Day 15 - End of the First Leg

When we woke up today there was fog again on the lake and in the harbor.  More boat cleaning and blog posting started us off.  Then we spent the rest of the day on the grounds of Green Turtle Bay until 3:30 when it was time to pick up our rental car for the return to Chicago. 

There are 2 sailing ships in the marina, replicas of the Nina and the Pinta, 2 of the sailing vessels in Christopher Columbus’s fleet.  They were built in Brazil by a 7^th generation Porteguese family of shipbuilders.  We toured both and then Kristin went to the Ship’s Store and picked up a few bargains.

 

We found our way to the closest outdoor pool and it had a waterslide!  This made Kristin happy.  Soon Sue from Shady Acres came into the pool area and we talked about our respective looping adventures.  Sue and her husband Ed sold their house on Long Island and started their loop in May 2013.  So for now, their only home is their boat.  They will setle somewhere after they complete their loop.

 

We walked around the grounds and went into Dockers, the Green Turtle Bay breakfast and lunch restauarant, and the Jade and Earth Spa and Wellness Center.  At 3:30 pm it was time to pick up the marina courtesy car and drive to the Paducah Airport to get our rental car to drive back to Chicago on Sunday.  We are both feeling sad about leaving the boat and not continuing our journey for several weeks.  At the same time, we miss our family, friends and life in Chicago.  As of this writing at 8:15pm, Randy has refused to pack.  It will be hard to leave this adventure in the morning.

 

   

Day 14 - Exploring Grand Rivers

Today we did not need to move the boat, so we caught up on our blog posts and boat cleaning.

 

We visited the Ship’s Store and then walked a mile into the town of Grand Rivers, KY, to explore.  It was quite hot and uphill all the way, so we stopped into the first place that appeared to be open, Sugar and Spice, to cool off.  It was dark inside and at first we did not see anyone.  The building is actually a house that has been converted to what was once a small bakery shop.  However, instead of pastries in the cases there were knickknacks of all sorts, with more on small tables.  Still more were hanging from hooks, including plastic flowers, baskets and various other items.  A voice called out from the small office on the left and a woman stood up and slowly walked out to greet us.  “Sorry, but I was gardening all day yesterday and I am not moving very fast today.”  Her name is Marilyn Kunz, alias The Happy Cooker, a long-time owner and chef of The Mansion at Golconda and a former chef at the Commonwealth Yacht Club at Green Turtle Bay.  Marilyn proceeded to give us the history of the house and herself, some of which I will share.

 

She took us to the rear of the house where there is a professional kitchen and dining area.  Her husband was in a sitting room off the hall watching the Cubs on TV.  Turns out the Kunz’s are from Chicago and lived at Harlem and Foster for many years before moving to Golconda, IL, to open a restaurant.  When the restaurant got too much for her, they relocated to Grand Rivers and started a small bakery and catering business in the former home of Bill and Patti Tuller.  Bill and Patti own and operate the famous Patti’s 1880’s Settlement, a restaurant with a series of gift shops, a miniature golf course, animal pens, small café, wedding gazebo and gardens.  We are not sure why this is, but Patti’s has the log cabin construction and look of the 1880s.  More about Patti’s later.  We sat and talked with Marilyn for about 45 minutes.  These days, Marilyn caters for groups, holds cooking classes and cooks 3 different meals every day that people can order and buy.  As she spoke, it was very clear the Marilyn LOVES cooking and LOVES to talk about it.  She has a following in Grand Rivers and even other states.  You can learn more about her at her web site, www.happycooker.com.  We decided to order one of each of her 3 meals for this week to take back to Chicago with us – she will cook them, freeze them and give us instructions on how to reheat them.

We walked the rest of the town in an hour or so, stopping into the few shops and Patti’s 1180’sSettlement as well.  As I wandered the few antique stores, I recognized glassware that my grandmother had in her house, such as a covered candy dish and figurines.  We had ice cream from Craig’s Creamery to cool us off before walking back to the marina.

