Long Days on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers

On Wednesday, 9/30/15, we left Kaskaskia Lock and went 110 miles south on the Mississippi River.  The sky was mostly cloudy, which was good:  We could see the instruments, and we and they did not get overheated.  The sun came out for a beautiful sunset reward.  

We met three tows pushing 72 barges before 8:30 am.  They are small cities coming at us.  We call them, ask which side to be on, and then wait for the barges to turn, so they don’t run over us.  Most tow captains are friendly and clear.  Sometimes they sound uninterested, and that is scary.  One guy came within 15 feet of us in the afternoon.  Much too close. 

Sally Archer pushing 28 barges.

We traveled today with Red Eagle.  They were good partners:  attentive and humorous and energetic.  We chatted a bit in the anchorage across 20 feet of water because we were not good at rafting up.  Maybe tomorrow we can do better.  

We saw some strange sights in the Mississippi River today.  Tows and barges run the place, but other individuals leave their mark.

These kayakers rigged a sail using their paddles.  They cannot see where they are going.?? 

These two guys are paddling in a canoe. They started on the Mississippi in

Minnesota.  We have passed them twice. They are headed for New Orleans. 

Here we see a swimmer on the Mississippi River.

There are some gutsy folks out there. 

Sunset on the Mississippi River from our anchorage on the side.

Thursday, 10/1/15, we left our anchorage at 7:00 am and just had 7.7 more miles on the Mississippi.  When we turned north onto the Ohio River, the change was sharp:  We lost our speed because we were traveling upriver, dropping from 12 to 7mph.  We also felt the cold north wind.  The Ohio is more beautiful though:  It is blue not brown.  There were lots of tows and barges again.  

Headed north on the Ohio River

On the Ohio River we have to go through the Olmstead Lock, which is under construction, and also Locks 53 and 52, which are quite old.  They are being replaced by the Olmstead in a few years.  Loopers tell horror stories of waiting for hours to get through these spots.  We were lucky.  We moved through the Olmstead construction and Lock 53 without stopping.  I think the Lockmaster wanted to clear us out of the way because he was manipulating about 20 tows.  He was like an air traffic controller, moving them around and giving them information.  We followed Red Eagle and another pleasure boat.  The Lockmaster directed our path orally from his tower.  Yahoo!  We were through the whole area in an hour.

Construction site for the Olmstead Lock

Then we drove 20 miles to Lock 52.  There we waited for an hour and took a half hour to lock through.  Not really bad, but it is hard to wait in open water with barges moving nearby.

After Lock 52 we drove by Paducah, hoping to stay on their city dock.  They have a dock out for boaters sometimes.  It was not there today, so we kept moving for 11 more miles to the Cumberland Island Towhead. The wind picked up, and the sky turned grey.  We were tired.  It was 5:30 before we found our spot for the night.  We only went 67 miles today, but our day was longer than yesterday due to the lack of current with us and the lock.  

This is a lovely, quiet spot behind an island.  Just we and Red Eagle are anchored here.  The lapping water is soothing us.  We are tired and proud and happy. 

Here is the view from our stern of the anchorage with Red Eagle behind us.