Wrapping up our days at Green Turtle Bay

Our days are numbered before we pull in the dock lines and start the trek south leaving what has been our summer home for this year, Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, Ky. (www.greenturtlebay.com) It's a bitter/sweet feeling since we have made some new friends but now have to leave not knowing if we will pass this way again.
Ah, but isn't that the life of a cruiser? Making friends only to move on to the next destination. Still it's funny how when you least expect it you cross paths with someone you met on another body of water or at a marina in a different part of the country in a completely different year. So I guess it isn't goodbye GTB friends. It's more like. Until we meet again. It's been fun!

Speaking of crossing paths, we had company this past week who we first met in the Peterborough Lift Lock in Canada while doing the Loop in 2011. Bru & Sandy who live in Virginia came to visit.

The Arrival.

The remainder of the first day was spent catching up on each others lives since we had last met. That evening Pam made Beef Stroganoff for dinner and it was delicious. Watching Dancing With the Stars after dinner saved Bru and I from a tortuous game of Dominos!

Bru being violated by Pam's foot. (She's plugging in his computer.)

Morning Nerd's!
One of the consistent sights while travelling with Bru & Sandy was that each morning when I would get up I'd look outside to check that all was well around us and I would see the silhouette of Bru's head through the windshield of Coconuts as he looked at his computer. Thus the significance of the above picture. Nothing has changed!

We had a great time while they were visiting even though we only managed to get in a short boat ride because of the weather.

One of the days we visited downtown Paducah.

Downtown buildings.

Waiting for the bus.

One of the murals on the flood wall along the Ohio.

Stencil at every storm sewer downtown.

The Ohio by day.

The Ohio by night.

We found a great $5 martini special at Di Fratelli's (www.difratelli.com) to close out our Paducah visit.

Come on boy's. It's domino time!

We visited the Adsmore house in Princeton, Ky.

Cheers!

Re-learning the Electric Slide. No alcohol was harmed in this tutorial.

All too soon their visit was over as they headed back to Virginia. It was fun and hopefully will continue in Florida this winter.

Pam and I will stick around GTB for another few days before making one last trip home. There are still projects to take care of although most of them are minor in nature. One thing we did accomplish was to get a sign board made that would be visible to boaters coming up on our stern. Our existing name on our transom is blocked from view by our dinghy. Although not as big and not real fancy it will enable people to see who just rocked their world. Just kidding. We're a Sea Ray Trawler after all!

New nameplate.

Back at home;

Ellie & Franklin found one of the company busses in Gays Mills, Wisconsin while picking apples over the week-end. Of course Franklin wanted to drive the bus!

Marina Invasion

All summer long the transient docks here at GTB have been relatively vacant. In fact when we last left to go home there were only 2 boats occupying transient slips. Boy did that change by the time we got back!
The looper migration was in full swing and the docks were overflowing. They arrive in swarms of anywhere from 3 to 10 boats at a time all converging on the marina at once almost overwhelming the GTB staff. Almost all are happy to be done with the 250 mile stretch of Mississippi and Ohio Rivers that they have just travelled without any available services. Almost all stay for at least 2 nights and some stay for a week once they arrive. They use the courtesy car to run into Paducah to re-supply and take advantage of the free shuttle from Patti's to try their 2" thick pork chop.
Many of them also take advantage of the Boatworks here at GTB to be hauled out and have work done on their boats after pushing through the debris on the rivers.

It's a big shot in the pocket book of GTB since nearly everyone doing the Loop stops here. So much so in fact that GTB hosts a Looper Appreciation barbeque during this time which we took advantage of since we are Gold Loopers.

It's a full house during the Looper migration.

Pam & I had a few days once we returned to prepare for the arrival of Mike & Nancy who originally planned on an earlier visit but had to re-schedule. This enabled us to get Tourist back in order after our water intrusion ordeal.
By Friday we were ready and when our guests rolled in we wasted no time in untying the lines and heading out to Pisgah Bay on the Kentucky Lake side to anchor for the night. With the exception of one other boat we had the anchorage to ourselves.

Smile Pam!

The view from Nancy's camera.

 Pisgah Bay

Pisgah Bay at sunset.

Of course we had the mandatory "docktails" which continued into the meal preparation time.

Doesn't everyone cook with rum, whisky, and wine?

Yes that's a can of Grits you see in the picture. Pam thought that since we're in the south we should try a meal with a little southern heritage and it was delicious! Cheesy grits with scallops and panko bread crumbs. Yumm!
Part of the fun was in the preparation and watching the interaction between Pam (the cook) and Nancy (the recipe reader). Mike and I think they should have a show on the Food Network entitled "Two Blondes Cooking". It would certainly be a comedic cooking show. Move over Rachel Ray and Giada!

"It says to add milk"

The finished product.

Saturday was a beautiful day with light winds. Abundant sunshine and temps in the low 80's. More importantly the water temperature was still around 75 degrees so it wasn't long before we were in the pool.

The parade wave from the water.

We hung out until mid afternoon before heading back in to GTB to get ready for dinner with Kurt and Tina who were passing through the area.

Dinner with friends.

I think the wine is kicking in!

Owning a boat means that there is always some project waiting in the wings for your attention. Cleaning is a constant that takes place frequently to keep the stains and corrosion away. For some time now I've wanted to pull out the cockpit seat and clean the faux teak decking under it. Every year I think this is going to be it then  something else distracts me and it never gets done. Not a big problem. I mean who ever looks under there anyway? Well the time arrived when  that window of opportunity finally opened.
First we had to clean out the contents of the seat and clean that area. Surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I expected considering it had gotten wet and full of compound dust from the previous summers storage.
Once that was out of the way we pulled the 2 pins that secure it to the transom and moved it ahead enough to get at the area beneath it. Yuck! Several years of crud covered the decking making it appear to be black rather than the nice teak color it should be. Spilled drinks over time made it sticky which caused it to hold onto anything that came in contact with it.

Amazingly wetting it and applying a little granular dishwashing detergent followed by some old fashioned elbow grease brought it back to it's former glory. Once dry we moved the seat back into position, installed the pins, and filled it back up with all the junk that we had removed and cleaned.
Good for another few years!

Waiting to be scrubbed.

Good as new!

With that project complete it's on to the next on the list! But not before a completion cocktail!