Cuba Landing to Clifton, TN

When we woke up this morning it was 44F, and we set sail again with our full cockpit enclosure protecting us from the chilly north wind. The sun quickly warmed things up, and we had shed our outer layers before arriving at Clifton Marina, 43 miles upriver from Cuba Landing (we’re still going upstream, although thankfully the current is mild). Technically, we’re still on Kentucky Lake, but it’s only about 200 yards across and feels much more like a river. The banks are also quite steep, which is how Clifton, TN, got its name. 

We set a new record today for proximity of our boat to a bar and grill, and recorded another first by eating catfish tacos, which were delicious.

After dinner, we took a stroll through Clifton, which is a pleasant town with about 2,600 people, no traffic lights and a spectacular view of the river/lake. One notable find was the Commodore Inn, a restored Victorian home that is now a bed & breakfast. Of course, anything named Commodore is okay in our book.

Good weather and a very slow warmup are expected tomorrow, so we plan to keep moving.

1,000 miles!!

It’s pretty amazing to think that we’ve traveled through seven states and cruised more than a 1,000 miles since we left home! We’re having a great time and are still figuring things out, including better ways of communicating after 35 years of marriage. 

Autumn weather is here, with highs in the 50s and lows in the 40s. We love our cockpit enclosure for lousy weather, but so far had only used it at the dock or at anchor. Until today. We chose to travel in a brisk north wind and the three hours and 20 miles to Cuba Landing, TN, were made much more tolerable with the enclosure up while underway.

We were greeted by another great blue heron standing guard at the harbor entrance, and timed our arrival (almost) perfectly to tie up before the forecasted afternoon rains began in earnest. After the rain moved out, we took a hike in the Duck River National Wildlife Refuge, then cooked dinner aboard, played our evening cribbage game and bundled up for the coming chilly night.

Photo journal: Here are some more interesting river trees that we saw today. We were very curious about the roots and how they adapt to fluctuating water levels.

New Johnsonville, TN

You know your day is off to a good start when the Harbormaster brings fresh, hot cinnamon buns to your boat! I typically despise food pics on social media, but had to share this one. Thanks again Billy!!

We spent the day in port due to gusty winds and expected choppy conditions on Kentucky Lake. The Pebble Isle Marina courtesy van was available, so we drove to nearby Waverly to buy groceries, then had lunch at Tequila John’s Mexican Restaurant.

We spent the afternoon exploring Johnsonville State Historic Park, which is adjacent to the marina. Pebble Isle, of course, is located on Old Johnsonville Road in New Johnsonville. Confused? Read on.

Johnsonville, TN, began as a Union supply depot during the Civil War, and was named after Andrew Johnson, who became our 17th President when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.  Andrew Johnson fun facts: He was the only senator from a Confederate state not to resign after secession. Johnson was the first U.S. president to be impeached, and was acquitted by one vote. After leaving the White House, he returned to the Senate, the only ex-President to ever serve in the Senate, although he died five months into his term.

In 1864, the depot was raided by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, and the Battle of Johnsonville was a Rebel victory. Not-so-fun fact about Forrest: He would go on to become the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. After the war, Johnsonville thrived as a river and railroad hub, until the TVA dammed up the Tennessee River in 1944, creating Kentucky Lake, and the original town and majority of the battlefield are now submerged. Most of the residents moved about three miles south, and New Johnsonville was incorporated. 

Photo journal: The little cabins are reconstructed Union barracks from the Civil War. They look small, but apparently were considered luxurious compared with sleeping in a tent or on the ground, which was often muddy. 

Below we’re on an old bridge foundation, with the other end visible in the middle of the lake behind us. Somewhere down there underwater is Old Johnsonville.

Sugar Bay is Sweet!

Greetings from the Pebble Isle Marina just outside of the town of New Johnsonville, TN.  

First point of business from me - KG - a friend answered the question as to the name of the tree in my blog post from 9/27 asking what was the tree at Two Rivers Marina - that was a Bald Cypress tree and the knobby things by the trunk are called Cypress knees.  SO cool.  Thanks Nancy Rydholm and Karen Ceminski.

