Leg #20 - 10/26/16 to 10/30/16 - Grand Rivers, Kentucky to Grand Harbor, Mississippi

We left Green Turtle Bay and turned west through the Barklay Canal and then south on the Tennessee River.

Leaving Green Turtle Bay

The beautiful sunrise.

Our day was beautiful and warm with just a few boats, barges and fishermen invading our path to MM 96 and Pebble Isle Marina in Waverly, TN. 

The American Queen

We visited with Bobby, while we took on some fuel and went to our slip.  Later that evening, we borrowed the courtesy car and went into Camden for dinner.  We found Smarder’s Restaurant. 

 In the morning, we waited on the famous cinnamon rolls from the PI harbor before we headed out around 9:00am. 

Bobby with the morning cinnamon rolls.

Another pleasant and beautiful day heading to Clifton Marina (TN 158.5) where we met Cindy the harbor master, cook, boat hand, etc.  We met up with Mike and Deby from Moondance, Jeff and Bern from Two Infinity, and Denise and Hamp from C/V Gracie.  We sat on the restaurant deck and had dinner while being entertained by a musical duo, the Clif-Tones.  It was a very enjoyable evening—a perfect looper gathering. 

We waited on some serious fog the next morning and headed out around 9:00am.There was still pockets of fog in a few bends of the river but it shortly burned off and gave us another beautiful day to head south on the Tennessee River. 

 

We met a couple of barges which were easy to maneuver but we were constantly slowing down for fishermen in bass boats along the shores.  We throw too much of a wake to pass them with anything but dead slow speed.  We arrived at the Pickwick Lock and were told that our wait would be about 15 minutes.  We knew Moondance was a couple of miles behind us and we could both get into the lock as AIS wasn’t showing any other boats heading our way.  We were both tied up in the lock and 45 minutes later the lock was filled and the doors were open.  We all commented later that was the longest fill time that we had seen on any lock. 

We left the lock and shortly entered Grand Harbor Marina to top off with fuel and take our slip.   Moondance did the same and tied up across the walkway.  We met for drinks out on the swings and then took the shuttle to Freddie T’s for a nice dinner, catfish for Ken and I, and a one take-home dessert.

The next day we took the courtesy car into Counce, TN to pick up the rental car, found breakfast and returned to the boat to do cleaning and maintenance to the poor neglected boat. 

Later in the afternoon Two Infinity and Gracie pulled in.  Later in the afternoon Fins, a sister ship to us, and In Deep Ship pulled in.

We all piled into courtesy van,  Jeff and Bern from Two Infinity, and Denise and Hamp from Gracie, and Mike and Deby from Moondance and went to dinner again at Freddie T’s. 

The next morning, we took the boat over to a more permanent slip, emptied her out of “freezable” items, and headed home.   

Leg #19 - 9/19/16 to 9/26/16 - Grafton, Illinois to Green Turtle Bay, Grand Haven, Kentucky

A lot has happened since out last post.  Ken underwent surgery to put in 5 stents in St. Louis and went home at the end of that week.  He went on to have subsequent physical problems not heart related for a couple of months.  At Thanksgiving 2015, our son Matthew suffered liver failure and received a transplant on Dec. 21^st.  He is still in rehab after suffering serious complications.  We have not been back to the boat since September of 2015.  Grafton Marina has been very helpful in many ways helping us handle all boat related needs.  

The first day we worked on getting boat cleaned up and ready to head south while we waited to make sure Matthew was stable at home.  There were numerous tasks before heading into the most concerning section of our journey so far!  Luckily, a mechanic from Bloche Marine in St. Charles, came right away and took care of the alternator/generator problem that we had been experiencing.  We also took a couple of hours and went to West Marine in St. Charles and did a little site seeing along with lunch in their very impressive and artsy historic district. 

After hearing things were better at home, we left early the next morning heading south to the Mel Price Lock.  Five other boats joined us in the lock.  We passed the Chain of Rocks Canal which allows travel around the rapids in the Mississippi River while passing St. Louis. 

The beautiful Arch is so evident from the river though there is nowhere to stop by boat along the riverscape.

Travel the first day came to the end at Hoppies Marina.  Hoppies is a series of barges along the side of the river in Kimswick, Missouri where about 6 other boats stopped for the night.  This is a “must stop” as it is so interesting to Loopers.  Fern, the owner, gives a daily briefing to boaters on the next part of the river travels.  We later walked into Kimswick and found some dinner at a new barbeque place.  I was hoping we would decide to stay until the bakery opened at 10:00am but we elected to travel with a couple of the faster boats, therefore, we had much earlier departure.  The current was with us heading south so we made very good time. 

We followed Bellflower with Landon and Mindy the next 110 miles on the Miss. to anchor at the Little Diversion Canal.  About 7 boats anchored in the channel overnight.  We all had a quiet evening while the bass boats kept wizzing by. Once in a while we could feel the wake from the barges going by….but we were safely tucked away from them.

The next morning, we headed out early and began the front man position with Bayflower and Odyssey  following.  We went another 48 miles on the Miss. then turned east on the Ohio.  The current was now against us which slowed everyone down considerable.  The water color changed from brown to less brown, more blue/green. 

The next 30 miles were slowed by the 3 plus MPH current against us.  We arrived at the new Olmstead Lock area and went into a waiting pattern for a couple of hours.  We were waiting along with 6 other boats to be led through the new lock construction area and thru the old Lock 53 remains.  After this long wait for what appeared to be “for no reason” we crawled through.  We entered Lock 52 immediately upon arrival and were allowed to float while the chamber was filled.  This entire scenario was opposite what most people experienced.  Usually the wait was short to go through 53 and the wait long at Lock 52.  We continued northeast for the next 5 miles until we took the cut south after Paducah, KY behind Owens Island and tied to a barge instead of anchoring at Cuba Towhead.  There were four boats:  Odyssey, Bayflower, PDQ Tiger and Seventh SunIII.  After getting everyone tied up, we stood around a talked a bit but then headed to our boats, now dark and buggy, we were all tired and hungry.

We headed out the next morning toward the Cumberland River which cuts over to Barklay Lake. We arrived at the Barklay Lock and shortly entered and tied up.  When the doors opened we all headed into Green Turtle Bay and our slips.

We went to dinner at Patti’s 1880’s Settlement in Grand Haven with Landon and Mindy.  We spent the next day finding people to fix the issues on the boat, cleaning and getting it ready in case we left the boat at GTB for the winter.  The next evening, we had dinner at the GTB Yacht Club with Langdon and Mindy and Dan and Kathy from Odyssey.  The next morning we headed for home.