7 October 2014
Take two on learning patience.
After spending a quiet night in Little Diversion River we were up and ready to go at 7AM.
Well, not a quiet night. We had a log hit and get tangled in our anchor line. It rained twice, but not hard, but hard enough to wake us. We had two Asian Carp smack the boat and wake us up. We were both up and down and up and down. But Belle got with the program, when she figured up that we had not been up (or down) in the last 90 minutes, she came and meowed at us.
The Little Diversion was calm and we got rounded up and out into the Muddy Mississippi. Current ripping at 4kts and more than a little trash. Our “flotilla” of Moondance, R&R, Corkscrew, Roxanne, Diablo, Hotei and Quo Vadimus churned our way through the mud and the floating wood. Only one injury, our lead boat Moondance clipped a log and a prop. They will pull him when he gets to Green Turtle Bay and do a hopefully quick repair.
I was pleased, with the current lift I got 14.9 knots on my regular 9 knot speed (RPM)
But there was much rejoicing at 10:55 AM, 38 nautical miles, 48 statute miles from Little Diversion and two days from Hoppies we made the wide sweeping turn from brown water to the bright green of the Ohio.
To immediately run into a tow that wanted the channel and us to come up on the 2′s and have ½ the group go to the wrong side. Oh well, he seemed to recover from it.
It was very windy on the Ohio, with 2-3 foot waves and whitecaps. Good that there was no trash, and we were able to plug along at 8.5 knots. We past the new Olmstead lock, a pretty major engineering feat. Wonder if they give talks about how it’s being designed and built. It’s to open in 4 years, only 9 years behind schedule.
We passed Lock 53, which they had torn down in anticipation of the new lock being built. Next stop, our second and final lock on the Ohio. Got there at 3:30 PM. Got told at 6:00 PM, once another boat locked through we were next, about an hour wait. Problem is that local sunset is at 6:35. So we moved off to the side of the channel and anchored out in the river.
Susan made grilled Chicken breasts and inspired by the “Blue Owl” Cheesy Corn, she came up with a much better version. She added green beans and it was all wonderful.
Great sunset tonight, and it’s a full moon. So we all look pretty here basking under the Interstate 24 lights.
We will call the lock at 6:30 to get back in line, with a four hour wait, we should be through by noon ad waiting at the next lock by 4PM. Hope the wait is less, there is no place to anchor out in the Cumberland, so it becomes hard.
2.5 hour wait today, ?? on Wednesday. Starting to learn that patience is important. But would like to learn how to put the nose of the Quo Vadimus into a mudbank and pull it off like the tows do.
Happy with fuel mileage. With the big current push was doing over 3 MPG, when we turned up river we worked it down to 2 MPG. Very happy. Sitting on 300 gallons to go 40 miles. 80.6 miles today with the 96.5 miles yesterday makes our two day total 177.1 miles, better than most fortnight periods in the trip. If we get to Green Turtle on Wednesday it will make over 200 miles.
If we can just get through the locks….