Green Turtle Bay Marina 10-15-08 to 10-20-08

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Green Turtle Bay. Not only did we do the necessary boat repairs, maintenance and reprovisioning, but we had plenty of time daily for walks around GTB and into Grand Rivers. My long walks usually involve finding a bakery and my internal GPS (Get Peggy Sugar) led me to the Sugar and Spice Cookie Shop where German cookies were featured for Oktoberfest and the Lite Side Café which had a huge selection of “healthy” muffins.

Grand Rivers is located in Livingston County which is a “dry county”—no bars or liquor stores at all. They could definitely not do this in Wisconsin! We went to the Commonwealth Yacht Club which has a way around this restriction—patrons bring their own alcohol and put it in the liquor lockers and then set-ups are provided from the Club.

We rented a car for Fri-Sun and explored the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation area. This area is steeped in history. When the Jackson Purchase was made in the 1830’s, the Cherokee were displaced and forced on the Trail of Tears march 1500 miles to the west. KY remained neutral during the Civil War but Tennessee was the last state to join the Confederacy. There was a lot of guerilla warfare in this area.

Do you remember learning about the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) in grade school? The TVA literally shaped the land, water and destiny of this entire area. Due to the perennial flooding in this area and the need for navigatable waters to carry goods, dams were placed on the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers in this area. Whole towns were moved to higher ground while many others were flooded by the dam waters to a height of 359 feet above sea level. From the 1930’3 through the 1960’s, 7,000 families were dispossessed by the Right of Eminent Domain to make way for the Kentucky and Barkley dams. The project was even more ambitious than the building of the Panama Canal.

The Land Between the Lakes Park is also stunningly beautiful. We did 5-8 mile hikes daily through the rolling forested hills. There is a Prairie Bison and Elk area with about 90 animals total but we found our Elk walking across a parking lot. There is not much color change yet and the dry conditions might effect the change this year

There are 200 family cemeteries in the park. Families come back to hold reunions and to tend this sacred ground as a way of maintaining their connection with the land and their ancestors.

Cumberland Towhead to Green Turtle Bay, Barkley Lake (33 miles) 10-14-08

We left the anchorage at 8am today as we have only 33 miles and 1 Lock to do today before we get to Green Turtle Bay. Also, Bob checked AIS before we left the anchorage and saw a barge coming southbound through the narrow channel on the Cumberland River we have to turn northbound.
Each of the rivers we have travelled has a different look and personality. The Cumberland River is much narrower, has low rolling hills with trees on the shoreline and has a few houses with huge levees protecting them. It reminds me more of the Mohawk River in upstate NY. We noticed about .5 to 1mph current against us but we were still able to maintain a speed of 7.4.
We were able to let the autohelm steer so the morning seemed easier. We were surprised once going around a curve and “dab smack in front of us” was the “Larry Tilley”, a pusher and barge southbound. They did not have an AIS transponder so we had no warning. They quarry a lot of limestone in the area, have grinders on the riverbank and then it is loaded on the barges so this area can be busy.
We entered the Barkley Lock by noon and were raised 57 feet. Each lock is different and this one had high and low bollards that were spaced comfortably so that we did not have to worry about moving backwards or forwards and hitting another boat. The definition of a good boating day always starts with ‘no one got hurt and nobody’s boat got damaged.” We have had all good days so far.
Barkley Lock opens up to Barkley Lake which is one of the most popular stops on the Loop. It has hiking trails in the Land Between the Lakes, the picturesque town of Grand Rivers, protected anchorages, post office, a grocery store and access to a marina courtesy car.
Patti’s Settlement Restaurant even sends a van to pick up boaters for their nightly feast. The restaurant is decked out in Christmas glitter throughout the year, and offers their specialty pork dishes and over-the-top pecan desserts. We were not disappointed!

