Pics from quite a trip home

Thanks for sharing Tim. As we are new to locking on the TN River, I read every word. Great sig picture.

And as far as the money goes, if we wanted to save it all, we wouldn't be into boats, would we....?
(Spoken by a guy who gets reminded daily that we have two Sundancers....).
 
We've run the TN up your way twice as my last 2 boats came from Chattanooga. some very pretty boating. you should trip to KY Lake sometime...
 
Tim your boat is gorgeous, like others said its only money. Nothing about owning a boat is rational, otherwise we'd never own them in the first place. Glad you had a successful trip.
 
What an adventure! Great post and pics, have a good summer:)
 
Thanks for the post on costs. It really helps others gauge a trip like this. I'd be interested in knowing just the travel costs up and down the river (I don't know how much fuel was burned while in FL). I floated the idea to the admiral of going from Knoxville, TN down to Destin, FL next year for about a three-week trip. I told her it would likely be a 10-12k trip and her eyes almost popped it of her head.
 
matthewmiller01 said:
Thanks for the post on costs. It really helps others gauge a trip like this. I'd be interested in knowing just the travel costs up and down the river (I don't know how much fuel was burned while in FL). I floated the idea to the admiral of going from Knoxville, TN down to Destin, FL next year for about a three-week trip. I told her it would likely be a 10-12k trip and her eyes almost popped it of her head.
Click to expand...

I think that sometimes, the 10-12k

But realistically, by the time you go for a holiday somewhere, airfares, hotels, most meals out, most coffee out. Doing things to fill in the time. Hire cars, taxis etc.

10-12K for fuel over 3 weeks starts to become very realistic and cheap


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If I were to try to rationalize it, it would go something like this: we had 3 8-day vacations which if we flew to Disney, Newport or say, San Diego, then we'd have 5k sunk per trip more or less. We also had 4 long weekends that were essentially mini-vacations as they were 4-5 days each. If we took some short trips to chattanooga, Nashville, lake Michigan or wherever, we could easily spend a couple k per trip. We've almost broke even now. If I keep going on like this, the trip to Florida will soon be making me money.

Sort of like my explanation to my wife that moving to a diesel would make her money as diesel fuel is cheaper in our area and more efficent to push around alot of fiberglass therefore for all the running we do, we'd spend less on diesel fuel than gas. ask me how well that argument works for me sometime.

Buccaneer, We burned 1200 gallons getting to PC and 1350 coming home (500 miles upstream coming home and heavy seas on the gulf). Roughly 850 miles travelled. Subtract about 275 gallons from each and that gives you a rough idea of fuel from Pickwick to PC and vice versa. Subtract another 75 gals or so since destin is a little closer than PC. Roughly 600 miles from pickwick to destin probably so thats about 900 gallons of fuel for me. You probably have 375-400 miles from Knoxville to Pickwick I'd guess.
 
IanBat said:
I think that sometimes, the 10-12k

But realistically, by the time you go for a holiday somewhere, airfares, hotels, most meals out, most coffee out. Doing things to fill in the time. Hire cars, taxis etc.

10-12K for fuel over 3 weeks starts to become very realistic and cheap


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...

Agreed. She just has to realize that.

searay40dad said:
If I were to try to rationalize it, it would go something like this: we had 3 8-day vacations which if we flew to Disney, Newport or say, San Diego, then we'd have 5k sunk per trip more or less. We also had 4 long weekends that were essentially mini-vacations as they were 4-5 days each. If we took some short trips to chattanooga, Nashville, lake Michigan or wherever, we could easily spend a couple k per trip. We've almost broke even now. If I keep going on like this, the trip to Florida will soon be making me money.

Sort of like my explanation to my wife that moving to a diesel would make her money as diesel fuel is cheaper in our area and more efficent to push around alot of fiberglass therefore for all the running we do, we'd spend less on diesel fuel than gas. ask me how well that argument works for me sometime.

Buccaneer, We burned 1200 gallons getting to PC and 1350 coming home (500 miles upstream coming home and heavy seas on the gulf). Roughly 850 miles travelled. Subtract about 275 gallons from each and that gives you a rough idea of fuel from Pickwick to PC and vice versa. Subtract another 75 gals or so since destin is a little closer than PC. Roughly 600 miles from pickwick to destin probably so thats about 900 gallons of fuel for me. You probably have 375-400 miles from Knoxville to Pickwick I'd guess.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the breakdown. I'm an engineer by degree, so I need data to figure everything out and weigh the pros and cons.
 
I've read and re-read the thread, and enjoy it each time. When you were buying charts, did you find a good single source, or did you have to scrounge a bit ? I'd like to 'invest' in a few charts. Maybe someday go to the Gulf, or home to Michigan. The bucket list never seems to shrink...
 
Ordered the tombigbee and lower black warrior/Alabama charts from the us army corps of engineers website (same place you would find the Cumberland and Tennessee river charts). A great little book to have for anyone making this trip is "the cruising guide to the tenn river, tenn Tom waterway and lower tombigbee river" by rumsey. A little dated but a lot of interesting historical information in addn to stuff on anchoring, tow boat nav, snakes and more. I bought new navionics electronic charts for the inland waters as well as gulf. The platinum chart upgrade was helpful for learning the gulf area details. I usually planned my travels on my iPad when I was home. Had friends loan me gulf paper charts from map tech but the navionics charts were all I ended up using. There seemed to always be plenty of paper charts on eBay when I was looking.
 
Thanks for the note re: the ten-tom thread. I am anticipating that trip in the spring. Will get a copy of the guide you recommended. Have already ordered electronic inland waterway charts. I know most of the gulf coast by heart so if you ever want some recommendations....give me a shout.
Johng
 
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