6/9/2018- Saturday Grand Rivers Ky to Clarksville Tn

The day started early 4am for me since I’m still on eastern time and used to getting up at 5.  Coffee on the aft deck and a nice sunrise.  Plans were to shove off early for a pretty long haul (90 miles) up the Cumberland River.   Plans for the early departure were thwarted by trouble with the fresh water pump.  After checking the breaker, tracing where things were hot (getting electric) for over an hour, we eventually found that the issue was as simple as a bad ground.  Felt silly, but grateful it was simple and an inexpensive (free) fix!
We departed Green Turtle Bay (Grand Rivers Ky) at 9:15am and made our way south on Lake Barkley which is just a dammed section of the Cumberland River.  Lake Barkley is a very different lake than Kentucky Lake (the lake that runs parallel with Lake Barkely to form "The Land Between The Lakes").  On Lake Barkley you have to watch the channel markers carefully in order to avoid going into the flooded shallows and ruining a prop...or worse!   Midway down Lake Barkley we saw our first bald eagle of the trip perched on his/her nest on a stump in the middle of the lake.  No pic though....Renee wouldn’t let me slow down 🤣
After about 45 miles of twisting and turning through the channels of Lake Barkley the waters turn back into a true river.   Any choppiness or waves went away and it was smooth cruising!  For most of the remainder of the today it was almost solely fishing boats that we encountered (and a couple of barges).  Shortly after we were back on the true Cumberland River portion we saw what we at first thought was a log but then noticed it was swimming.  It turned out to be a raccoon swimming across the river.  Loving the wildlife!
After a quick stop to float, eat lunch, and swim to cool off (it was HOT...over 90 degrees) we continued upriver to our destination for the day/night, Clarksville Tn.  In Clarksville we were fortunate to find a municipal doc that is very nice and has electricity so that we could run our air conditioning....yay!  After docking and getting settled in we took the bikes off of the boat and took a ride along the riverfront through a very nice park and stopped to get ice cream! That’s right, we don’t make stops without getting ice cream 🤭 we found a little shop that was Mexican ice cream. Pretty yummy on a hot day. After the ride we came back to the boat, cooked dinner on the grill and here we sit blogging and watching towns people fish on the dock. We’re both pretty tired and I’m sure it’s going to be an early night. Plans are for Nashville and beyond tomorrow.
Sunrise at GTB...bikes look ready to cruise some river towns!
Aquaholic perched and ready to cruise
One more sunrise pic because....why not

The "Castle" aka the Kentucky State Penitentiary. Historical and wow it’s immense!

Fort Donnelson, civil war battlefield

The cannons are lined up facing the river to hold the union troops back....but they did not succeed

At home for the evening at the Clarksville municipal dock

The end of another wonderful day