So...what I'm hearing is...as long as I keep up with removing water from the top of the cover I should be okay without the bubble....that's about what I figured but I do see that putting that bubble in under the cover would make it easier to keep up with the water removal...

My mistake last year was constantly trying to keep the cover pulled taut....so that it didn't rest on the water surface at all. The constant tension from pulling it tight and keeping it tight with the clips wore on the seams. By the end of the spring some of those seams were coming apart wide enough to let a fair amount of debris and it's subsequently dirty water into the pool.

The cover was old anyways I don't know how long the previous owner had it but quite a few of the grommets had worn out and couple that with the failing seam I decided to scrap it in place of a new cover for this fall. Towards the end of the last winter I began thinking that the best approach would be an opposite tack of allowing the cover to lay on water with a degree of slack to eliminate the tension on the seams.

Seems like I'll do fine either way as long as I keep up with the water building up on the surface. And I do have a pump for the job...yet I think I'll try to stuff that bubble under there. I did take the time to blow it up manually !!.

Thanks for the insight and comments.