Weather forecast for October 11, 2017:
Green Turtle Bay, Lake Barkley, Grand Rivers, Kentucky
Partly cloudy, low 73 high 85.
Captain’s Log: October 10, 2017
Cincinnati to Mobile: Part 1
Cincinnati to Kentucky Lake (440 miles):
We have spent the later half of the summer visiting friends and family in Cincinnati and Detroit while living mostly with my aging mother and father. My parents, both in their 90s, are getting more and more frail and their ability to live independently is rapidly fading. We tried to maximize our time with them, taking long rides in the country, visiting dad’s favorite fishing spots, going out to an occasional dinner and just sitting around talking, laughing and reminiscing.
I was up early on our departure day and cooked a big breakfast for Shirley, mom and dad. My sister Kathy and her husband Jim arrived at 10:00 and drove us to the marina. While completing our final preparations prior to shoving off we had several visitors; Kathy, Jim, my brother Denny, his wife Terry and my nephews Dan and Dustin, our friends Robert, Karen and Doug, and my daughter Jamie and grand daughters Lauren, Caroline and Ali all came down to wish us a safe and adventurous journey.
We slipped the dock lines and bid Constance Marina and Cincinnati farewell at 13:00 bound for Rising Sun, Indiana. Later that day, as we began our slow approach to the Rising Sun dock, we were treated to the local seaplane pilot doing touch-and-goes on the river with a student. Several boaters were anchored along the shore on both the Kentucky and Indiana sides, enjoying the aerial gymnastics with us. After the impromptu airshow we tied up at the city dock for the night, walked into town and enjoyed a great Mexican dinner at Rising Sun Cantina. All things considered, it was a very good start for our latest adventure.
I am a task-oriented person; I wake up each morning with a mental list of what I want to accomplish that day. I seldom accomplish any of it, but I still do it, every day. So, to measure our progress and to satisfy my compulsion to set goals, I established three major milestones, or legs, when planning this trip. They are:
Cincinnati to Kentucky Lake (the Ohio River leg: appx. 440 miles)
Kentucky Lake to Bay Springs Lake (the Tennessee River leg: appx. 225 miles )
Bay Springs Lake to Mobile Bay (the Tenn-Tom leg: appx. 450 miles)
Cincinnati to Kentucky Lake (440 miles):
Unlike me, Shirley is still employed. So, during regular working hours and even after hours whenever we have good Internet connectivity, she can be found below deck on her laptop or on the phone. I, on the other hand, have developed and allergic reaction to anything that looks like work so I spend the vast majority of my day at the helm babysitting the autopilot and watching the world go by.
Cruising at 8mph on a big river like the Ohio, for hundreds of miles, can get monotonous if you don’t pay close attention to what is slowly passing by. Curiosity is the antidote for boredom and, if you look closely, if you pay attention, you can see and feel some very curious things, things that you may otherwise miss.
The river exudes a sense of old age, of time slowly passing. The banks of the Ohio River from Cincinnati (mile marker 500) to the Cannelton Lock and Dam (mile marker 720) are characterized by densely wooded hills, some quite high and steep, some with exposed rock faces; some even show signs of recent (within decades) avalanches. In early October the fall colors have not reached their peak, only a hint of what is to come can be seen and, from the middle of the river, autumn’s show should be spectacular.
Between Cincinnati and Cannelton the river runs through a true valley, a long and winding valley that probably follows the leading edge of the ancient Laurentide Ice Sheet that left till soil and other glacial sediment deposits along what is now the Ohio River Valley. On the downstream side of the Cannelton Lock the hills almost immediately yield to flat or gently rolling fields of crops, mostly corn, or wooded areas.
I was fascinated by this geography and could readily imagine a towering wall of ice leaving a scarred landscape as it slowly retreated. I would guess that the Laurentide Glacier did not reach as far south as present day Cannelton. At least that is my story, and I am sticking to it.
Evansville, Indiana, sits on the right descending bank of the Ohio River about seventy miles downstream from the Cannelton Lock. I never gave much thought to Evansville; for us it was just a convenient location to top off our fuel tanks and recharge our batteries, so we tied up to the fuel dock at Inland Marina for the night.
Later that evening Shirley received a call from her sister Rose who stated that she was less than one hour away and would like to meet us at the boat. After that call we decided to stay for an additional night and I am very glad that we did.
We spent the next day exploring the city and, while walking into town from the marina, we happened upon the Historical Preservation District. What a find! There are at least ten square blocks of large, unique and beautiful antebellum and early 1900’s homes that have been or are currently under restoration. For hours we wandered through the district, marveling at the grandeur of these stately structures. Evansville was a very pleasant surprise.
There are six locks on the Ohio River and one on the Cumberland River between Cincinnati and Kentucky Lake. These structures provide a diversion to the slow moving routine and a challenge to planning the next overnight anchorage. A lock transit can take as little as fifteen minutes or over five hours, depending on the number of towboats ahead of you in the queue and the disposition of the lock master.
We arrived at the Smithland Lock (mile marker 918), the last lock (for us) on the Ohio River, at 11:10 and found a queue of exactly one towboat. We thought that we were in great shape; we only had 35 miles to go to reach Green Turtle Bay and we had over seven hours of daylight remaining. Well, thanks to the lock master’s laziness or incompetence, or both, we finally transited the lock at 15:30, four and one half hours after arriving at the lock. In all that time only one tow passed through a double-chamber lock system.
This delay put us in a tight spot. To complicate matters, there are no anchorages on the Cumberland River between the Ohio River and Lake Barkley. We had 31 miles ahead of us on the narrow, shallow and unattractive Cumberland, at the end of which sat the Barkley Lock and then three more miles on Barkley Lake before arriving at Green Turtle Bay Marina. It was 15:50 and we were making 8.5mph; we would be traveling at night.
We entered the lock just after sunset and, fifteen minutes later, the pitch-black expanse of Barkley Lake stood before us as the big gates opened to let us out. With Shirley perched on the bow pulpit seat, spotlight and walkie-talkie in hand, we inched forward into the darkness. She slowly panned the light to-and-fro over the dark water, desperately searching for the channel markers that our charts told us were there. Somehow we found the entrance and made it through the tricky channel to Green Turtle Bay. Exhausted, we congratulated ourselves for a job well done and eagerly retired for the night.
Until next time, may your tomorrow bring fair winds and following seas!