Lat 037 10 23; Long 089 04 27; Fuel 192 gallons; engine 389.43
We left mile 966 about 8:30. We waited a little bit because of some heavy fog on the river. However once the sun got up it disappeared and it became a beautiful, sunny day. The river was smooth and clear. One of the things that is different between the Ohio and the Mississippi is the colour of the water. The Mississippi is brown and the Ohio is green. There are a lot of staging places for the barges along the Ohio and there are a lot of barges loading up.
The trip down the river involved one lock – lock 52 which it seems to me is a great back up. Barges were sitting waiting for hours to enter the lock and go up or down stream for a 2 foot increase in the water. Of course if the river was at a high level the barges could go right over the dam since it was only 2 feet high. When we approached the lock we were told, a pleasure craft, that we would have a two hour wait, and that we should anchor outside the red buoys. Fortunately the lockmaster was nice and after a half an hour, he called us forward and ran us through the locks without tying up to the side. We just floated in the lock until two feet of water was pushed into the lock. We moved out and continued our journey.
Serendipity decided they wanted to visit Paducah, Kentucky so they left us shortly after the lock. Ouixote and The Old Grouch continued on to Tow Island at the opening of the Cumberland River. Serendipity decided Paducah was not a great place to tie up and then followed us down the river. We anchored at Tow Island, a beautiful quiet anchorage. Sun is now going down and I expect a great sunset over the Ohio. We went for a little walk on the island where Carol from Serendipity and Brenda discussed the various plants on the island. Annie the Serendipity dog roared up and down the beach, into the water and rolled herself in the sand.
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