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| 1st task - get rid of the wood! |
Naturally the rain cleared after being rescued on 11/5 by
#CurtisMooreishero. But we did notice we gathered a ton of wood debris between
our boats while anchored in Little Diversion Canal. Rick from Eagle One got his
boat hook out and jumped into action to set some of that debris free.
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| A beautiful morning! |
I think everyone held their collective breath when Rick
turned over his engines but everything worked! The sun came out, we untied and
pulled up anchor to set off on the rest of our journey!
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| Eagle One entering the Mississippi silhouetted against the trees |
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| Entering the Mississippi River |
On 11/6 our task was to travel about 48 miles down the Mississippi
River to the junction of the Ohio River at Cairo (pronounced KAY-RO). This is a
strange junction.
The Mississippi current is running downstream at about 4 to 6
mph. The Ohio River current is running the same speed down river. But when we
turned left (east) to go upriver on the Ohio for a while, all that current is
hitting us in the face. We immediately slowed from about 14 mph to about 8 mph
at 1000 rpm or so. We heard stories about small sailboats with small engines
slowing to almost a standstill because of this current.
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| Dry dock for tows! |
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| Coming up to the Ohio River |
Another interesting observation about the two rivers is how
commercial the Ohio River is compared to the Mississippi. Yes, the Mississippi
has many tows, huge tows too.
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| Traffic on Ohio River |
But the Ohio is lined on the Illinois and
Kentucky side with one industrial outpost after another.
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| Check out those cement mixers! |
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| The new Olmsted Lock under construction |
Evidently this is
where those huge tows are assembled for transport up or down the Mississippi. Smaller tug boats pull loaded barges into the middle of the river where the big tows are assembled. It was fascinating. Just stay out of their way!
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| Tows being assembled |
There are two locks on the Ohio River between the
Mississippi and Paducah, our destination for the evening. The used to be known
as Lock 52 and Lock 53. Both locks are gone, replaced by the new Olmstead Lock
which is still under construction.
I think the actual lock is operational but
the water was so high that the “wickets” were down. Remember we talked about
wickets before? These are big gates that can be dropped to the bottom of the
river in high water so vessels can travel over them without locking through.
And that is exactly what we did!
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| More gizmos for the lock |
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| Who knows what this is? Not a trick question. I have no idea! |
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| All that is left of Lock 52 |
The old lock 52 looks very sad indeed.
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| We had Paducah transient dock to ourselves |
We kept dodging commercial traffic until we reached Paducah.
When we did this trip in 2012 there was no place to stop in Paducah. We had to
find an anchorage on the Cumberland River to tuck into. Since then Paducah has
installed a nice floating dock that can hold at least 20 boats. They are still
getting the kinks out of their scheduling system. We heard all about the snafu
recently where the dock staff overbooked, forcing folks to raft off one
another. I think Texas Two Step, our old Good Karma, was tied up there that
day. But they will work it out.
Paducah also offers fuel and pump out – a service that was
not available in 2012. We had to be certain to have four days’ worth of fuel to
get all the way to Green Turtle Bay when we did it, a big burden to us with the
300 gallons of gasoline we carried on that trip. This time we carry 700 gallons
of diesel so we don’t have to worry!!
Paducah is a swinging town these days with that Quilting
Museum (closed when we got there – I still haven’t been there!), some great
restaurants, the flood wall and a revitalized downtown. We walked in with Rick
and Kris to a restaurant that offered farm to table fare plus a great bar. The
highlight was the drink Rick ordered, a Manhattan made with Jefferson Ocean
bourbon. I could smell it across the table, it smelled wonderful!! Rick let me
have a taste and it tasted wonderful too!!
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| Rick checking out the mural close up |
Rick sucked down his first then asked for another. Just as I
was about to ask for one myself, the waitress came back a bit sheepishly and
said, “I’m so sorry but the bartender wants me to warn you that each drink with
Jefferson’s Ocean costs $25. Is that ok?” Needless to say, I did not order one!
But I do want to get a bottle of that good stuff!
We walked back to the boat via the ice cream shop (never
turn down ice cream!) and stumbled upon the flood mural, all lit up. This is a pictorial
history of Paducah including my favorite, the Illinois Central Railroad!! I
briefly worked for the Illinois Central and visited the locomotive
manufacturing facility that opened in 1925 and unfortunately closed in 2017.
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| A "cell" that tows bump off when they turn |
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| Commercial stuff along the Cumberland River too |
We left Paducah dock the next morning and eased back into
the Ohio River. We had two choices. We could take the first right onto
Tennessee River with Kentucky Lock and Dam for the shorter journey to Green
Turtle Bay. We chose to continue up the Ohio River to the Cumberland River for
the longer but less commercial trip on the Cumberland River, through Barkley
Lock and Dam to Green Turtle.
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| There actually are people who work on those tows!! |
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| Then the Cumberland gets rural |
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| And very pretty |
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| Barkley Lock - at the end of the Cumberland River and start of Lake Cumberland - Green Turtle Bay is just around the corner after the lock |
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| I realize I am always wearing the same thing - very glamorous |
This is a pretty journey with much less
commercial traffic. Although we did see some tows, our charts showed that there
were many times the commercial tows on the Tennessee River. It was a grey day
but Rick and Kris led so all we had to do was stay behind Eagle One! Easy day!
