Green Turtle Bay (At Last!)

9-11-2024

The long transient dock at Green Turtle Bay

We left Paducah and decided to take the Cumberland River through the Barkley lock to arrive on Kentucky Lake and Green Turtle Bay Marina. This was another long anticipated stop on our loop. This Marina has a very good reputation for service and comfort, and we were not disappointed. After leaving Paducah, we journeyed a short distance upriver on the Ohio before entering the mouth of the much smaller Cumberland River. This was a very scenic and very rural river, which took us to the Barkley Lock. Unfortunately, we spent about three hours waiting to transit up through the lock because of barge traffic. We anchored below the lock and waited our turn. When we finally locked through, it was a very short and very scenic voyage to Green Turtle Bay Marina, where we tied up easily and without incident. The Marina has good dock help and a great ship store, but unfortunately, the restaurant there is permanently closed. However, we were able to rent a car from Hertz, which we used to explore the area and to make two daytime trips back to Paducah to see what we had passed up. The tropical storm did arrive on the day following ourarrival at Green Turtle Bay. There was one day of pretty good rain and moderate winds, but not quite near the weather disaster we feared.

Our friends on Et Cetera broke down coming through the Olmstead lock and had to go through a two day tow up the Ohio and Cumberland to arrive at Green Turtle Bay for an engine rebuild. What an experience. We took them out to dinner at Patty's, a local restaurant famous actually for really thick pork chops. We ate there several times as it was basically the only business in the small town next to the marina. Food was great and we enjoyed a relaxed and pleasant day in Green Turtle Bay. There were about 30 loopers who stayed or transited to Marina during our six day stay. We had an oil and filter change here and corrected the placement of the stair attachments before leaving.