Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina in Grand Rivers, KY

Barkley Lock is 57 feet lift

9/23/19
     We traveled 45 miles on  the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers to get to Green Turtle  Bay Resort and Marina.   We had to go through the Barkley Lock and Dam, which has a 57 foot lift.  We just missed a lock through with some other pleasure boats, so unfortunately we had to  wait for a large barge and tow to go through ahead of us.  It took several hours for it to go through, painfully slow.  We just had to wait.  It took us 3 hours to get through this lock and the Green Turtle Bay marina was just around the corner.  It is a popular spot on the loop and we enjoyed catching up with some friends. 

Karl watching the wall

Part of the large barges, carrying sand 

The tow had to push the barges into the lock, then back out of the lock  because there was not enough room for it and the many barges it was pushing (probably about 12 barges)  This was quite a process!  The barges rise, then somehow get pulled out, the water has to recede again in the lock, then open up for us and the tow to get through.  That is why it all takes so long.  the tow has to connect and reconnect, etc.!  We finally got into the marina around 6:00 pm.  

Karl and Ashley's Wedding in Elkton, KY

Ashley Orr and Karl Hempel

9/21/19     Karl and Ashley's Wedding
 
      We rented a car and drove about 2 hours to attend Karl's nephew (and namesake's) wedding.  It  was in Elkton, Ky.  It was a  beautiful ceremony and a fun reception!  Karl and Ashley exchanged their own heartfelt vows and there was not a dry eye in the church!   We are so happy for them and it was so much fun to be with family and friends!  Karl is in medical school and will graduate next year!  Yes, there will be another Dr. Karl Hempel!  All the festivities, from the Friday night rehearsal dinner, the wedding and reception on Saturday and the Sunday morning brunch were perfectly planned to make everyone attending feel a part of this special occasion.

Evelyn, our granddaughter came!

Anne and Todd, our daughter and son-in-law

The reception was held in an old tobacco barn! A beautiful setting in Kentucky!

The happy couple

Evelyn danced the night away!

Karl and his brother, Rick got to run together Saturday morning

Paducah, Kentucky

Salty is happy to be in Kentucky and so are we!

9/16

     We  traveled 98 miles today on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to our next destination, Paducah,
Kentucky.  We are staying in the city dock with several other boats.  It is a favorite stop for Loopers.  Paducah is known as the "big" little town  and has a lot to offer to visitors.  We grew up in Lexington, Ky and went to school there, graduating from the University of Kentucky.  It is exciting to be back in our home state traveling on our boat.

Paducah Dock,  The large tall poles allows the dock to rise and fall with the water level

This is one of the sturdiest docks we have seen

     This marina is a floating dock.  That is important because the Ohio River often floods.  The marina is built to withstand the flooding,  which sometimes rises 50 feet.  The Ohio Valley flood of 1937 was the greatest natural disaster in the history of the US at that time.  The river rose 60 feet and most of the city was under water.  The damage was huge.  A 14 foot concrete  flood wall was constructed after that,  to protect the city.  The flood wall does block your view of the river, but it is understandable that it had to be built.   To  take away some of the ugliness, a series of 50 giant murals were painted on the wall, depicting the history of Paducah.   The scenes range from Native Americans, early settlers, Lewis and Clark expeditions, steamboats, barges, Civil War, the railroad industry, the history of the floods,  up until modern day.  It is fascinating to see.
 

Flood Wall Mural

Quilt

     We also visited the National Quilt Museum which was amazing!  People from all over the US and the foreign countries  visit  this museum  to view the finest  quilt and fiber art in  the world.   The quilts are stunning works of art with beautiful vibrant colors.  In addition to their permanent collection, they have traveling exhibits.  Karl and I were so glad we saw this amazing exhibit! 

Quilt

     We woke up to an invasion on mayflies.  thousands of them!  These are aquatic insects that resemble dragon flies.  They live in the wet mud and then hatch and emerge out of water, swarm around for about 24 hours,  mate and then die!  They caused a mess on the boats!

Mayflies

Mayflies

The Upper Mississippi River

Shore line of the Mississippi  River

9/14  Saturday
           It took all the patience that we could muster, because the day started with a 3 hour wait at the Melvin Price Lock.  We left the marina in the morning, traveling only a few miles and  contacted the lock master on the radio.  He said he had two Tows to lock through ahead of us.   They go in one at a time.  This is a large structure, 1200 x 110 feet and one barge filled up the chamber.  We put  our anchor down and waited.  It was lunch time before we finally got  through along with  a few other  pleasure boats.



Securing the boat line to a floating bollard

Karl making sure we are secured to the wall

        We are finally on the Mississippi River.  It is very wide, the water looks muddy and the currents  are strong and "swirly."  Fortunately the current is running in our favor, adding almost 4 knots to our speed, which helps with fuel economy.  We went through the Chain of Rocks which had a very swift current.  This is where the Mississippi River joins the Missouri River.  We encountered many tows with barges along the way, the most we have seen so far.  Karl got used to talking to them on the radio. 

