Day 418
Miles Traveled: 91
Total Miles Traveled: 6788We had a peaceful night sleep in Little Diversion Channel. As soon as the sun came up, we headed out of Little Diversion and back out onto the Might Mississippi River. Today, "Penny Pinchin' " was in the lead as we curved around more bends and passed by tow boats.
With much anticipation, we finally reached the mouth of the Ohio River. There was a change in water color were the Ohio River meets the Mississippi River. The Mississippi is very brown all the time. The Ohio was more of a green color. Although the water was a prettier color, the trade off was that we were now headed upriver and against the current. Our speed went from about 12 mph to 7 mph.
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| turning to enter the Ohio River |
Just shortly after entering the Ohio River, we passed by a very unique "boat". It appeared to be a truck camper top mounted on a large john boat hull. Again another representation of "You never know what you are going to see on the river".
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| unique houseboat |
The upcoming section of the Ohio River was challenging. The Corp of Engineers is building a new lock and dam called "Olmstead Lock and Dam". This project has been going on for many years. They are far enough along that most of the river is blocked off, except for where the new locks are. There were several of us traveling together and we had to go the the chamber with both gates open in single file. The barges are escorted through the area with helper boats.
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| Olmstead Lock and Dam construction site |
Just past the soon to be Olmstead Lock is Lock 53. This lock and the one above, Lock 52, are going to be replaced by this Olmstead Lock. Lock 53 was only a two foot lift, and, the lockmaster allowed us to just float in the chamber as the water level was lifted instead of tying off to the old metal walls, we floated in the middle of the chamber.
As we exited Lock 53 the tow boat/barge traffic increased. There were tow boats with barges everywhere. Lock 52 was doing major repair work on the main chamber and all the tow boats were having to break down and go through the smaller chamber. This makes locking through twice as long. Lock 52 is one of the busiest on the Ohio River. As such, the tows are backing up. One count indicated over seventy tow boats waiting to be locked through.
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| tow boats with barges lining the banks of the Ohio River waiting to get locked through Lock 52 |
We did not have enough daylight to get to Lock 52 and lock through, so, we anchored just below the dam. We were anchored just shortly before the sun set.
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| sun beginning to set over Ohio River just before getting to our anchorage |
There were five Looper boats anchored at this location. We had traveled over twelve hours today and were exhausted. After a late dinner of leftovers, we got ready for bed.
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