The lockmasters control our destiny

Our last few days before hitting Kentucky Lake have been controlled by the locks and when we can get through them.  From Hoppies there is a long run with no fuel, showers, or provisioning for the 203 nautical miles to Kentucky Lake. On that stretch there is a series of 3 locks: Olmsted, lock 53, and lock 52.  Olmsted is under construction (it will eventually replace 52 and 53) and sometimes requires pleasure craft to have an escort through it.  52 and 53 are in terrible condition and have had many down periods during the last several months.  Shortly before we arrived 52 was down for about 10 days and there was a backlog of over 200 tows with their barges waiting to get through.  Luckily by the time we got there pleasure craft were being put through in between the barges so the wait was minor.  (a few days after we went through it was shut down again for almost a week). Locking through 52 and 53 was terrible and we could easily see why they were being replaced.

We elected to not tie up to the bollards but float in the lock instead which
was a lot of work as there were 6 pleasure craft in the lock all doing the same thing.

 After a stay in Paducah (a wall to tie to but no bathrooms, showers, or fuel) we had to decide if we were going to arrive at our next stop (Green Turtle Bay) via the Cumberland River or the Tennessee River.  Loopers are advised in the guidebooks and by Fern at Hoppies to take the Cumberland route.  It is 25 miles longer but the Kentucky lock on the Tennesse river is well known for long delays - sometimes upwards of 8 hours.  Given that we are a slow boat (we cruise at 5.8 knots - about 6.6 miles per hour) and going against the current makes us even slower we decided to chance it and take the Tennessee route after calling the Kentucky lock to find out about likely conditions that day.  Our gamble paid off.  Kentucky was the first lock on our entire trip where we had no wait.  The doors were open for us and we drove straight in.  We arrived at Green Turtle Bay before any of the other Loopers who had been tied up to the wall in Paducah with us the night before.  I think this will be the only time this happens on the whole trip! A couple of other boats we have been traveling with (Darwin and Wrangler) radioed us after we left and asked how it was going for us so they also came up the Tennessee and beat the odds. I'll have to remind them they owe us a beer!