Following a Tow Barge

        It was exciting to pass St. Louis, Missouri and see the famous Gateway Arch.  Surprisingly, there are no marinas or places to stop to visit St. Louis.  We are sorry to miss exploring  this big city.

St. Louis Gateway Arch

         We traveled a total  of 35 miles, but it took almost all day.  We pulled off the river into a small   tributary, the Meramec River,  to anchor  safely for the night, away from barge traffic.  It was a nice evening.

Our Anchorage

Saturday night  bonfire on the shore where  we anchored
We watched from the safety of our boat!

    
    

A Trip to Walmart !

We have seen many bald eagles

9/12

      We traveled 80 miles today from La Grange Lock to Grafton, IL. It was  hot, another 100 degree day,  but thankfully  we did  not have  to go through any locks.  We used the marina's courtesy van to make a trip to Walmart.  This got me thinking a little, we have rarely gone shopping at any big stores like Walmart in the past 9 months while on the Loop.

Our ride to Walmart! A 20 passenger very old van! No air conditioning for this 25 minute  ride.

      I have realized that we can live without a lot of stuff.  Karl and I had a nice conversation about how we thought things were  going at this point of  our adventure.  We both agreed on several points:  Patience is a virtue and this certainly has been proven over and over again!   Kindness goes a long way!  We can live with each other for 24/7 and still be in love and have grown together during this trip. We  work well as a team, bringing our individual strengths together to make  things  work.  The best of plans can go awry due to unforeseen circumstances, again have patience.  We have been dealing with all kinds of new situations, some out of our comfort zone, almost on  a daily basis, so we have gained confidence in our skills and abilities.  We  have learned a lot about ourselves.  We still enjoy each other's company!  Basically, we have fun together and make each other laugh!  We have a way to go, but  we are looking forward to this part of the journey.

   
9/13
    We traveled from Grafton to Alton, IL today, a short trip of about 20 miles.  This is the last place to get fuel before arriving in Paducah, Ky.  We filled the diesel tanks up! This is the start of the mighty Mississippi River!  We rested up in the afternoon, enjoying the air conditioning.

"See You on the One!"

9/11-9/12                   Hot Days on the Illinois River

     We traveled about 80 miles today, starting at 6:30 am.  It was unusually hot, hitting 100 degrees!  We traveled with BIG (Sandy and Greg) and Paraiso (Chris and Janet).  We got through  the Peoria Lock without any problem.  We ended the day going through the last lock on the Illinois River, the La Grange Lock.  We waited a little over an hour to lock through.  It was around 6:30 pm, so we all decided to anchor behind the Lock.  Sandy (and his dog) from BIG came over on  his dinghy to pick up Karl and Salty to take them to shore to walk the dogs. What a relief for them!

A typical Tow pushing multiple barges

Barges carry petroleum, corn, grain, soybeans 

Giving this barge plenty of room! By the way  these last few pictures are of the same Tow!

      We got a little more comfortable talking on  the radio to the Tow captains.   First of all, they want to be called Tows, not Tugs.  It is best to identify them with our AIS system.  The vessel's name, length, speed  and  heading will show up on the plot finder with AIS.   Karl can call them on channel  13 to ask "permission" to pass or overtake and to ask which is the preferred side to go by them.  The tow captain  will answer, "See you on the one (whistle)" which means turn starboard or "See you on  the two (whistle)"  means port.  These are called whistle signals from the days when that was the only communication they had, before radios.  The captains usually do not say whistle, just see you on the one or see you on  the two.  Listening to the captains speak to each other over the radio is very interesting.  They use a lot of slang and are hard to understand, almost like they have their own language.
 
     We cooked hamburgers on the grill and enjoyed the quiet and stillness of the night.  The moon was beautiful. 

Hamburgers on  the grill

Almost a full moon

Relaxing after a long day on the river

 

Illinois Waterway

Railroad bridge opening

9/7/19

     We are starting on the next leg of this journey, traveling down the inland rivers and lakes, a trip of about 1300 miles from Chicago to Mobile, Alabama.  This will be a big contrast to the open water of Lake Michigan.  We will encounter new challenges:  navigating among tow/ barge traffic, locking through huge locks, passing industrial areas along the river banks, avoiding debris in the waterway and dealing with strong currents.  Marinas are far and few between, which adds to the planning of where we go each day, searching for a good anchoring spot..  We are somewhat worried about what lies ahead, but ready to accept the challenges with a positive attitude.  We will be passing through a series of 8 locks on  the Illinois River.

