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Trip Day:
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198
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Latitude:
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37°10.60'
N
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Locks Today:
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0
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Miles Today:
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74
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Longitude:
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088°48.45' W
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Locks Total:
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91
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Total Miles:
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4,105
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Location:
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Ohio River – Kentucky Side MM 949
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Awakened by the alarm we were moving slowly this morning, but it wasn’t quite as cold so that helped. One by one we pulled up our anchors and followed each boat out into the big river. A strong head wind was against us this morning, but with the current we are still making 9+ over ground. Ron sighted a lone deer swimming across the river.
The river twisted and turned all morning at one point the compass heading read due north.
Today was a day of extremes; extreme wind, extreme currents, and extremely long.
By noon we approached mile marker zero on the Mississippi River which was our cue to turn left and head up the Ohio River, starting at mile marker 981. Our boat speed dropped dramatically from 9+ to 4.5 since we were headed upstream on the Ohio.
This section was a staging area for barges with hundreds of barges along the shore with little tugs pushing them into place for the larger tugs to push them down river. Most of the rigs are now 20 or 24 barges linked together.
Each barge is equivalent to 58 semi-trucks so a 24 barge rig keeps a convoy of 1,392 trucks off the road. We are told that on the Lower Mississippi a towboat typically pushes up to 40-60 barges. This is the main reason most boaters don’t go all the way down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
The original plan was to anchor at mile marker 964 the Olmstead Lock which is under construction, but we could not find a suitable spot to drop the hook. The main problem was opposing wind and current had the river in whitecaps and we could find no protected area out of the channel. We decided to go up the river, around a bend which would block the wind and look for a spot. When we came to Lock and Dam 53, the current was so strong our speed was reduced to 2 kts, but only for a short time. Bob and Madeline decided to hold back to be sure Jessie and Katie could make it through. Good thing they did because they had to tow the girls through because they could not make headway against the strong current.
We finally anchored in the dark at mile marker 949 on the Kentucky side. We were well out of the current and the water was calm but we know we will hear the barges as they run the river all night. It was a long, long day—tomorrow needs to be a short day!
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