Friday Oct. 10, 2014

Little Diversion Channel mm48.8 to Lock # 52 Ohio River

We were up early today for the start of a long day. We departed the Channel at 0725 in the rain and headed out into the Mississippi. It had rained on and off all night and this morning is 56 degrees. The rain let up at 8:15 but would return and continue most of the day.  We were cruising at our normal rpm of 1500 but today we were going 11.2 knots. Smokin’ !! There was less debris in the water today. It makes driving so much easier not having to continually dodge stuff. Today we passed 11 barges and actually had the embarrassment of being passed by one barge on the Ohio.  We reached the Ohio River at 1135 and turned and headed up river. A couple of things about heading up river. The most obvious is that going into the current is a whole new ball game rather than going with the current. Our speed went from 11.2 on the Mississippi (with the current) to 5.9 kts into the Ohio (against the current).  This speed makes for long days without much progress.  The other thing is that the buoys change sides. The Mississippi had red on the left and green on the right (going down river). The Ohio is red buoys on the right and green on the left. You need to remember that to stay in the channel between the correct buoys. The Ohio River is much wider, not as deep and a much cleaner looking green color. They don’t call the Mississippi the big muddy for nothing.
As we finished off the Mighty Mississippi we had a couple of records having to do with tows and the number of barges they were pushing. Today we passed the northbound tows Victory Queen and
Co op Enterprise both pushing 35 barges. That is 5 across and 7 deep up river, I cant imagine the amount of horsepower or the fuel they burn doing this.

Entering the Ohio River. Little foggy.

We heard one tow captain saying that he couldn’t wait to go home tonight as he had been on the boat for 36 days. That’s a long time as they work 24/7.

This is the wall around Cairo, Il. and a gate to get thru it back to town.

We entered the Ohio River at its end mile marker 981 which is the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. We passed the new Olmstead Lock at mm 964 that according to the cruising guide I purchased in 2011 was supposed to be completed by 2013. Guess what, still not done, we followed the channel markers past this lock and dam. We were headed to the next lock # 53. It is a wicket lock, when the water is high they lay down the wickets of the dam and you drive right over it. No stopping, no pass go, just keep heading up river to the next lock, the dreaded Lock 52.
We arrived at the last place to anchor for the night at 1806 hours,  right outside Lock # 52 by Metropolis Illinois. I have never anchored right in the river before. Usually we try to find an island or channel you can hide in out of the current. Not tonight, we are waiting along with about 8 tows and barges to get thru the lock in the morning. They are doing construction and repairs on the lock so they close it at night to work so the tows have to stop also. It will probably be a long wait in the morning.