Maybe we should add a little something to our blog. Our short term plan. Many know that we’re planning on doing The Great Loop beginning this fall. However, for the summer, our plan is to spend it at Green Turtle Bay Resort in Grand Rivers, KY. This marina is on Lake Barkley, which is actually on the Cumberland River. The Land Between the Lakes is formed by Lake Barkley (part of the Cumberland River) on its east side and Kentucky Lake (part of the Tennessee River) on its west side. There is a small, man-made channel that connects these two lakes to ease transiting between them. We will be traveling north on the Tennessee River, and will cut through this channel to get to Grand Rivers, KY, where Green Turtle Bay is located.
We left the marina in Florence, AL, on Thursday morning, 07/02/20, traveled under the Natchez Trace Parkway bridge (over which we’ve driven many springs in the convertible) northward toward Aqua Yacht Harbor, which is on Lake Pickwick (part of the TN River) at Iuka, MS, not far from the northern end of the Tombigbee Waterway, which connects the TN River to the gulf of Mexico. Many loopers stop at Aqua Yacht Harbor, as it is right on the loop itself. About 14 years ago, when we lived in Collierville, TN, east of Memphis, we were introduced to the world of sailing on Lake Pickwick, itself, and slipped several different sail boats at Aqua. We made many dear friends during our time on Pickwick, belonging to the Pickwick Sailing and Cruising Association while we were there. We’d hoped to hook up with some of those friends when we came through Aqua this time, but we erroneously timed our 4-day stay for the 4th of July holiday weekend, and also with very short notice to our friends, so we missed them this time. We plan to stay at Aqua again on our way to the AGLCA loopers rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park this fall. We will then give our Aqua friends greater notice of our plans, so hopefully at least some of them will be free to meet up with us. Our trip from Florence to Aqua took us about 5 hours and couldn’t have been more pleasant. The water was smooth as glass, there was very little traffic, and the skies were mostly sunny; the humidity a bit on the lower side. All the popup thunderstorms that had been plaguing us earlier in the week stayed to our south the entire day. We did not have to traverse any locks on this travel day, which was just fine with Gilligan (aka Kristin)! In fact everything went so swimmingly (not literally, of course – we did both manage to stay onboard this trip) on this leg, that the travel time just flew by. We both enjoy this boat the most when it is underway and conditions are stellar. We arrived at Aqua about 2:30 pm on Thursday. We were pleased to learn that Aqua had an actual transient slip available for our stay, rather than out on the transient wall. We entered our slip and tied up with very little effort. A small marina store and a restroom are literally right next to our boat, which is convenient! However, we quickly noticed a list of pros and cons about this particular slip, which I’ll list here. PROS: 1) proximity to marina store and restroom for convenience, 2) transients are positioned on the most eastward dock, so we had THE BEST view of the fireworks the night of the 4th, 3) our slip is not covered, which means far fewer spider-droppings to accumulate all over the outside of the boat overnight, 3) we are literally right beside the fuel docks, which provides us with both convenience and a never-ending parade of boaters/people to watch from our salon windows! 4) Pickwick is a beautiful lake with sunsets and scenery to dazzle any nature lover. 5) We were able to park our personal vehicle on a nearby parking lot for easy use and errand runnings as needed. CONS: 1) proximity to marina store, restroom and fuel docks, which means absolutely no privacy or quiet at any time (specifically on a holiday weekend – DUH!), 2) transients are positioned on the most eastward dock, which means we are right beside all the holiday weekend comings and goings of boats in and out of Aqua to and from Lake Pickwick, so our boat has not stopped rocking from wakes ever since our arrival 3 days ago, AND the marina store’s outside lights stay lit 24/7, so our aft berth is brightly illuminated throughout the night. (We finally eliminated this problem by taping dark green bath towels to the outside of our aft berth windows on the third and fourth nights of our stay here – ingenious!). 3) The other side of our slip is occupied by a lone boater in a large, beautiful Jefferson trawler who likes to play his music at TOP VOLUME, so that our entire dock can “enjoy” his music, whether we wanted to hear it or not. (Until 9:15 pm at night, when we finally expressed some frustration, which prompted him to end his concert.) Oh, AND the roof on the docks next to us completely blocks our satellite TV signal, so we can’t watch any TV at all. None. (Oops – lesson learned for the future!)
Position for this visit: N 34°59.502, W 88°14.831
Distance traveled: 37.9 Nautical Miles
Total distance traveled: 58.9
Time underway: 5:12
Total time underway: 8:46
Total marina nights: 7
Total nights at anchor: 0