Saturday
I awoke at 0400, with the "dragging anchor" alarm beeping, which, since we were anchored above a string of barges and a railroad bridge, made me leap from my bunk and run to the aft deck, in a state of undress, to determine what had occurred.  Fortunately, 1:  The bow anchor had not lost its bite and 2: There was no one around to observe me.  The alarm had gone off because our aft anchor had drug and we were outside the alarm limits. Unable to sleep, I made the rest of the crew get up and start doing stuff.  We departed at 0615 headed up the Ohio River to Paducah, Kentucky about 6 miles (one hour) upstream.  Joe safely navigated the entry to the Tennessee River at Paducah and we observed what must be the "Party Cove" for Tugboats.

Continued on up the Tennessee River towards Kentucky Lock and Dam (about 31 miles) at 7 mph.

Suddenly, I though we were in Alaska, where they started to build the bridge to nowhere.

Joe slapped me and said we were really in Kentucky, so I got over it.
This went on for about two hours (not the slapping) when it got so hot, hot, hot, that we decided to anchor and swim/wash ourselves.  Anchoring was difficult as the river bottom is mostly flat, hard bedrock. The water in the Tennessee was wonderfully clear. I let Beth and Joe go first, as I am wimpy and afraid of cold water.

Once Joe returned to the boat, to handle stuff in case the anchor came loose, I reluctantly eased into the water for a thorough scrubbing. It was a little warmer than the water in Nassau. But not by much.

Once we finished scrubbing and eating "pink slime" burgers, we departed to Kentucky Lock.  I had called the Lockmaster to determine the status and how much of a wait we might have, he replied that they would start locking through boats in an hour or two and told me to call him again when we were within eyesight of the Lock.

We again anchored for a short wait (12:30 to 5:30) then the lock master told the tug seen ahead of us in the above view to move to the lock wall, but to let the Recreational boat (us) go ahead of him into the lock.  We assumed that we were going to lock through with him, but you know how assumptions are.  We tied up along side of one of his barges and guess what:  We waited another hour.

Captain Joe, prior to moving into the shade.

Suddenly, an hour later, the doors opened and we went into the lock. We had it all to ourselves.

We tied off using our still unperfected locking methods and started up.  It was a 53 foot rise. The lock holds 33 million gallons water which fills and empties with each lockage.  Once the water started coming in fast it became nearly impossible to hold the boat to the lock wall, finally, within 5 feet of reaching the top I directed the crew to release the line and we floated free in the lock.  Floating free in the lock is a misnomer, because the water was coming in directly below us and we shot 110 feet to the other lock wall, I told the crew to brace for impact as we slammed broadside into the wall. Providentially, we had put fenders out on that side so no damage was done.  Finally the doors opened and we exited into Kentucky Lake.

This lake is immense and was filled with Saturday afternoon boating geniuses going every which direction at ultra fast speeds.  We wished we only had giant tugs/barges to contend with.

We went up Kentucky Lake 3 miles, turned left through the mile long Barkley Canal, turned left again into Lake Barkley, another 2 miles North, then into Green Turtle Bay Marina.  A really first class Marina operation that has been raved about by many Loopers through the years.  We had been really concerned about fuel management since we had to travel 230 miles since last refueling and 91 miles of that would be going upriver.  However as stated in yesterdays post, our number crunching proved accurate and we arrived at the marina with 80 gallons still in the tank. Arrived at 7:00 PM, tied up, plugged in, and went to the Commonwealth Yacht Club for dinner. 

We wandered around for ten minutes because the sign said members only.  Joe finally went in to ask what "Members Only" meant and was told that since we were paying tenants of the marina, we were granted temporary membership.  This was great news till she also told us that we were in a dry county and they sold no alcoholic beverages.  This caused several of us to start shaking.  But, laws here allow you to bring your own stuff in and then they will serve it to you.  End of shaking.

Our waitress, Robin, had a super bubbly personality and sat down to visit with us along with her waitress trainee Claire.

Robin is leaving her position at the end of the week to accept another position with the Junior Achievement Organization.  She has had three job offers. (who said there is no work available.  As an interesting aside, everywhere we have been on this journey are many "Now Hiring" signs, I guess the 9% unemployed like getting paid to do nothing.)

 We begged her to take our crew photo, since we were all in uniform.

Once dinner concluded, we called it a night.  See Ya.