Friday, October 3, 2014

Day 2-320 off early to Kenlake Marina in time to watch Aggie Football

     After our strenuous day and late night last night, we had a more leisurely start today as we left the dock about 9:45 am and headed to the fuel dock for a pump out. The picture at the right looks back toward the fuel dock as we are leaving Green Turtle Bay Marina after the pump out. As you can see by the small ripples on the water and the blue sky, the weather was near perfect, except that it was going to get hot in the sun.

     One of our final views of the marina was of these condominiums. Aside from all of the work on the house battery bank and the inverter, our experience at Green Turtle Bay was quite pleasant. If we had not already made reservations ahead, I am sure that we would have gladly stayed here longer. One of the reasons that some people do a second trip around the Great Loop is that you miss some stops and do not get to stay long enough at other stops. I am beginning to see why people feel that way.


     We exited the marina into Barkley Lake on the Cumberland River and headed south or up river. After about a half mile we turned to starboard to enter the Barkley Canal that connects Barkley Lake on the Tennessee River with Kentucky Lake on the Tennessee River. Both rivers drain different areas so at any one time one lake may be receiving more water from upstream. The Corps of Engineers can adjust the discharge at the dams to account for most of this difference, but on our trip through the Barkley Canal we went into a current of about 1.5 mph. The canal is only about 2 miles long with two high bridges, but for pleasure boaters it is a bonanza since it connects two large lakes for access without having to trailer your boat between the two lakes.
      We are heading to Kentucky Lake because we are going to be going further up the Tennessee River.  As we exited the Barkley Canal into Kentucky Lake, we had a view of Kentucky Dam several miles away to the north. In the picture at the right the lock is in the middle with the dam going off to the left (west). Beyond the dam the top of a bridge is visible as well as three groups of towers for electricity transmission. On the right center there are several barges and tall yellow cranes. Both the Barkley and Kentucky Locks have only one lock chamber. If you remember back several days, we had bypassed this lock due to the delays due to lots of commercial traffic. The barges and construction cranes represent construction of a second smaller or auxiliary lock here. This auxiliary lock will handle small tows, towboats with no barges and pleasure craft. Thus, this new lock will hopefully greatly reduce transit times for all parties.
      Even though it was a Saturday with perfect weather, there were not many pleasure craft out on the lake. However, we did see what appeared to be a fleet of sailboats racing. At this point we had about 15 miles to go to our destination. When we turned south to head up the lake, we had a head current of about 1 mph, which was probably due to our proximity to the dam. As we proceeded up the lake the current diminished to about 0.3 mph (or less?) at out destination.
    As we approached our destination of Kenlake Marina, we also got better views of the shoreline. The remainder of the trip was uneventful, and we were docked and ready to watch the Aggies  BTHO Arkansas on TV. The score was tied at 7-7 at the end of the first quarter when the Admiral's cell phone rang. What a pleasant surprise! It was the Grandkids (with a little help from their Father) who had called to say hello during the intermission. Then the Admiral cooked up some pop corn and we were ready to go...

    It took a while, but the Aggies did win by 6 points in overtime... WHOOP! Another perfect ending to a day on the water.

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