Enjoying Our Time on Kentucky Lake

Day 135  | Pisgah Bay to Kenlake State Park  |  2 Hours  |  12 Miles 

It was another beautiful day on Kentucky Lake. With a short travel day ahead of us, we were in no hurry to leave the Pisgah Bay anchorage. Barry began work on our latest boat project -- mocking up a new shelf for my closet. We will take the template home in a few weeks, fabricate the piece in the garage, then bring it back with us for installation. I took the opportunity to catch up on some missed sleep on Fiberglass Beach.

At 11:00 we pulled up the anchor and about 30 pounds of mud along with it. The Rocna had dug in and held us tight all night ... and didn't want to let go without a fight. It took about 10 minutes to clean off all the mud and then we were on our way. We exited the old quarry and again marveled at the stone rock walls rising from the water's edge. There were a handful of folks out fishing and enjoying the summer-like temperatures in the upper 80s.

Once back in Kentucky Lake we came upon the Village of Buckingham (shown on the chart as multiple red squares). Buckingham was the most prominent community submerged by TVA's creation of Kentucky Lake back in 1944. Today, when the water is low, remains of foundations and streets are often visible just outside the channel. Today's water level is still a bit high so we cruised on by, content on watching the heron and the rock formations.

Even when the stone facades were absent, the dirt cliffs and cloud formations kept us interested. Our sense of peacefulness and enjoyment was then quickly ruined. Speeding up from behind at full-throttle, was a mega-yacht throwing out a massive wake. The line of three-foot breaking waves took aim at us and gave us a good rocking. Nothing went flying, except for a few choice words.

Our marina home tonight is part of Kenlake State Park. We found a few maps in the marina office and discovered that Kentucky Lake has a pretty cool logo. The bridge we passed under to enter the marina was an interesting design as well. We took a nice walk around the park, most of it on an abandoned cart path. Their 9-hole golf course was shut down a few years ago and turned into a 3-D archery course, meaning they put full-sized deer targets out there and shoot at them. The trees that lined the course are still stunning, but it was sad to see the rundown and overgrown fairways.

We'll leave in the morning with the goal of knocking out about 30 miles before dropping the anchor for the evening in Tennessee. It should be another clear and warm day. We will take advantage of the good weather while we can.