Turf to Surf

  Beautiful sunrise…. We have one lock today so all loopers coordinating to travel there together. Really big Tug boats here and this 2nd picture they look like they are on lifts for hull work.  We had a 3 hour wait at the lock so we dropped our anchors and had lunch. This picture was taken by a fellow looper that just happened to be driving over the bridge that day…we ran into them at dinner later that night where she shared this with me. Going up!!! Our track…. Green Turtle Bay Marina and Resort…very nice spot. 2 nights.  Dinner with Todd and Mary from Liming and docktails with a group of loopers. 

Since we were anchored just outside the Olmsted lock, one boat called the lock master early morning and we were able to all go through right away. Loopers monitor VHF channel 71 to communicate with each other. We have 3 VHF radios; one is on channel 16, it’s the main channel for hailing and for coast guard….one is on 13 for the commercial traffic, we can speak to the tow captains and we have a portable unit usually on 71.  This is called a Ballard. It floats up and down….all I have to do is wrap my line around it to hold the boat to the wall.  The Ohio has nice wide and deep channels….but very commercial.  Paducah transient city dock, room for maybe 10 boats. Because the river levels vary so much, and flood…the docks float up and down on the huge pilings you can see in this photo The town is also protected by this flood wall. Beautiful murals depict the the history of the area. Cute little town, nicely restored old buildings….lots of shops and restaurants but it’s claim t...

 Our track for the day…you can see that we turned northbound onto the Ohio at the end of our run.  We are now traveling against the current so instead of getting a bonus 2 knots like we were on the Mississippi we are now fighting 2 knots of current. Beautiful day, clear but cold. We ran the generator morning and evening for heat. We now have Kentucky on our right bank.  There was so much barge traffic at the mouth of the Ohio….see all the green targets on our nav system. The confluence of the two rivers….you can see the difference in colour…..well we could. We anchored by the dam with our two buddy boats, but by nightfall we were 7 boats.

 Our track for the day looks like Xmas garland as the current pushes us over 10 knots.  An early start today traveling with 2 buddy boats behind us, Frank and Kelly on Resolute and Todd and Mary on Liming. The lead boat calls the tows by VHF radio. The tow captain will dictate where and when you can pass him as he can’t stop nor change course easily. We can identify other boats on our integrated AIS (Automatic Identification system).  We are the white boat, the green triangles ahead of us are Tow boats. We can tap on each target to get; their name, size and speed.  The red circle indicates possible collision. This is a dredge being escorted by 4 tow boats… we think it is headed to dredge the area the barges went aground. This is Tower Rock, a local attraction.  We could see cars parked along the road and people walking along the base. This is a wing dam, they are man made. The Army Corps of Engineers is trying to control the flow of the Mississippi but eventuall...

  Saturday  Walking the river bank, it’s a beautiful day. Witch sighting on the old bridge.   The Anhauser mansion overlooking the river.  It was closed for a wedding….I was unable to get a tour ☹️. ~~~~~~~ Sunday Good news this morning, we are cleared to proceed southbound. Shots of us pulling out compliments of Resolute that pulled out behind us.  Our next stop is only 40 miles away, we should arrive early afternoon.   Our track for the day.  Tied to a Dam wall for the night…. The Dam….. We, meaning Richard, moved our day anchor to the swim platform in case we need to put a stern anchor down during our next two nights of anchoring.  That would prevent us from swinging into the shallow river backs.