Darkness and clouds have fallen upon us, however; we were able to fine great anchorage by Double Islands.  It had a sandy beach with a volley ball net.  However, it was too cool and rainy to take advantage of it.

Instead Bryce washed the boat in the rain.  It needed a good cleaning from sand and dirt we had tracked over it over the last week or so.

Prior to anchoring, we passed a coal power plant earlier in the day.  Coal seems to be quite in demand on these rivers.

And we passed these two bridges.. railroad and auto side by side.  The raising machinery on the railroad bridge looks ancient.

It was in stark contrast to the relatively new bridge for cars and trucks.

We passed numerous trees that were loosing the soil that holds them in place.

The only boaters on the river were the fisherman who were rushing to their favorite fishing hole, then rushing home with their prize catch.  No doubt some of them just zooming around.

In between the bouts of rain, I snapped this pict of the Tennessee River (bottom of Kentucky Lake).  The river can be quite serene.

The river is periodically surrounded by rock cliffs.

Friday, what  a great day it was. We traveled 22.5 miles. I decided to get a few things done inside while my captain was at at the helm. I heard a sound while doing dishes, so I looked up and he was hailing someone on the VHF radio. Before I could get up the stairs, I caught a glimpse of a boat coming right up to our side. Tell him to go to channel 18. So I unzipped the enclosure and yelled over to him. Heck, I really didn’t have to yell; he was right next to us on our port side. I was really impressed with his ability to stay so close to us. We must of chatted for an hour going down the lake.  We also exchanged our boat cards. Jonathan & Rosa; they really seemed like great people. This is their second time doing the Great Loop.

Jonathan is at the helm and Rosa is next to him.  It was our pleasure to have met you two.

 

Well, it has been a while sense I posted about a tow & barges. I was thinking it was about time. lol.. This tow is pushing 15 barges of coal. Whether you want to be warm or cool, this winter when you dial up those thermostats, perhaps you will burn that coal. lol

Jackie Englert Is the name of this tow.

 

Many years ago, This lake was nothing but farm land or swamp land not sure. I do believe this spooky looking house with a pontoon boat under it was once someones home. I sure wouldn’t want to be on a train headed to this old station. I would end up in the lake.

 

I think this car ferry is used now to transport people across the lake to the other side of Kentucky.

Hidden up in the cliffs are some beautiful homes and some are even for sale.

Well, we took refuge in Little Richland Harbor for the night. We wee able to watch the fish jump for a bit then we were attacked my mosquito. This was the first time on this whole trip we have seen any type of bugs other then flies.

Talk to you soon have a great day.

Slowly-but-Surely, we are moseying down the lake. We like to take it slow to see the landscaping around us. We said good-bye to Roxy and Deon and headed south down the lake. We added 23 miles to our trip yesterday. We nestled into the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation OHV Area. This area brought back memories to us. Bryce and I came here with our 4-wheelers around 10 years ago. According to the weather, we have heavy rains coming in for Saturday and Sunday and possible thunder showers today (Friday). We are not sure what they mean by heavy so we will snuggle Beauty into a safe arm of the lake.

This is the small bay we anchored in.

We took the dingy out to explore the our surroundings

Not much sand here mostly tiny gravel. I had to take a walk to get my steps in on my FITBIT.  Looking in the gravel, you see the four wheeler tracks.  We saw a number of them zoom out on the point while we were anchored.

Sunset came quickly on us as we sat on the bow enjoying our evening conversation. I really miss our jet-skis. We used to anchor Beauty then go off exploring. With the dingy we can only go so far it’s to slow to go too far. And if the water is rough, a dingy is no fun.  I say we need to stop and buy to new jet-skis! What do you think? lol

Morning came upon us. We pulled up anchor around noon after Bryce was done working.  It is so peaceful not having to worry about a time frame. I just sit back and look at the cliffs and other boaters. This is weird: we always hear massive sounds like swarms of fish jumping out of the water. You turn to see the water has swirls on top where they jumped; but nothings there….Then you quickly turn your head to another sound again, but nothing’s there. It is just totally weird!

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Leaving Land Between The Lakes.  Around 8 miles or so south there is a bridge known as US 68 (Kentucky 80) Bridge. In 2012 the bridge was struck by the Delta Mariner (we saw this boat at lock 52) carrying space rocket parts for NASA according to the articles that I have read. This is a huge vessel its a five stories high. Anyways, It took out a 300 foot section of the bridge which was already under construction. There are articles on this on the web just look up Delta Mariner.  Deon and Roxy told us about it.

