Day 14 - Grand Rivers, KY to Paris Landing, TN

We stayed put a little later into the morning to compensate for the tough day we had yesterday.  Mary started off by stopping at a small grocery store while I went to the bank to get more cash. We still needed to get back to the marina, about a mile away, to square up with them regarding payment for docking the Blue Fin overnight. Knowing that the ships store opened at 8:00 we returned and were happy to be greeted by a friendly staff who understood our late arrival the night before and  still only charged us the minimum transient fee of $1.25 per foot of boat.  The Green Turtle Bay Marina is a top notch place and we took advantage of their on site cafe to eat a quick breakfast too. I stopped at their store to look for some gasoline drier to add to the tank that I believe was contaminated with water discovered in yesterdays Sna-Fu.  My hope was to be able to consume it while on the relatively gentle waters of Kentucky Lake where the risk of flooding and currents is non existent and the availability of help is high.

Main Street of Grand Rivers, KY
The Grand Rivers Inn on the right was our motel for the night.

Nice cafe at the Green Turtle Marina. Orange juice and an omelette were on the menu for the day.  

Our bikes and trailer taking a rest under a shade tree.
 They are proving to be very useful tools on our trip.

The road entrance to Green Turtle Bay Marina.

The boat entrance to Green Turtle Bay Marina.

The marina and the town of Grand Rivers are at the very northern end of Kentucky Lake. The lake is approximately 50 miles long but if you include the upper part of the Tennessee River it's closer to 100 miles and on average is about 5 miles wide.  It's a big body of water and based on the local chat it can be gentle or it can be a beast. Today our luck is good as the weather is warm and the winds calm. Smooth sailing is expected and I've noticed already that a departing gesture might be to say, "enjoy the water".  When on the Mississippi it was usually, "be careful". We got underway around 10:30 AM and first passed through the short canal that connects Barkley Lake to Kentucky Lake. Heading south I set out to find a place to beach the Blue Fin and give it a good wash down. Now that it's out of the Mississippi our efforts in washing it won't be wasted. There are many coves off the main channel and the second one we saw had a small gravelly beach with a slightly submerged strip of sand that we pulled up onto and it allowed us to walk fully around the boat. This was a perfect place to get out our wash mitten and scrub away.

The water is clear and warm.
Our Humminbird navigation chart has a built in probe on the underwater transducer that said the water temperature was 87 degrees. The air temp was about 95.

I couldn't help but take a side trip into this cove.
We camped here in our motorhome in 2008 and survived a memorable thunderstorm that caused us to evacuate to a concrete men's room for safety.  

Typical of the scenery along the eastern shoreline of Kentucky Lake.

We made it the full 50 miles from Grand Rivers to Paris Landing and in the process crossed the line between Kentucky and Tennessee. We are staying at the Paris Landing State Park Resort in TN and it is a busy and big place with a conference center and lots of programs going on. I'm sitting in the lobby and can hear the sound of a church group singing Amazing Grave at this moment in the lower level auditorium. This place is also handy because they have a marina as well as lodging. Mary was excited when she was escorted via golf cart from our boat to the lodge where our room awaited us.

View from our room.
We took a swim in the late afternoon but it was even too hot to sit around the pool. 

Tomorrow we continue on the Tennessee River and we'll try to make it 80 miles to get back to our required daily average.

And I almost forgot. The problem with the water in the gas seems to be solved.  I added a drier agent to the problem tank and ran on it even though the motor sputtered. After 10 minutes of operation I was able to clear out the water and then remaining gas burned normally until the tank was depleted. The tank has been refilled with fresh gas and tomorrow I'll use it briefly just to make sure it's OK and I can relay on it as a reserve.