On to Little Rock: Pickwick Lake to Kuttawa, KY

Kuttawa, KY doesn't sound to me like it is the short way from Pickwick to Little Rock and if you are thinking that too, your right. I'm not prone to remembering dates or most anything for that matter but I remember getting to Kentucky Lake on the Tennessee River. I am sure I've never see such a gathering of boats, really big boats. I had a couple of Mobile Bay crossings under my belt at that point and I would liken the roughness of the lake to one of my more memorable crossings. The wave action generated by the yachts and a passing summer thunderstorm made the arrival one I would not soon forget. There was one other small memory that hung around for a while, the one about the marina giving my reserved slip to another "local" boat. I'm sorry Mr. Hemphill, we don't have a slip for you. One of our young staff members rented it to someone else. I'm now sitting in the middle of Kentucky Lake with a "capping" four foot surface and a cell phone signal that looked like a flat line in the emergency room... oh yeah, the date, I almost forgot, July 4, 2003. I opened my trusty Quimby's and started calling marinas to look for a slip I could get for a month's layover; remember its the fourth. My calls worked their way around Kentucky Lake and across the canal to Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River and into Kentucky. I finally located a berth for my month's stay at Kuttawa Marina in, yes, Kuttawa, KY. I'm actually glad, now that its over and I'm writing about the experience, that I was forced thirty miles or so Northeast on the Cumberland and off course because it's a beautiful river that I would have never seen. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to cruise it again someday. It would be neat to cruise down to Nashville anchor downtown or out at the Grand Ol' Opry and enjoy a couple of weeks of slow living and country entertainment. Now that I am safely birthed and fed, Kuttawa Marina has a wonderful restaurant and great burgers but as I recall it not "wet" except for the boat slips (bring you own whisky). I had arranged to be picked up way over on Kentucky Lake but as it turned out, as car management usually does on a cruise, my driver had to negotiate about seventy-five land miles and a couple of "lost and found" experiences before arriving at the quaint little village of Kuttawa. I didn't mention this in the beginning but this part of the trip was my only solo cruising experience. I know its not a good idea but sometimes it becomes necessary and besides I wanted to see if I could negotiate locks, stay between the markers and not scrape off the running gear on some of the all manner of flotsam found on our inland waterways. It turned out fine; I think I'll go for a solo Atlantic crossing.