Kentucky Lake to Nashville, TN?

[2kwik4u]

Downtown side docks aren't under construction, they look to have been hit by something, or otherwise damaged.

This was from Saturday (9/22/18). Docks are not usable in several sections. The ramp leading up to the sidewalk has been damaged and is under water. The door at the top of the ramp was closed and locked as well.


I had no idea we were supposed to call ahead and get a permit to dock. We talked to the "Pontoon Saloon" captain for a few minutes, and he gave us the rundown. I'll call next time. Since we were already that far into the journey, couldn't find a reasonable alternative quickly, and didn't want to just head back empty handed.....we rolled the dice and docked on the Stadium Side anyway. We left both of our business cards on the dash with cellphone numbers, hoping they would call before they would tow it away or otherwise remove it. We also only planned on being there a short time, so we took our chances. Came back to find this giant boat parked behind us, and our boat moved about 2 cleats up river. No big deal really, was part of the risk we took. They didn't respond when we said "Hi", so we moved on and didn't get to talk to them about the permitting process or where they were from.


The Stadium Side docks were in excellent condition with good spacing on the cleats, and nice clean surfaces. You can see a door at the top of the ramp there. It had a keypad on it as if it was lockable, however it was not locked when we showed up, and we agreed that if they locked it on us I could climb around to get back to the boat if it came to that. Likewise, we could swim to it if we had to. Luckily it didn't come to that, and the door remained unlocked for the few hours we were there.

If staying overnight, I would definitely want to have the permit, as well as some form of confirmation. The area seemed pretty secure overall, however I might also bring someway to lock the boat to the dock for an evening away from it. The little white pedestals also have power outlets in them, so recharging of batteries is possible if thats a thing you might need/want. I would think a single overnight wouldn't need it though.

Well, I may not be crazy!! Apparently, this route can be considered part of the Great Loop (or at least a side trip), and has more marinas/gas stops than going down the Lower Mississippi. I've never seen this site until today, but "Captain John" (apparently) has a crap ton of information on this.

http://www.captainjohn.org/River_Cumberland.html

I found his site a few years back. Didn't realize he had a section on the cumberland river.

The wife has been to Green Turtle Bay a few times on "girls weekends" and rented a few pontoons there (she's confident enough to drive a boat, but not quite ready to trailer ours she says). She really likes that location, and I might be able to talk her into making that a start/return point for us. Might make a good "rally point" as well for a group style outing down the river. Plenty of small cabins there to have a place to stay if needed, and I'm sure the owners are nice enough to let us park a truck/trailer there for an extended period of time.

A quick problem I'm seeing is timing. This will need to be a multi-day cruise/event. Doubt we can even make this a weekend type trip. Would need to have a day to travel to the start, 2-days travel each direction, and then a days travel home. Unless we could find someone to drive the truck for us from the start point to the end point and either wait on us, or find another means home. There are some logistical issues there to overcome either way. Either adding days in fuel and hotel/etc, or adding a "get home" expense to a friend driving the trailer for us. Not insurmountable, but something to consider........How to the bimini guys take care of that? Just leave the trucks/trailers parked in a launch ramp for a week?

Speaking of timing, I think this mid/late September timeframe is nice for the weather, but probably a bit of a stretch for those of us with kids in school. Finding a week long sitter is a tall order during the school year. A summer event would be more palatable in those regards, perhaps over a long weekend?

 

[2kwik4u]

These seem like reasonable legs of the journey. About 50mi each or so.

Green Turtle Bay to Bumpus Mills Marina - 42.8mi
Green Turtle Bay


Bumpus Mills Marina to Clarksville Marina - 50.5mi
Bumpus Mills Marina <--Not much info on this guy, but photos look like a fuel dock.


Clarksville Marina to Rock Harbor Marina (Nashville) - 47.7mi
Clarksville Marina


Rock Harbor to Downtown Nashville (and back) - 32.3mi
Rock Harbor Marine


Each of those legs should be doable in my AR190 based on this weekend experience of getting ~72mi to a single tank of fuel. That is also working on keeping ~30% in reserve for each leg. Not sure what kind of fuel burn and capacity you twin engine guys have. Boattest is showing mine at 4.2mpg and I was getting closer to 3.5 or so. The 240's are showing 3.0mpg so maybe closer to 2.5 in real usage? Does that sound reasonable?

Also, one day down and one day back sounds somewhat reasonable. 150ish miles at ~30mph is around 5 hours of "drive time" in the boat. If we left out early, say 8am, drove for 5 hours, had a 2 hour lunch, and had to wait for 2 hours on the lock, and had 2hrs fueling up..... that would put us into Nashville at 7pm. Thats a long day on the water with a LOT of on plane time. Doable with good weather. Might also be able to cut some of that out if we plan ahead with the locks and schedule a time to be there so we don't have to wait.

