Day 12: 16 Hours of boating

GREEN TURTLE MARINE:  GRAND RIVERS, KY

HOLY S#!T!  We left this morning business as usual.  Some clouds in the sky with the raging Mississippi waiting for us just outside our small haven from the night before.  The Mississippi went by fast as usual and besides a few thuds on the hull from branches and debris we couldn't see due to it being just under the water we made out fine on the Miss.  A tight left turn on to the Ohio River put us in an upstream battle for the next few hours.  Thank God the Ohio isn't as strong as the Mississippi, at least right now.  One of the two locks we had to get through on the Ohio was under water and we only waited about 45 min. for the other lock.  Just like that we turned to starboard, off of the Ohio River, and on to the Tennessee River.  For the first time this trip the great state of Illinois was not claiming one of our river banks on either side of us.  Only six miles from our stop for the night we were presented with the Kentucky Lake Lock and Dam.  All 53 feet of it.  Just our luck we had a two hour wait.  Being that we are getting used to waiting it was no big deal and we eventually got through.  At this point it was pitch black as we motored out of the lock and in to Kentucky Lake.  Lightning scattered from cloud to cloud across the sky and briefly lit our way up the lake.  The wind picked up and it kept trying to rain, nothing serious though.  A few miles up the lake took us to port and in to a small channel.  The radar was on, the chartplotter was plotting, spot lights went on then back off and the entire pilot house was blacked out and red.  Little flashing green dots were the guides.  By the way this radar is awesome.  While going up the channel I yelled, "to port to port!!!  Blip on the radar!!!"  A spotter on the bow with a spotlight indicated that we were simply passing by a dead fish in the water.  The radar picked up a dead fish...  It was a pretty intricate entrance in to the harbor mostly because it was pitch black and windy.  Brady made it sound easy and said he always comes in to Green Turtle at night.  It's easy I'm sure...when you've done it five times.  Well if he wasn't in front of me and on the radio with me we may still be out there, hopefully afloat.
Tomorrow we plan to provision, wash the boat, give a good check in the engine and generator rooms and maybe get back on the river.  It may be another night in Green Turtle though.

Sound Waves Out