On Friday 9/30/11 we travelled all of 8.8 miles from Buzzard Rock to Green Turtle Bay in anticipation of picking up our arriving guests, Kim & LuAnn Kissell. We arrived in time to get Tourist ship shape and ready for company. K&L showed up at 4:45pm, just in time for cocktails before heading up to the Commodore Yacht Club for dinner. After dinner we returned to Tourist where one of us called it a day a bit early.
Saturday we left GTB and went 12 miles to Duncan Bay anchorage for the next 2 days. The weather was in the 70's and sunny so we were able to drop the raft in the water and check out the area. We saw a wolf scavenging for food on the shore near the boat as well as deer, squirrels, and eagles.
From Duncan Bay we travelled another 10 miles to Kenlake State Park Marina to spend the night and have dinner at the lodge. Once at the lodge we ordered and Lu was quite surprised to see the plate of food that arrived. Needless to say, she didn't eat it all!
From Kenlake we did an about face and headed down river to Kentucky Lock. Upon arrival we were told it would be an hour and a half wait. Not bad for Ky. Lock. About 45 minutes into our wait the lockmaster calls and says it will be awhile longer because the construction crew building the new lock chamber nearby moved up the 4pm blast to 2:30pm and needed the chamber and surrounding area to be clear of boats. Well we all know lockmasters can't tell time. One hour and eight minutes later we locked through dropping 57 feet to the river below.
The thought was to get 20 miles down river through Paducah, turn up the Ohio for 10 more miles and anchor behind an island for the night. CHANGE! At 4:15pm we were approaching what looked like a nice spot to anchor off the channel in about 15' of water. Combine that with the fact we were still 17 miles from Paducah and it was cocktail hour helped the Captain make the decision to call it a day.
After relaxing and a great dinner of lamb chops prepared by Pam, the boys were guilted into a game of Domino's that seemed endless. Of course the Floyd Flash (Lu) won the grand prize.
Wednesday we relaxed until 10am before we pulled anchor and continued toward Paducah. We passed several floating dry docks where they repair towboats and barges. Paducah is quite commercial from the river with tow traffic in all directions.
We entered the Ohio and turned upstream for 10 miles before entering the Cumberland River.
As luck would have it we arrived at the Barkley Lock in time to wait for a tow who was just entering the lock.
Fortunately they could get the tow through in one lockage and it wasn't long before it was our turn. In. Up 57', and out we went into Lake Barkley. With a little throttle we were in Nickell Bay 15 minutes later dropping the hook.
Following cocktails Kim & Lu prepared a delicious meal of seared steaks with carmelized onions and gorgonzola. Mmm, Mmm good! After dinner we watched some chick flick before passing out.
Thursday morning we had mamosa's and biscuits and gravy before heading into Green Turtle Bay.
Of course after a few days out we made our first stop the pump out dock.
Later in the day we drove in to Paducah to get oil for Tourist and have dinner downtown.
10/7/11 Friday All too soon it was time to say good-bye to Kim & Lu and for me to get to work changing oil on Tourist. We had a great time this past week and look forward to the next visit with the Kissells.
A few random pictures from the week.
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