Freebird on The Great Loop
Freebird on The Great Loop
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!
Пікірлер
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.
RED RIGHT RETURNING
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.
Great information 👍🏼
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching. We love the coastal towns on Lake Michigan.
Congratulations on the start of your adventure! Best wishes from Canada! 🇨🇦 New sub!
Thanks so much!! Welcome aboard. 🛥️
We plan to head up to the Georgian Bay. We have heard so many good things about that area.
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!
Amazing animals.
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.
No AIS. We use the Raymarine Navigation on the boat and a secondary Navionics on our GPS enabled Ipad.
He needs to learn to speak.
Sometimes we almost think they speak a different language, but after a few weeks we could understand them better. Thanks for watching the videos.
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!!
Thank you for your comment. Glad you are enjoying the videos.
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.
Hi gang, seemed kinda hairy, was never into fly bridges but I'm coming around. That's your favorite spot capt ?
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
The debris and the extra strong current is slowing us down. Not having power steering, my arms are getting a workout avoiding the logs.
He can't see anything in the water in front of him near the front of the barges so I'm sure he's built to just run stuff over.
I think you are right. They just plow through. We have to watch for everything!
You first turn a key and then watch this thing. Lol 😊
Yes! you got it! And I do know that if something stays lit I should yell for Ed. HAHA
Love your boat, grew up in Michigan City, now live in Birchwood, due to retire soon from CPD hopefully the Loop is in our future, love your videos.
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!
Thanks for sharing your journeys on Kentucky lake I hope to join you there someday.
Glad you enjoyed the video. We love Kentucky lake and the Tennessee River. Hope to see you cruising there someday. Safe travels…
Thanks fro sharing your journey.
We love sharing our boating adventures. Thanks for watching. 🛥️
Hi gang, how deep is the water your gonna anchor n and do you have enough supplies ?
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.
@@FreebirdonTheGreatLoop hi captain, is this yalls first loop ?
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.
@@FreebirdonTheGreatLoop awesome
56 Carver !
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 enjoyed getting to know them all. We hope to travel with them again one day!
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…..
If you watch my newest videos you will see we did just that. It's a learning experience doing these youtube videos. Thanks for watching!
I'm enjoying your trip! Thanks for the videos!!
Thanks for watching!
Olmstead lock was underwater?? Wild..
It was wild alright! 🙃
Do you have air on your boat?
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. 🛥
You really have a beautiful boat..
Thanks Tom, we are really enjoying Freebird. Very comfortable and livable on long voyages. More adventures to come…
The debris is above Barkley dam trying to go down stream. It isn’t coming from the lock and dam
Thanks for pointing that out. We realized that all the debris was coming down the Cumberland River from all the rain that fell around Nashville.
That's my mamaw and papaw, the owners of M/T pockets! ❤
We enjoyed meeting and traveling with them on the Tennessee River. Hope to see them again when we get back to Goose Pond Marina in Alabama.
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 !
An experience to remember!
The word of the day it crazy, yep that was crazy guess once you in it there no backing out anyway safe travel and hit no logs.
Crazy it was! Thanks for writing!
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”
Thank you for saying hello! Love your boat and Suttons Bay.
Are you in the condo marina by Chimoski bakery? We love that bakery and especially their cherry pie.
@@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! 😂
@@karikarr6377 We bought a pie yesterday!
It's Spencer from North Channel Brewing in Manistee, MI! Great seeing you guys, happy you left the card. Excited to see your videos :)
Is it dual Cummins or Volvo diesels? It's surprisingly difficult to find good specifications on these boats!
Thanks for writing! We had a great time at North Channel Brewery! We love Manistee! We will be back at end of summer.
@@JamminandTheDoogs They are dual Volvo D12's 675 HP each.
Hi Spencer. Really enjoyed Manistee and our night at North Channel Brewery sampling great beer.
Looks like rougher water than the land between the lakes section. Is that typical or just a rough day?
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. 🛥️
Absolutely beautiful ship, thank you both for sharing the journey. Live the dream!!!!
Thank you! We love it!
I grew up going to Paris Landing and LBL, as did my kids. I have boated from the KY damn to New Johnsonville, to me that stretch of the Tennessee river is awesome.
The Tennesse Rive is beautiful everywhere! We love it!
Love Starlink. Hardware was easy to assemble but program download and configuration was challenging.
Congratulations on getting Starlink. I was just watching a video about Startlink last night.
It is working great!
I hope you are having a great and fun trip!! Awesome setup😊🎉I love you guys so much!!! ❤❤❤
We love you! Wish you were here! 💗😘🥰
How tall is your boat, 19 foot bridge in Chicago, thoughts ?
Our air draft is 20'8" with antennas folded down. We have to remove the anchor light mast to get under the 19'6" bridge.
Does your radar pick up any off the debris in the river, the logs I mean.
Can your radar pick up any debris coming down the river ?
@@rogerbaker-vo1cd Good question! The radar probably does, but watching the radar, you might miss some of the smaller or submerged logs. I think you are better off keeping your eyes glued to the water ahead of you.
How much more fuel are yall burning going up river as opposed to down ?
Wonderful adventures. RV parks are as much or more than your stay in a covered slip and we are only a 20 ft trailer using 30 amp.
I didn't know that. Thanks, that makes me feel better. The one thing we can do is try and anchor out as much as possible.
When I first started boating in salt water, intercostal waterways and channels, I worried so much about the channel markers and usually over thought the situation. Bottom line, the chartplotters are awesome, so use them. If you look, the markers are always shown. I made sure that my chart plotters were current with updates through the sd card. I never worried about it again and the plotters never let me down. Just my experience when I started boating there. All my experience before was in lakes and I never really had to worry about depths because my boats were small enough to not matter. Great video as usual. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Thanks for commenting. We use both the boats electronics and Navionics on my ipad. We have seen many areas the markers are missing especially on the rivers due to them being dragged away or even in a new spot by floating trees. You have to keep an eye out for that, so we use the sailing line as a good guide of where to be in that situation.
Another great video. Those locks are something else. I'm from Texas; never seen one in person.
We are so glad you are enjoying our videos. We still think they are amazing. A pain sometimes as they can take so long to get through, but necessary.
This is gonna be an Edith Bunker kind of trip, I'll pass!
I liked that layered cliff.
You can see a lot of that on The Tennessee River! We love the scenery.
Great teamwork. Wishes for continued safe sailing and success!🙏
Thank you!
Hello Freebird - We have really enjoyed your videos so far. They have made us nostalgic to turn back the clock 10 years when we did the Loop in a 53' Carver Voyager. What a great design the Voyager series was! So comfortable! Just wanted to comment on the "one whistle/two whistle" issue. It looks like others have commented on various ways to remember what should be done in both situations (passing and overtaking). A towboat captain on the Mississippi gave us the easiest way to remember what to do... "In either case, you (the pleasure boater) turn right on one whistle, turn left for a 2 whistle situation". It doesn't make any difference if you're meeting bow to bow or overtaking the tow. Smooth travels!
Thank you for the tip. Nice to hear from you. We have it down pretty good now but that is a great way to think about it if you get confused.
Always enjoy your trips. Stop by Dayton, TN anytime to see us and the cranes. Karen
We will when we get back! Thanks for writing!
Would love a tour of your boat
There is one on our channel we did a few years ago. Might update it soon. Thanks for writing!