Milepost 953 (O.R.) to Cumberland Island Towhead, Milepost 923.5 (O.R.) (30 miles) 10-13-08

We had a very peaceful night’s sleep for our first time anchoring with direct river current. This morning was partly sunny and 69 degrees as we raised the anchor at 8am.
We checked AIS which indicated that Lock #2, 14 miles away, already had a lot of barge traffic waiting to lock through. We meandered up the river and anchored at 10am waiting for our turn to go through. By 11am, 3 other boats had joined our little flotilla and we received permission to load up the lock with one pusher leading. This lock goes up only 12 feet, but from the time all the lock lines are tied and the water comes in and out, it was 12:30. We worked hard and earned chips with lunch today.
We decided to anchor in the Cumberland Island Towhead which is at the confluence with the Cumberland River which we will take tomorrow. “Joy@Sea” ducked in first to test depth and found it low on the NE section of the towhead. There were also some deadheads in the anchorage area so he reanchored towards the entrance to the towhead and we followed suit.
By 4pm, there were 6 Looper boats all tucked in nicely for the evening. Madison on “Joy@Sea” took out his dinghy and went to each boat offering to take pictures of each couple. Thank you Madison. It was humid and 85 degrees which explains our attire. We hope to even out our “tans’ by the time we get to FL.
We had a full moon off our bow and our stern was illuminated for about 2 hours with a barge spotlight as they waited to lock through the next lock. It created a different type of ambience and enough light to read.

Little Diversion Channel (M.R.) to Milepost 953 on Ohio River (79 miles) 10-12-08

Up at 6:15 to turn off the anchor light and put the generator on for an hour before we leave. Not much fog this morning but it was very damp. We had a great night’s sleep in this peaceful anchorage. We weighed anchor at 7:30 and we now understand the expression “Mississippi Mud”—I would rather have it as an ice cream flavor than the real stuff on the anchor. We have a washdown pump now and it really earned its keep this morning.
AIS showed a barge coming close to our outlet as we departed and it was “up close and personal” time for the 4th boat (“Cynthia Faye”) leaving. Nothing like a jolt of adrenaline with your coffee to get you started in the morning.
Question of the Day? We have had a running discussion amongst us about what catfish nets look like on the surface of the water. Often we encounter areas on the river with foamy softball-size bubbles and some in the group believe there are nets underneath; others think that it is congealed foam from all the boat traffic; or a third option, discharge from the Weir dams underneath us. If anyone knows the real answer, let me know so I can look super smart and impress all the “Captains.”
Today was “Shootin’ the Chutes” day as we entered the narrow, horseshoe bends section of the Mississippi filled with Weir dams on the way to the Ohio River. We checked AIS to make sure that there were no upbound barges coming our way through the narrows and also hailed them on Channel 13. We proceeded down through Daniels, Moore and Price Landing areas with a speed of 13.6 mph. We gave the autohelm a rest as we took turns steering through the swirls and trying to keep the boat pointed down river. Definitely a rush! We timed it well as we thankfully did not meet any barges except on the wider sections.
The terrain today is flatter and sandier and the shoreline is reinforced with Wing dams to further direct the river into the channel. Our speed would decrease to 12.2mph and back up to 13.5 as we went through the Scutter Chute and Greenfield Bend.
We have noticed less debris in this section of the Mississippi but every once in awhile, we encounter a deadhead just waiting to grab us.
At 12 noon, we neared the confluence with the Ohio River and that’s where it really gets interesting. A huge container ship was also making the turn northbound to the Ohio and Bob picked up 5 AIS targets in the confluence area alone. Dodgeball anyone? We also noticed a visible color line as the brown Mississippi met the green Ohio River.
As we proceeded northbound up the Ohio River, we lost our river current speed thrust but were pleased to be able to do 8.2 mph so we are not fighting a lot of current.
We checked with Loopers who are ahead of us by a few days to get an idea of where to anchor. “Catrina” pushed through in an 8am to 12 midnight push to get to Kentucky Lake and “Barbara” anchored before the 1st lock on the Ohio. Since there can be a lot of delays on the Ohio locks, we decided to go through Lock #1 where we waited for an hour and then look for an anchorage along the KY side of the Ohio River.
The sky became cloudy and the SE wind was up as we began looking for an anchorage at about 4pm. Since our boat has the least draft, we offered to duck into shore and test out the depths for anchoring at Milepost 953. This offered wind protection and we were pleased to find depths of 12-14 feet.
“Joy@Sea”, “Rita’s Pick” and “Cynthia Faye” followed and dropped anchor in the river channel with us across from the cement plant. We visited a bit on Channel 17 as we did not want to deploy the dinghies tonight with the river current.
It proved to be a good choice and we even had some digital TV signal and cell phone reception to talk to many of you by phone.