We are head out again

Tuesday, June 10

Saturday I rode with the Kilanders to St Charles and picked up our van and drove back to GTB. The weather continued to be 76-77 at sun up with highs well into the 90s. Since we had no schedule we decided to stay plugged into shore power with the AC running. Had we left we would have had to run the generator all day to keep the cabin cool for the deck hands.

We had an e-mail from Chookie this morning to say they got home in time to see almost a foot of rain over Sunday Monday and he had to sandbag his house and has five pumps running. He is one of the lowest houses on Lac Labelle.

We had a little rain last night and the front finally dropped the temperature. 68 this morning with a light breeze. We will be pulling out later this morning and heading up Lake Barkley, the Cumberland river to Nashville then into Old Hickory Lake just above Nashville. We plan to leave the boat there and come home about the first of July. I am not sure when I will next have WIFI access so the posts maybe spotty the next couple of weeks.

When we were at Patti’s last week we walked their gardens after dinner. It was lovely but hard to see in the dark. Yesterday we were in town grocery shopping so we went back and walked the gardens in day light. The following are some of the pictures Diana took of the grounds.

Taking it easy (beating the heat)

Friday, June 6

After seeing the Kilanders off on Wednesday morning we had planned to go out and to a little exploring of Lake Barkley and spending a night at anchor before coming back in Friday afternoon. With the winds gusting over 30, high temperatures in the 90s and lows in the mid 70s all with a high dew point we decided to just stay securely tied in the slip with the air conditioning running.

The Kilanders went south from here to visit a friend, they are returning for the night tonight, and then tomorrow they will drop me in St Charles on their way home. I will drive our van back here so we have it available. Diana has opted to stay with the deck hands and do some painting rather than spend eight hours in the car.

We hope to be out of here Sunday afternoon or Monday morning. The forecast is for continued hot, but the wind should be diminishing. We will slowly make our way up Lake Barkley to Nashville and into Old Hickory Lake, then return to the Nashville area to leave the boat at the end of the month to return to Minnesota for awhile.

A Great Week with Good Friends

Lake Barkley

The picture of the Captain on the front deck and the back of the Delta Queen in this post are thanks to Charles (Chookie) Kilander.

Thursday, May 29

We started the day by walking up to Dockers, GTB’s little breakfast and lunch restaurant. We looked out over the harbor on a beautiful morning, mid 60s clear skies and calm winds. We had a good breakfast and as we were finishing the cook brought little plastic cups with samples of the pie filing she had prepared for the lunch pies she was baking, chocolate and peach cobbler. What away to finish a great breakfast.

We decide that we needed to get moving or we would never get out cruising, Ann and Diana went grocery shopping while Chookie and I repaired the rub rail damage from the lock. Thanks to Chookie it looks good again. Then we washed half the boat and the next half and the third half and final the last half.

With the groceries stored and the water tank full we were off about 1:00. We put the bimini up for some shade, still clear, calm and now in the 80’s. We cruised slowly up (south) the Cumberland River. The lake is high and the main channel is 50 to 60 feet deep with lots of water outside the channel so the driving was easy.

When Barkley Dam on the Cumberland and the Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee were building, (I believe it was early 50,s but I maybe off a little) it formed a long peninsula today known as the Land Between the Lakes. Today it is a National Recreational Area of something like 160,000 acres.

This was all done as one of the TVA projects. The government bought out and relocated the few subsistence farms in the area. This was not well received by most of them. They were happy living a rural life in the woods, growing what they needed, and for at least a few turning their corn into a more lucrative liquid product. The government 50 years ago did not recognize the great value of ethanol.

We cruised on up the lake with the LBL on our right and populate areas on our left. There are many old creek bottoms that are now flooded and form bays of to the side of the lake. After a couple of hours of cruising we slowly worked our way up one of them about a half mile, until the water quickly went from 20 feet to 10 feet and we dropped the anchor.

