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Jon and Candy Gill on Isle of Skye
Here we are at Dog River Marina, busily getting ready to head
for Quebec and looking forward to skiing and après ski! Since leaving Fort Loudon TN, we have been heading down the river
system. The Tennessee river system has certainly been a highlight
for us. The colours were beautiful as we headed back down. They
were just past the fall prime but still lovely. We stopped again in Chattanooga and could have easily spent more
time in this lovely season, but the weather is getting cooler and
we are getting anxious to be further south. The locks have been easy to go through. Most lock masters go out
of their way to be helpful. Some of the wildlife that we have seen has made the trip even
more worthwhile. We have watched deer swimming across the river.
One time we saw four right in the middle and our boat scared them
so they headed back again. At one of the anchorages, we watched a coyote walking along the
shore at dusk. That was a treat. At another we watched a raccoon
hunt along the shore. There has been lots of bird life. There are always blue herons,
but we have also seen flocks of sand hill cranes, lots of greater
egrets, flocks of pelicans. We have surprised by the number of
hawks, bald eagles and osprey that we have been able to watch.
Turkey vultures and black vultures are fun to watch. Big groups
of ducks, mallards, and coots and buffalo head and others we don’t
know, plus of course, Canada geese migrate this way. I looked for alligators and was disappointed to not see any. We
have left coming south to late and they are either hibernating
or they are tucked into smaller warmer creeks. We were told where
to find some, but alas we can’t idle with our dinghy motor
and we went to fast and scared them away. The human wildlife is also very interesting. We have seen huge
numbers of fishermen, fishing for bass and catfish and sometimes
trout. We have seen duck hunters getting their blinds ready. In
one anchorage, men in full camouflage roared by us going to places
to hunt deer. (the only orange we noticed, were some of them with
orange toques!) In another anchorage, the hog hunters were busy
hunting feral hogs. We spoke to a family, Mom, Dad, Child, and
Grandma –on there way to hunt “hawg!” and later
they came back to show us the small one (120 lb) that Mom had just
shot and they had strapped to the front of their boat. We have had not very many problems. We ended up buying a new windlass
in Fort Loudin,TN, the batteries seem to be discharging faster
than they should…but the generator works. We lost our main
anchor. We had to cut it off. After trying for a couple of hours
to get it up and actually beginning to stress the bow of the boat….
And yes, we were using a trip line and a float. (it snapped! As
did another line we tried to use) and we even tried the come along.
Finally, we had to give it up. (That was near the same highway
bridge that Ray and Cheryl had once anchored at with no problem!) Jon has already started on some of the chores needed to get the boat ready to be left, and now I need to get busy too! We think of our NCYC friends often and hope that you are all well
and making happy boating plans! Jon and Candy
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