Reunion Voyage: Bean Branch Creek to Green Turtle Bay

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Bean Branch Creek to Green Turtle Bay

Our next hurdle was Lock 52, last week I counted 49 tows in the que to transit the lock. Some had been waiting for 3 days. The Army Corps of Engineers is working to repair the locks, they have one 1200 foot lock and one 600 foot lock. Most tows are 15 barges, 3 wide by 5 long, each barge is 35 feet wide by 195 feet long. So 5 long by 195 feet plus the tow measures about 1200 feet. By the way, 1200 feet is about a quarter of a mile, yes the barge tows are a quarter of a mile long. Today the 1200 foot lock was closed and all traffic was moving through the 600 foot lock. We discussed with the lockmaster last night a good time for all the recreational boats to meet at the lock and decided 8:00 would work for everyone. So we departed our anchorage at 6:00 in the dark and all arrived at 8:00, 8 recreational boats. The lockmaster decided he would lock down one more tow before us. He estimated 1 1/2 hours for the process of putting in half of the 1200 foot tow, locking it down, pulling out the first half with a helper tow, refilling the chamber, and locking down the second half. Well, 2 1/2 hours later we began to enter the lock, disappointing!

Because of the slow locking procedure, we decided to anchor yet another night at the Cumberland towhead island and knew it would be a short day ending about 1:00. As we progressed, we calculated our progress, called the Barkley Lock and decided we could make the Lock by 5:00 still giving us 2 hours of daylight to lock through and make Green Turtle Bay. And so it is that we are now comfortably docking at GTB. A long day 6:00 AM until 6:00 PM on the water. Good supper tonight at the Commonwealth Yacht Club Restaurant here at the marina.