The fillup in Nashville might only need to happen on the way OUT of town. Could make the Clarksville to Nashville and back to Rock Harbor around 75 miles. Easier to get fuel when you can than to run out IMO.

Also, starting from Lake Barkley Marina might eliminate the Bumpus Mills stop, but would lengthen the leg from the lake to Clarksville. More investigation would be needed there to determine exactly where we want to start and end.

This should get a good start on the planning though for this type of journey.

 

[Brad Berry]

Very good info! I think a fall trip would be great! In my opinion, fitting it into a 3 day window wouldn't be ideal, because you wont have very much time hanging out in Nashville (which is a ton of fun). If you're traveling to the launch and on the water all day on Friday, you're probably not going to "see the city" on Friday night. Saturday would be your only day to hang out, and Sunday would be all about coming home. A little too much in my opinion.

For me, if we left on Thursday, that would be a little more ideal, and give us much more time for the awesomeness that is Nashville.

I'm sure if we contacted the Cheatham Lock, we could plan and arrange the best passage. Here is their contact info:

Telephone: 615-792-4349

Email: CheathamLock@usace.army.mil

 

[2kwik4u]

I agree. Will need to put a day or two in there for fun. Otherwise, while boating is part of the fun, it'll just be boating all weekend. No sense in rushing anything while on vacation!

I had the same thought about the Cheatham lock. The guy at the Old Hickory lock was super helpful, and as accommodating as he could be. I'm sure if we would have planned ahead a little better, we wouldn't have had the 3hr wait in the rain. I don't blame the lock for that even a little bit.

Side note.....Wife and her family are just south of you in Benton, MO. We're over in Cape about 3-4 times a year.

 

[BigAbe75]

Any thoughts about where to stay overnight with the boats? Looks like there are some resorts with cabins and docks on Old Hickory.

Would be tough to do fall with the kids, but seeing the fall colors would be awesome.

 

[2kwik4u]

Any thoughts about where to stay overnight with the boats? Looks like there are some resorts with cabins and docks on Old Hickory.

Would be tough to do fall with the kids, but seeing the fall colors would be awesome.

I was thinking of just staying downtown and leaving the boats at the dock overnight. Old Hickory is another 25 miles and another lock-through away from downtown. Don't want that kind of travel on the rest days (unless we want to uber into downtown from wherever we're staying).

I would think a stainless cord through the tower and through a cleat would be a decent theft deterent. Also an alert to the "Park Police" with a request for increased patrols would be a good idea I think.

Another thought would be to leave the boats at Rock Harbor overnight in a rented slip, and then uber into downtown for the hotel and shenanigans that way.

I was also thinking fall would be rough with kids, however I was also thinking this might be an adults only type weekend.

 

[GoVols01]

If you're going through the lock on Old Hickory Lake, you can call the lock in advance to tell them you're coming, generally within 15 minutes or so. They'll raise or lower the lock to accommodate your arrival and save you some time.

Old Hickory Lock 615-847-3281

There's a bunch of great marinas to eat at and stay for the night on Old Hickory Lake. Try Blue Turtle Bay Marina and eat at Sam's -- they're the best!

FYI, a barge broke loose and took out the West Bank Dock. I docked there about a week or so before this occurred. The Corps says they're going to fix the dock sometime over the winter.

 

[BigAbe75]

I was also thinking fall would be rough with kids, however I was also thinking this might be an adults only type weekend.

That sounds good! I don't remember the last adult trip we took. Oldest is 11, so probably at least 11 years ago. Lol

Or, maybe late May as soon as school starts letting out. June is always packed for us, but July isn't bad or maybe the first couple days of August. I work for a school, so by August I'm usually in full cram mode trying to get ready for teachers to come back to work.

I say we start thinking about throwing out dates just to see if anything starts to stick. I'd be onboard with Thur - Sun with a travel day before and after to get to/from home. So, Thur boat down, Fri and Sat in Nashville and Sunday boat back.

Shoot, I don't know if I could get my family on board, but I'm sure my brother would come with me, if we still wanted to do it this year.

 

[BigAbe75]

I've pulled some of the links and info out of this thread into a Google Doc here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EjvnLgK3mp2KeNySx9E9kp7m24ECf99rKEyXU-tvmAQ/edit?usp=sharing

@2kwik4u if you (or anyone else) have a gmail account, you should be able to request Edit permission of the Doc and I'll grant it, so you can make changes if you want. I also added a bookmark link in the doc to the post above where you outlined the gas stops.

 

[Scott Huse]

OK was bored at work today and was reading the forum. This sounds like a lot of fun and Nashville is a destination that both the wife and I can agree on. This is on the planning board in my house now.

 

[2kwik4u]

OK was bored at work today and was reading the forum. This sounds like a lot of fun and Nashville is a destination that both the wife and I can agree on. This is on the planning board in my house now.

We had a pretty good time on our trip this fall. Despite the rain, and the closed dock, it was a good time.