Even the workers get to enjoy play time on the water.

And the rebuilding continues on!

You can see The new (grey) section  of  US 68 Bridge that they replaced

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We are now in the State of Tennessee!!!

The Land between the Lakes ends at this bridge that we passed under yesterday. We are anchored in the first arm past the bridge for the night.

The fall colors are now in bloom on the lake.  These colors are urging us on to get to Mobile Al.

This is called: “A Little Bit of the Keys in TN”. It is a marina at the end of the bay where we are anchored. However, it really is not easy to get into. We were in the dingy and the seaweed was quite thick.  So we didn’t get any closer.

Here is our anchorage. You can really see the fall colors surrounding beauty.

Well, after our exploration on the dingy, the sunset is upon us. The bugs are out here, so we did not sit up on the bow. It is funny; George is having a great time chasing and eating the bugs. It’s Friday so enjoy your weekend.

Leaving Kentucky Dam Marina, it was such a relaxing time here but it was time for us to leave. We get really restless when we stay too long in one spot. So we headed out on the lake; it is so beautiful out here. The sun was perfect 80 degrees but the breeze was chilly. A few hours down the lake we found the arm of the lake we wanted to anchor in. Bryce threw out the anchor and dropped the kayaks in so we could investigate our surroundings. I grabbed my beach chair and cooler and paddled away from the boat so Bryce could get in his. As we started to paddle away we noticed a couple waving to us from shore. Bryce headed to the shore in-front of us while I headed to see the couple waving to us. As I pulled up to shore, They invited me to bring my chair and join them. I interduced myself. Deon reached his hand out and introduced himself and his awesome wife Roxy.

Bryce took this photo as he came to shore

They said they could tell by the way our boat looked we were on a journey and wanted to hear all about it. Well, you all know me, I could not stop talking. Then comes along Bryce to shore to join us and he took over talking for me. LOL Roxy & Deon have a large 60 foot houseboat named “A Touch of Destiny”.

I enjoyed listening to them about their adventures in Kentucky Lake as much as they enjoyed listening to us. Roxy likes to sit out at night, have a bond fire and look a the stars. She even has an app that helps tell her what stars are what. They invited us over to join them. It was a great night. As we arrived over to their boat and we were greeted by Roxy. Then we joined Deon who was collecting the wood.

Roxy and Me (a new friend). You can tell the evening air was turning chillier.  Notice the nice sandy beach.

Bryce, Deon and Roxy gathered wood while I took pictures. So you know who had the important job.. right? LOL

Finally, it was time to sit and relax and enjoy the fire. Before we could blink it seems like the sunset was upon us.  They had collected quite the pile.

As the sun went down we saw The queen of the Mississippi pass by.

Deon started the fire up! it was a perfect fire with great people and we gabbed late into the evening.

I thought it would be a good time to update our progress with everyone. The first map shows the start of our journey from home to the present day 53. Yes…I am loving it. Okay! we are. LOL

This is a copy of the Kentucky Lake. The blue blob is us. It also shows where the state of Tennessee starts on the red dotted line. We have decided to slow down our travels a bit as we are ahead of schedule. instead of doing 20-30 miles a day we will do 10-20.  The lake and anchorages are quite gorgeous.

This is the best way to relax. I totally recommend this route. I know, I have had my tense moments but truly it is all worth it.

Wow.. Talk about courtesy! From the time we pulled up to the fuel pump to the current time we cannot get over how well we have been treated. We pulled into the marina. As Bryce and the three attendants were fueling up and pumping out I walked into the marina store to take care of the tab & get a slip for a few days. I was joking with  the guy at the desk (Marty) telling him I was looking forward to talking to the girl who I spoke with on the phone a few days prior to coming in. He asked if he could help me. I looked at him noticing his hair.  I don’t think so. I was thinking maybe she could recommend a beauty salon. See I am having withdrawals from being pampered. He dialed a number on his phone and said ” I have a customer here with a question maybe you can help with. No.. Really this is a question for you!” He smiled and handed me his phone. The female voice came over the phone. “Hello this is Bobbie how may I help you?” Her voice was so soft and sweet. I explained to her what I was looking for. She chuckled and said that she could help me. She gave me two great possibilities. I thanked her and handed Marty back his phone. 

“Was she able to help you?” “Yes, after we get settled I will figure it all out. She gave me two numbers to try.” I smiled back at him and thanked him for his help. “Well, just to let you know we have a new mini van as a courtesy van for our guests and it is all yours when you need it.  I just could not get over how nice they are! Typically, we don’t like to use other people vehicles, this is something we are going to have to get used to doing. I couldn’t believe it; I called and received an appointment with in the hour. 