I showed Chookie how the davits for the dinghy worked and he and I went exploring further up the creek. After about a quarter mile we saw what looked like a road in the woods. We went in and beached the dinghy and walked up what we believe was a 50 year old road. A few hundred yards over a rise there was a sign, when we got beyond it, it read “Stop Road Ends in Lake Ahead”. We went back and continued our journey up the creek. The banks were all heavily wooded with lots of water birds around. Coming back down the other side we found where the road exited the water.

We ate grilled chicken breast with Diana’s homemade potato salad and some fruit up on the bridge on an absolutely perfect evening.

This picture shows our anchorage, the white specs are egrets. Enlarge the picture to see them better. There were six of them flying around the area.

The day was rated a success by all.

Friday, May 30

We took are time getting up and going this morning, it was another pleasant morning and nobody was in a hurry to get going.

The first project of the morning was a little house cleaning. We had not been as careful as we should have been about making sure all the screens were closed TIGHT. The boat was full of small bugs. They weren’t very fast and the small shop vac quickly collected 99% of them. The flybridge was another story, the anchor light was on all night and they were five layers thick in places. A bucket of water, sponge and boat towel finally got the area safe for human inhabitance.

We finally pulled anchor and spent six pleasant hours cruising up the Lake Barkley/Cumberland River. At some point the lake narrows and it is just the river again. The morning overcast cleared and it was a beautiful day. The temperature start in the high 60s and by mid afternoon was in the upper 80s. There was a bit of a breeze but it was in our general direction of travel, so the motion of the boat reduced it, not increasing it as when you drive into the wind.

Shortly after getting underway we went by Eddysville, where this KY State Prison sits right on the river bank. Everyone that sees it says it looks more like a castle.

The Channel is well buoyed and every mile or so there was a lighted marker on a post. We think maybe two out fifty did not have an Osprey nest on it. There was almost always one adult in sight and sometimes both and in many we could see young.

When the temperature went into the 80s, the deck hands laid down on the job and said we won’t play until the captain turns on the air conditioning.

By 3:30 we were dropping the anchor in a secluded cove of the river next to the Hickman Creek Park. The picture is the entrance to the anchorage as we turned in.

We fixed a couple of screens where the screen had been pulled loss from the edge (we hope fewer bugs tonight).

We had spaghetti dinner up on the mid deck then we took rainbow sherbert to the bridge to finish the meal. We watch an episode of JAG then went out and sat on the bow as the evening final began to cool and watch lots of stars, planes at 35000 feet and a few fireflies. The only complained I heard was the crickets and frogs were too loud.

Saturday, May 31

We had a leisurely breakfast, and we got underway on another lovely morning. Just as we were pulling anchor a tow went by the entrance to the cove.

Ann and Chookie had not seen a tow and barges up close yet. We pulled out into the channel and were about a ¼ mile behind with a highway bridge insight. We called the captain on the VHF and told him we would stay behind him until he cleared the bridge then requested his preference for which side we passed on. He thanked us and said either side would be fine.

There were not nearly as many bald eagles as osprey but Diana got this picture of one.

We had a pleasant cruise forty miles up the river in a relatively narrow channel but deep shore to shore, so easy navigating.

By mid afternoon we pulled into Clarksville, they have a lovely river front park that stretch close to a mile along the water front. We had called and reserved a spot along the free town dock. We cruised by a visitor center with a length of concrete pier. It had a sign that said transient docking, call for reservation and a phone number. We went on up river and saw a floating dock with small boats next to a launch ramp. We went back to the fixed pier and tied up. We were not real happy with the situation when a couple of wildlife officers came by a politely suggested the transient docking was up at the floating dock.

We got underway again, went up and found the floating dock was larger than it looked and tied off in a much more satisfactory situation. We had been told there was no power and were prepared to run the generator, but there was a nice big 50 amp connection. It was great to have power because the temperature had reached 90 and the dew point was in the low 70s. The air conditioning sure felt good.

