Home Is Where The Anchor Drops

Luckily, if we don’t like the neighborhood it is easy for us to relocate!  Every anchorage in Land Between the Lakes offers a beautiful, scenic environment with plenty of wildlife, and no homes or piers along the shoreline.  However, we discovered that a few places (particularly one with a rare sandy beach) can be quite the party central on weekends. I love to see people enjoying the water, and having a lot of boats anchored near by doesn’t bother me one bit...BUT, my tolerance for obnoxiously loud, and incredibly vulgar/obscene ‘music’ makes me very thankful that we can be in a different ‘home’ very quickly!  I know I am getting old (and maybe a little crotchety), but ‘peace and tranquility’ is the only life for me😁

Smith Bay offers a nice sandy beach, but draws the ‘rowdy’ crowd on weekends.  Finally at the stage in my life when I truly look forward to Monday. TGIM

Just two miles south, Duncan Bay is my idea of the perfect home.

This has been my favorite anchorage since we left the Bahamas.  This spot offers easy access to hiking (which leads you through an old cemetery before you reach the gravel road) and a plethora of wildlife.

Birds abound.

There must be an eagle nest in this cove. We have seen 5 individual bald eagles, including two juveniles that don’t yet have their adult coloring.  Did you know it takes eagles 5-6 years to get the white head and tail feathers?  I believe this juvenile is 2-3 years old. I happened upon two juveniles sitting in a tree when I was paddle boarding.  They scared me as much as I scared them!

Eagles are constantly flying overhead, but one evening they were making a lot of noise, and when we looked outside we saw 3 adults ‘chasing’ each other. They would fly and swoop, then land in different trees and chatter at each other.  It was hard to tell who was chasing whom, but they definitely seemed unhappy with the circumstances...while we enjoyed every moment.

We have also learned a few new things this week.  Have you ever seen these root growths coming out of the ground?  This was a first for us, but after a little research it appears these cypress root ‘knees’ are actually fairly common in swampy areas.  Their function is unknown, but scientists believe the most likely purpose is to provide structural support and to stabilize the soft ground surrounding a tree.

And what kind of creature makes these mud ball tunnel holes?  There are a lot of these tunnels alongside the cypress knees.  I believe they were made by burrowing crayfish, or at least that’s what YouTube has led me to believe.  How did I ever learn anything before the internet?

We have been trying to take a nice long walk/hike a few times per week, and there is a path from the beach that leads directly to the back of this cemetery.  There are several old, multi-family cemeteries on Land Between the Lakes, which reminds us that at one time quite a few people lived here.  This particular cemetery tells the story of what a hard life these people faced, and particularly shows a high death rate among children.  There are a disproportionately large number of grave markers for infants, but there were also a significant number of young children buried here. It appears that 1898 was a particularly brutal year.

There are three identical headstones, side by side, that show the heartache one family suffered in 1898.  Rosco (7), Lennie (5), and Lonso (three months shy of his 3rd birthday) each died one day apart between May 7-9, 1898.  Of course there is no way to know what happened to these children, but it seems possible, if not probable,  a childhood disease was responsible.  After seeing this, we walked around the cemetery again and identified three other children under the age of 10 who died in 1898.  Childhood disease data shows that during that time period Scarlet Fever, Tuberculosis, and Diphtheria were the leading causes of death in children.  We are thankful to have the opportunity to walk through this cemetery in 2020, and sorry for those who lived the realities of 1898.

Birds aren’t the only things that have us looking to the sky.  We are also entertained by a local military unit’s frequent airborne refueling practice.

On most evenings we usually see 30-40 carp feeding at the surface, but one evening we could see hundreds of carp, at the surface of the water, all around the boat.

Her wing span is amazing!

Of course we don’t spend all of our time ‘mud mucking’...back to work.  I am still working on teak (and probably will be for the rest of my life).  It only took me 5 days to prep this door😳

And Keith has moved on to refurbishing the bow pulpit.

One day (in my spare time) I will make a boat project folder for those of you who might be interested in the realities of restoring a 41 year old boat, while living aboard and traveling.  It’s a wonderful hobby/lifestyle.  I can’t imagine just living on the boat with nothing constructive to accomplish.

Jumping and Jugging

This plan to hide from hurricanes in the inland lake system is working out quite well!  

This cloud bank is what was left of Laura by the time she reached us 430 miles from the coast.

We will gladly take a day of rain.  

We have ‘officially’ started our slow migration south. After spending 5 weeks exploring Barkley Lake, we are now anchored in Smith Bay on Kentucky Lake. Good bye to our friends at Buzzard Rock Marina! Buzzard Rock was a wonderful ‘home base’ during our time on Barkley Lake.  Everyone was very friendly and helpful! Special thanks to Valerie for keeping track of all of our packages and for always being so welcoming and accommodating!

We anchored in 4 different locations on Barkley Lake, but weren’t able to get into many of the coves I thought we would be able to explore.  The lake level is very low and many of the coves, on that side of Land Between the Lakes, have sandbars blocking the entrance.  We had planned to spend a week exploring Crooked Creek Bay (circled with yellow), but ran aground while approaching the mouth in a location that showed a 15 ft depth on our chart plotter.  This is the first time we have noticed a significant discrepancy between charted depth and actual depth. We had a little trouble getting off the bottom, and were preparing to launch the Whaler (to both lighten the load and use it to help pull the boat), but Keith was able to wiggle us off the bottom, and back us out of the very tight situation. Glad he was at the helm during that fun adventure😬

Unfortunately, all of the LBL coves between Mammoth Furnace (circled with blue, also where we were anchored during the last post) and Crooked Creek were too shallow for us to visit.  We backtracked north and anchored in Hurricane Creek on the east side of the lake.  The east side has much deeper coves, but it is also populated with houses and piers...oh well, back to civilization!

