Prop repaired on the Cumberland River

We had a great couple of days at Green Turtle Bay Marina using facilities at the resort. We had a number of firsts for us on the Loop….first time on the Cumberland River/Lake Barkley, first time sharing a Loop closure with “Our Turn” as they crossed their wake here, first use of a marina courtesy car (twice!), first Looper party aboard our boat, hosting 9, first reprovisioning stop of our loop, first use of a courtesy golf cart, first time Vaughn has ever been in or driven a golf cart too!! Lots of new experiences being had…..

As far as our damaged running gear, on the recommendation of a fellow Looper (Lorenzo on L’l David) we checked our motor mounts and shafts. The motor mounts looked fine and the shaft was checked with a meter that Lorenzo had. Variance could be 10 to 15 thousands and we were at 1 so the shaft was likely true. I’d checked the strut bolts while underway and they seemed fine with no unusual vibrations.

So the recommendation was to dive on the prop rather than pull the boat out of the water. A diver is a slip holder at GTB and was a friend of Bill on Our Turn. We asked the marina for contact info and they informed us they would not allow the dive to be done in competition with them. So we contacted Billy who agreed to pull the prop at anchorage. We anchored nearby and Billy rafted his boat next to us.

Billy was kind enough to loan me a tank since I had all the other SCUBA equipment on board TWINS. On his first dive, Billy noted that one prop blade was cupped from it’s encounter with the branch at Hoppies. But he also said he could not use his puller since we have line cutters on our boat. (too difficult to remove underwater since there are lot’s of small parts). But again, Billy just bent the curl back out of the prop and hammered it smooth. We both believe that this will fix the vibration problem above 1200 RPM and we’ll check it out at WOT when we leave the anchorage in a few days….it needs a carbon blowout anyway!

So, the bill from Billy was $25 and he wouldn’t take more…..we’re having a bottle of Makers Mark delivered too!

Lake Barkley is calm now with an occasional Tow pushing coal. Birds fishing the shoreline…nice spot for a break! I now have fishing license in hand. Keeping an eye on IKE, ….yikes after our hit from Gustaf.

We are anchored in a very nice anchorage at Nickel Bay. It’s on the LDB just after the Barkley Canal on Barkley Lake. It is at about MM 33.4 on the Cumberland and should be one of the anchorages on any loop list. It’s after Green Turtle Bay Marina and a nice place to lay up and fish (3 bass for folded dinner last night!) with good depths all the way up past the two charted Islands to starboard. We can see the Barkley Dam (lights at night) about 3 miles away to the NNW and can see up the Cumberland about 4-5 miles through the cut between the mainland and the oval Island. Deep water in 15-17’ with lots of room to swing.

A few coal tows but no wake or roll to speak of. Protected from all but NNW winds. Lots of blue and white Herons and a whitetail buck came out on the beach today. Some local fishing boats but not bad (might be busier on weekends??) and we had one neighbor come in after dark.