We relaxed a little and then went for a walk to explore the town of Clarksville and find a choice for where we might eat. After finding a place to eat and stopping for an ice tea before the walk back we got back to the dock just as a 52 foot Sea Ray was pulling in front of us. Chookie and I caught their dock lines and had a nice chat with them. They lived in Clarksville but keep the boat at a marina on Lake Barkley. They had come up river so they could take visiting family out for rides.

After freshening up and a clean shirt we headed out to walk to dinner. As we pasted the Sea Ray they asked where we were headed. We told him and he suggested there was a nice locally owned family pub about the same distance in the opposite direction. So we thanked him and started off the dock when he yelled at us to wait a minute. He said it was up a steep hill and his wife would be happy to drive us.

We had a quick ride to down(up the hill)town. The Black Horse turned out to be a great place and we all had a great dinner. We agreed that it was a fine choice and as we walked back down several blocks of steep hills, we were very thankful we had accepted the ride to the restaurant.

Here the Captain seats on the front deck enjpying the End of another great day.

Sunday, June 1

During the night we had an intense electrical storm and heavy rain fortunately, there was little wind.

We took our time getting going this morning, we took the opportunity with shore power to take some showers. We had a leisurely breakfast, then Chookie and I walked up the hill and across the street to get a Sunday paper.

We finally got underway and headed back down river reversing what we had done yesterday. It is amazing that although much looks familiar, approaching from the opposite direction there are many things you didn’t see the first time.

When we got to Cumberland City, the city ferry was crossing the river empty. We watch him land on the far bank, a car drive on and then he headed back across the river. For those of us

from the urban area it is amazing how many of these ferry still operate on the rivers.

Half an hour later we saw the Delta Queen headed up river. We waved to all the passengers that were waving at us.

Another few miles and there was a tow with twelve loaded coal barges coming at us in a very narrow section of the river. We pulled way over to the edge of the channel very close to shore, but still in over thirty feet of water.

Shortly before 4:00 we pulled into the same secluded cove at Hickman Recreational Area that we were at two nights ago and dropped the hook. There were a couple of pontoons and a couple fisherman put it was still very peaceful.

After we got the boat settled in we sat out on the front deck and watch a small black cloud go by that gave us a fifteen minute shower. Although it rained very hard, with no wind the front overhang kept us dry.

When the rain quit we fired up the grill and had a wonderful BBQ turkey breast dinner in the sunshine on the mid deck. After dinner, the dishes and putting the boat away for the night we watched another episode of JAG.

Diana took this picture of a beautiful sunset.

At bed time the sky was clear and the stars were reflecting off the mirror surface of the water.

Monday, June 2

Another warm, calm morning. Diana fixed pineapple pancakes for breakfast. After a relaxed start we got underway a little after nine. I think I am going to ask the factory about relabeling the light switches on the helm. There is one that is labeled Anchor Light, it should be entomology light. Leaving a light on the bridge on all night collects a huge collection of bugs for an entomologist to study.

Because it had been calm all night the anchor chain had laid on the bottom all night dragging in the mud as we swung around. It came up muddy for it full thirty feet. Fortunately we had an anchor wash down system installed with the windlass, and it made short work of the mud. This system consists of a thru hull fitting in the bottom of the boat with a pump, and then there is a hose and control in a locker on the boat so that the

anchor can be sprayed as it comes up.

When we started out we had a hitch hiker. This butterfly sat on Chookie's hat for at least fifteen minutes.

We countinue to have beautiful scenery.

We cruised slowly down the river enjoying a beautiful morning. The river banks are 98% rural with stone bluffs, tree lined bluffs, and low flood plains. The other two percent are developed either residential or commercial. This house caught our attention, but there was disagreement as to whether it was a lovely house or poorly done because it did not blend in. There were some that were impossible to photograph because you could hardly see them in the trees.

We continued to see many water birds and today it include osprey again. On the river the last two days there were almost no osprey, now we are back where the river widens to start to form Barkley Lake and there are osprey everywhere. They love these sign posts, every post has an occupied nest. We also saw several nests low to the water on downed dead trees that were caught in the shallow water away from the banks. They look like poor sites and the young looked much smaller since the nests were probably flooded a month ago.

