Freebird is a 2006 56 Carver Voyager and our home port is in Chattanooga, TN. We will be taking extended trips with the end goal to complete The Great Loop. We spent our first year cruising The Tennessee River and prepping for our first long range trip up to the tip of Michigan. We left April 1, 2022 and headed up the rivers to Michigan, spent the summer up there and then cruised back to Chattanooga arriving back 7 months later on November 1, 2022. Please Subscribe. Thank you!
I am about 10 miles from the Kaskaskia lock. I would have liked to seen you in person when you came through. If you go to the lock at the right time you get to walk across the actual gates and get a close up of the the gate mechanism. They are very friendly there. Good choice going into Kimmswick. It's a great place to spend an afternoon.
Yes, Freebird is powered by Volvo D12-675hp diesel engines. We’ve found them to be very reliable and efficient. We burn about 34gph at 24mph. Thanks for the question. 🛥
Enjoy following your channel. We live on Chickamauga Lake on the rock cliff on the other side of the lake between Soddy and Opossum Creek. We would love to do the Great Loop in the future.
Yes we do have headsets and usually wear them when docking or locking. They are also handy when pulling the anchor. If you watch some of our videos of locking you will see them in use.
Just to clarify some things for you, I’m a retired Towboat Captain. When you overtake another vessel, you pass him on the two, or the two whistles, your starboard, to his port. When you meet a vessel on the one whistle, you meet him port to port! I hope that helps.
Thanks for your comment and clarification. I’m not sure why I have trouble getting it right. Maureen very helpful with contacting the tow captains for instructions.
Hi. Have you guys done a video that shows your boat yet? That's a great looking Carver. Was hoping you could take some time and talk about your boat, unless it's in a previous video. Thanks.
Yes, Freebirds draft is nearly 5 feet. We have not had any issues so far. We are not planning on traveling the Trent Severn waterway to avoid shallow water issues. Thanks.🛥️
On nights we anchor we use an Anchor Alarm app on our iPad that uses GPS signals to monitor our location. If the boat moves a loud alarm wakes us up. 😫
If you haven't already found out, I believe but could be wrong, a dike is perpendicular to the river and a chevron would be angled. Military insignia (stripes on sleeve) are called chevrons because they are angled down. Or a chevron pattern on a wood floor
What time of year was this video made, look like other then toe or tugs you guys were the only people on the river that day. The Captain and the first mate do a great job to miss all that crap in the water.👍
Greetings from central Michigan. How far behind reality are these videos ? Would be fun to say Hi if a friend and I's schedule allowed meeting up in Muskegeon or Luddington.
Baylor isn't a college, it's one of two high end boarding schools in Chattanooga. Those are highschool kids. Kids who's parents pay $60k a year to send them there. I think we played them in football one year. They had a running track around the football field that had a one inch thick jell pad they ran on top of. We had to take our cleats off to walk across it. Being from Sand Mountain, our field didn't even have bleachers, it was something I had never seen before.
Thanks for the comment and clarification. We passed by this school many times and it does look very special, especially from the water. we wanted to pass by closer to get a better shot of the school but the rowing competition kept us from getting too close.
When you are heading upstream in a river, you’ll want to keep the red markers to your right and the green ones to your left. In this video, on the Ohio River, we were going downstream, so the reds were on the left. When we turn to go up the Mississippi they then are on our right.
He wanted you to get out of the channel and move inside the buoys for starboard to starboard. You guys stayed on the outside so he just made the turn to avoid and stayed closer to the channels edge. If you of moved when he first said to then it wouldn’t have been an issue. He’s drafting 9ft so he has no option to move out of the channels. Depending on your draft you have a lot more options
Thank you for your comment. There was no way we could safely get to the other side in time. Especially with all the logs and debris. We would have taken a chance to hit something including the submerged markers. We made the right choice given the circumstances and we are glad we did. I see your point, but you would have to be there to actually understand the entire situation. We have almost a 5 ft draft and sometimes the Tow Captains are not aware of that and/or they don't see how the debris could be a lot more detrimental to us vs them just plowing through it. Or he could have just said the wrong thing. They are human too and believe me, it is tiring for all Captains out there.
@@FreebirdonTheGreatLoop it’s all very possible. Look forward to following the journey. Just remember to not proceed in the face of uncertainty with these commercial vessels. Once you get up to the lakes some of the freighters are over 1000ft long and draft up to 30ft. Good luck!