Back to our regularly scheduled post in progress…Tony and I left Green Turtle Bay Wednesday morning and have once again been in the wilderness with little to no cell service which is why there have been no blog posts.  As Tony mentioned in his last post, our plan was to see some of Kentucky Lake (the lake portion of the Tennessee River) and the Land Between the Lakes National Forest and National Recreation Area.  Green Turtle Bay was on the Cumberland River so we first passed through the Barkley Canal which connects the Cumberland River (Barkley Lake) and Tennessee River (Kentucky Lake).  This 1.5 mile canal was very peaceful and was also part of our bike ride the previous weekend. Then we were on Kentucky Lake.  The tricky part about navigating on this lake is that the Tennessee Valley Authority draws down the water level ~ 5 feet so the charts show depths deeper than actual depth during non-summer months.  This is for flood control.  In the summer, when there is a lower risk of floods, they keep the lake levels at charted depth to support recreation, but since winter is flood season, they draw down the water level after Labor Day weekend to prepare for heavy rains from winter storms in many parts of the Tennessee River.  On a positive note, this made for some very interesting scenery because you could see where the high water level had been and what is hidden under the water during the summer. 

Once on Kentucky Lake we kept to the National Recreation Area side of the Lake and enjoyed the beautiful scenery all the way to our first anchorage - Sugar Bay which was a distance of 14 miles.  Once anchored, we were alone in a beautiful bay of still water.  We are FINALLY seeing some fall color change here.  While the waters were still, it was not silent.  The cacophony of birds, frogs and insects, punctuated by the flipping tail of fish on a regular basis were a welcome change from the noise of boat repair and residents of the marina.  We had a blue heron let us know he considered us intruders, but stopped squawking at us once we had the motor off and were quiet. Here is a view of our first anchorage with the higher shoreline visible.

One of the joys of very few responsibilities (outside of my boat watches and half of the galley duties) is my chance to make music (alone or with Tony) whenever I like and read (it should surprise no one that I’m currently in the middle of 5 books right now) whatever I want, whenever I want.  One of the books: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer is the perfect book to read in this idyllic setting.  This book of “Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teaching of plants” is demonstrated all around these protected waters and has been especially moving. I am so lucky to have the chance appreciate so much undeveloped country and figure out where I can be a good steward of the land going forward from here.

After a spectacular sunset and a calm but chilly night in our protected cove, we moved farther on Kentucky Lake about 25 miles to Panther Bay.  This was another secluded bay much like the first, only with TWO heron security guards that let us know they were watching us.  The weather was beautiful (our nights have been chilly but our days have been in the upper 70’s) and we arrived in the early afternoon so we inflated the kayak and paddled around Panther Bay and then onto the lake to the nearby Boswell’s Landing which had a campground that was starting to fill up for what appeared to be a long weekend.  There was also a very small cemetery of about 10 graves of what appeared to be be Boswell descendants from the 1870’s.  

There was a sign on the kayak landing area that said “Water Trail” which made me curious enough to investigate.  Apparently the National Park Service has helped the State Parks develop water trails encompassing ~300 miles of shoreland in the Land Between the Lakes and are in the process of expanding those trails to further parts of the Kentucky/Barkley lakes and Tennessee/Cumberland rivers (300 more miles!) to give easy access points for kayaks and canoes to get to the water and providing camping facilities.  This area is so beautiful that I imagine it might be crowded in the summer vacation months but there are very few people enjoying this wilderness in October.  This water trail system is something I DEFINITELY want to explore after the Great Loop when I’m ready for another multi-day boat trip with even LESS room for living!  Here are some views of the fall colors from our kayak.  

We had another breathtaking sunset and then this morning set off for the marina which was another 36 miles.  As Tony mentioned previously, the TVA dammed up the Tennessee to make Kentucky Lake, and there is evidence here and there of things that were once on dry land but are now submerged.  Here is one such building - this was a 5 story building from a Grain Company Elevator that now only has the upper 2 floors showing.  There have been squatters here at times that have been cleared off, and is a site with quite a bit of graffiti.  Apparently it is also a great place to fish.

Today I decided it was time to get to knitting fingerless gloves because I was looking at the weather forecast and it seemed that we were going to have a few cooler days of steaming, at least in the morning.  Thankfully they are simple to make and I had them done today as we pulled into the marina.    

