Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, Kentucky

In the last post on Sunday night we were at anchor on the Ohio River across from the Olmstead Dam and I was worried about the anchor slipping. Well the anchor held just fine but I slept (about an hour total) on the bridge just in case. The wind died down and the boat was rocking peacefully until the early morning when the wind came back and it started raining. We had agreed to leave at 7:00 so we could get to Green Turtle Bay. At 6:30 it looked pretty bleak but we left at 7 in the rain up the Ohio. We had three locks to go through and the first one (Lock 53) was only a couple of miles away. Luckily the wickets were down which means that you can bypass the lock and go over the dam. It's raining, overcast, windy and Ginny is in the lead driving over a dam that we hope is really down far enough -not a great way to start the day.

It turns out that would be a piece of cake compared to all of the tows on the Ohio. The AIS was lit up like a Christmas tree for the next 40 miles. The next lock is Lock 52 and the wickets were not down so we had to lock through. We had a very hard time getting the lock master to answer but when she did it was only about a 20 minute wait. We had to pass several tows on the way and at one time we were passing one on his port and another one was passing me on my port. You have to exit the Ohio at the Cumberland which is a right hand turn. The Cumberland is a much different river, it is narrow and much prettier than the Ohio but we are still going up hill. I think I mentioned that we had not pumped out in a while so we were pretty desperate to get to Green Turtle Bay Marina before they closed at 6:00. It was getting pretty late and we still had to go through one more very large lock. "Free to B" was behind us and Gene called and suggested that we kick up the speed for the last 10 miles to make up some time. He no sooner got off the radio before I was up on plane running 20MPH. We made it to the lock about 4:00 and were locked right through. Green Turtle Bay Marina was only a mile farther and we fueled up and pumped out.

Green Turtle Marina is in Grand River, KY and it is exactly what we needed. It is large, well protected, modern with all the amenities you could want. The first thing we did was fill up the water tank and shower. Ginny from the "Free to B" had arranged for a restaurant named Patti's to pick us up for dinner. Patti's is famous in these parts and their specialty is 2" thick pork chops. We are in a dry county and we should have bought our own alcohol but I forgot which was fine because the meal was terrific. After dinner we crashed and I slept like a baby.

On Tuesday we cleaned the boat really well but not much else. When I was washing the boat a guy knocked on the boat and introduced himself as John Wright. He was dressed in business casual so I didn't think he was Looper. It turns out that he has a house boat in the marina and has been following the blog since August. He read that we were going to be in Green Turtle so he drove 100 miles from his house to say hi. John had stuff to do on his boat but he needed to be back home soon so we didn't really get to spend a lot of time but his visit was much appreciated and I hope to follow his blog when he does the Loop some day. We visited with other boats and had dinner on the boat.

Today I changed to oil and then Ginny and I got a golf cart and rode into town for a little look see and lunch at Patti's because they are also know for their pie's which we didn't get a chance to try at dinner. Some of the stores were closed but it was still a nice little town.

We are ahead of schedule so we are going to rent a car and go see the kids for a few days. We are planning on starting back on the trip on October 3. Unfortunately we will be losing our traveling companions. "Free to B" is going home and won't be returning until October 6 and "Nova" is going to continue on because they want to get to Florida and they don't have any restrictions on their insurance. I probably wont be blogging as often but I will stay in touch.

The Olmstead Lock at 7:00 in the morning

Nova and Free to B leaving the anchorage

The Cumberland River

Still a lot of industry on the Cumberland

Now this is a much nicer river

This is where we started going fast to make the lock

The Barkley Lock which has a 57 foot rise

The doors closing behind us.

We have arrived and a pump out is just around the corner

Ginny was all smiles

The town of Grand Rivers

A random sign on the highway

Patti's is a legend

Pork is their speciality

There is other stuff to do at Patti's