Quiet Time on Sugar Bay, Kentucky Lake

Days on cruise:  179

We’ve spent the past two nights at a beautiful anchorage, sitting out the weather (rain) and handling a variety of personal business issues. When we’re driving the boat or socializing with friends from home or Loopers, it’s hard to find time to attend to any business, so this is a good opportunity to get caught up. Among other things, we’re doing research to get Bob signed up for Medicare as he turns 65 soon. Please feel free to email us or comment here if you have advice to offer on this subject.

There continue to be lots of animals here: jumping fish, birds, deer, turtles. We’ve been the only boat in this bay other than a couple small fishing boats passing by. It’s very quiet except for the night noises, which we presume to be bugs of some sort, crickets or other? Loud and lovely.

Today we heard news that again reinforces how glad we are we cancelled our trips to Seattle and Houston early this month and raced on down the rivers. We couldn’t have foreseen this one. The Chain of Rocks Lock (photo above), also called Lock 27 on the Upper Mississippi River, developed a breach in a portion of its’ structure and is now “closed indefinitely”. That might mean only a day or two, or it might mean longer. That remains to be seen. But in any case, had we gone on our Seattle-Houston trip, we’d be approaching Chain of Rocks Lock today, only to find it’s impassable and we’d be stuck watching the river water levels drop. We continue to feel very fortunate.

The Chain of Rocks Canal and Lock allow boats to bypass a section of the Upper Mississippi that is otherwise impassable due to rapids. We have Looper friends still north of there, including some still in Chicago, and we ardently wish for them a smooth, uneventful journey down the rivers.

We plan to stay put in this anchorage one more night before returning to Green Turtle Bay marina tomorrow to pick up friends from Seattle who will arrive to spend time with us. We thought we’d move to a different anchorage today, but the weather forecast calls for winds 15-20 mph for the rest of the day, with gusts 25-30 mph, and this Bay is well protected and secure, so we’ve decided to stay. Mary and Agnes: if you’re reading this, the forecast for your stay is much better.