Our goal today was to explore many of the coves around Lake Cumberland, looking for waterfalls, have lunch at the Wolf Creek Marina, and eventually wind up at the Jamestown Marina to feed the turtles and go shopping. There were hardly any other boats on this incredibly big, wonderfully beautiful lake - the children are all in school now and the families have returned home.
An actual, certifiable neophyte at boating, I am, but I caught on quickly to helping with untying the ropes that keep the boat tied to the dock and jumping on the boat quickly to avoid falling in the water while the Captain, Pam, backed the boat out of the dock.
We went very slowly at first. I thought it was rather nice, that it was all the speed that the boat was capable of attaining. Wrong! After passing the white buoys (plastic things floating in the water that look like big milk bottles) marking the 'no wake zone', as Pam explained to me, she revved up the motor and we flew! FYI: if you're an ignorant boater like me, 'no wake' has nothing to do with sleep. It means the boats have to go really slow so they don't make waves to bump the big, expensive boats in the marinas or even damage the marinas themselves.
 |
| Inside the marina it is cool and dark. |
We drove around many different inlets, or coves. I can post photos and could even take a video for you but I couldn't capture the refreshing pure scent of the lake and the heady sweet smell of the wildflowers. The various rock formations were interesting, with much black slate but mostly tan and whitish limestone. We would have liked to have grabbed some of the interesting pieces of driftwood.
There were no active waterfalls but several times Pam turned the motor off when we saw wet cliffs. We could hear the water dripping but it wasn't enough for a waterfall.
 |
| Lake Cumberland is our private lake today. |
|
 |
| The Wolf Creek Marina, restaurant, gift shop, and boat filling station. |
|
The Marina at Wolf Creek looked brand new. A clerk said it had recently been renovated. An attendant filled up the boat's gas tank (I helped tie the boat to the dock!). Then Pam and I ate a fine fish lunch at the Fish Tales Restaurant. I had a fried cod sandwich and Pam ordered fish tacos. We both had the french fried sweet potatoes. Yum!
 |
| Pam in front of the Fish Tales restaurant. |
|
At the gift shop afterwards, I was a big spender for souvenirs. I bought two green palm-tree-shaped can openers, one for Pam, one for me, at the exorbitant price of $1.50 each. It rained while we were eating, then stopped when we finished our meal. We wouldn't have cared if we got wet - it was warm and we were having fun!
Pam found her favorite island for swimming. It is green with grass, treeless, and fairly flat. We will try to go swimming there tomorrow.
 |
| Pam's Favorite Island in Lake Cumberland. |
It was a long way to the Jamestown Marina. Pam said it was a lot closer to boat there than if we had driven the winding roads. Compared to the Pleasant Hill and Wolf Creek Marinas, the Jamestown Marina is huge. The city of Jamestown has built a good-sized lodge on the hill behind the marina.
 |
| The large Jamestown Marina. |
|
It was harder tying up the boat to the pier here. At one point, Pam warned me, "Jan, DON'T fall between the boat and the dock!" We shopped at the store. I bought a blue glass Christmas ornament shaped like a fishing float. To the rear of the store, outside, is the Turtle Feeding Station.
 |
| The Turtles expected to be fed before we dropped in anything! |
|
Near the Turtle Feeding Station are dispensers of the appropriate feeding pellets. They crawled over each other to get the pellets first! There was one very big (2 feet long? 3 feet?) catfish vying with the turtles for food. They usually won but the big blue fish gulped several pellets.
 |
| City of Jamestown Lodge, Lake Cumberland. |
|
We drove around the various sections of the marina. There was one sailboat among the big and bigger boats, some even three levels tall. We noticed that most were from Kentucky and Ohio but several came from the State of Florida.
 |
| The Lone Sailboat at Jamestown Marina. |
|
The trip home didn't seem as long as the trip going to the farthest Marina. The sun came out and the water sparkled. There were several passing boats and we waved to them.
 |
| The boat creates a nice wake behind us at top speed! |
|
At the treehouse home, we were tired and grabbed a cold drink before a simple dinner of the rest of the zucchini soup and toast. A few TV cops-and-spies shows and we were ready for bed. All the good guys won.
No comments:
Post a Comment