The herons will sit on any object they can find.

About 2:00 we snaked our way up a buoyed side channel about two miles into a lovely secluded cove in the LBL, Taylor Creek. We dropped the hook and thought we were in for a peaceful afternoon. Unfortunately we have been having trouble with some of the starboard gauges not working intermittently and it was getting more frequent. Now when we went to shut the engine off and the kill button (diesels keep running with the key off) did nothing. We got the manual out and found the emergency shutdown procedure that explained how to stop the engine with a lever on the side of the fuel delivery system of the engine. Now when we check the ignition switch we had no power to the key.

I was thinking about the task of drive twenty five miles to the marina tomorrow on one engine. Fortunately that won’t be necessary. After we got the generator going and turned the air conditioning on (it was 91, calm. and very humid), we let the engine cool down. Then Chookie start a careful investigation of the entire electrical system. After checking all the wiring under the dash he crawled over the entire engine (some of the backside is not easy to get to) making sure every wiring connection was well seated. When he was done everything appears to be working again. He isn’t exactly sure which connection it was but it is the results that matter.

We relaxed until dinner time (some napped) then had a delicious grilled pork tenderloin dinner.

Here are pictures of the crew relaxing after dinner.

We watch another JAG and decided that it was just cool enough to open the boat rather than try to stay closed up with the air running.

There was another beautiful sunset.

Tuesday, June 3

More of the same, we took our time over breakfast and finally got underway about 9:20. We snaked our way out the small buoyed channel to the main channel and were off for a run of only 25 miles back to Green Turtle Bay. For the first time we had some significant wind. We had 12 to 18 with some gusts over 20. The boat rode well but it affected our speed by about ½ mph when we headed into the wind.

It was more beautiful scenery and we again went by the Kentucky State Prison. Diana continued to get more bird pictures.

A couple of highlights today were a paddlewheel tug that is now a private yacht that is register in St. Paul. We talked to the owner on the radio. He just bought the boat in St. Paul and brought it down river. He has not yet renamed it.

The second highlight was to watch a large Army? Helicopter practicing mid-air refueling. They were circling and we saw them go by three or four times.

We got back into GTB and pulled into the fuel dock about 2:00. The picture show the entrance to the GTB harbor. We waited for a couple of smaller boats to finish and move then we slid into the diesel pump and filled the fuel tanks and pumped out the holding tank. Allowing a half gallon an hour for the generator we did just less than 200 miles at just over 4 mpg.

We had our ongoing problem with the starboard engine, now it did not want to start again. We pulled the boat to the far end of the fuel dock away from the pumps. Chookie crawled around the engine again and found that the main electrical connection from battery to the starter was lose at the starter. Naturally it was on the back side of the engine where it was hard to see and harder to get a wrench on. He finally got it tightened and we hope we have finally solved several of our problems.

We then motored over to our slip, got tied up, plugged into shore power and turned the air on. It was near 90, sunny and the dew point was near 70. We got the cabin closed up and enjoyed just sitting back and relaxing after a wonderful six days on the water.

The girls ran to town to grocery shop while the guys did a couple of cleanup projects around the boat and check e-mails with the first internet access in a week.

Finally it was time for everyone to head ashore to the showers as we had reservation for dinner at Patti’s 1880 settlement. This is a famous restaurant in this area that has tremendous food, great service and a good business. We had a great dinner, which words can’t do justice to, so I won’t try. After dinner we visited the gift shop and then the extensive gardens before finally heading back to the boat.

Here are pictures of the crew after dinner.

Wednesday, June 4

This morning Ann and Chookie are departing to drive to Birmingham, AL to visit a long time friend down there. So after breakfast they packed up their gear and loaded up the car. While Ann was carrying something to the car a guy passing by recognized the National “C” Scow logo on her shirt. It was Bruce Moore who worked for Melges boat works back in the 1970s. He and Chookie remembered each other and I certainly remember the name. We had a nice chat and it only delayed their departure by fifteen minutes. It certainly is a small world.

