Day 14 - Peaches — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, dock fee $58

Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, Ky is a dry county. That means they do not sell or serve alcohol in stores or restaurants. To circumvent the law you can bring your own alcohol to the restaurant and pay them for the set up. The set up costs are as follows, beer $1.00, mixed drinks $2.50, glass of wine $5.00. When you enter the restaurant you hand the bartender your bag of liquor and they keep it until you leave. We were at the Commonwealth Yacht Club for dinner last night. We were given visitor membership cards so we became members of a private club that could serve set ups for private alcohol. To make life easy for members the club has hundreds of small lockers in which members keep their own private stash of booze and do not have to bring it each time.

There was a special celebration at the yacht club last night. Lady KK crossed her wake in Green Turtle Bay. That means they completed their Loop adventure. It must have been frustrating after cruising over 7,000 miles to be so close yet so far when they were trapped below lock #52 all day yesterday. We finally met Larry and Sherry Dufraine of Lady KK. Their boat, a Viking 47, is three slips from us. We saw them being photographed with their “gold” Looper flag and dog “Peaches” yesterday afternoon and congratulated them at the club last night. Interestingly we also met some friends that were traveling with them in another boat, Carey and Nancy Cook, aboard the trawler LeeLoo. They departed from Racine (15 miles north of Waukegan) around the same time we departed from Waukegan. Carey and Nancy will attend the Looper Rendezvous in Alabama. Larry advised the problem with his boat was the anchor motor (windlass) and that Thursday they idled in place on the river all night because there was no place to tie up. At dawn they moved up-bound until their passage was blocked by the dam turbulence and that is why they tied up to the giant pylon at the casino because they could not anchor. Mystery solved.

Tony and Susan Forns joined us at noon. They brought an amazing care package of cured ham, cheese, grapes, bread and pastries. Thank you very much. We went to lunch at Patti’s in Grand River. Their signature dish is a 2 inch thick pork chop. It was amazing only to eclipsed by the desserts.
Carl ( Chef ) Wooden – nautical quote of the day.

It is not that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.”

Sir Francis Drake. Sea Captain.

The Commonwealth Yacht Club is in a dry county but they are cleverer.