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| Eagle One leads us into Green Turtle Bay |
We arrived without incident at Green Turtle Bay, got fuel
and a pump out (never turn down a pump out!) then got to our slip.
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| Who gave Kermit the camera? |
A few words about the pump out. Remember how the aft holding
tank did not seem to hold suction at Alton Marina? The gas dock guy at Green
Turtle said he thought the tank was essentially empty. He even put water in the
tank to demonstrate how the water was quickly pulled out then there was
nothing, just like at Alton. The forward holding tank contained plenty to suck
out but nothing in the aft tank.
We are not sure what this means but we can hold lots more
crap than we ever thought! I can hear your heads shaking now, “Yes Kermit, we
know you are full of crap!!” Vindicated!
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| Deer all over the resort |
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| Patti's Settlement food truck and tent |
Green Turtle Bay is a very relaxing resort in Grand River KY.
I highly recommend it for family vacations. I walked into town to do some
grocery shopping while Kermit changed the generator oil. Naturally he had the
wrong oil filter so the next morning we borrowed the marina car to go into Calvert
City to a Napa to pick up a couple of oil filters.
We stopped for the best
breakfast we’ve had in ages!! Biscuits to die for!
The first night we borrowed the lot car and went into Grand
River KY to this famous restaurant, Patti’s 1880 Settlement. Patti’s actually
burned down a year or so ago. A new restaurant is under construction. In the meantime
they have a food truck and a heated tent. Kris ordered the best meal of the
night, the smoked pork chop. I think we all looked enviously at her basket.
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| Katherine and Kermit - Good Karma |
The best surprise of the evening was the Christmas display
at Patti’s. So beautiful! We wandered around a ooo’d and ahhh’d for quite a
while. I hope you enjoy the display too!
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| Rick and Kris - Eagle One |
The next evening we ate at the yacht club – another delicious
meal with our new good friends! Rick and Kris are traveling to Nashville to
meet friends this weekend so we will venture out without them. Hopefully they
can catch up to us later. They are great to travel with!
We left early in the morning on Friday Nov 9 on a new leg in
the journey ultimately bound for Mobile AL via the Tennessee River, Tenn-Tom
Waterway, Tombigbee River and Black River.  |
| Waving good-bye to Rick - Eagle One We will see them again! |
We did some research and compared
notes with Kris about the many possibilities.
Our plan has six options ranging from 11 days on the long
end to six days on the short end. I suspect the final answer will be somewhere in
the middle. Darryl Grob, I know this plan looks EXACTLY like the kind of planning you do, right? NOT!
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| It is a grey day on the Cumberland R |
We plan to stop in Aqua Harbor at the head of the Tenn-Tom
Waterway. On Monday Nov 12 they will pull Good Karma out of the water on a
travel lift so we can inspect the propellers.
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| The other picture every looper has of the abandoned dock at M78.5 - couldn't resist! |
Kermit thinks he feels a
vibration from some of the wood debris in the Mississippi. This is not
something to fool around with. We have extra props so if there is a ding, we will
just switch out the props. If you ignore this kind of thing, the vibration can
mess up all sorts of things like shafts, seals and stuffing boxes. So it is
better to get it checked.
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| Every looper has this picture of the Louisville & Nashville RR bridge at M78.2 |
It is a three day journey to Aqua Harbor. It could be two
but why hurry when they can’t pull us out of the water until Monday. So Friday
we traveled to Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville TN.
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| Kermit at Pebble Isle |
I can’t describe how
cold and windy it was!! We were wearing so many layers! I had on a cami, a long
sleeved shirt, a sweater, a vest and a coat with a scarf and gloves. YIKES it
was cold. Serves us right for being one month later than we were last time.
We ate dinner at the little restaurant with a great guy who
plans to do the loop next year in his 30’ trawler. He was a wonderful
conversationalist. He suggested a book I need to read about the history of this
part of the river – Jack Hinson’s One-man War. There is so much history around
here. I can just hear the cannons roar and horses hollering in the woods as we
travel down these beautiful rivers.
The wind blew all night, knocking us all over. To make it
worse, around midnight the power went off again. Kermit said, “Forget it, we’ll
just cuddle”. Isn’t that adorable? He didn’t cuddle. Just rolled over and we
shivered until morning. Sometimes… But really, it wasn’t that cold because this
is the BEST boat!!
We couldn’t leave Pebble Isle without Billy’s famous
cinnamon buns! Hot out of the over and absolutely worth the wait. Mark your
books, those of you planning this trip. Do not miss this treat – both Billy who
is lovely and the cinnamon buns that are delicious.
On Saturday Nov 10, it was warmer and sunny as we traveled
to Clifton Marina in Clifton TN. We took a little walk after tying up. I
believe the people in this town have been kidnapped and taken away by aliens.
We did not see a sole, no stores were opened and almost no cars on the street.
The police car crept up behind us. He must be guarding the town against
outsiders. He waved and we walked back to the marina for a nice hamburger at
the little marina restaurant.
After chatting up the 2 other people in the place
who were only there to watch the Alabama game, we returned to Good Karma to
write and read before going to bed. I am too tired to get the pictures off the camera. Trust me, this is a cute and very quiet town.
Next up: Aqua Harbor, prop check then on to warmer
destinations.
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