 

 

 

We made a reservation for dinner at Patti’s and they sent a van to pick us up.  Everyone inside Patti’s is dressed circa 1880, meaning long flowered dresses for the women (we saw mostly women) waiting tables and working in the shops.  Patti’s is famous for a 2 inch thick pork chop that is absolutely huge.  Randy ordered this and I ordered catfish, another house specialty.  Our appetizer was shrimp in a cheese sauce, and I mean cheese sauce!  Very rich.  Another specialty is flowerpot bread – they bake bread in an actual flowerpot and serve it with strawberry butter.  Everything was very good, but we could not begin to eat it all.  However, we had to order a piece of their famous pie to go.  Our choice was Kentucky Chocolate Pecan.  When we were ready to leave the van brought us back to our boat; full and happy.

Finally, on our way back to our boat, we saw Help me Rhonda with their Gold Looper Burgee – they crossed their wake and have now completed their loop.  But they are not ready to stay on land yet and plan to continue cruising the river system.  We also saw Mooring Dove who arrived with them.  There were also several other loopers near us on the dock, including Shady Acres, who we briefly met in Alton.  I expect when we come back in late October there will be many more loopers headed to Mobile.   

Day 13 - Back on Land - Green Turtle Bay!

We were up early and again there was fog – not as bad as the previous day, but we knew we would be waiting until it cleared to leave.  A small fishing boat pulled into the anchorage at 7 am.  We pulled anchor at 7:56 and were back on the Ohio, joining the constant barge traffic.  There was not much current here and the water is very dirty with lots of sludge.  We have 10 miles to go from here to the Cumberland River, then 30 to the Barclay Lock and Dam.  Once we are through, our final destination for this leg of the trip, Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, KY is just a mile beyond.

 

On the outskirts of Paducah we saw homes on the Kentucky banks.  We reached the Cumberland River at 8:43 am and the water was much cleaner already.  The Cumberland is a very scenic river, narrow and winding on the way to the lock.  We passed more homes and a few launch ramps, also several fishing boats.  There are no channel markers on this part of the Cumberland, but we had 30 feet of depth so it was not a concern.  We saw several barges pulled off to the side, presumably waiting their turn for Barclay Lock.  There is a large stone quarry operation in the midst of all this beauty, reminding us that these rivers are working rivers.

 

 

 

The shore varied from low, tree-covered banks to low bluffs, high bluffs and corn fields.

 

We called Barclay Lock when we entered the Cumberland, and the lockmaster told us to call again when we got to the Blue Bridge - yes, it is blue as you can see below.  We arrived at the bridge at 10:51 am and were told it would be a 2 hour wait.  We were prepared for a longer wait after yesterday; at least we had significantly more hours of daylight!  We anchored near the dam along with a group of fisherman.  Our tug friend, the Gladys Ford, was tied up to the lock wall, and we went through with her again.  We entered the lock at 1:30 pm and were out by 1:47.  Hooray!

 

 

 

As soon as you leave the Barclay Lock you enter Lake Barclay, which is really part of the Cumberland River system.  It is quite beautiful with homes and marinas around it.  We arrived at the Green Turtle Bay fuel dock at 2:15 and were in our slip by 3 pm.  We stepped on land for the first time in 53 hours!

 

 

After getting settled and checking in, we cleaned up and had dinner in the Commonwealth Yacht Club, located in the marina.  Green Turtle Bay is a resort property with both rental and for-sale condos, 2 outdoor pools, a fitness center with an indoor pool, a spa, boat rentals, walking trails and ship’s store, in addition to the yacht club.  Commonwealth already has the Diversey Yacht Club burgee, so there was no trade here.  The county is dry, but you can bring your choice of beverage in to dinner, so we did!  Tomorrow we will explore the town of Grand Rivers.

 

 

Day 12 - A Long Day to Paducah, Kentucky

Our plan was to leave Little River early to allow plenty of time to travel from there to Paducah, KY, about 100 miles with 2 locks.  There was steam coming off the water as the night temperature fell into the 60’s while the river temperature was in the mid-80’s. 