Now Diana is doing laundry and cleaning while I wash the boat and try and get this blog entry done.

Time to move on

It is Thursday morning, maybe, I can’t keep track anymore. It is 60 degrees not a cloud in the sky and calm winds. Can I ask for more? The forecast is sunny 82 and light winds.



Here are some pictures Diana took around the Marina. They show only a portion of this large marina. If you are interested check http://www.greenturtlebay.com/ for better picture and details of this lovely place. Our boat is just to the left of the blue roofed marina building. The tall building is the Commonwealth Yacht Club.



Tuesday and Wed. have been busy days in the harbor. There is an endless list of small projects that have taken up two days. Diana did laundry, some cleaning, put Wd40 in a couple of window tracks that where sliding hard. I spent time do the big blog entry and I hauled out both anchor lines and flaked then out on deck to dry. We had the GTB mechanic, Jeff, come down and do 50 hour checks on the engines, including oil and filter changes, transmission fluid change (with filters). I also called the Coast Guard Auxiliary and a very nice gentlemen was able to come over and do a vessel safety check. We passed and got our certificate. Now if we are stopped on the water they won’t want to inspect everything there.



Late yesterday afternoon our friends the Kilanders from Wisconsin arrived and are going to spent about a week with us. We will drop the anchor a couple of nights then find another marina to stop at.



This morning the girls are going grocery shopping and Chookie and I will do a little repair work and finish cleaning the boat, then hopefully by noon we will be out on the water. I don’t know when we may an internet connection again so it may be a few days before the next update.

The numbers are in

One of the primary reasons we bought this boat was because of the projected fuel economy of the small Yanmar diesels. Today we filled the fuel tanks for the first time since the initial fill.

We have run 30 miles around the St Charles area then 310 miles from St Charles to Green Turtle Bay Marina in Kentucky. In addition to the 340 miles we had seven hours on the generator.

The fuel fill was 95.4 gallons. If we allow the 5.4 for the generator we did 340 miles on 90 gallons or 3.78 miles per gallon. This is right in the neighborhood that we expected and we are extremely pleased.

The number is open to some interpretation, we had a net current assist with more favorable current on the Mississippi then hindering current on the Ohio and Cumberland. We also ran wide open for a period of time on the Ohio that we know reduce fuel economy.

I'll take this set of numbers as they are, be pleased, and wait and see what the next numbers are.

A Letter of Appreciation

The trip we are on and the trip to Canada next year have been a long time dream of mine. The first step in fulfilling the dream was to get the right boat.

We think we have accomplished that portion of the dream. It was done with great support and help from the people at Wahoo Marine Sales and the Gibson Boat people.

Scott Bachman and Tom Stiefvater of Wahoo were wonderful to work with. They took the time to answer any and all question. When we wanted something a little different they and the factory worked hard to please us.

With three diesel engines, two complete electrical system (12 volt and 110) and a complete cabin with full galley and two marine heads, it is understandable that there has been a few minor issues, however everyone involved has worked very hard to make sure they were corrected as quickly as possible.

Through the entire process we have always felt the most important thing to everyone involved was that we were satisfied and happy.

In this day and age when customer service is just two meaningless words, the customer service from both Gibson and Wahoo has been outstanding.

Both Diana and I consider the people we have worked with to be new friends and would recommend to anyone that is looking for a boat of the floating home type that they should look at Gibson Boats and talk to Wahoo about either a new or used Gibson.

Again thank you to everyone.

George Hill

We Are Off

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Friday, May 23, 2008
Since we had a relatively short day planned for today we had our breakfast got cleaned up (still connected to shore power) and got underway at 8:20. The planned called for two locks and 63.5 miles to a place called Hoppies.


This eagle stands guard over the entrance to Polestar Marina where we have been for the last two weeks.


