Greetings from Newburgh! That would be Newburgh, Indiana---not even the town…for the next fifty miles or so, we’ll be in what is called the “pool” of the Newburgh dam. It took a week to get here, to wit:
Once again the ‘hook’ at Green Turtle Bay caught us, and we spent 3 nights there. Important stuff---we spent an afternoon at the Verizon store sorting out problems with my phone, we opted for the Variety Show, Music of the 60’s, very well done at the Badgett Theater in Grand Rivers, we spent a delightful hour or so visiting with Michael and Christina Williams, who motored down from St. Louis in their boat, REAL ESC. As I said, important stuff.
At any rate, the batteries (generator and phone) got replaced, the holding tank pumped, the packages mailed and at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday the 14th of July we headed toward the Barclay Lock and Dam. Locked through with two pontoon boats as the blessed rain began to fall!
It rained for over 2 hours, at least on us. (maybe more in a stationary location). Brought the temp down into the 70’s . At 3:45 p.m. we rounded the bend into the Ohio, and made a 180 degree turn to tuck in behind an island and drop the anchor
From Paducah to Pittsburgh is about 950 miles. We average about 50 miles a day, give or take, and so for the next couple of weeks, will be negotiating the channel with tow boats—an average number of barges seems to be 15 (3 across and 5 deep) for most of the tug boats to push. Every 60 or 70 miles there will be a lock and dam, and we’ll anchor or tie up at a marina.
The Coast Guard has issued ‘low water’ warnings as the drought continues in over half of the US. We found the warnings to be spot on when we planned to anchor in the Wabash River. The Ohio creates the boundary between (around here) Kentucky (on our right, or starboard side) and first Illinois, then where the Wabash separates IL from, Indiana. We crossed IL easily in a day, and had been following a tug for awhile, chatting with the operator (that is a rare occurrence. Mostly tug captains speak an unintelligible language to each other, and say the very minimum to us.). When Fred said we were going into the Wabash, the reply was a hearty chuckle, followed by “Not much water in there”. Fred allowed as how we’d use the braille method to find a spot to drop the hook, and off we went.
An hour later, after backing off the bottom twice and dodging an inordinate number of ‘snags’ or parts of trees in the water, we gave up, and returned to the “Wabash cut” 3 miles back. Here, again using the braille method, we finally found 6 feet of water and gratefully lowered Knute.
The evening was beautiful. Lots of locals were buzzing about until dark, enjoying the end of the weekend. When they’d gone home, either to the RVpark on the shore beside us, or to some unknown to us destination, the darkness and quiet enveloped us. Haven’t seen the Milky Way for a very long time, but there was a lovely glowing streak of stars across the that surely did look like the MW used to.
We’ve had two other beautiful stops since I wrote this. One, in Derby, IN was a public dock by a park. We found all sorts of interesting info about the Ohio River and the Derby area. (www.derby.com) The most notable statement was the obvious---which had eluded me. Duh. The construction of dams along the Ohio has created a series of beautiful, very pleasant to navigate, LAKES! We're cruising up the Ohio Lakes. Unlike the Mississippi River, where the current boils and scares (me), on the Ohio we are consistently running north, or upriver--into the current, at 6.6 kn at 2050 RPM. For you non-boaters, that is about 7mph, marginally slower than our normal cruising speed. Amazing!
Tied up at Derby we weathered a fabulous thunder and lightning storm! In the morning, the nice lady in the general store (newly re-painted and re-opened) said 6” of much needed rain fell. In a very short time, I might add!
Last night we anchored on the edge of the Ohio, opposite West Point, KY. As soon as Knute was set, the storm began! It was longer lasting, and with less lightning than the day before, but still spectacular! This morning was cool and delicious---actually sweater weather! It was so lovely and peaceful that we spent the morning ‘mushing around’ in the boat—making phone calls, sending the emails that haven’t been possible for some time, and watching the river go by---tow boats and all.
We expect to be in Louisville, KY tonight---about 1/3 of the way to Pittsburgh! Onward and upward!
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