The Rock Quarry, Kentucky Lake MM30
On the Approach to Lake Barkley's dam the Cumberland River gets very wide and a well marked channel does a 15 mile chicane from bank to bank. It's a safe but boring route. We instead chose to test the veracity of the Garmin and Navionics charts by going "off road". It's also good teamwork practice. Bicki was at the helm while I tried to pick a path through the shallows. In several instances the Garmin and Navionics charts disagreed with each other; unfortunately, neither was consistently right.
Navionics Chart, Our Route in Yellow
Overall we liked the Navionics charts better because they're finer grained. However, displaying the finer grained charts on the small area of my smart phone was less than satisfying. Upgrading to Navionics for an iPad is more expensive but probably worth it.
Navionics Charts Have 1' Gradients
This evening we anchored just south of Fort Henry. Across the Tennessee River is Fort Heiman. After Grant easily captured both these forts on 16 February 1862, he sent three gunboats up the river to cut bridges and railroad lines. The squadron made it as far as Florence where the navigable water ended at Muscle Shoals. Along the way the fateful Pittsburg Landing--of Shilo frame--was reconnoitered.
We travelled 57 miles today and are presently at anchor in Piney South on the Land Between the Lakes, Tennessee MM63.5. The total for the journey is now 3,156 miles. DBH
