Green Turtle Bay

After locking through Barkley lake Lock we turned to our starboard and headed into Green Turtle Bay.

A GREEN TURTLE BEGGING FOR TREATS

 Oh what paradise!!! After being on the rivers for the past 3 weeks it is a JOY to be in this marina.

GREEN TURTLE BAY MARINA WHERE WE DECIDED TO TAKE A FEW DAYS AND RECOUP FROM THE RIVERS AND TRAVELLING A LONG DISTANCE. IT WAS ALSO A GREAT PLACE TO CATCH UP WITH FRIENDS AND MEET NEW ONES.

We have cable TV (something we didn’t think we missed until we turned it on and Gary got to watch NASCAR racing)
The grounds are lovely, there is a ship’s store, they have a courtesy car for us to use and there is the town of Grand Rivers just a mile away.

A TYPICAL LOOPER GET TOGETHER. COCKTAILS AND LOTS OF STORIES TO SHARE.

We went to dinner at the Centennial Yacht Club with old and new Looper friends.

The Loopers are people from all walks of life, we have met lawyers, pilots, cattle farmers, teachers and nurses. Some people are just taking a year off work to do the trip but like us, most of the Loopers are retired.

After a great dinner (my steak was so big I wasn’t able to finish it!!) we were happy to retire to bed after all the weeks of hard boating.

WHY NOT INDEED?

By the way: The county that we are in is a dry county. That means you can’t buy liquor anywhere!!! So if you go out to dinner you can take your own and they will serve it to you. It seems strange that in this day and age this old tradition (?) /law is still in place.

On Friday morning we got up and rode our bicycles into town. We explored the famous Patti’s restaurant. Behind the restaurant is a gorgeous garden with walking paths and a petting zoo and little tourist stores. It is hard for me to describe but the best way to put it is to say it is an “oasis”

THE PIES AT PATTI’S ARE A MILE HIGH!!

FUNHOUSE MIRRORS

 We decided to stop for lunch and because we knew we would be back for dinner sometime, so we decided on tea and pie. Gary had regular tea but I had, what the Southerners call, Sweet Tea. OH MY!!!!!! It is delicious!!!! It is like ice tea but better, It is sweet and cold with a little lemon in it mmmmm delicious!!!!!

MMMMMM SWEET TEA

We were so full afterwards

 And the PIE!!!!!! Patti’s is famous for their 2” pork chops and for their pies.  I had a coconut, pecan, banana pie and Gary had a chocolate pie with whipped cream!!!!!! It was incredible!! We were so full after the pie and I was all hyped up on sugar from the sweet tea, that when I got back to the marina I started the huge job of washing the outside of the boat.

Patti's Place

Also a wedding venue

Petting zoo - he felt sorry for them because they didnt have any
green stuff to eat

Butterfly bench

Patti's - Grand Rivers Kentucky

A Mary Kay Tractor??

Gary decided to do a maintenance check on the engines. We had recently noticed a lot of water in the bilge and all though a little water would be ok; this was way too much water to be ok.

After Gary got down into the engine room he noticed that the port engine’s raw water pump was leaking.  Upon further inspection it became evident that the bearings and impellor were completely failed. It was so close to breaking down completely, it could have happened in the next couple of miles. Fortunately Gray had brought a spare pump with us so he was able to install that one. We took the broken one to the mechanic at the GTB marina but figured out it wasn’t worth rebuilding so we placed an order for another one. It will now be our spare one.  It is always good to have spare pumps and parts, especially when things can break down anytime.

Gary also tightened the packing nuts on both output shafts because they were dripping more than usual.

So our nice relaxing day turned into a day of hard work but the boat was not only clean, it was back in excellent working order and I am pleased to say our bilge is bone dry J

Cocktails were enjoyed with MV Outta Here, a “go fast “boat. She goes 27 mph (compared to us at 7.5) and she uses 53 gallons per hour (compared to us at 3.26) So they get where they want to be a lot faster than us but it costs them more to get there….so as you can see there are many types of boats and people do the Loop in many different ways.

On Saturday we and the guys from MV Next to me and SV Kathryn went shopping. To do this we used the marinas courtesy van. We are still amazed at how cheap things are here compared to home so we tend to shop like there is no tomorrow.

THE CANAL BETWEEN BARKLEY AND KENTUCKY LAKES AS SEEN FROM A CAR.

In the afternoon I went to the spa and got a much needed pedicure. The evening was spent visiting with more new loopers and saying goodbye to some old friends.

Because we can only pick up our new part on Wednesday we decided it was the ideal time to take a side trip. So we are going to Nashville …. 320 miles there and back.

…………………………..TO BE CONTINUED