Shortly after leaving we passed the Grafton Ferry. It had been not operating for several weeks because of high water and had just gone back into service the day before. While out of service it had been docked close to us at Polestar.










Portage Des Sioux was nearly flooded in 1951 but the water didn't reach the town. In thanksgiving for this they erected a large shrine along the river.


















The locks are the last two on the Mississippi all the way to the Gulf. They are very busy. The Illinois River joins the Mississippi before the first one and the Missouri joins just after the first lock. They each have two chambers, the main is 110 by 1200 feet, and the auxiliary is 110 by 600. By comparison the Hastings and Red Wing are both 110 by 600. In the larger locks a tow of 3 wide by 5 long will fit in a single locking while on the smaller lock it must be broken in half and locks thru in two lockages.

The weather was not bad but still cool and windy enough that we choose to drive from the lower helm all day. The boat cruises at 8 mph at 1800 rpm and 9 at 1900. At these setting we get 4 and 3.5 mpg. We got out into the main channel and set the engines and away we went at 10.2 to 10.8 because of the aid of the current.


This is just a sample of the beautiful river bluffs along the way. Most are rather remote but there also many lovely home that I am sure have great views.

With the current we made the 21 miles to the Mel Price Lock in two hours. When we had it in site I called the lock on the VHF radio requesting lockage. He replied that the main chamber was busy but he would have the auxiliary ready by the time we got there. The gate was open and we drove right in. Because of the high water the drop at this lock was only one foot instead of the normal seven of eight. Because of this we were told to just float in the chamber rather than tying to the wall, this sounded good but turned out to provide some problems. There was a large tree trunk floating in the chamber right where the rear gates needed to close. It took about ten minutes before he was able to start closing the gates. There was about a ten mile and hour wind blowing with gusts to twenty and it was swirling in the lock chamber. The Captain worked hard to keep the boat of the wall of the lock only to find himself being blown into the wall on the other side. A couple of time he was not successful with the first dings to the new boat. Fortunately only to the rub rail that is designed to take this specific abuse.

By 10:40 we were on our way. It is then just a few miles to the Missouri joining and increasing the current. This is followed by a stretch of bad water known as chain of rocks. Since this is not passable a canal has been dug to bypass it. It is nine miles long with lock 27 at the south end. We obeyed the sign and entered the canal, no current, back to eight mph. By 11:45 we had two tows and the lock in sight. With the permission of the tow captain we went around him and I called the lock requesting passage. A very pleasant lady replied “Both chambers were closed she would record are request. There was no estimate of reopen.” I began to try and find an alternative. There are no marinas without going back up thru the previous lock and recommended anchorages. We pulled over to the side of the canal and dropped a short anchor to hold position while we waited. We listened to the radio traffic as the lock communicated with the work the divers where working out of and to a third tow behind us and three tow upbound request passage. After about half an hour the lock announced that the auxiliary lock was going back into service. Two upbound tows were advised they would be locked up first. One had only five barges and the other none so they both fit in a single lockage. She then began polling the down bound tows waiting with us. (Pleasure craft are last on the priority list.) All three agreed that they would have to break there tow and do a double lockage, all three chose to wait for the main chamber. The call then went out that the pleasure craft would be next, (Hey that’s us). We waited for the chamber to empty and by 1:30 we were on our way. Although we were delayed about an hour we thought ourselves very lucky, had we had to wait for 3 doubles it would have been over six hours.

Just after the lock the canal rejoins the main river and a very narrow river channel thru St Louis carries the combined flow of three rivers. At 1800 rpm we were doing 12.5 to 13 mph. We quickly saw the St. Louis skyline including the arch (in picture behind center of bridge span). Unfortunately there is no place for a pleasure craft to stop. Just south of St Louis the river is very commercial with huge barge fleeting areas.












Here is downtown thru the arch.

