After spending this past winter holed up at home in northern Michigan remodeling our kitchen, we feel we’re more than ready for some new cruising adventure, so we are preparing, planning and packing to head west soon to begin another fun boating season. First we’ll visit the Flaming Gorge Reservoir…

This is the end point to our 2012 Tennessee River cruise. Our trip’s mission was to spend some time on the Tennessee River, traveling it’s length along with this years crop of Loopers and commence the cruise by attending AGLCA’s (America’s Great Loop Cruisiers’ Association) 2012 Fall Rendezvous held at Joe…

After leaving Grand Harbor Marina, we made two anchorage stops before we got to Joe Wheeler State Park. The first, Little Bear Creek (above and below), was a new spot for us while our stay at McKernan Creek was our third time at anchor. On the move again early the…

After being on the hook a lot lately, a visit to Grand Harbor Resort and Marina, located where the Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama borders come together (we’re officially down south at this point), hit the spot. It has all the amenities a long-distance boater appreciates including a well stocked ship’s…

A beautiful fall day presented itself to us as we headed out, from Clifton Marina early the next morning, with a plan to anchor out at Diamond Island. With bright blue skies and a pleasantly warm day, we basked in the scenic beauty along the Tennessee River during our cruise….

When we’re cruising day after day and anchoring out overnight, we get to a point where we’d like to take in the creature comforts a marina will afford. Most marinas offer the essentials of power, water, fuel, laundry and showers, but every once in a while we are “wowed” –…

Staying in the travel mode of leaving late and quitting  early we only cruised 15 miles today, stopping to anchor out in Lick Creek. This was our first time in Lick Creek, a new experience in a natural setting. We worked our way into the unmarked serpentine channel with the…

Leaving Pebble Isle Marina we had our sights set on an anchorage we’d never been to before. Twenty miles up river at MM116 of the Tennessee River is Blue Creek, Cuba Landing Marina is located there. (The photo above, and below, shows the entrance to the marina and the cove…

At MM-78.2, on our way to Pebble Isle Marina today, we passed the Louisville and Nashville RR Bridge (above), a non-functioning bridge at this time, probably only used for fishing now. Shortly after the bridge, we passed an abandoned, partly submerged building (below). The Tennessee Valley Authority purchased many acres of…

We left Duncan Bay knowing we’d travel south on the Tennessee River for only 4 hours, so it wasn’t going to be a long day. Twenty-nine miles later, at mile marker 62.6, we made a starboard turn into Cypress Creek, then another right into the first cove. What we found…

We had been towing our dinghy for over a year when we finally decided to get serious about finding a davit system. Towing is easy and inexpensive, however towing can also become problematic in rough seas or at higher speeds, so we wanted to find a solution, a viable launch…

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Our three-week goal was to travel 250 miles on the Tennessee River meeting Loopers on their southern migration and concluding our trip after attending an AGLCA Rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina in Rogersville, Alabama. With three weeks to enjoy this famous heartland river, it felt good knowing we…

For die-hard boaters, like us, there’s no better feeling than heading out on the road (for trailerable boaters) on the cusp of an adventure, we were just itching to do a little river cruising. We took our Kismet on a 680-mile road trip, from Traverse City, Michigan, before we floated her off of…

The little red tug, Kismet, is on the move again, we’re headed south this fall to cruise the Tennessee River; a 220-mile trip (approx.) from Grand Rivers, Kentucky to Rogersville, Alabama. First stop was Cloverdale RV Park in Cloverdale, Indiana. Not a lot going on here but it was a…

Mackinac Island is a very busy tourist destination during the day, so when visiting the island, Jim and I try to focus our daytime activities on walking in less congested areas. Our favorite route starts by walking up the steps leading to the steep bluff just across the road from…

Our son, Skyler, got married to the love of his life, Sarah, on Labor Day Weekend. Most of our summer was focused on this big event; except for a few boat trips, we stayed close to home preparing and enjoying all the activities. I have to confess it took quite…

In stark contrast to our time cruising the North Channel this summer was our 5-day stop in Charlevoix, while on our way home, for the 2012 Venetian Festival; one of our all time favorite festivals. We called Charlevoix’s harbormaster, Hal (below-right) to receive our slip assignment soon after we arrived…

Heading back to Spanish, time to load our boat onto the trailer to drive back to the states. This was the first bad weather day of our trip. No sooner had we got the boat secured onto the trailer and into the parking lot when it started to rain hard….

As cruising trips go this one ranked up towards the top of our list, but like all good things they must come to an end. We left Little Current to make way for one of our favorite anchorages in a popular cove at Croker Island; this will be the last real…