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