We pulled anchors and entered the Mississippi at 6:50 AM.  Looking north, the fog had pretty much cleared, but to the south around a bend it was still heavy and visibility was very poor.  Captain Randy saw barges on radar and we did not want to take the bend with them.  So we started to “hang out” by the Southeast Regional Port Authority to wait for the fog to clear.  Then we saw a tow with a full load coming at us out of the steam and that was enough to send us back into the Little River Diversion until visibility significantly improved.  We anchored again and cooked breakfast.

The fog had lifted at 8:30 and we set out again under much better conditions.  There was steady barge traffic all day and a few fisherman in small boats were out as well.  Another beautiful sunny day after all of the fog was burned off.  Not much on the Mississippi shores during this stretch.  As Fern told us, the Army Core of Engineers installed lots of dikes in the river to redirect flow and help keep the channel open by collecting mud and silt.  The second picture below shows a dike.  We passed under the I-57 Bridge at 10:45 and then Angelo’s Towhead, another anchorage.  At 11:05 we left the Mississippi and entered the Ohio River at Cairo, IL.  Cairo appears to be a heavy shipping town with numerous commercial structures and floating work docks on the shore and barges pulled off close to both shores.  It took us an hour to get through this, calling tugs to pass as we went.  The tug captains are responsive and friendly, passing on information about river traffic as well.

 

 

The Ohio River is wide and dirty here.  The current was now against us and seemed to be running at about 4-5 knots.  We did not see much besides tows and barges on it until we reached the Olmstead Lock and Dam at 12:30.  A paddle wheel cruise boat, Queen of the Mississippi, went by us here.  Olmstead is under construction so we did not need to lock through.  The next lock is Lock 53 and depending on conditions, you either lock through or pass.  If the lock “wickets” are up, you have to lock through; if they are down, you can pass through.  Lucky for us, the wickets were down and on we went.

 

The river banks are low here and a few homes sit on some low bluffs.  We passed a huge power plant at Joppa and a Harrah’s Casino boat at Metropolis, IL.

 

Our luck with the locks ended at Lock 52.  We arrived at Lock 52 at 2:55 pm, the wickets were up,  and were told “it will be a while” before we could get through.  We were warned about a delay when we talked to the Lockmaster at Lock 52 and saw commercial traffic waiting to get through all the way from Cairo.  We anchored close to the dam and prepared to wait – boy did we wait!  Commercial traffic has priority over recreational boats in the locks, but recreational craft are entitled to get through at least every third lockage.  The first picture below shows the "wickets" of the dam and they are in the "up" position.  I figured we would be anchored for about 2 hours.  After hour 3 I started getting restless; as we approached hour 4 we realized that we would have very little daylight left to travel the 4 miles to Paducah where we planned to tie up to a small municipal dock – if we could find it!  When I started snapping sunset photos around 7:15 pm it was clear that it would be DARK as we exited the lock.  Finally we entered at 7:45 behind the Gladys Ford, a tugboat with no barges and went through with it.  We left the lock a little after and it was very dark.  Everyone has warned us to get off the river when it is dark and now we se (or don’t see) why.  We were in unfamiliar waters, it was very dark and there were no city lights to guide us.  Therefore, we followed the Gladys Ford, moving very slowly, in the channel for several miles toward Paducah.  At Paducah, the Tennessee River joins the Ohio.  The Gladys Ford continued on the Ohio while we headed towards the Tennessee River in an effort to find the Paducah courtesy dock.  What we found was more commercial operations and barges – the lights from these facilities blinded us as we approached and we could not find the courtesy dock.  Fortunately there was a small protected area, Cuba Towhead, about 2 miles from where the courtesy dock was on the edge of town.  We gratefully pulled in there to anchor for the night.  Randy turned on the spotlight to check out the small cove and we set the anchor in the center, noting a small “critter” of some sort running along the shore. I think it was a Tennessee River Otter.  I also noted the swarms of bugs as I stepped out to the bow to unhook and lower the anchor.  I was happy to get into the cabin and we were now able to relax a little.  It was 9:23.  Randy watched to see if we would swing, but there was no wind or current and we did not move.  So we did not put out our stern anchor.  Not what we planned, but at least we were safe!  My second night in a row on the hook.  It has now been 36 hours without stepping on land.