The Ship Store & Boat Rentals     

Gas docks and pump-out area

  

We had two visitors Vickie & Harold. They are Corvette owners just out enjoying the sites. They came aboard and visited for a while. They are really nice people. 

  

Out for our evening stroll and picture taking. This is a small portion of the marina. They take great care of this place. 

 

Well, I need a night out after cooking for 8 days straight.  We looked for restaurants that were close by and decided to walk to the Harbor Lights Restaurant next door at the Kentucky Dam Start Park Resort. Bryce suggested I call just to make sure they were open. I asked the lady on the phone about the trail going there because it was getting dark. But she said they had a courtesy vehicle/ driver that would come pick us up. Can you believe this! We are totally getting spoiled. OM! If you are ever in this area the food was fabulous! They had a buffet it had everything you could want. Sea food, chicken prime rib, pork. You name it they had it also if you didn’t want the buffet you could order off the menu. Let’s not forget the desert table blew my 1200 calories out the door. 💥💥💥💥 service was great too. 

   

This is part of the view from the restaurant. We walked the following day. This is a bridge that goes over the area of the boat launch. You would not be able to launch a large boat. But great for fishing boats. 

 

This is a view that shows how wide the entrance to the Kentucky Dam Marina. It is very wide.  However, We could not tell where the entrance was from the lake.  The stone break wall blends in and you cannot see until you are on top of it. I had to call into the dock master and ask his how to enter the marina. Look for the sign that says Kentucky Dam Marina and a it’s about 200 or so feet to the starboard side. 

   

Can you see the dancing fish? It looked like they were putting on a show for us all night. We asked a few fishermen what they were and they called them Chad fish. We think that was the general term for bait fish.

 

Wow…what a day on the river. The sunshine was just fabulous.  Winds averaged N14 we arrived at Lock 52 right around 2 pm. Marty the Lock Master informed us we would have another 2 1/2 hour wait. Well, that two in a half hours went by and Beauty was still floating with her crew on board. Captain Bryce listened faithfully to the VHS radio. While the Admiral (Jane) was getting restless. Maybe she was even getting a bit snippy with the captain. When all of a sudden a voice came over the radio. It was a tow requesting a lift up the lock. Marty came across the VHS telling him to go to channel 14. Capt. Bryce followed the call to hear what was going on. When he heard Marty say, “I have two pleasure crafts I have to get through the locks by dark.” Said the young man on the static VHS!  Then he went on explaining what the line up was going to be for all the tows and barges. 

The Admiral looked over at her captain her eyes were full of disappointment. He didn’t say a word put hugged her. When all of a sudden they were distracted by what they heard Marty say: we have a priority 1 coming in. That means nothing goes through the locks until this vessel does. After that we will get the pleasure crafts through. That would be us going North and a power boat coming from the south. The priority one vessel is the Delta Mariner a cargo ship 300 feet long by 85 feet wide carrying delta rockets.

Here are two photos of the Delta Mariner I like his Big Nose…lol

 

Rear door where delta and atlas rockets are loaded.

   

Finally our call came around 7:30 pm to position Beauty to enter the lock after the power boat exits the lock. It was a dark night Bryce handed me the new spot light (thank you Justin & Tera) I went up on the bow and shined the light on the approach entrance of the lock. There was only a smiley face of the moon shining, not given off much light. As we were moving slowly into the locks I heard a voice coming From above. Lol.. A man was standing on the side lock. He yelled down” Are you floating?” I yelled back up to him and said yes, he nodded ok. But then he said to try and keep it at this end of the lock. Lock 52 is 110 x 1200 and we had it all to ourselves.  Ok, wait a minute! More to the story that’s not the end. It must of taken an hour to fill up that lock. When the door open my eyes about popped out of my eye sockets. There was a barge and tow 800 x 90 feet blocking the exit! Bryce hailed the tow captain and told him we neede 16 feet of space to get by him. He replied back and said we had more then enough room to get by. As we approached the tow, I shined the light on the side of he lock and on the side of the barge plus the barge had a huge spot light shining. I really don’t know how Bryce squeezed us through but we made it. George was watching too. 

 

We anchored near Paducah Kentucky for the night; we were both exhausted. Our anchor alarm sounded around 4:30 am.  The wind had swung us around toward shore so we pulled up anchor and headed up the Tennessee River to the Kentucky dam Lock.  Here it is, our first sunrise on the Tennessee River.

