Days 130

Dover Island, TN - Clarksville, TN

• Start 9:05 AM
• End 1:05 PM
• Underway 4:00 Hours
• Distance 31 miles
• Total Mil6s on Trip 2432
• Av Speed 7.9 knots
• Locks 0
• Weather Cloudy, 77 Degrees, Wind 4Kn

Our plan was to leave between 9 and 10, in the morning. The weather forecast was calling for early morning fog, and we only had 4 hour run to Clarksville. As we were leaving I could see a tow coming up the river on the outside of the island. I called the tow on the radio, because we would come out from behind the island right in front of him. He gave us the go ahead to come out in front of him.

Once we were well ahead of him, he called me back on the radio, and asked me to switch to channel 63. (All of the tows communicate on channel 13) We spent about 30 minutes chatting on the radio. He wanted to know where we were from and where we were heading. He laughed when I told him, we were going to Key West for the winter. His reply was "You all are heading in the wrong direction". It was interesting to get a glimpse into the life of a tug boat captain. There is a crew of 8 on the tug, and they work 30 days on 30 days off. Today's lunch was going to be smoked Ruben Sandwiches . They have both a grill and smoker on board.

Our next encounter with a tow was a few miles upriver, when we encountered a 1200' tow ahead of us, going in the same direction as us. Timing had us both heading into a couple of bends at the same time. I called him on the radio asking if he wanted us to slow down, or speed up and pass him before the bend. His response was even better, "Pass me on the 2, watch we are going to have a drill" He slowed down from 6 knots to 1.5 knots (Barely steerage speed) and launched a small skiff with all hands deck. They were performing a man overboard drill. The skiff went to pick up the "person" while the rest of the crew kept their eyes on the "person". Their drills are much different than I am use to seeing. Normal man overboard procedure is to execute a 180 degree turn, turning in the direction the person went over. There is no way a 1200' tow can do a 180 degree turn, in a 300' wide channel.

I am not sure is the drill was scheduled, and our timing was good, If the captain was showing off for us, or he chose to slow down so we could get through the bends before he did and do the drill at the same time, but I enjoyed watching it as we passed.

Clarksville marina, is another beautiful marina. The marina is in a very protect man made cove and most of the slips are covered. They have a long lay along dock for the bigger boats. We are on the lay along dock, and our boat looks very small there.

After lunch with Nick & Ginger (Ginger Gale), Angel and I went exploring on our bikes. The marina is in a very nice park, with several bike trails. We wanted to ride into town, but there is a major road between the park and town with no bike paths or sidewalks. We did get to see a full rainbow while we were riding.

When we leave here, we will anchor out one night, then we will head to Nashville.