Day 32-33 at Green Turtle Bay Marina

     I will admit that I enjoyed the luxury of sleeping in both days, but otherwise we were busy with the usual blogging, laundry and eating. Let's not forget eating... We did go into the little town of Counce for dinner using the marina's loaner car the first night. I had a salad the grilled catfish filets with a baked potato. One of my pleasant discoveries was a Dairy Queen style ice cream shop just a block down the street. It was classic with no inside seating, and you ordered and picked up at the walk up window. In my effort to eat much healthier I have only had ice cream about 4 times on the trip so far. This is huge improvement from ice cream nearly every night on the first (see, I am trying...).

     Day 32   I had called NAPA Auto Parts and ordered 3 cases (9 gallons) of Shell Rotella 30W motor oil, which we picked up using the loaner car and also managed a very good Mexican lunch. I had my usual Taco Salad with fajita chicken. It was very good, but once again I found the corn chip with red sauce to be the highlight. When we got back to the boat, I changed the oil in both main engines. We have a 12 volt electric oil pump system mounted on a 5 gallon gallon plastic pail. It has a special snap on fitting that attaches to a drain hose that is permanently attached to the oil drain at the bottom of the crankcase on each engine. It is wonderful system. When you have put the new oil in the engine, you just reverse the pump and pump the oil back out of the pail into the empty one gallon oil containers for disposal. Of course, I also changed the oil filters. Altogether it takes about one hour per engine with about half that time being pump time since each of the big diesels takes 3 gallons of oil. For reference, the average car takes 1 gallon plus an additional quart for the oil filter. After having had lunch out, we had a quiet dinner on board Lucky Us.

Day 33   We spent a quiet day mainly on the boat doing more chores in preparation for the 5 day trip down the Ohio and up the Mississippi Rover. The twice daily checks on the weather forecasts and river level data continued to look quite promising although there were some short periods of rain of mainly the pop-up late afternoon variety. Thus, the excitement continues to build. As part of our final preparation, we started Lucky Us and moved to the fuel dock to top off the fuel tanks with a mere 34 gallons of fuel and to have the holding tank pumped out.

     Then we ate in the Columbia Yacht Club on our last night since it had been closed the first two nights that we were there. Sorry, but it was "staid" enough that I did not bother to ask if I could take any pictures. The food was really good, and at our request, we were served very promptly. I had a marvelous thick balsamic vinagret dressing on my salad that was both unusual and very tasty. We then rode our electric bikes into town for some final shopping at the local super market, and it just so happens that the ice cream shop is directly across the street. The photo at the right shows the bikes locked to the railing outside the market (just to show that we did use them...).  Try as I might, I just could not resist the pull on the handle bars of my bike that led us to cross the street once more to the ice cream shop before we headed back to the marina.

     All together it was a productive stop with a reasonable amount of rest time. Lucky enjoyed many outings as evidenced by my Fit Bit that recorded over 18 miles for the evening of Day 31 through Day 33, and the majority of that was walking lucky. We saw a buck one evening and a doe on another while Terry and Lucky saw 5 does at once. Lucky shows little interest in the deer (no barking or  tugging on the leash) so the deer will stand and watch you. We also saw at least 4 families of geese with from 3 to 5 goslings trying their hand at swimming in the protected waters of the marina.
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     Here are some representative photos from around the marina:

The Admiral did managed to find one large trawler that she quite likes... I finally convinced her that it was a bit too much for a Mother's Day gift. It is a Europa style, 49 foot Defever Trawler with a raised pilothouse. This one is a little unusual since it does not have a flybridge control station. However, there certainly many times that an air-conditioned and heated pilot house with windshield wipers and a day bed really is appealing.... It has the high bow that is very much a Pacific northwest type of design, and it is typically powered with the same engines that we have in Lucky Us.

     A few days earlier we saw the 2 condo  minimum towers at Grand Harbor, and here at Green Turtle Bay they have lots of detached 2 and 3 bedroom two story homes that are condos. Some have very nice views and are on small wooded lots.

        The photo at the left shows something of a typical view from one of the condos. This view out at the harbor shows two more of the partially covered power boat docks. Amenities include 2 outdoor and one indoor pool with a spa and fitness center. The photo also show a boat launch ramp, one of the grassy dog walk areas and there is a sign for a turtle feeding area.

     Altogether, this a very nice, well run marina, and it is definitely on our list of favorites.



     Well, we have made our final weather and water level checks, and we are off early in the morning for the 5 day adventure on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers! Whoop! We will be anchoring out all but one night, and internet connections will probably not be favorable so I will post when I can.