A Long Hot Day

We woke up at our Flint Island Anchorage to yet another beautiful sunrise.

Before we got started, Alan was doing routine maintenance and spotted water in the starboard fuel separator. Likely cause was missing O ring in the fill cap which allowed water to seep in while washing the boat. The separator is there for that reason and the water was drained out easily.

And off we go

 

It was a bit foggy but our visibility on the water was quite good.

 

But look what comes creeping out of the fog towards us

 



It is an LST 325 Navy ship. It was originally launched in 1943 as a back up force for troops going ashore at Omaha Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944. It later made trips between England and France ferrying troops, equipment, ammunition and supplies during 1944-1945. In later years, the ship continued to serve throughout the Cold War and was active in both the Korean and Vietnam wars, before retiring to home port in Evansville, Indiana.

The ship is on its way to Aurora, Indiana where it will be open for tours Sept 13-16. No charge for Korean and WWII vets.

We traveled for 102 miles and went through 2 locks (Cannelton and Newburgh). No wait at either one. When we came out of Newburgh, a fully loaded tow with 15 barges full of coal was entering the larger lock. It takes some skillful navigation to get that monster in and it is easy to understand how accidents can happen like the one at Whitten Lock.

After locking through, we were moving with a ~2.3 mph following current which put us at a speed over ground of about 9.7 mph at 1100 rpm. So we had a long day of 11 hours.

Alan exercising

 

My navigation center. The electronics are great but I am old school and like to have paper for reference. For the Ohio River, I have used the Army Corp of Engineers Chart, the Ohio River Guidebook by Jerry Hay, Quimby's 2019 Cruising Guide and a handwritten loose itinerary.

 

 

The app Nebo has been really nice too. It is a boat logging app. Below is a what we see on our ipad while traveling. In this shot we just went through a lock.

 

It's probably a good time to talk about channel markers. Channel markers float in the water to define the path that you should follow.

 

Getting outside of the channel markers could easily put you aground. The markers in the inland rivers are either red nuns or green cans When you are traveling downstream, you will keep the green cans on your right and the red nuns on your left. When traveling upstream (as in returning from a larger body of water), you keep the red nuns on your right and green cans on your left - often remembered by "red, right, returning". So on the Ohio River, we are traveling downstream so we keep the green cans on the right (starboard) side and the red nuns on the left (port) side. When we get to the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, we will be traveling upstream so it will be the opposite (red, right returning). And we will be against the current so miles per gallon will decrease.

 

Below is a pic where we met a large tow head on in a narrow channel. He blew his whistle twice, telling Captain Alan to pass him starboard to starboard. If you can see the red nun, you will see how narrow a space we had.

 

Once at Nu Plaza fuel dock, we purchased 160 gallons fuel at $3.90/gallon. This was really high compared to Turtle Creek at $2.99/gallon. Fuel should be a bit more competitive on the Tennessee so hopefully we won't see $3.90 again. We hooked up electric and water and got the AC going. Ahhh, after all the heat that day (heat index 100 degrees), we were ready for a cool shower and a warm dinner! Then facetime with the family and off to sleep. Another long day planned for tomorrow.

P.S. Some of you have mentioned it is difficult to leave a comment. Still trying to figure that one out. Please feel free to text us or leave comments on Facebook. Always good to know if folks are reading (or have any suggestions for) the blog. And if you are reading, thanks for coming along with us!!