013: The Big Turn and a Man Left Behind

We had a bit of a hectic start as we left Little River Diversion Canal on November 9^th.   Apparently “the plan” was to leave at 6:30 a.m. but somehow, we didn’t get the memo.   I was relaxing with a cup of coffee when Nancy pointed out that the other boats in the anchorage were pulling up their anchors.   A quick call to KatMat confirmed that people were in fact pulling out.   

We scrambled and brought the anchor up at 6:45 a.m., but with an unmade bed, the first time it wasn’t “ship shape” since we moved onto the boat.   The reason for the early start was that we had about 70 n/m to go to get past the Olmstead Lock and Dam on the Ohio River to an anchorage short of Paducah that had been recommended to us by Sol Maria (who had gone ahead so they could rent a car and visit Nashville and Memphis).   Traditionally this is a two-day trip, but with the river down fifteen feet we had been advised that the normally good anchorage about halfway to the OLD was no longer tenable.

In addition to the hectic start, we had a barge doing dredging nearby that we had to stay clear of.   Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good shot of the “business end” of this dredge.  This type sucks up the river bottom and then shoots the muck out the far end (not captured in the picture). 

 Here is a different kind of dredging operation we passed later:

 https://youtu.be/cNSs4Tp6oYc

At Cairo, IL (pronounced Kay-roh), we made the big turn onto the Ohio River:

 

There is lot of tow/barge infrastructure on this part of the Ohio River:

 

We passed this unfortunate boat on the way up.  Looks like a Venture 24, which was the same boat I had in the mid 1980's:

My V24 circa 1985:

Two of the boats in our flotilla sped up to the Olmstead Lock and Dam and were keeping us posted on when we could all go through the locks.   We thought we had plenty of time to bring up the four of us (KatMat, Hygge, Willie Dawes, and the SV Fica) but we got a sudden call that the lockmaster was going to open the locks a.s.a.p.   KatMat and Hygge can get up and go if needed, but we were happy to follow the slower Willie Dawes (they top out at about eight knots max) and miss the lock opening.  Dan, skipper of the Willie Dawes encouraged us to speed up and try and make the lock.  Hoping that would give him and Fica enough time to be in site of the lockmaster who just might keep the doors open for them.   KatMat and us put the pedal to the medal and sped up to sixteen knots and as we approached the lock, we “slow rolled” it hoping to give the others a chance to get close.  Unfortunately, the lockmaster started to close the gates as soon as we were secure to the floating bollards and Willie Dawes and Fica missed the opening.   We felt bad about “leaving a man behind” but there you have it. 

As noted, our plan had been to anchor short of Paducah, but we figured if we stayed at sixteen knots, we could make the Paducah City docks just before sunset, so we “burned some carbon” as they say and watched our miles per gallon go from about three n/mpg at seven knots to about one n/mpg at sixteen.   But we did make it in just before sunset and tied up to the Paducah City dock.

Willie Dawes and Fica got the next lock opening and wound-up anchoring for the night with no hard feelings.

 

Dave