Don't you guys have AIS on that nice boat of yours? As for channel markers when the water is high the towboats are famous for snagging them and either dragging them off or breaking them loose so they float away, hence is why a good GPS waterway navigation system is very important because the supposed location of all the buoys should be annotated. Each time you show your navigation unit you are zoomed way out so you aren't seeing depth and navigation aids being displayed.
It is a total pitty that recreational pilots, (not captains) have no idea what they are doing! Everyone should take at least a basic boating course to be allowed on the water!!
Hey. Thanks for letting us follow along from Ontario. I can't believe the debris. So nervous for you both. Slow and steady. Please take care... so crazy the tug saying clearly 2 whistle the changed to 1??? Makes me even more nervous. We are 1.5 years to retire and the loop is on the bucket list. Can I ask is the Carver Voyager a 53 or 56? Beautiful yacht
Freebird is a 2006 56 Voyager. Don't worry about the loop unless you are going to do it backwards. We made the normal southbound trip two years ago in the fall. You will be going with the current and the debris was minimal. Lots of people make it just fine and you will have plenty of company and help the other loopers.
On the rivers with all these logs the visibility is much better directly in front of the boat from the flybridge. On cold rainy days you can't beat the comfort of the pilot house. I am sure glad I have both options.
I couldn't understand him from the video either, but I looked up the location on charts and google maps and what I _think_ the tug wanted was for you to cross in front of him (i'll come back to this) and go to the shallow side of the several green bouys that are in that section of river so he could have the whole deep channel to maneuver. This makes perfect sense and should have been safe ... except for one thing; From the video I don't think there's any way you could possibly have safely crossed in front of him before he would have been on you. I think he made the turn you mentioned because he realized this after having asked you to move to the two whistle.
We agree 100%. It would have especially hard to cross over with all the debris. Most of the markers were missing or underwater making them an unscene hazard below the surface.
A lot of flooding to the north. Sure a lot of that debris is coming from that and probably slowing you down too. Think it's more to the northwest so maybe it will clear some when you get on the Illinois River
Thanks for your service! We hope you enjoy your retirement. If you don't get to do the whole loop Michigan is awesome by boat. Tennessee River is beautiful too! Thanks for watching!
Hi Roger, the sand bar anchorage was about 32 feet deep when we anchored this time. With the strong current we had to put out a lot of anchor chain to hold overnight. Maureen made sure we had enough supplies for at least 5 days on anchor. Thanks for your questions.
We are still working to complete our first loop. This is the second time we traveled on Freebird from our home port in Chattanooga up the rivers to the Great Lakes.
You had excellent travel buddies. Larry is the most knowledgeable guy on the rivers. Roy is a hoot! +++David and Orally! All from Goosepond Marina. They typically do annual or semi annual tours someplace on the Tennessee/Cumberland River system. Hope you get to see them on your future adventures.
We’re enjoying your journey, but please turn the background music down (or off). It drowns out your voice. We had rather hear you and the sounds around you. We’re not enjoying the music at all. Thanks for sharing your journey…..
Hi Jim. Yes, the entire boat is air conditioned and heated including the Flybridge. All the comforts of home. Check out the tour we did for boat details. 🛥
As far as debris in the water goes, you are headed into more of the same. 6 years ago we came down the Ohio river from Cincinnati to Paducah, then up the KY River, thru the cut you show in this video and up Lake Barkley to Nashville. The Ohio river section was very strenuous due to debris in the water. 4 days of extreme caution at 28 mph. I hope you fare better and less hyper-vigilance than we had. Enjoy GTB !
Fun seeing you this morning on Grand Traverse Bay! We’re in a condo marina just north of the Village marina in Suttons Bay, so won’t be docked near you, but will try to get over there to say hello. Enjoy this smooth water! Kari & Don on “Relevance”
@@EdK-pe8vb Yes - Bayview Marina. I remember you mentioning that cherry pie in your episode from last year when you stayed in Suttons Bay. 🍒 🥧 We live across the street and walk past Chimoski every day….it is difficult avoiding the donuts! 😂
We did encounter some choppy 2 ft waves in Kentucky Lake. We were traveling into a strong wind but going with the river current. The wind in opposite direction of the current caused choppy conditions. Since we were traveling 23 mph into the waves we had a fun ride! Thanks for watching. 🛥️
