It rained all night AND, when it came time for me to bring up the anchor, it continued to rain. Fortunately, I have excellent rain pants that Betty-Mom bought for my birthday one year. Shameless plug for REI and my mother-in-law!!
The other boats we are traveling with decided on the little creek anchorage, and they had a lot of debris wash down on them in the night. The creek was narrow enough that the debris just piled up on the boats, and it was hard for them to get out. Here is a pic they sent me of that fandango.
It was a totally dreary day, and we had the running lights on. All the attractive sights along the way were also lit up...
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The MS River is just one big obstacle course. The channel is narrow, and VERY twisty. The big barges, often 3 X 5, can take up the entire path as they try to navigate the turns. We stay tuned to VHF 13 in order to hear them, or to ask which side to pass on. Rick is constantly trying to get me to understand about passing on the 1 vs the 2. Port is 1 and starboard is 2. If the barge is coming at you and says 'I'll meet you on the 1', that's very clear - we are going to pass port to port. But for someone (me) who gets confused by even 'left' and 'right', it can get super hard. For example, what if you are both down-bound and he says 'pass me on the 1'. Is that his 1 or my 1? Each time I overthink it and have a synapse blow out and Rick has to take over... ARRRRGGG....
The side of the channel is a continuous line of parked barges. Which would drive me crazy - I hate it when people leave their stuff everywhere. Is someone in charge of knowing where all these little barges ARE?????
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Once in a while, if you haven't been challenged in a few minutes, something like this giant stationary dredging complex will get thrown it. Then you and all the barges have to figure out how to get around it... One of our friends often says 'you're killing me, Smalls' (which I guess is a well known movie quote unknown to me) when she is frustrated.. After a few of these obstacles I started saying 'you're keeling me, Smalls' ... which made Rick laugh. And THAT, people, is the secret to 30 years of marriage. Saying stupid stuff that amuses only one other person on the planet!
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We felt like we had been cruising forEVER, and I felt like most of my adult life had been spent getting around this giant oxbow bend. With some fun narrow bits where we had to negotiate with oncoming barges.
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| At one point we were going North, and even NW - the EXACT OPPOSITE of the direction we are generally trying to travel. 😖 |
FINALLY, we came to the confluence of the MS and the Ohio Rivers! You can see us below at the mouth of the MS, which continues on to the right, while we take a sharp left and start up the Ohio. We were so excited to be through with the MS, but celebrating had to wait as barge traffic in the area triples, with major 'fleeting' areas (areas where the barges sit until they are needed - lots of them chained together) to get through. And the wonderful push we were getting from the MS abruptly stopped and we began to fight up the Ohio AGAINST current. It was a bit discouraging, but we knew this would be the longest day of our Loop, and we fought on. In the rain and gloom... Because we are brave. And, to be honest, there is no other way to get home!
Finally we got to the base of Olmsted Lock, the only lock we will do on the Ohio River. There was a nice open anchorage just short of it, and we led our little ducklings (today we had 4) to it, as planned. For some reason COMPLETELY UNKNOWN to us, they decided to all raft together. This was a head scratcher for us as we never raft at anchor. We might, if it were a calm, warm day with no wind, and we wanted to socialize. But this was not that day. Four boats with three anchors out is just asking for trouble in wind/current, and we don't need more of that shit.
I called the lock to get details for tomorrow, and became BFs with Lock Master Kyle. That reassured us that Ohio locks are different and we won't have to wait for hours tomorrow morning.
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| Goodnight... |
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