   

At first Bryce thought we had a tree branch headed towards us. Then he looked again. Jane he yelled. I was doing dishes. “Come quick, look there are 4 deer swimming across the river.”

 

They made it to the other side.  They must be warm blooded.

 

We made it through the Kentucky Lock without any issues and we did not have to wait.  It’s a good thing we left at 4 am.  At mile 22.5 the Kentucky lock lifted us 57 feet. The highest lift so far on our trip.  It is a single chamber lock 110 x 600 feet. Because of  the high lift the lock had some turbulence as the water rose. The lock master had us tie to the last  floating bollards. The put us directly in front of the exit doors.  They looked huge in front of us.

 
We were the only ones in the lock. As we approached the lock the Lock master said we had to wait for three higher priorities (than us). A few minutes later he hailed us on the VHF. The other vessels all okayed us to go in first before them.  That was nice of them!

   
What a spectacular view the water is blue. This is the lock after we proceed out . 

 
The Kentucky Damn Marina is just on the south side of the lock. We are going to spend a few days here.  I am going to the beauty solon. I am having withdrawals. 

We anchored out in a the Ohio River just off of Mound city last night. It was a peaceful night for being on the river. We woke to find that our mast had a few Irish pendants. The plastic wrapped on the ends decided to unravel. Bryce decided it was time to duck tape the ends. With that mentioned he climbed on top of the mast and scooted to the end.  You can see the Irish pendant in the photo.

 
Finally, Bryce finished his morning to do list and we started on our way to the lock. Cruising up the river we noticed the pipe line layer.  In this picture, a baby tow is helping to lift the anchor of the pipeline layer.

  
So we made it to lock 53 at 1:00 pm. We were told it would be around 1/2 hour. And to hang tight with the power boaters.  They would get us through the locks together. Olmstead lock 53 & 52 are under construction they are building a new set of locks & 52 is 23.5 miles from 53 and they are going to combine the two locks in 2020 to create one.

 

This is as you can guess another view of them building the lock. Finally they called us on the VHF and said they were ready to escort all of us through the safety zone. Why a safety zone you might ask? While building the new dam, which is in front of lock 53 you have to be escorted through. However, when we made it to the locks we waited another 3 hours. We had a total of a 5 1/2 hour wait. 

Was Bryce bored? Oh… no This is the first time since we started this trip that the water was remotely clean enough to step into let long submerge our bodies in. The difference between the two rivers is the sediment. The Mississippi was so dark I couldn’t see my toes. 

 

Finally, in the locks..Hooray🙆🏻 although the skies look clear and bright sunset was about to settle in. Once out we must find a place to anchor.  This was an unusual lock.. Round caissons rather than flat concrete.

   

As the lock goes up we received a better up close view of the dam. Trying to figure out how they can hold those two barges in place right up on the dam.  It’s about 7 feet tall.

  

Here is a view of part of the dam.  This is probably the alternate route during high water.

 

We made our port side turn into the Ohio River. Once again nothing but tows and barges all long the river banks. We traveled 7 miles to a near by town called Mound City.  After we anchored in the river for the night. Bryce and I took the dinghy into the boat ramp so we could walk to the Read more
gas station. We drove past a tow that was docked up next to the ramp. As we got out of the dingy we were approached by 2 men from the tow. They were the nicest guys. I think they just wanted to talk. They asked us what we were going to town for as we stood there holding to yellow diesel cans in our hands. 

“Well, you just motor right back  to our engine door with that dingy  and we will fill your cans.” The man said with a deep southern tone. “No need you be walking up that hill when we can help you out.” They both reached for our cans and motioned for us to dinghy up to there tow. We were overwhelmed by their generosity. Bryce offered them money & tip but they wouldn’t take anything. One of the guys spoke up and suggested we donate 20 dollars to a special cause. 

There are still nice people in this world. 

Not the best of pictures but…..I like it! On our way back from getting diesel. 

  

On our way back from getting diesel.

  

What a perfect sunset on Beauty

  

Three tows pushing a barge sideways 

  

The City of Mound where we met the two nice guys on the barge. 

  

This is one of the biggest tows we have seen.  About 60 feet tall.. Could be we could step our mast if we headed down the Mississippi..  Next time we will do the Mississippi route.. No more locks going that way!

 

Soon we will be out of the Mississippi. I must say, I thought it was going to be a horrible experience however; it has proved me wrong. It might not be the clearest river we have been on but we learned from traveling it. You might be asking yourself; What could they have learned. Well, you hear all the time on television about the flooding of the Mississippi & Illinois Rivers.