We’re planning to stay here a couple of nights since the wind will be kicking up and so tomorrow we’re going to visit a nearby State Park that will explain what happened to Old Johnsonville, TN.  Stay Tuned…

Grand Rivers, KY

We’re nearing the end of our five-night stay at Green Turtle Bay Resort & Marina, our longest visit anywhere in 30+ years of boating. We’ve done laundry twice and are eager to set sail again tomorrow. Our original plan was for a 3-4 night stay, and we wanted to have some letters and packages forwarded here. Since we’re in vacation mode, neither one of us remembered that Monday was a federal holiday, so we ended up staying longer to wait for our deliveries. Everything arrived today, and we are gassed up and ready to head out tomorrow. 

We spent most of our time relaxing and enjoying the delightful town of Grand Rivers, KY (pop. 345), which is about a mile from the marina, and we’ve visited on foot, bicycle, golf cart and car. The centerpiece of Grand Rivers is Patti’s 1880s Settlement, a recreated log cabin community and tourist destination, and home to one of the most popular restaurants in Western Kentucky. Patti’s house specialty is their 2-inch thick pork chop, which was enormous and delicious and we have another full meal of leftovers in the boat fridge. This morning we borrowed  one of the marina’s courtesy vans to go grocery shopping, then went to the gym and indoor pool. We had some afternoon sun left and beautiful weather, so we decided to head back into town to play mini-golf. We mentioned our plans to the friendly live-aboard in the next slip and he handed us the keys to his golf cart, so we rode in style. 

We did get out the folding bikes on our second day and rode through town and across the Barkley Canal into the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. The Kentucky hills kicked our butts and we pooped out after 11 miles. Yesterday we gave Dragonfly a good scrubbing to remove the dead bugs and mud collected on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. 

There are a couple of resident great blue herons on the docks, and deer everywhere here.

Our next leg will be on Kentucky Lake, created in 1944 when the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed the Tennessee River for flood control and electrical power generation. Kentucky Lake is the largest artificial lake in the Eastern U.S. and is 184 miles long, covers more than 160,000 acres and has 2,300 miles of shoreline. We have a couple of little coves picked out to drop anchor in as we continue our journey tomorrow.

Green Turtle Bay

Today was spent entirely within Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina in Grand Rivers, KY. We slept in, with no train whistles or towboat wakes to roust us out early. We walked to breakfast and explored, then Kathleen did laundry while I changed the oil in the outboard and did some minor repairs. Green Turtle Bay is the largest marina we’ve ever stayed in—it has more than 450 boat slips, condo rentals, yacht club, two restaurants, service department, ship’s store, golf cart rental, gift shop, spa, gym, indoor pool, boat storage and rental, courtesy vans and a shuttle to town. The photo below doesn’t even show the entire property. We’re at the tip of the red arrow, by the yacht club.  There are five other Looper boats here, including a 22-foot Cape Dory, the first one that we’ve seen that is smaller than Dragonfly. 

Cumberland River

The sun returned this morning and we left Paducah under light north winds that increased moderately throughout the day. We traveled 12 miles on the Ohio River, then turned onto the Cumberland River. The Ohio is navigable for 900 more miles upstream to Pittsburgh, and then even further on the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. Another side trip for another time…

The Ohio River is deep, beautiful and wide, while the Cumberland is deep, beautiful and narrow; only 100-150 yards across. It’s mostly wild, punctuated by pockets of intense industrial activity, and the narrowness makes it more challenging when meeting tows.  

Our destination for the day was Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina, 33 miles up the Cumberland, where we plan to do some more post-Mississippi River decompression. Besides laundry and badly-needed showers, we’re having some mail and packages sent here, and it’s another popular Looper gathering place. 

The highlight of the day was going through Barkley Lock. The 57-foot lift was the highest we’ve done so far, and the massive doors and walls blocked out the wind and late afternoon sun. Barkley Dam and Kentucky Dam hold back enormous parallel lakes with the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area in the middle. This 171,000 acre natural area will be our cruising grounds for the next phase of our southward journey.