Green Turtle Bay Marina

23-28 September – Green Turtle Bay Marina

We rented a car and drove to Nashville for a couple of days. We saw the Parthenon, built for the

Tennessee centennial celebration, then almost destroyed, then restored later. We found a couple of DDD restaurants. And we did
some honky-tonking at the classic spots (The Legend, Tootsies, Roberts, and others).













Next day we toured the Country Music Hall of Fame, including RCA Studio B. Election to the Hall of Fame is the most esteemed honor in country music. Studio B is the old recording studio where many top artists recorded their big hits, including Elvis. 1,000 of more than 35,000 songs recorded there
became the biggest hits in music history. The Steinway Piano that Elvis loved to play was preserved
and displayed. We listened to some of the hits while we danced. Our tour guide, Stephanie, was also a recording artist. We bought her CD in the museum shop. The highlight of the trip was the Grand Ole Opry. What began as a simple radio show in 1925 is now a big deal, and the large new theater is the home for the live audience watching the continuing radio broadcast. We saw eight performances, and each one got better. The new stage had a circle inlay of the original floor from the original auditorium, so the “circle is never broken.”

More loopers came into the marina, including another Journey, Down Time, Carol Anne, After Taxes (who we met in Michigan), Harmony, Midnight Star, Free at Last, and Sea Glide (who we have not seen since Solomons Island, VA). Radiance crossed her wake in Green Turtle Bay, so they held a ceremony to exchange their white looper flag for a gold one. Champagne was part of the ceremony, but Neptune didn’t get any – all was consumed by the congratulatory gathering celebrating the occasion.

The charging system was befuddling. We had the batteries checked, and they were good.  But we were puzzeled by why the starboard alternator and the port battery charger would fail simultaneously. Nevertheless, we ordered parts and worked with Balmar technical support to resolve the starboard issue, and, based on advice from ProMariner, we purchased a new charger for the port side. The Balmar folks were puzzled also, but they were very interested in resolving our problem. After sending two new alternators, a new voltage regulator, and a new wiring harness (the shotgun approach), we finally got to the problem – nothing to do with new parts, it was a bad ground. The port battery charger was available from Amazon (yea, really), so it arrived in a day, with Charli’s Prime membership. This was a nice marina and resort, but we wanted to start heading south at some point, so we solicited help from the marina’s electrician, Bill. He helped us complete the port charger exchange. And, after some “God, I don’t know where to go from here,” we took a new look at the basics – wiring. The ground wire we had been connecting to the alternator was not a good ground. Fresh ground solved the problem. Yay! Celebrations at the happy hour gazebo! Group dinner at the yacht club. We head south in the morning.