11-3 Sturgeon Island anchorage to Green Turtle Bay marina, Grand Rivers KY 82 miles

We have now moved to daylight savings and central time, which means less daylight. It was clear when we started, but then we ran into a couple of foggy patches. At a couple of points we couldn't see land at all and were steering by radar only. Nautical rules suggest that cruising vessels announce their position occasionally in fog.

We got lucky - the first time Dave announced our position we were coming right up on a barge headed the other way and didn't know it! Fortunately the barge had seen us on their radar. But it was a bit nerve wracking seeing the shadow of the barge pass right by us. Imagine this in pea soup fog!

This was our last day on the Ohio River

We traveled from the Ohio River on the left side of the photo around the peninsula and turned onto the Cumberland on the right. Nancy and Brian from Nu Plaza gave us an old chart book of theirs that covered this area and warned us not to cut the turn too close. It gets very shallow there and apparently many boats run aground. Again, thanks to them we made the turn safely.

The Cumberland is narrow and winding with a significant amount of barge traffic. Stories circulate about boats having to turn around and go back up the river because they encountered a barge that was too wide for them to pass. Barges always have the right of way. Fortunately we didn’t have this problem. Some parts of the river are very industrial.

But other parts are very beautiful and natural. We finally started to see some wildlife.

There were alot of Green Turtles sunning themselves on driftwood.

And an abundance of blue herons.

The Barkley Lock and Dam just before our destination marina was the steepest one we had encountered (57’, none of the others were more than 28’) and our first time being lifted instead of dropping. We had heard this Lockmaster was a bit mean and would make you tie up on the opposite side of what you were set up for, we also heard that you could wait for hours to go through.

We went right in and didn’t have to re-arrange our lines, but we did notice the Lockmaster was particularly formal, almost military in the way he gave us instructions. Most Lockmasters so far had been really friendly. Later we heard that someone had died in that lock in the last year or so and there have also been several serious accidents. We went through just fine, but I couldn’t resist adding a bit of drama. Knock on wood!