We bought our houseboat in January and moved it from Center Hill Lake in middle Tennessee to Watts Bar Lake on the Tennessee River. To date, the extent of our "cruising" has been to run a couple of hours upriver to Blue Springs Marina and back several times, and once through the Watts Bar lock.
We are considering taking a weekend trip to Knoxville for the UT-UGA game on October 6 but wonder how many marinas will be closed after Labor Day. We have also heard that locking through to Ft Loudon can be time-consuming.
Do any of you Vol Navy veterans have any advice to offer, besides the obvious like plenty of $$$ for gasoline?
TIA, Mike and Lynn

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Mike

1989 Sumerset 14x64
Twin Volvo AQ131C SP
Watts Bar Lake
Spring City, TN

I am not sure what the vol navy thingy is, never had one on my boat.

But if I desired to go to an area I would call the marinas and make reservations, just as you would if you took your car and stayed on shore somewhere.

They could tell about the locks also, I also know you can call the locks.

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Banana Tom

Obviously, BananaTom doesn't realize that "It's Football Time in Tennessee". I used to spend a lot of time on Watts Bar in small boats, but made a point to stay away during football weekends to avoid the traffic. Lots of big boats going fast. My recollection is that there are very few houseboats in the Vol Navy.
But larger WB marinas (Euchee, Blue Springs, Caney Creek) don't typically close period. Most will limit services to weekends from mid-November till March. I'm sure that Ft. Loudon Marina is the same, because I bought fuel there in mid January this year. These guys live for the game weekends in the fall.
Lockmasters like to accumulate several boats for each cycle - I've seen them put in 20+, so locking thru can take some time. http://slideshows.knoxnews.com...avy&usetemplate=plain
I'd suggest that you find someone (through a marina?) with recent experience. The logistics of putting that many drunks in big boats in the river near the stadium will be large.

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Harbor Master 47
Watts Bar Lake - TN River

Thanks LongJohn for informing me and providing the photos attached. I thought my post would get a good response.

Boy, what a party. I think that would be fun to do, once or twice.

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Banana Tom

Thanks, LJ. We've got the USACE chart book for the Tennessee River and plan to pick a couple of marinas for the occasional pit stop. I think they list marina phone numbers in the book.
I know what you mean about the potential hazards of mixing it up with the fast crowd. We boated up to Booms Day about 5 years ago in our Chapparal ski boat and had to manuever carefully to avoid being run over at the conclusion of the fireworks display. We won't be in a hurry to get back from the game, so we can wait for the cruisers to clear out.
BT, y'all come on up the Mighty Muddy Mississippi or Tombigbee some time and learn about the Vol Navy first hand . I assume from your profile that you are boating in the salty Gulf? A nice long cruise in fresh water would make a nice flush for your power plant. By the time you could make it here the sting of the recent UT-UF debacle might have worn off. Then again, maybe not.

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Mike

1989 Sumerset 14x64
Twin Volvo AQ131C SP
Watts Bar Lake
Spring City, TN

Yes, I have now learned about your area due to your posting. I did some research, it looks like a nice place to boat, but it appears it can get very crowded.

We have fireworks displays over the Pensacola bay here, a fun boating expierance, as well as Blue Angel weekend at Pensacola Beach. And yes, when it is over, just sit tight for awhile and let the tfraffic thin out.

I would run the Tenn Tom if I went North, not the mighty mud, I did run it south from Pickwick Lake, Iuka, MS, Aqua Yacht Harbor when I bought it. Quite the trip. Got to spend a night with the Pirate at his new marina in Pickensville.

One of my deck hands for the trip ( I had two females on board), has read Teds thread, she staes we had a very mellow trip, compared to our forum buddy and stated keep her in mind for the next cross country adventure. She is ready anytime.

I do run in fresh water some, we have several rivers which are very nice for traveling north in, for a change of scenery. Perdido River, Escambia River and Blackwater River, which make for a nice two day trip.

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Banana Tom

Edited: 09/20/2007 at 05:58:35 PM by BananaTom

It appears that you have quite a variety of boating possibilities there, Tom. I'm envious of your longer boating season, but would not enjoy watching the weather during hurricane season.
We lived in the Tampa area in the late 80's when I worked for one of the fertilizer companies and enjoyed boating in the Bay there. Only had 1 close call from a tropical storm.
When you were in the Iuka area you might have gotten a whiff of a paper mill located at the North end of Pickwick - at Counce, TN. The company I work for now sells chemical pumps to them, so I travel there routinely.
Oh, sounds like an interesting crew you had on that cruise!

