four winns 214
Senior Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2008
- Messages
- 770
Several folks have inquired here about making extended boat trips on lakes and rivers. To give folks who might be contemplating such a trip a baseline from which to plan, here are some statistics from a trip on the Tennessee River I just made in a 1984 21' Sea Ray cuddy, my fifth long river trip. It took four and one-half days to cruise from the Tennessee's source at Knoxville, Tennessee to Kentucky Dam near Paducah, Kentucky, a chart distance of 630 miles and eight locks.
I had a Garmin 396 GPS on any time the boat was underway and it recorded move time and mileage. The actual mileage was 651 miles over 38 hours of move time. That translates to 17 mph average speed. I burned 192 gallons which is 3.3 mpg. Almost all of the time I was at cruise speed I made 25 mph, but the time idling into and out of marinas and other no wake areas brought down the average.
The real time wild card on a trip where locks are involved is budgeting the time transiting them. On this trip that varied from 30 minutes to turning back to a marina for an overnight after being told it was going to be 3 1/2 hours before I could lock through. Thankfully, that happened only once, but the potential is always there for such on a busy waterway like the Tennessee that has lots of commercial towboat traffic.. Recreational pleasure craft have the lowest priority for lockage. Most times the lock process was 45 minutes to an hour.
Another time wild card is the water conditions. The Tennessee is really a series of man-made lakes created by hydroelectric dams. The wind can turn them in a white-capped nightmare that makes for a miserable, slow ride. I was very lucky and had excellent water conditions for most of the trip with only about 20 miles of Pickwick Lake having water conditions that slowed me below 25 mph.
I stayed three nights in marinas with amenities such as showers and restaurants for dinner. I ate breakfast and lunch on the boat underway. The final night, I anchored behind an island when I couldn't make a marina before dark. I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it, but I had an opportunity to get through the final lock of the trip with no delay and I opted to take it. It turned out to be a very peaceful night that I really enjoyed.
It is absolutely essential to carry navigation charts for a trip like this so that you can give an accurate position should you need to summon help. I had marine charts and XM weather on the Garmin and on my iPad I had Corps of Engineers river charts in PDF downloaded from the Corps website. It was a great combination. I'll post a few pictures in a day or two when I get time.
I had a Garmin 396 GPS on any time the boat was underway and it recorded move time and mileage. The actual mileage was 651 miles over 38 hours of move time. That translates to 17 mph average speed. I burned 192 gallons which is 3.3 mpg. Almost all of the time I was at cruise speed I made 25 mph, but the time idling into and out of marinas and other no wake areas brought down the average.
The real time wild card on a trip where locks are involved is budgeting the time transiting them. On this trip that varied from 30 minutes to turning back to a marina for an overnight after being told it was going to be 3 1/2 hours before I could lock through. Thankfully, that happened only once, but the potential is always there for such on a busy waterway like the Tennessee that has lots of commercial towboat traffic.. Recreational pleasure craft have the lowest priority for lockage. Most times the lock process was 45 minutes to an hour.
Another time wild card is the water conditions. The Tennessee is really a series of man-made lakes created by hydroelectric dams. The wind can turn them in a white-capped nightmare that makes for a miserable, slow ride. I was very lucky and had excellent water conditions for most of the trip with only about 20 miles of Pickwick Lake having water conditions that slowed me below 25 mph.
I stayed three nights in marinas with amenities such as showers and restaurants for dinner. I ate breakfast and lunch on the boat underway. The final night, I anchored behind an island when I couldn't make a marina before dark. I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it, but I had an opportunity to get through the final lock of the trip with no delay and I opted to take it. It turned out to be a very peaceful night that I really enjoyed.
It is absolutely essential to carry navigation charts for a trip like this so that you can give an accurate position should you need to summon help. I had marine charts and XM weather on the Garmin and on my iPad I had Corps of Engineers river charts in PDF downloaded from the Corps website. It was a great combination. I'll post a few pictures in a day or two when I get time.
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