ORE 10

Saturday

We had another great day on the river. Saw 5 more eagles.

I called the Smithland lock from about 2 miles upstream, and the lockmaster said bring it on in. No wait. So we were out at the entry to the Cumberland at 3 pm. Too soon to stop. So we decided to boogie up the Cumberland, and try to get into Barkley Lake. As we exited the lock, we could see John's J-34 motoring into Green Turtle Bay. I called him on the VHF, but no response. About ten minutes later, he returned my call. Someone else heard me on the VHF, and called John on his cell phone to tell him to call me back on the VHF.

He agreed to come over to Cow Bay and raft up again. So we traveled 99 miles yesterday.

By dark-thirty, we were tied up next to four sailboats, listening to John and his guitar.

Sunday

Saw wild turkeys walking along the shore this morning. Lots of wildlife this trip. Eagles and ospreys, deer along the banks. Beaver swimming by us at anchorages. Coyotes howling at night, jumping carp, and of course, snakes and frogs.

We're staying one more night, and then heading home Monday. It will probably take me a month to clean up the boat after Dawg and Rich.

Dawg (who has single handedly kept the Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer company in business the last 40 years) has beer hidden all over the boat. Every little nook and crannies has a PBR stashed in it. He did that on all the sailboats we used to race. I would try to limit the number of beers he could bring along, and of course he saw that as a challenge. So he hid them everywhere. We started calling them "joeys", because every time you opened a pouch, there was a PBR. Last month, at the Eagle Creek sailing club, Dawg was running low on beer. He walked down the dock to an S-2 7.9 that we had raced and I had sold 5 years ago searching for a "joey."

John took us out sailing today on his J Boat. Tonight we're headed back to coyote bay. We figure with Rich sleeping outside, the smell should draw more coyotes.