Integrity Cruise

Day 158: Kenlake State Part to Bass Bay, Kentucky

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Day 158: Saturday, September 24th: This morning Ruth decided to take the marina's courtesy car to the nearby Super Wal-Mart for groceries. While she did that Bill worked on web site logs.

Concerns about hurricane Rita possibly destroying the Texas refineries have had a significant impact on the availability of diesel fuel in this area. While some marinas are already out of fuel, the one we were in, Kenlake Marina, still had some. Our Looper friends on Butterfly Suite pulled in and filled up since the big marina to the north, Green Turtle Bay was out of diesel. We decided to fill up also and that turned out to be a good move.

We left the marina about noon and cruised south up the southern part of Kentucky Lake, a.k.a. the Tennessee River. It was another very hot day, but pretty, with a breeze out of the southeast. We could see Butterfly Suite and Island Magic about six miles ahead.

Later in the afternoon we came to the bridge that takes Interstate 40 across the lake. This was the second bridge we saw since entering the lakes four days ago:

A few miles farther south we came to the bridge that once took the Louisville and Nashville railroad across the lake. The bridge has been abandoned and a whole section removed. It looked like the "bridge to nowhere":

Now this is sort of funny. When the dams were built at Kentucky Lock and Dam and at Cumberland Lock and Dam, they flooded much of the rivers' valleys. One concrete loading dock and warehouse near the old riverbank was flooded. Multiple attempts to demolish it failed so officials decided to just leave it. Here it is in all its damaged glory - including the interior staircase:

We had our eye on a well-protected bay to anchor for the night. It was called Bass Bay and was full of jumping bass but few fishermen. We dropped the hook in a quiet corner. There was nothing around this area - no towns, highways, railroads or development we could tell, other than the fish camp in the distance of this picture. There was also zero cell phone signal:

We had heard friends aboard Roy El, Butterfly Suite, Windless and Sonsie, as well as Island Magic discussing their local anchoring plans, but none took time to wend their way into Bass Bay with us.

Hot as it was, Admiral Ruth decided to cool off with a beverage and a book:

Later we captured the impressive sunset. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight..":

Position tonight: N36 16.319 W087 58.308

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