Grand Rivers, KY to Evansville, IN

Total Miles Traveled 155

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After spending a few weeks at our home port, and visiting family back home, we decided to start our summer adventure to Pittsburgh, PA.  Before starting though, Moni’s mother visited with us for a few days on the boat.  We were able to go out for a couple of cruises on Kentucky and Barkley Lakes.

The two sources of the Ohio River starting at Pittsburgh, PA are the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River.  At the point where the two rivers meet is mile 0 of the Ohio River which runs 981 miles to the Mississippi River at Cairo, IL.  This map illustrates the path the river takes flowing to the Mississippi and the lock system used to raise or lower commercial and recreational marine traffic from one elevation pool to the next.

We departed our home port at Green Turtle Bay Marina, Grand Rivers, KY June 23^rd and entered the Barkley Lock which lowered us approximately 57 feet to the Cumberland River.  The Cumberland River empties into the Ohio River 31 miles from the lock.  Entering the first lock of our adventure was not a pleasant experience.  Asian Carp have been a problem of the inland rivers and lakes for several years.  As we entered the lock we were greeted with the aroma of dead fish.  Evidentially the carp have been pooling up around the lock and were trapped inside the lock door supports causing them to die. 

We stayed at a friends dock for six weeks near Ft Myers this spring.  The owners David and Barbara were thinking of selling their boat "m/v Miss My Money"  it was located in New York where they left it in dry storage for the winter.  They sent me a text a few weeks later and indicated they had sold their boat.  As we traveled down the Cumberland River, an AIS target popped up on my display Miss My Money, as the boat approached us we realized this was our friends boat being piloted by the new owners......very small world.

We enjoyed a push from the river current all the way down, but when we made the turn east on the Ohio river, we lost about 2 mph from our normal 8 mph cruising speed.  Smithland Lock and Dam was our first lock on the Ohio River.  We had a new experience at this lock, it was full of Mayflies.  Of course, we had all the doors on the boat open, so the boat was covered and a few managed to get inside.

Our first stop was the E-Town River Restaurant at Elizabethtown, IL.  This little restaurant has melt in your mouth catfish. 

During our stay, a boat pulled in behind us with a large tub filled with fish, delivering 504 pounds of catfish to the restaurant. 

Up until the 1960’s when it closed as a hotel the Rose Hotel was the oldest continuously run hotel in the state of Illinois and is now a state historic site.

Cave-in-Rock, IL.   From the 1790’s to the 1870’s, the area around Cave-in-Rock was plagued by what historians referred to as the “Ancient Colony of Horse-Thieves, Counterfeiters and Robbers”.  It became a refuge stronghold for frontier outlaws, on the run from the law which included river pirates, and highwaymen Samuel Mason and James Ford, tavern owner/highwayman Isaiah L Potts, serial killers/ bandits the Harpe Brothers, counterfeiters Philip Alston, Peter Alston, John Duff, Eson Bixby and the Sturdivant Gang, and the post-American Civil War bandit, Logan Belt.

We departed E-Town on June 24^th and traveled 58 miles to Mt Vernon, Indiana passing through the John Myers Lock, and tying up to a free dock provided by the city.    Mt Vernon is a very industrial river town.  It is the headquarters of a small refinery, a GE Plastics plant, two biofuels’ plants, and is the largest port for coal shipments in the U.S. and the 7^th-largest inland port.   Needless to say, this is a very busy place when navigating on the river.

We saw our first paddlewheel boat on the Ohio while docked at Mt Vernon.  American Duchess, she is 341 feet long and 98 feet wide with 4 decks.  She holds 166 passengers and a crew of 80.

On June 25^th we continued up the Ohio River to Evansville, IN.  Our first experience here was observing a guy walking toward our boat with a snake almost as tall as he was.  When a man is sporting a snake this size, I’m not about to ask him about his nuts.  Yes, I stood behind Moni when I took the pictures.

I believe this is the first outboard motor mailbox I've seen.

Doesn't look like you want to mess the the good ole boys in Evansville, IN, they have automatic weapons.

Our son Brian lives near the marina so we are staying a couple of days to visit him and have a better weather window before continuing up river.

Carrabelle, FL to Grand Rivers, KY

Total Miles Traveled 3033

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What a great cruise to the Keys and back!  We left our home port at Green Turtle Bay Marina, at Grand Rivers, Kentucky on October 5^th, 2020.   We cruised 3033 miles to Key West and back and arrived at Green Turtle Bay June 7^th, 2021. 

