Up at 6:15 to turn off the anchor light and put the generator on for an hour before we leave. Not much fog this morning but it was very damp. We had a great night’s sleep in this peaceful anchorage. We weighed anchor at 7:30 and we now understand the expression “Mississippi Mud”—I would rather have it as an ice cream flavor than the real stuff on the anchor. We have a washdown pump now and it really earned its keep this morning.
AIS showed a barge coming close to our outlet as we departed and it was “up close and personal” time for the 4th boat (“Cynthia Faye”) leaving. Nothing like a jolt of adrenaline with your coffee to get you started in the morning.
Question of the Day? We have had a running discussion amongst us about what catfish nets look like on the surface of the water. Often we encounter areas on the river with foamy softball-size bubbles and some in the group believe there are nets underneath; others think that it is congealed foam from all the boat traffic; or a third option, discharge from the Weir dams underneath us. If anyone knows the real answer, let me know so I can look super smart and impress all the “Captains.”
Today was “Shootin’ the Chutes” day as we entered the narrow, horseshoe bends section of the Mississippi filled with Weir dams on the way to the Ohio River. We checked AIS to make sure that there were no upbound barges coming our way through the narrows and also hailed them on Channel 13. We proceeded down through Daniels, Moore and Price Landing areas with a speed of 13.6 mph. We gave the autohelm a rest as we took turns steering through the swirls and trying to keep the boat pointed down river. Definitely a rush! We timed it well as we thankfully did not meet any barges except on the wider sections.
The terrain today is flatter and sandier and the shoreline is reinforced with Wing dams to further direct the river into the channel. Our speed would decrease to 12.2mph and back up to 13.5 as we went through the Scutter Chute and Greenfield Bend.
We have noticed less debris in this section of the Mississippi but every once in awhile, we encounter a deadhead just waiting to grab us.
At 12 noon, we neared the confluence with the Ohio River and that’s where it really gets interesting. A huge container ship was also making the turn northbound to the Ohio and Bob picked up 5 AIS targets in the confluence area alone. Dodgeball anyone? We also noticed a visible color line as the brown Mississippi met the green Ohio River.
As we proceeded northbound up the Ohio River, we lost our river current speed thrust but were pleased to be able to do 8.2 mph so we are not fighting a lot of current.
We checked with Loopers who are ahead of us by a few days to get an idea of where to anchor. “Catrina” pushed through in an 8am to 12 midnight push to get to Kentucky Lake and “Barbara” anchored before the 1st lock on the Ohio. Since there can be a lot of delays on the Ohio locks, we decided to go through Lock #1 where we waited for an hour and then look for an anchorage along the KY side of the Ohio River.
The sky became cloudy and the SE wind was up as we began looking for an anchorage at about 4pm. Since our boat has the least draft, we offered to duck into shore and test out the depths for anchoring at Milepost 953. This offered wind protection and we were pleased to find depths of 12-14 feet.
“Joy@Sea”, “Rita’s Pick” and “Cynthia Faye” followed and dropped anchor in the river channel with us across from the cement plant. We visited a bit on Channel 17 as we did not want to deploy the dinghies tonight with the river current.
It proved to be a good choice and we even had some digital TV signal and cell phone reception to talk to many of you by phone.
AIS showed a barge coming close to our outlet as we departed and it was “up close and personal” time for the 4th boat (“Cynthia Faye”) leaving. Nothing like a jolt of adrenaline with your coffee to get you started in the morning.
Question of the Day? We have had a running discussion amongst us about what catfish nets look like on the surface of the water. Often we encounter areas on the river with foamy softball-size bubbles and some in the group believe there are nets underneath; others think that it is congealed foam from all the boat traffic; or a third option, discharge from the Weir dams underneath us. If anyone knows the real answer, let me know so I can look super smart and impress all the “Captains.”
Today was “Shootin’ the Chutes” day as we entered the narrow, horseshoe bends section of the Mississippi filled with Weir dams on the way to the Ohio River. We checked AIS to make sure that there were no upbound barges coming our way through the narrows and also hailed them on Channel 13. We proceeded down through Daniels, Moore and Price Landing areas with a speed of 13.6 mph. We gave the autohelm a rest as we took turns steering through the swirls and trying to keep the boat pointed down river. Definitely a rush! We timed it well as we thankfully did not meet any barges except on the wider sections.
The terrain today is flatter and sandier and the shoreline is reinforced with Wing dams to further direct the river into the channel. Our speed would decrease to 12.2mph and back up to 13.5 as we went through the Scutter Chute and Greenfield Bend.
We have noticed less debris in this section of the Mississippi but every once in awhile, we encounter a deadhead just waiting to grab us.
At 12 noon, we neared the confluence with the Ohio River and that’s where it really gets interesting. A huge container ship was also making the turn northbound to the Ohio and Bob picked up 5 AIS targets in the confluence area alone. Dodgeball anyone? We also noticed a visible color line as the brown Mississippi met the green Ohio River.
As we proceeded northbound up the Ohio River, we lost our river current speed thrust but were pleased to be able to do 8.2 mph so we are not fighting a lot of current.
We checked with Loopers who are ahead of us by a few days to get an idea of where to anchor. “Catrina” pushed through in an 8am to 12 midnight push to get to Kentucky Lake and “Barbara” anchored before the 1st lock on the Ohio. Since there can be a lot of delays on the Ohio locks, we decided to go through Lock #1 where we waited for an hour and then look for an anchorage along the KY side of the Ohio River.
The sky became cloudy and the SE wind was up as we began looking for an anchorage at about 4pm. Since our boat has the least draft, we offered to duck into shore and test out the depths for anchoring at Milepost 953. This offered wind protection and we were pleased to find depths of 12-14 feet.
“Joy@Sea”, “Rita’s Pick” and “Cynthia Faye” followed and dropped anchor in the river channel with us across from the cement plant. We visited a bit on Channel 17 as we did not want to deploy the dinghies tonight with the river current.
It proved to be a good choice and we even had some digital TV signal and cell phone reception to talk to many of you by phone.