We were then two hours from Hoppies. At 4:00 we pulled up to the dock at Hoppies. “Hoppie Hopkins and his wife Fern run a very low key marina. They have a few locals that keep a boat there and provide the only place to stop and fuel for the next 230 miles. Their dock consists of four old deck barges lined up and securely anchored. You just tie alongside in five knots of current. Fern gives a briefing every afternoon on the barge, there is shelter and comfortable seating. She gives information of what to expect, dangerous parts of the river, choice of where you can anchor (they defer with water level) and other interesting information.















After our briefing we walked to the town of Kimmswick, less than half mile.

There are some interesting estates along the way and the town is a tourist town for day trippers from St Louis.







This one is not large but someone obviously loved stone work.








A grandson of the original Anheuser donate thiers to the city, the home is now a museum and the rest is used by Ride On St Louis for horse therpy for disabled children.





















Fortunately by the time we got there all the souvenir shops were closed for the day. Unfortunately so was an excellent restaurant. We found a lovely sidewalk shop that had soup, salads and sandwiches.









After pleasant walk back to the boat Diana watched the pilot episode of Stargate 1.

All and all a good day.


Saturday, May 24, 2008

We had a quick breakfast and we were of the dock at Hoppies at 7:00. It was 109 miles of fast travel down river to a place called Little Diversion River. We set the engines at 1800 and did 12 plus to 13.5 mph.

We tried to teach the deck hands to drive but they showed no aptidute and less interest in it.




















They huddled close together when we hit the big tow wakes.













The rest of the time they just sleeped on the job.
Notice they are sleeping in sync.












Laurie, notice how nice the new rug looks in the center of the cabin.



We saw a beautiful river with some lovely bluffs, both stone and tree covered, also several large quarry where stone bluffs become stone and main sizes of gravel and one producing cement.


We also saw the Coast Guard busy setting (resetting bouys).












Here is a sample of how fast the current was running.

















This is Grand Tower Rock. When the water is down it is not an island. It is mentioned in the journals of the early explores.













This is the muriel on the Cape Giradeu sea levie. Notice the gates at either end that allow access to the river bank in low water but can be closed when the water gets really high.










By 4:00 PM we were into the Diversion Channel and dropping anchor. The channel was originally dredged to drain a large area of southeast Missouri to create farm land. They are just now beginning to replant some of the swamp forests. At low water it makes a great anchorage in about 10 feet of water in a quiet channel 150 feet wide. Today we have over thirty feet of water with the same width. I tried a short anchor but a couple of wind gust convinced me to lengthen it. Ten minutes later we had swung so that our stern was in the brush on the shore, (depth finder still showed 20 feet in the middle of the boat). I decide we had to have a stern anchor so I got out the spare and the spare rode (rope and chain for the none sailors) and we let out all 220 feet of the main anchor dropped the stern anchor then pulled are self forward so the boat was between the two anchors. Nice and secure right down the middle of the channel.
Diana went up on the mid deck to sit in the sun and read and enjoy the rest of a beautiful afternoon. Sunny and low 70s. After a light dinner I worked on this blog and Diana is watching another Stargate.

Another very good day.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

It was up early and get underway as quickly as possible knowing it was going to be our longest day. The plan was 49 miles more down the Mississippi to Cario, IL where we turn at start up the Ohio. Then it is 56 miles up the Ohio to the mouth of the Cumberland River where there is a towhead (island) with a channel behind it to anchor behind. Because of the difference in going down current then up the 48 miles took four hours and the 56 took nine hours.
We started by having to pull two anchors, first by letting the main anchor way out so the boat could be pulled back to recover the stern anchor (by hand) then pulling forward to recover the main anchor (I really love my new windlass). All went without a problem and we were underway at 6:20.
The trip down the Mississippi was more pretty scenery and lots of northbound tows. There were six or seven in the four hours we were going down river. For those of you that are not river boater, they are pushing a huge mass against the current, they are not going that fast so that don’t create much of a normal wake. However, since they have 6000 to 8000 horses turn large propellers they create a huge prop wash. This a standing wave at their stern that is 6 to 8 feet high. These waves roll in place for a half mile behind them and combine with the current and to make very turbulent conditions for five to ten minutes after they go by.




