Windy day on the Ohio and Tennessee

October 2, 2015

We thought that if we got to Lock 52 early, we might not have to wait too long, but we ended up waiting about 2.5 hours until we got in the chamber to lock up.  Part of this was due to tow and barge traffic and the other part was due to the Corps of Engineers getting ready to drop the wickets.  After the wickets are dropped, river traffic can then just go through the part of the dam where the wickets were instead of having to lock through.

Wickets at Lock 52

It was quite windy, with gusts of 18-25 mph, so this made locking through more challenging because the wind kept trying to push us away from the lock wall.  Since you get lifted up in the lock when going upriver, your wind profile increases as you go up in the lock.  We did get pushed into the starboard side of the lock, partly because the work barge was that was ready to come in after we left was parked right at the exit, leaving only a 40-50 ft gap for us to get out.  After getting pushed into the wall, we just steered right for the barge until the last, turned into the gap, gave the engines some power, and then we were out!

Shortly after we turned onto the Tennessee River, there were towboat dry docks.  It was cool to see the big propellers that enable the tows to push heavy barges around the river.

Towboat Dry Docks

Propellers on a smaller tow

Large tow

Propellers are taller than the guy on the deck!

It is only about 20 miles to Kentucky Dam once you make the turn onto the Tennessee River from the Ohio River, but it is upstream (against the current) so it still took us about 2.5 hrs to get there since we were only going 7-8 mph at 1100 rpms.  We called ahead to Kentucky Lock to see if the wait was expected to be long so that we could slow down if so.  We were told that there wasn’t much up-bound traffic, and that there was a “light boat” (small tow) waiting that we could lock up with.  When we arrived, there was another tow locking up, but none to lock down.  The change in water level is around 65 feet however, so locking takes 45-50 minutes each way.  Therefore we still ended up waiting for about 2 hours even though we only had to wait for one tow to lock through!

Kentucky Dam

Several groups of loons were below the dam

When we got into the lock, once again the wind made things more difficult for us.  We took a few more minutes to get our lines around the bollard, but we still weren’t done working.  The wind kept making the bow and then the stern try to swing out, so it was a bit of a workout to keep the boat steady at the wall.  Rob had put out plenty of fenders, and we needed them all.  We had said we wanted to get more exercise but really thought we’d wait until we got to Florida!

We had thought to go the Kentucky Dam Marina for fuel and water and then to go on to one of our favorite anchorages about a hour down the lake.  It was still quite windy, however, and since we weren’t familiar with Kentucky Dam Marina and it looked like a storm was blowing in, we went to Green Turtle Bay Marina instead.  We had been docked there for about 2 years so felt very comfortable getting in, getting fuel, and docked.   The entry is well marked, and the fuel dock and transient slips are pretty much a straight shot from the entrance.  The transient slips were all booked up with looper boats, but since we were former residents, the marina owner let us take an empty slip at our old Pier 12 for the night.  No sooner had we pulled into the slip when the wind really kicked up and the rain started!  Once we had everything secured, we congratulated ourselves on the great decision we had made not to try to anchor out!

Fuel dock and Commonwealth Yacht Club at Green Turtle Bay

Transient slips with Looper boats

More Looper boats

Don’t worry about Sasha.  She got a walk while the boat was being fueled and then again later after the rain had died down.  We think that she remembered being there before, because when she was going back to the boat, she paused at our old slip and looked a little confused.