October 15-16, 2013 Green Turtle Bay Marina in Kentucky

We're still enjoying the marina here.  We wont be leaving until Thursday.  Seems my mail delivery calculations neglected to take into account Columbus Day so we have to stay an extra day .  Oh well.

Downtown Grand Rivers

Over the weekend we went to the Grand River Fall Harvest festival.   Small town celebration.  No rides but many tents set up selling all manner of trinkets and other odd's and ends.  

Adopt a pet

They had a dance club of older adults doing all these dance things to country music.  And much to Mary's delight there was an "Adopt Me" area setup where cats and dogs were on display to tantalize those looking for pets.  No, we didn't but it was close.  We hung around long enough for Mary to sample two hot dogs before leaving to go back for drinks in a different gazebo with the other boaters in our group.

Dance Club dancing

Next morning we met with Dennis, a friend of Bob's who gave us lunch and a three hour talk on what to expect down the river all the way to Panama City.  Very helpful.  It seems this segment of the Loop will be yet another challenge once we get further south out of the Tennessee River.  Very desolate areas on the Tombigbee River and there are only sparse facilities and anchorages are few and far between.  But at least we have the proper charts and weather is looking good into next week.  

The fall colors are just barely recognizable but its still warm here.  We discovered a little cove a few miles from the marina while exercising the dinghy and so went for a swim with Jeff and Judy from Just Fakin it.  Went again the following day too!

Grand River is about a mile walk from the marina at it has a post office, and sparsely stocked IGA grocery store and an ice cream stand which is closed most of the time.  I seem to draw the attention of the many pet cats around here.  So I stop and pet them.  Did I mention Mary is allergic to cats. :-) 

Patties

We went to dinner at the local favorite, Patties.  Its the home of the 2 inch pork chop.  Yes I ordered it and  took me 2 days to eat the darn thing.  And it was was really, really good too!  Alas I wish I had a picture.

We've been working on trying to find a fuel leak since I discovered diesel in the bilges yesterday.  I think its a result from over filling the tanks when we fueled the day we pulled in here.  It's not a large amount at all but identifying the source is important.  So the search goes on in small and dark recesses looking for drips or trying to smell the fumes.

As of today (Sunday) no more fuel leaking into the bilge so worries of a tank breach are greatly diminished.  I'm almost convinced the leak occurred at the point where the fill tube joins the tank.  Hose clamps I suspect need to be tightened.

Had a planning / cocktail party aboard again tonight (Wednesday)  for our 4 boat flotilla (one member is away and we have since recruited another looper to temporarily fill the vacancy).  We decided on something but no one quite recalls the details.  We'll figure it out tomorrow morning at the fuel dock.

Our mail, which was supposed to arrive today, didn't.  We leave tomorrow so Mary is going to discuss alternatives with the marina staff tomorrow morning.  I really don't want to linger here another day .

We are once again planning to be on the move before 9 am for an anchorage about 30 miles away.  We'll see how this all pans out.