9/27 We left the Little Diversion creek heading to an area by Olmsted Lock that Fern (from Hoppies) recommended for anchoring. Unfortunately, we were told by the Lock-master that it was unsafe and he would not let us anchor there. So we continued on to a very nice anchorage 50 yards off shore by Bean Creek. It was about 2 hours further and we arrived shortly before sunset. The anchorage was calm and had fewer mosquitos than other places we had stayed. I jumped in the river after the anchor was set, it felt great. The temperature has been in the mid to high 80’s. I then took a shower had a beer and dinner. Karen’s been getting very creative with the meals she’s cooked. We had a smoked sausage combination with some leftovers from previous days. Very good eating.
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| Only took going to another state to land a nice Catfish. |
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| Karen's cool down room. |
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| Sunset at Cumberland Towhead Island. |
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| Early Morning Fog |
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| Leftover Fog |
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| Beautiful Cumberland River |
9/28 We left Bean Creek for a short day on the water and all was going well until we hit Lock 52 on the Ohio River. Karen and I had been planning what we were going to do with all the extra time we’d have at the anchorage. Karen was going to clean Last Mango, I was going to change oil. We had been patiently waiting about 40 minutes when several other Loopers boats arrived. During the next 2 1/2 hours I learned another truism of life. Like “Don’t spit into the wind, Don’t yell bomb on a plane”. The boater version of this is “
Don’t piss off the Lock-master”. One of the Looper boats that pulled up was a beautiful 45 foot blue hulled power cruiser. The 2 older men on the boat waited patiently with everyone else but then started questioning the Lock-master about how long the delay would be. OK, no problem! We all wanted to know how long it was going to take. Then the Lock-master asked them to move their boat so he could release a tow/barge out of the lock. They replied that their boat was fast enough to move if they felt it was necessary and “We could be in Chicago and back by the time that barge gets here”. The Lock-master stated in his southern draw “I appreciate your boat is fast but I can’t release
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| Entrance to the Cumberland from the Ohio |
this tow until you move”. They moved. They appeared to have more money than brains because they started making fun of and back talking the Lock-master on the radio. Karen and I had talked with them a little while waiting and they said they were from North Carolina. They sounded as though they were from Poland with thick eastern european accents.
Well, as time progressed the Lock-master continued to bring traffic from upstream down but not take any of the pleasure boat traffic. The Blue boat continued it’s occasional chatter to the Lock-master. Finally the Lock-master brought us into the lock. Karen told the locking crew to not blame us for the assholes on the blue boat. They chuckled, smiled and said they wouldn’t. This lock we’re now in was built in 1929 and I’m sure it’s slow but today at this moment it was really slow. The locking crew took all the time they could. Even after the lock was full they let us stay there for about 3 minutes before they opened the gate. Then they only opened one gate to slow down exiting traffic. While tied up Karen told the blue boat that they could go first since they were in such a hurry. They declined but sped past everyone as soon as they got out of the lock. One of the older men stated that he did not have any patients for this kind of thing. Karen’s gay-Dar went off after seeing the 2 men and their little dog (Not that there's anything wrong with that), mine did not. I made the comment that the gays we’ve know are much more polite than these two. Nevertheless we arrived at Cumberland Island anchorage in the daylight.
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| Karen Posing in the Cumberland Lock. It's Huge! |
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| Our Canadian Friends Waiting to Lock Through. |
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| Arrived and Green Turtle Bay. I guess I know how it got its name. |
We're at Green Turtle Bay. I give an update later.
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