Once again we were up before sunrise and off the dock by 6:45. I’m sure I’ve seen more sunrises in the past month than I’ve seen in the past year!

We were the first ones off the dock and traveled again with our friends Muffie and Mark on their catamaran Catalyst following close behind. At least 6 other boats followed them out, but all of them were traveling at a much slower speed, so we didn’t see them again until they arrived at the marina about 5 o’clock.

We traveled about 10 miles on up the Ohio River, then turned into the Cumberland River. The Cumberland is very deep and much more narrow than the previous rivers, as well as more hills and rocky banks. There were a number of large gravel operations along one side. The machinery used in these operations is amazing!

   

Catalyst                                                             Heading into the Cumberland River

    

Certainly more picturesque than the previous rivers we’ve been traveling on

     

This was one of the largest gravel operations I’ve ever seen! The tires on this dump truck were probably as tall as I am.

Just before we got to the marina there was a lock, but instead of going down we went up!

We had not been able to get fuel in both tanks yesterday because the hose wouldn’t stretch far enough to fill the port tank. We thought we had more than enough for each engine if we transferred some fuel from the starboard tank to the port tank, but the fuel transfer pump didn’t work properly. We think it transferred fuel the wrong direction, so the port tank ran out of fuel just as we turned into the channel to the marina. Each engine has its own fuel tank, so that meant our port engine stopped running. Rich very skillfully managed to get the boat to the fuel dock on just one engine! After fueling, both engines started right up and we made it into our assigned slip.

We hooked up to shore power, took showers, and met our friends from Catalyst to check out the amenities. A ten minute walk took us to the Thirsty Turtle Tavern where we were able to get a drink that was layered frozen margarita and frozen sangria. Not only was it pretty but it was so tasty we had them half gone before I realized I should have taken a picture of it. We’re here for 5 nights so maybe we’ll get back there and have another and I’ll remember to take a picture. I did get a picture of an inlet off Lake Barkley from the yard beside the tavern.

There was a looper happy hour tonight, but we were so tired from the heat that we decided we couldn’t bear to go outside again  (The temp was 88 and the humidity 58%, with a feels like temp of 94 – my body hasn’t acclimated to that kind of heat and humidity yet!). We think there must be 15-20 looper boats here with at least one or two more coming tomorrow or Friday.

No sunset photos tonight – I was inside and didn’t have enough energy to get out to see it.