also an AGLCA sponsor, and another massive facility. We tied up on their transient dock, which was filled with other loopers. As it turned out, most of the loopers there were getting their boats closed up for a while. Because of the recent hurricane, people are unsure of the status of facilities in the gulf and in Florida, and rather than continue, have decided to go home for a few weeks. The crews of five boats were getting ready to drive to Nashville the next day to catch flights home. We borrowed the marina's courtesy car, and did some grocery shopping at Walmart, then settled in to watch the Tragically Hip special on Apple TV. 

The marina here has a tradition of serving cinnamon buns in the morning. Billy, one of the marina staff, makes these each morning for the visiting cruisers. All the loopers on the dock met in the marina canteen for breakfast. We chatted with quite a few crews, and also with Billy, and the marina owner. As mentioned above, pretty much every other looper seemed to be leaving their boats here so they could go home for a bit.

Transient dock at Pebble Isle. It is the beginning of October, and temperatures would approach 30 degrees C that day. 

We decided to head north a bit further and stay at anchor for a few days. Marinas and restaurants are really nice, but they do take a toll on the budget. Staying at anchor a few nights will ease the pain a bit. The weather is supposed to be really nice here for the next week, August-warm temperatures and little to no wind.

Anchoring here is a bit different from other places we have anchored. Normally, you try to tuck the boat close to shore to get protection from the prevailing wind and waves. Doing that is difficult here. The lake is a reservoir that was created by flooding a river channel. There are lots of little "coves" off to the sides of this channel, but they are very shallow and so most are not usable. The ones that are, are old flooded stream beds. The deeper water is in the middle, on the path of the old stream bed, and is fairly far from the shore.

We anchored in Richland bay, pretty much right in the middle, about 0.5 km from any shore. Winds were light but steady from the north, and so we had small waves all day. Because the entrance to the bay was wide, we also had some waves refracting in from the main channel. Annoying because the bay opens to the west, while the winds are from the north and north east. Our anchor held with no issues, but we never stopped rocking and rolling - no big deal really, but gives me something to write about. 

The first night in the anchorage, the winds kicked up after dark and so I went to the bow to put out more chain. Probably overkill, but the extra rode ensured we slept well. There was lots of space in this anchorage, and we have the chain, so we used it. Many people believe the anchor holds you in place, but the anchor chain does a lot of the work, if not most. It is the combination of anchor and rode that holds you. Our anchor is a plow, when you put it on the bottom and pull on the chain, it digs into the mud, just like a kind of shovel. Once the anchor is deep enough, it "holds" and you are set to go. To keep you anchored, you need to ensure that the rode - what connects the anchor to the boat, lies as parallel as possible to the bottom. The angle of the rode is important, if it lifts up too much the anchor gets pulled out of the bottom and you are dragging anchor. To prevent this from happening, our rode is made out of chain which, because of its weight, tends to stay as close to the bottom as it can. By letting out more chain, we increase the weight of the rode keeping it more flat on the bottom. More chain also keeps the maximum angle that the anchor can be pulled at small relative to the bottom, which prevents the anchor from being pulled out.

This is the geometry behind anchoring. Putting out more rode keeps the rode parallel to the bottom, which gives you the best angle for your anchor to dig in. To be secure, you want the rode where it connects the anchor to lie flat on the bottom. Chain provides weight to do this. We have all-chain rode, so the more we put out, the more weight we add to keep the rode flat. Some boats use a rope rode. When you have rope rode, the rode should always include a length of chain attached to the anchor that is at least the length of the boat, which will provide weight to hold the rode near the anchor as close to the bottom as possible. When you want to raise the anchor, you shorten the chain (rode) which twists the anchor and pulls it out of the bottom. 

How much rode should you put out? This is dictated by geometry. If you assume worst-case heavy winds, then the rode will be pulled straight. This geometry generates a right-angle triangle with two key distances - the length of the rode used, and the distance between the bottom PLUS the height of the attachment point of the rode to the boat above the water. Boaters use a formula to calculate how much rode to use. This formula ensures that the angle the anchor is pulled at never exceeds an amount that will pull out the anchor (shown as alpha above). You take the depth of the water PLUS the height of the attachment point of the anchor to the boat from the surface of the water. Multiply this distance by a number to get the amount of rode to use. To sleep well at night, you use a 7:1 ratio of rode to (depth + attachment height). In really bad conditions (hurricane) you use a 10:1 ratio. Since we have an all chain rode, we normally use a 5:1 ratio if the weather is light. For storms or windy conditions we use 7:1. Our chain is marked, so we know how much we have out. So, more chain = better sleep. Our bow is about 6 feet above the water, and we were in water 10 feet deep. This gives a total "height" of 16 feet. We put out a 7:1 ratio of rode, so we had about 120 feet of chain out.

The next day was pretty quiet. We passed the time reading, snoozing and doing a few chores around the boat. Given that we were safe and secure where we were, and that the other anchorages were pretty similar to this one, we decided to stay put for another day. That evening Louise made blueberry pie for dessert. Yum. We also had it for breakfast the next day! Eventually we got bored of being in the same place, so decided to try another anchorage for a day or two.

Next morning was pretty foggy. It had gotten cold overnight (11 C) and since everyday is humid here, we awoke to a thick bank of fog which burned off slowly as the sun came up. The bay we were in cleared pretty quickly, but there was persistent fog over the main lake for several hours, looked like a low-lying cloud rolling by. Once the visibility was clear, we moved to another anchorage at Standing Rock creek.

When we are anchored, we set an alarm on our GPS, and we also use the GPS track to monitor how we are holding. If your anchor is solid, you see a solid shape formed from the track of your vessel. If your anchor starts to drag, this will show up as a line, or more often, a series of "blobs" separated by lines. The above shows two tracks, red is today's, blue is yesterday's. The overlaid crescents show the anchor has not moved. In fact we were anchored solidly in mud with lots of chain out. We know it was a solid grab as we had some trouble pulling the anchor up out of the mud when we left the anchorage. It is normal to get a crescent shape, as the boat wiggles back-and-forth in the wind. When you are anchored in a current, the boat normally moves less and you don't see a crescent shape, just a blob.

The anchor alarm measures your distance from a set point. When you drop your anchor, you switch on the alarm and set your radius distance. If the boat ever goes outside a circle of this radius from your set point, the alarm goes off to let you know. The system is not perfect. The chartplotter companies never seem to design their anchor alarms with a lot of thought, and so you don't have great control over how the alarms are set and therefore sometimes get false alarms, however better safe than sorry.