Sept 25-29

September 26--Another layover day by design at Eddy Creek marina. Some much needed showers came today. No wind or violent weather just a gentle rain. Almost all of the boat slips here are under cover so we felt nary a drop of rain on our boat. The lake is well below normal pool since it has been very dry here but they are going to need lots more rain to bring the lake level up. Part of the day was spent cleaning the boat and other engine duties. The fuel filters have a clear bowl at the bottom so you can observe dirt and water that has settled in the filters. Not much too drain off but it was time. The primary filters also have "telltale" vacuum gauges so that you can observe if the filters start to plug up if excess vacuum is created by dirt in the filters. Diesels love clean fuel and they will run forever as long as you feed them nice clean fuel. Tonight the four on our boat and Gail and John traveled to Grand River Ky to feast on 2" thick pork chops. That was also an exercise in car shuttling as the courtesy car was a four passenger Honda!


September 27--I looked at the calendar and today is Thursday--It is time to move on. We left Ginny and Bob former loopers and owner of the Eddy Creek Marina. Such gracious hosts. Not many loopers stop here because it is off the beaten path. Today our goal is Kenlake Marina which is on Kentucky lake. Our Time was delayed in departure so we left ahead of them. The thought they might anchor out. There are a zillion beautiful anchorages in the coves of Kentucky Lake. To get to Kenlake marina we traveled downriver and retraced our water trail for about 16 miles and then turned left at the Barkley channel to enter Kentucky Lake which is part of the Tennessee River. At Kentucky Lake we turned left and headed south and upstream again. Another beautiful day. A little cloudy but by the end of the day it was sunny and in the high 70's . The channel to travel in on both Lakes is well marked with large buoys. We have both paper navigation charts and our GPS chartplotter and they mostly agree as to buoy locations but quite often they have been relocated slightly from what the chartplotter shows because of shoaling. Water depth varies but the main channel so far has been 24' deep and much deeper in a lot of places. In a few instances we seen water depths less than 24'. Some of the side channels leading to the bays and marinas have pretty shallow water and the buoys marking them are pretty small. Anyway Kenlake Marina is very nice with floating docks. No other loopers here. The owner, John Romano welcomed us. In conversation with him he is a former hardware store owner (do it best) from Illinois. About 10 years ago he bought the Marina and leases the water rights from the state of KY. He told us the cable TV at he dock was working and that is the reason he assigned us this slip. I told him I knew a couple of girls that would give him a big kiss as they had been wondering all day if they would be able to watch the opening episode of Greys Anatomy. Our over the air TV antenna gets very spotty reception out here in the boondocks. We settled in and went to the nearby State Park Lodge for dinner. It was okay nothing spectacular!


September 28 Sharon has been deprived!. We have not had any eggs for breakfast since we set out on Sept 3rd. Ah-- a restaurant on site and they served breakfast. We were up at the crack of dawn which is now about 6:45 am local time and we were the first customers at the restaurant for a good old bacon and egg breakfast. After we satisfied our stomachs we were off to travel up River ( Lake) about 50 miles to the very nice Pebble Isle marina at MM 96. The Lake is very wide and very beautiful. Bass boats zooming all around. I will paint a picture of that in my next posting. We caught up with Our Time again on the River at about MM 90 and they said they were going on but at the last minute they decided to turn into Pebble Isle. Another beautiful day. 80 degrees--light wind-not a cloud in the sky. As I suspected there would be lots of loopers here. We are docked right at the walkway to the Marina office so we see everybody!. At 5pm the boat horns blew signifying it was cocktail hour! We were entertained by a looper playing the accordion! Later Judy and I joined Tom and Gerry from Sea-Knight for a very filling meal (Steak) at the restaurant. Another great day on our Adventure. I still have not taken on fuel but I probably will before we leave. We have traveled 360 miles since fueling and I will let you know how much fuel we need to top off the tanks but it should be around 130 gal. The other trawlers have been a good influence on my fuel economy! total miles traveled 1593 sm. Picture of all loopers enjoying the music which was quite good


September 29 This is such a nice Marina we have re enlisted at least through Sunday night. We are ahead of schedule. Today Don and I took on a special project. More on that later. So many stories to tell and not enough time. Another scripted weather day. A little warm late this afternoon but we refrained from turning on the AC. Baums Rush our 26' sailboat friend arrived today. The horns blew again for the 5pm cocktails. Only a few boats left today but not as many people for drinks. No accordian--- Dinner was in the restaurant again tonight with Sharon and Don. Again a very enjoyable meal. We had breakfast there this morning and I gladly gave Sharon my grits!