With the high banks along the shores and homes on stilts some city’s have tall concert barriers to block the water from approaching their towns. The river have reached 30 feet higher then what they are today as we are traveling on them. I think I will pass on cruising on the rivers during the Spring floods. If you ever get the opportunity to explore the rivers here you will notice the tree lines are horizontally as I have probably mentioned before.  Without a doubt we would travel these waters again.

Bryce has used his knowledge in anchoring along the banks of the rivers and dealing with strong currents.  There are so many great places to anchor, they are too numerous to list.  The books on the Mississippi list anchorages that are often poor.

Remember on my last post, I said Beauty slowly twisted circles all night in the calm breeze. This is her GPS recording. Anchor line & rope were just fine nothing tangled.

Buoys left on land looking for a home. Lol

Here is another picture of groins. They are really fascinating to anchor in. Don’t be hesitant poke your nose in very slowly downstream of these. Check the depth of the water and the current speed and go for it. ⚓️

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his photo doesn't do justice to what it was like going through the whirling water.  It moved like a tornado with a funnel shape center. Now, you can visualize it. Right? I still say it could suck us into a different dimension.  It likes to grab hold of your boat and turns it a bit. It doesn't brother Bryce but scares the crap out of me. When this happens the water depth is extremely deep for the river. I do believe at one point we saw 80 feet. I know it's no big deal boats travel all the time over them but it makes my heart beat fast. Bryce thinks I am funny. He try's so hard to reassure me that it's  ok.  Breath Jane, it's ok…..

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uspension bridge. We sure have gone through/under a lot of bridges. Yeah, that's why the mast is down. Under the bridge on the starboard side (right) of the boat they are repairing tows.

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his is a dry dock for tows.  If you zoom in you can see the propellers.

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his is unusual it's a V shape groin or a horseshoe shape and it's called a Chevron. Remember a groin is a structure built from the shore to protect the shoreline from erosion along with trapping the sand. It also directs the current scouring the channel.

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his is me (Jane) getting ready to relax on this sandy beach between two groins. As I look out at Beauty, she looks as if she is anchored in the middle of the river. She is actually anchored on the starboard side of the green shape buoy which is out of the channel.<
href="https://sailbeauty.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/img_0446.jpg"&gt;<<
yce pulled the dinghy up on shore and setup the chairs for us. There is so much to see and relaxation to be done. We are just puzzled that we see so many people go by in a rush to find a marina.  Often they must drive their boat 60 miles if they are lucky enough to find a sea wall or a barge to hook onto for the night. Seems a shame they bypass places like this.

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ryce is checking the water depth to see how much further we could bring Beauty into shore. We ended up bringing her in around 200 feet closer to 10 feet depth.

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me tows (Richard E. Waugh) create huge wakes, I didn't think we would stop rolling!  Most just cruise slowly by. Not unusual for any anchorage to get a few waves. We didn't have any serious issue. But….if my wine bottle would have broken…lol😂🍷

Have a great day and thanks for reading our blog. ⚓️⛵️🙋🏻

I couldn’t sleep, so I got out of bed to check the anchor. As I approached the upper deck the cool morning dew covered the enclosure on the boat. It was so thick I couldn’t see the tow passing us. Beauty twisted and turned all night like a restless child. No current to keep her straight. The thought of what the chain might have done to the anchor….well, my mind doesn’t even want to think about it until we have had a few cups coffee. The chill inside the boat seemed to disappear after I closed the window next to the bed.

As we traveled down the Mississippi River, I was surprised to see the current as strong as it is. From the last Lock ( The Chain of Rocks ) to the present time we have gained 4 miles an hour in speed.  So instead of getting 6 mph we are getting about 10. (AWESOME). There are areas where you can see the turbulence under the water spiraling like a whirlpool. A few times I did tense up with my over active imagination thinking that one would open up and suck us into another dimension.   I was assured by my wonderful husband that would not happen. But….you never know. (right?)

 This little round volcano looking rock has a fast turbulence current around it but we weren’t able to catch it on camera.

  

Bryce noticed this pipeline going across the river like a bridge. Probably the current was too fast and river too deep for them put it under the river.

 

Oh.. My look 👀 at the wake the tows produce.  They created a somewhat standing wave behind the tow.

  

I love all the sandy beaches we are finding.  This was our anchorage for the night!

 

Ok, hold on to your hats….lol This is the biggest tow we have seen..42 barges. Six wide by seven long.  Wow now that’s big! 🙆🏻