Not long after we dropped anchor a fishing boat came along side to let us know they were planning to net Asian Carp right next to us.  They explained that it was a noisy process and their boat would probably make some waves.  We offered to move if our position was hindering their operation, but they assured us that wouldn’t be necessary as long as we were okay with noise and waves.  We were excited to have a front row seat. 

They explained that they had to run the net from shoreline to shoreline, because these fish are very ‘smart’ and would go around or over if they get the chance.  In this picture, the net looks like a black line on the surface of the water.  Their boat is on the other side of the net where they are setting up to chase the fish into the net (those orange balls mark the net so they can see it).  Once the net was set, they went to the back of that cove and turned on the noise maker.  It sounded like a jackhammer echoing through the water.

And that was the beginning of a great show!  The fish immediately started jumping over the net.  We watched hundreds of fish escape by jumping over the net.  Some of these fish easily jumped 5-6 feet into the air, and their re-entry into the water sounded like cannon balls falling around us.

The crew of Asian Remedy sped back and forth ‘herding’ the fish toward the net.  

Once they were finished making a lot of noise and running the boat back and forth, to drive the fish into the net, it was time to haul the net in by hand.

They caught a lot of fish, but I’m pretty sure the same number escaped by jumping over the net.  It was great to learn about this invasive species, and the steps being taken to control the population.  We had frequently seen large numbers of these fish at the surface in the early evening, and Keith had cast many baited hooks to entice them...little did we know these fish only ‘eat’ plankton!  They are filter feeders, you can’t catch them with a hook (unless you snag one).  

Guess whose inquiry scored a donation of two Asian Carp (it wasn’t me). We were told they were very good to eat, but very hard to fillet, as they are full of bones.  I really only wanted one fish since cleaning two seemed like a lot of work, but they said “take two so you can practice on one.” After watching several YouTube videos I was ready to give it a try.  I didn’t have any problem getting the primary fillet off the fish, but that beautiful fillet sitting on the cutting board still has two rows of Y shaped bones running the whole length.  By the time I finished with the first fish we had a bowl full of fish nuggets. However, after watching the videos a second, third, maybe fourth time, I was able to remove the bones and ended up with strips of filleted carp, from the second fish.  We have since eaten the carp on two different occasions and we both agree it is a wonderful, white, flaky, firm, mild flavored fish.  Is it worth the work to fillet it?? Keith says yes😉

If you would like to learn more about the amazing efforts to keep Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes here’s a link to a PBS NewsHour segment https://youtu.be/lIRXDDG6yB8

In a different anchorage, we were able to learn the finer points of jugging.  We have seen a variety of bottles, jugs, and noodle apparatuses that we assumed were for the purpose of catching fish, but we didn’t have the details...until we were apparently anchored in the middle of someone’s favorite fishing spot.  This fisherman had very ‘official’ jugging gear, and dropped them all around our boat.  The apparatus is simply something that floats with a hook, line, and sinker attached.  The trick is to use a floating item with enough buoyancy to stay afloat even when a catfish is trying to swim away.  These items are free floating, and many people put them out at night and come back to check them in the morning. I’m guessing the catfish don’t usually go very far.

This is so EXCITING!! When a fish gets on the hook the float stands up.  I am like a little kid watching these floats move through the water, and point up into the air.  This fish decided to seek refuge under our boat, and literally swam until the float got stuck against the bow.

This looks too easy.  This guy just floats around in his boat and watches his jugs (noodles).  When he has one hooked he is clearly in no hurry to retrieve the fish.  I’m jumping up and down yelling “over here...over here,” and I’m pretty sure he rolled his eyes at me.  He told me that he likes to let them tire themselves out before pulling them in.  

We have decided that instead of collecting bottles or noodles to construct our own jugging gear we would just use Right Hand as the float, and hang lines off the sides.  We have had one catfish dinner using this method. However, we suffered the loss of our freezer last week and found ourselves in the position of needing to quickly downsize our frozen stores...so until further notice, no fishing is allowed.  

We should be able to start fishing again in a week or two, and I will be ready to catch the bait!

This is the first time I have ever seen turkeys while kayaking.

We have taken advantage of the opportunity to hike around the forest of Land Between the Lakes.  Keith is daring me to walk across this log...he knows I have an irrational fear of heights, which seems to be getting worse with age!  Clearly if I were to break a bone at this age it would take forever to heel.  I did cross the log over the 4 ft ravine/ditch, and when I got to the middle my heart was beating like I was 400 ft off the ground...ugh!  

SAND!  This beach is actual sand...WOW! We haven’t seen sand in a very long time, and there is a lot of it since the lake level is so low.  We were told they intentionally lower the lake this time of year to be ready to handle flood waters.  Thank goodness Hurricane Sally is forecast to stay southeast of our location!

The best thing about Fall is the amazing sunsets!