On The Move Again

Thursday June 25, 2009 After being at Green Turtle Bay for nearly a month the Mississippi has finally dropped to a level that I feel we can handle. It's still not for the faint hearted but if you don't mind strong currents and occasional channel wide debris it's not too bad. So with that in mind we pulled out of GTB at 6:15 am. I wanted to cross back over to the Tennessee River and travel that river to Paducah but a quick call to the lock squashed that idea. They had just started a double (barge that has to be locked in 2 sections) and had another one waiting which meant us sitting for a minimum of three hours before we could lock through. Fortunately the Barkley Lock was open so to the Cumberland we go. The only bad part of the Cumberland route is that it adds 22 miles to the day. Oh well! Down the Cumberland we went at trawler speed + to conserve fuel. The current was moving pretty good so we got a little boost from it and hit the Ohio at 9:42 am. Once we entered the Ohio the water turned to a nice thick milkshake brown. We cruised over, yes over the dams at Locks 52 & 53 since the water was so high and they are the type that can be lowered to the bottom of the river. The lock chambers that we came through back in November were completely under water.

We entered the Mississippi at 2:45 pm and turned North. Only 579 miles left to go! The current was every thing I expected but not much debris yet. Of course our timing was perfect in that we made the turn onto the Miss at the same time as the Raymond Grant Ekstein pushing 35 barges was heading upstream from the lower river. Yikes! A quick conversation on the VHF to let him know our intentions and upstream we went. The water was calm but the current was ripping and the color of the water would have made any farmer who works the land want to get his planter out. There can't be any dirt left in the Midwest. It's all in the river! We made it to our destination near Cape Girardeau, Mo. and anchored off channel in the Little River Diversion Canal. The same spot we anchored in on the way down but with 15' more water. A nice days run.