We met our friends Dan and Angie m/v Seahorse at breakfast yesterday and Dan ask if I kept track of the miles we have traveled since starting the Loop.  I have kept a logbook every year but have not kept a running total of the miles we have cruised…….so this morning I recorded each year the miles we have traveled after returning to Green Turtle Bay.  I knew we have covered a lot of miles across the waterways but didn’t realize the total would add up to 23,751 miles! 

This has been an amazing experience, not only the scenery and the places we have visited, but the people we have met during our travels.  I have exchanged boat cards with 326 boaters that we have met during our travels, some of them are becoming very good friends that we cruise with and visit with every year.

It has been a while since my last update but since we’ve been cruising the same places the past few years, I decided not to update the blog as frequently as in the past.  This may change this summer as we are planning to cruise the Ohio River to Pittsburg Pennsylvania.  We hope to start this new adventure around the middle of July and return to Green Turtle Bay in early autumn.

After a week at one of our favorite stops in Carrabelle Florida, we departed the marina on May 7th and traveled 86 miles to an anchorage at Pearl Bayou, near Panama City.  On May 8^th we cruised 69 miles to another favorite anchorage in Destin Harbor.  We were anchored here with our friends on m/v Trust Me, m/v Forever Young, m/v Cra Sea Horse, and m/v San Souci.  This is an awesome anchorage with several restaurants, and a waterfront walkway.

After a week at Destin, we cruised 52 miles to another anchorage at Ft McRree near Pensacola Florida.  The Blue Angels are stationed here and on certain days they fly over the anchorage during practice.  Its an awesome experience with them flying only a few hundred feet over our boat…ear protection is a good idea.  On May 14^th we cruised a short distance to our favorite anchorage near Orange Beach, Roberts Bayou.  This is a vey protected anchorage and an awesome Bar and Grill, Pirates Cove.  We anchored here with m/v Forever Young and enjoyed a few days at the beach and restaurant.  There was also a boat poker run going on so we saw quite a few nice boats come and go.

Nope not an explosion, they're burning off a sugar cane field. 

The river levels finally dropped enough for us to start our way North.  We departed Roberts Bayou on May 16^th and cruised 65 miles crossing Mobile Bay and anchoring at Briar Creek. From Briar Creek we cruised the rivers and passed through our first lock at Coffeeville, Alabama on May 18^th.  We are cruising the Tenn-Tom waterway and this part of Alabama is very secluded with very few anchorages along the river.  From our anchorage near the lock, it is over 100 miles to the nearest marina and cell service is very spotty.  We cruised to a safe anchorage at Bashi Creek.  Later in the afternoon, two sail boats arrived and anchored behind us.  On of them hailed us on the radio and said they notice our port of call was Grand Rivers Kentucky and asked what marina we were heading to.  Turns out they are both from Green Turtle Bay, but we have never met.  Since there are several locks to pass through we decided to travel together to the Tennessee River.

 Anchored at Bashi Creek with s/v Island Bound and s/v Imagine That

Passing a tow on the waterway

Just before the lock at Columbus, MS is a barge unloading facility. 

 

Whitten Lock is the last lock on the Tenn-Tom Waterway, an 84-foot lift to Bay Springs.

We arrived at Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina on May 25, almost the same date as last year. We met our good friends Charlie and Robin m/v Lower Place, we haven’t seen them since the Keys.  Other looper friends came in during our stay, m/v Priorities, m/v Corkscrew, m/v Cra Sea Horse, and m/v Chasing 80.

We rented a car and drove to Indianapolis for our grandson’s graduation from high school.  Our grandkids are growing up fast and are now young adults.

Grandson Jayden and Granddaughter Sophie……..Congratulations Jayden!!

After returning the car we stopped at Abe's local diner in Corinth, MS for breakfast.....what an awesome meal and super friendly people.  Thanks for the recommendation Charlie!

Who says there is no Big Foot....sculptured with a chainsaw from a tree.

We departed Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina on June 5^th and planned to travel with m/v Chasing 80.

We were held up at the Pickwick Lock for a couple of hours waiting on a barge. Our friends discovered a mechanical problem and had to return to the marina so we continued on to another favorite stop on the Tennessee River at Clifton, TN at the Clifton Marina.  We arrived on Saturday and the marina was packed but they made room for us.  The people here are very friendly, we usually stop going south in the fall and north in the spring. 

We departed the marina a daybreak, anchored one time on Kentucky Lake and arrived at Green Turtle Bay on June 7^th.  Although m/v Corkscrew left Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina several days ahead of us, we pulled into a slip next to them on our arrival.  They are heading to their home port at Nashville, Tennessee.