Sunday, September 19th, 2010 | Author:

After a quiet night at the towhead we were ready to pull anchor and head on down the Cumberland. This river has less commercial traffic than the Tennessee River and that thought appealed to us; also, we wanted to go to Green Turtle on Barkley Lake and this is the quickest route. As we turned into the head of the river, lo and behold, a barge. Why us?!? To make matters worse, the barge was going in our direction, was moving more slowly, and ahead was about 4 miles of narrow curves. The captain told us that when there was room he would call us on 13. So we slowly made our way down this part of the river.

The Cumberland is a narrower river. I think it is beautiful. The trees grow down to the water. But, as with all of the rivers here that we have been on, it is a mixture of industry and nature. Beautiful one moment and then a gravel company with trucks lined up to dump rocks into waiting barges. Amazing.

Once we passed the tow we meandered on the river. There were some fishermen and we passed a few pleasure boats. House boats are popular here and some look like paddle boats.

We reached the Barkley Lock (and Dam) and the gates were open for us. This lock is a 57′ lift; but we were not lifted that much. I am not sure if that is because this area has been flooded recently. Once out of the lock it was a quick trip to Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina. We are planning on staying here for about a week before we move on. bill, the Harbor Master was very helpful. We appreciated it as Kelley’s foot was now swollen….

We felt good about how the first part of the river system had gone. People I had spoken to kept saying that being on the Mississippi was the worst two days of their boating history. I don’t think that Kelley or I would say that. But, for the next few days it will be nice not to be looking debris and tows!

Ohio River: Mile 923.5  (Cumberland Towhead Island) to Mile 31.7 on Barkley Lake (Green Turtle Bay )

Miles covered: 32.2       Bridges: 4          Locks: 1

Left at 7 am      Arrived at  11 am

Category: 2010, Cruising, Kentucky
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