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Mike

1989 Sumerset 14x64
Twin Volvo AQ131C SP
Watts Bar Lake
Spring City, TN

The crew was my wife and very very good friend, Juliet. We were fortunate that her great husband allowed us to shanghai her for the trip. She was most valuble to the success, as was my wife. The three of us could handle the Great Loop just fine.

Which of course is the ultimate dream.

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Banana Tom

WattsBarbarians,

We do have many different areas to travel here in Pensacola Paradise.

Gulf Shores, AL, Orange Beach, AL, Pensacola Beach FL, Navarre Beach FL, Fort Walton Beach FL, Destin FL, Santa Rosa Beach FL, Panama City Beach FL. These are the saltwater trips. You can also navigate Pensacola Bay, Escambia Bay, Perdido Bay, all intersecting the Intra-coastal Waterway.

The fresh water rivers provide a crooked stream effect, the further North, the more and tighter the curves present, awesome twin engine manuervinering, all the way up to prestine sand bars on clear and fresh water. One river North that intersects the last navigatable area of the Blackwater by houseboat is the Cold Water Creek and it lives up to its name in the middle of July. Awesome river to tube on.

Most boaters like to go the cove between Fort MaCrae and Admirals Island on the west shore of the Pensacola Pass to the Gulf of Mexico. Here is a famous anchorage. Fishing is awesome, you can catch everyting. Sights are fantastic and on Wednesdays and Thursdays the Blue Angles practise their air show at 8:30 am.

Imagine, sitting on the deck of a houseboat, catching a wide variety of fish and watching the best precision air team in the world manuevering over your head.

It is called "The Sound of Freedom while Houseboating".

One thing about the storms that affect me here is I know days in advance before they hit, and then we have a plan that works. It is a way of life. Just like winterizing.

I believe it is better to know, than not, like when an earthquakes will occur, when a tornado will hit, or to deal with winter storms that produce white stuff. The tropical storms are my cross to bear.

My boating season is never suspended due to winter, just for the occasional hurricane, and I know when that is coming.

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Banana Tom

Any updates on a trip to the football events. I'd like to learn/read more about it.

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Banana Tom

As a University of Georgia grad with a boat on the Tennessee River I wish to weigh in on this topic. By now you all know that my team took a whipping in Knoxville and I have heard enough verses of "Rocky Top" to last me a lifetime. As a Georgia boy I would not even consider taking my boat to Knoxville for a game. First, there are nothing but Tennessee Volunteers(thus Vol Navy) in those waters. There are no marinas to stay in because they are booked for life by diehard Tennessee fans. So what you have to do is raft up with all those folks dressed in obnoxious orange. Everyone is allowed to cross your boat drunk and in all types of shoes to go to and from shore. Once you are tied in there you cannot get out until it is over. You have to run your generator and hundreds of other generators are running all around you. This would be misery for me but the Tennessee fans on my dock will go up there several days early even if they don't have tickets for the game and stay the entire weekend. It is part city win or lose. You can buy all sorts of "Vol Navy" gear in gaudy orange and they all seem to love it. They say everyone is very courteous and there are no problems between boaters in general. So in two years when the game is back up there maybe you should just motor on up.

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The Judge Rules

So Rusty,

It appears you would like to go by boat, right??

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Banana Tom

B.T.,

Well, my brother and sister-in-law from Memphis were supposed to go with us to Knoxville (had even agreed to split the fuel bill!) but had to back out at the last moment due to the death of her uncle in Fayetteville. So my wife and I decided to head south for the weekend instead. I am a Memphis State graduate (didn't Peyton Manning lose to them?) so I won't wear the gaudy orange stuff like my wife will. But I don't mind partying with Big Orange fans. We did watch the game on satellite TV with friends from Chattanooga and I was the lone Bulldogs supporter.

The weather was perfect for our cruise, actually a little warm with highs in the upper 80's. We locked through at Watts Bar and Chickamauga without incident and tied up in downtown Chattanooga Friday and Saturday nights. The only mechanical problem we encountered was failure of our Westerbeke generator raw water pump impeller, but Chickamauga Marina had one in stock and we had tools to make the repair. Most of the cruisers heading to and from the game were kind enough to back off the throttle as we passed. We made it back to Spring City about 6:00 Sunday evening.

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Mike

1989 Sumerset 14x64
Twin Volvo AQ131C SP
Watts Bar Lake
Spring City, TN

Sounds like a nice trip, you should have had zone man on board for a little fun although.

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Banana Tom