Green Turtle Bay- Voted the Great Loopers “Best Stop” by cruisers from the Great Lakes to Florida and holds the 5 Anchor designation from Quimby’s Cruising Guide. There are actually two ways to get here: Kentucky Lake or Cumberland River. They both end up at the same-ish spot, but one is heavily traveled by barges, the other is the ‘route less traveled’ as it is twenty miles longer. There is a lock at the end of both, and the Cumberland lock is closed for maintenance from 6am to 6pm. The Kentucky lock is open, but we’ve heard from others they’ve had to wait up to seven hours to get through! We departed with another boat and we both went our own way. We took the route less traveled. We were not disappointed in the lack of traffic and were delighted with the wildlife and scenery presented to us.
The trip itself was uneventful, which is what I like to type about. Mechanically the boat has been sound and seems to be running well. No issues here to speak of. We made it to the lock somewhat early. We mis-planned this arrival. We know it doesn’t open until 6pm, and I called the lockmaster the day before to confirm this. He did tell me they sometime wrap up work early, so sometimes they open early. Our arrival was around 4:30pm. Way too early. I called on the VHF and was told they wouldn’t be open until 6pm, with a caution from this person that sometimes they go later. This is opposite what I was told yesterday on the phone, but what can I do about it? We turned around and let the current take us back down river for a few miles. As we were heading back toward the lock, they called me on the radio to let me know they were opening. Early. We had drifted quite a bit and told him I was on my way. By the time we got there, a small fishing boat had requested a lock through, so we had to wait for him to go up, then wait for the lock to empty to allow us to enter. At this point it was dusk. We entered the lock and started the lift as it was getting dark. We were let out in complete darkness. This is not what we wanted to happen. We had been briefed over the phone about arrival, and how important it is to follow the channel markers, and to pass the resort before turning back up to it due to very shallow spots. Lauren was using our spotlight searching for the channel markers, as I was driving blind using the GPS as a guide. We were going very slow, and eventually Lauren would locate the markers, and we followed them in without incident. We found our slip and tied up, making sure all was secure. As we were completing this, we saw the other boat that had left with us in the morning- they had to wait at the lock for almost six hours! They had just arrived about thirty minutes before us! The facilities were nice and our dock location was excellent as far as land access for Frank was concerned and proximity to the facilities. We retired for the night quite tired form our long day.
Day two- We woke up to quite a chilly day and raining. The weather was forecast to be in the low 60’s and rain all day. We had to check in as they were all gone upon our arrival last night. After that was done we hung out and relaxed in the afternoon. I had made a reservation for the courtesy car the next day, which they allow people to use as long as you put gas in it. The town isn’t far, and they have a free shuttle that takes you to the town or restaurant/bars they have on property. We decided to check out the happy hour at one of their bars. It was a fun time, with us meeting a few cruisers and people heading south for the winter on their boats. We met some ‘carnies’ that have a few trailers and are taking their boat south…they have been stuck here for a couple of weeks doing some repairs- they were fun to chat with! We went back to the boat for dinner and finished up with our nightly Frank walk.
Day Three- We woke up and it was cold! It was about forty degrees outside! Good thing we have lots of blankets to keep warm. When we make dinner or cook anything, it warms up the boat nicely, so we don’t notice it so much when we go to bed. Coffee is the first thing to get started in the morning, so that helps take the chill off as well. We had decided we don’t need the courtesy car after all, so I went in and cancelled the reservation. We later took the shuttle into town and walked around. There was a festival going on: Hunter’s Moon Festival. There were a bunch of vendors and tents set up in the park which we strolled around. We also explored the town a bit and walked up to a bakery: Lite-Side. The sweets were delicious- well worth the walk! After awhile we hailed the shuttle to take us back to the marina. We were there when a few other boats were arriving. One of the incoming boats was Trinity, our ‘buddy boat’ which we have made friends with and have traveled a bit together. They had some terrible luck when they hit a log in a lock and had to get towed back to a marina and get hauled out to fix everything. It is amazing they are catching up as they were delayed about a week. We helped them in to the dock and got them tied up and secure- it sure is nice to see some new friends again. Once they were docked, we chatted a bit with them and some of the other cruisers that just arrived. Afterwards we made dinner on the boat and looked at where we were going to next. We are only about 14 stops from Mobile Bay, in the Gulf of Mexico, if we follow the direct route. The problem is we do not want to get there before the end of November, so we have some time to kill. This brings us to our discussion: where to go? Nashville or Chattanooga? Ultimately we decided to go to Nashville. This will take us about three days to get there from Green Turtle Bay; then another three days back. So we are going to take a week or more and head to Nashville, Tennessee. This will be a fun side trip and we will have to anchor a bit on the way as there are not many marinas on the route but we will have to deal with another lock.