This pictures is the junction, left of the point is the Mississippi and to the right is the Ohio.


The second picture shows barges all over the river if you look closely.
At 10:30 we turned the corner at Cario, IL and started up the Ohio. Cario is a very busy commercial river with barges everywhere. The Ohio is a much wider river with some pretty stretches though with high water there was a lot of debris in the water that made for a lot of maneuvering.




Above Cario the Corp of Army Engineers is building a new lock and dam, the Olmsted Lock was started in the early nineties and will not be complete until 2013. When it is done it will replace two older locks (lock 52 and 53). The problem is that during the season the water level here varies by 40 to 50 feet and constructing a lock to work at the different levels is an engineering challenge.


The photo shows some of what is done so far, note the size of the lock towers compared to the crane and tow.
Lock 52 and 53 are old and a real bottle neck to barge traffic when the water is low. When the water is high they take section of the dam out (called wickets) and the traffic just goes around the lock. We motored right past both and the water was so high that the entire lock structure was below water.
The weather was perfect, a haze sun with temperatures in the mid 80s. The wind was what my sailing friends call one with occasional gusts to two.
This picture shows the width of the Ohio also the winds.
We went on past Metropolis, IL but Clark Kent was apparently out of town we didn’t see him. There continued to be heavy tow traffic with almost no recreational boats other than an occasional small runabout.
Next up was Paducah, KY which is also the junction of the Tennessee River.


This picture shows the Tennessee on the right and the Ohio on the left.












We continued on and at 7:30 we were at the junction of the Cumberland River and pulled in behind the Cumberland Towhead. Again because of the high water we found ourselves anchor in water that was 27 feet instead of 8 to 10. However, unlike last night there was a current of 2 to 3 mph and room to swing. It quickly became apparent that we had a solid anchor and we watched a beautiful sunset.


Monday, May 26, 2008

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Today we need to run just 32 miles up the Cumberland to Green Turtle Bay Marina. There is one lock just before GTB. We had hoped to get a reasonable early start so that we could be in the marina by early afternoon.
We woke to a pretty sunrise but in the other direction it was very dark with lighting visible, you know which side won. We did a couple of chores around the boat and listen to the weather forecast say it should clear in a couple hours.
As I sit here in water 17 -18 feet higher than normal in a torrential downpour I am think that I need to get my nephew who is studying to be a minister to give me a full explanation of the biblical story of forty days and forty nights.

Finally about eight thirty it cleared. We (the windlass) hauled the anchor and headed up the river. The Cumberland is a very narrow mostly rural river in this stretch. It is easy driving, it is generally deep bank to bank, jus t keep it in the middle and follow the bends. We had the river to ourselves. In thirty miles we past one tow with no barges and then half a dozen fisherman, all in the last three miles.
The weather was not great, cloudy, near seventy with light winds and intermittent rain showers, but we had a nice last morning and Diana was very busy photographing the scenery and a great abundance of birds.

We saw several what we believe to be members of the volture family drying their wings (bird book is still in MN) maybe one of you can identify it for us.

The current was much less than the Ohio and we cruised along easily at about 8 mph. By 12:30 we had the lock in site and called him on the VHF. I told him we were about fifteen minutes out. He said the lock was up but he would empty it and be ready for us in about fifteen. We arrived throttled back and waited maybe two or three minutes and the gate opened and we got the green light. Diana went out in a light drizzle and caught the floating bollard without a problem. The gates closed and we were raised 42 feet (at normal water level it is 57). The gates opened and Admiral decides she would drive the boat out of the lock, so the Captain became the deck hand.


We radioed Green Turtle Bay Marina and (we called yesterday and reserved a slip) and they told us where the slip was and we motored in and two friendly dock hands helped us into the slip. After four fun but long days we are here and ready to relax. There is much to do, wash the boat, laundry, wash the other half of the boat, fuel up, fill the water tank, (empty the other tank) wash the third and fourth halves of the boat but it can all wait until tomorrow.