Passing industrial area in Chicago

     Today we left  Chicago and entered the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.  Just the name of this area sounds pretty crummy and intimidating!  We made it through the first lock, TJ O'Brien lock without any problem.  We passed under several bridges and passed by a lot of barges, making our way  to our next big challenge:  going under the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Bridge.  This is the make or break point of any of the Looper's trip.  We have to get under a fixed bridge of 19'7" height, the lowest fixed bridge on the Great American Loop.  If we can't make it under, we would have to turn around and go back home the way we came!  We knew we would be close, even by taking down all the antennas and  lowering our anchor light.  I went out on  the bow to view it, Karl slowly cruised under while I held my breath,  and we made it!

Electrical Barrier

     The next obstacle was getting through  an electrical barrier designed to prevent and slow the spread of invasive fish species into the Lake Michigan.  It is advised to wear your life jackets, keep all pets off deck and beware of "flying fish" that jump out of the water and can smack you in  the head!  Do not put your hands or feet in  the water!  We made it through, unharmed!

     The next hurdle was Lockport Lock, a 40 foot lock.  We waited about 4 hours to get locked through!  This was our first experience with a long wait time.   It was frustrating because we really did not understand why the lock master kept us waiting.   We ended up tying on to a large cement circular structure and cutting the engines and waited and waited.  Commercial barges have priority. Another pleasure craft  was traveling with us and we chatted with them on the radio.  We finally got through and got to our destination, Jolliet, Ill, about 7:45 pm, just as darkness was upon us.  We thankfully tied up  to a free wall, ate dinner on the boat and went to bed exhausted!
   

Rainy morning

Marseilles  Lock

Dinner

9/8 
     It was  raining when we woke up.  We noticed  that most  of the boats that were tied to the wall were making preparations to get under way.  Our new friends, Chris and Janis on Paraiso suggested that we all leave together to go as a group through the next series of locks, giving us more power by numbers to get through the locks!  We traveled with 6 boats.  We waited for  2 hours to get through Brandon Lock.   We got through the next lock, Dresden Island Lock fairly quickly.  The big lock of the day was Marseilles Lock. The Army Corp of Engineers are repairing this lock, so it is restricted to pleasure crafts from locking through except for certain time periods, 6:00 am in the morning  or 6:00 pm in the evening.  They will only allow a limited number of boats during this time!  We  arrived at 4:30 pm with our 6 boats and notified the lock  master.  He said  to just "hang out" and wait and he would lock us through at 6:00 pm.  Luckily all went smoothly.  We  went about 4 more miles and stayed at Heritage  Marina, a very nice place right outside of Ottawa, IL.  We  all met at the restaurant for drinks and dinner and swapping stories about the day!

Anchorage

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9/9 Monday
     After fueling up at the marina,  we found a great anchorage for the night a few miles from our  next big hurdle: the Starved Rock Lock.   This lock has restricted times for pleasure boats as well and  we decided to tackle it in the early 6:00 am!  Two other boats (BIG and Beyond Caring)  joined us at the anchorage  and we all talked  on  the radio discussing our best chance  of getting  through in  the morning, deciding to get up early, 4:00 am to get to the lock  in plenty of time.  Bedtime was 9:00 pm!

Approaching Starved Lock in the dark

Lock wall

Karl stays at the helm,  I handle the lines 

We tie up to a floating bollard, allowing us  to float down  with the descending water level while attached to the wall 

We were close to the back of the lock doors

9/10  Tuesday 
     Four o'clock am came early!  It was pitch dark when we pulled up the anchor and slowly made our  way down the river to the lock, our eyes adjusting to the dark.   We followed  the other two boats and we made great time.   We approached the lock at 5:00 am and the lock  master said to come on through! we could not believe our good luck!

      After locking through, we began to relax a little.   When the sun brightened up the day, the boat in  front of us  decided to go a little faster, passing BIG.  We followed, but just as we  were passing, a huge barge/tow rounded the corner.  The barge must have startled the boat in  front of us (Beyond Caring)  and he seemed to just stop like a deer in headlights!  The tow captain  got on  the radio and told Beyond Caring to move to starboard  quickly!   The boat started to go to port, then we were all on  the radio telling him to move out of the way to starboard!  He then started backing up with us behind him!  Wow, I could not believe it!  We were forced over out of the channel just to get out of Beyond Caring's way!   Endorphin Voyager got into shallow water and touched bottom, causing the starboard engine to go out.  We drifted a bit and started the engines back and slowly moved back in the channel. 

     We all learned lessons that morning!   Tows push barges on the river and some may be pushing 15 barges, which is about 1200 feet long  and very wide.  They can not turn or stop quickly!  We also learned you have  to communicate with the Tow captains at all times and know their position as well as your own.  Tows can cause a lot of turbulence in  the water, too.  You have to be very cautious when approaching, passing, or overtaking a Tow.  They always take preference on the river!

Sun  Rise

     I spotted 2 bald eagles sitting on a branch beside the river.  Later we saw hundreds of white pelicans and saw more eagles flying.  We  traveled about 64 miles today and pulled into the Illinois Valley Yacht Club close to Peoria.  Sandy, captain of BIG invited us and the crew of Beyond Caring over for dinner that night.  It was delicious.