Day 102: Traveling through Olmsted Lock

Day 102: October 28: It rained off and on all through the night. At 3:00 am we found ourselves outside throwing out a stern anchor. John woke up as he usually does a few times when we are on the hook, always alert to any sudden noises or bumps. He ventured outside to find we had done a full 180;  the wind had shifted and our bow was now facing out toward the entrance to the channel. Realizing we had spun completely around in the narrow inlet, he was thankful we had not swung closer to the bank and had not hit anything. Rather than take any chances, we pulled the Danforth anchor off of the bow. Like superman, John threw the chain over his back and carried the anchor to the stern. Even at 3:00 am I found the sight to be somewhat comical. 

We waited for the boat to straighten out and then tossed the anchor overboard. All this while standing in the cold rain. Luckily I was able to get back to sleep for a few more hours before it was time to pull up the anchor and get UW. 

Temperatures read in the low 50's in the morning but with the sun blocked out by the dreary clouds and the wind kicking up, it felt like 30 to me. Especially once UW! Are we really heading south?

Continuing on the Mississippi, we approached the Thebes Railroad Bridge, a really interesting structure. It is a five span truss bridge that stretches across the Mississippi between Illmo, Missouri and Thebes, Illinois. The bridge, including the concrete arch structures, was completed and dedicated in 1905. 

Still on the Mississippi and with the current with us, we felt like we were flying as we passed barges and dredges. John mentioned that before we embarked on this journey, thinking about cruising by all of the commercial traffic, some tugs pushing a load of barges 5 across and 6 or 7 deep, was intimidating. After having done it for days now, it's no big deal. You just have to communicate and take it slow; sometimes holding up if the channel is narrow and bends like a snake. 

At one point we passed this guy in a canoe, bundled up against the cold and carrying a bicycle. He hailed us down, we waved but couldn't hear what he was saying. On the side of his canoe read "Canoe for Cancer! It also had some reference to a facebook page but I couldn't make out the words. Brave soul being out there in the harsh weather and amongst the commercial traffic. In fact a barge had just passed between him and us. Yikes!

I happened to be texting with A.J. when he noted we would be passing the most southern point of Illinois shortly. He had been following us on the NEBO app and could tell where we were. He was right! We are the blue boat shape shown here. 

At Mile 0.0 we left the Mississippi and traveled onto the Ohio River. This junction is a very busy, large fleeting area with many towboats and barges tied to shore and moored in the river. As soon as we made the turn onto the Ohio the color of the water changed from a brown to a bright green. I guess the Mississippi really is the Big Muddy! 

The Ohio River is wide, but generally not as deep as the Mississippi. It is 981 miles long but we will only traverse it for about 60 of those miles. Entering the Ohio, we were now heading upstream so the red buoys were now on our starboard (LDB) once again. It took us quite awhile to travel through a good long stretch with so many barges and dredges in the area. Speed is always reduced to about 4 or 5 knots while passing.

We approached the Olmsted Lock, our first on the Ohio, around 3:00 pm. This lock has two chambers with floating bollards. John called the Lockmaster on 13; he was more than helpful, telling us, in his southern drawl, to keep on coming; the lock is open and ready. He instructed us to enter the starboard chamber and it would be a port side tie. He repeated himself and said "keep it coming, we are gonna get y'all up on outa here". I'm sure, seeing it was raining a bit, he was trying his best to get through the lock and find an anchorage before the skies opened up! With just our two boats we locked through in about 20 minutes. 

We exited and not a moment too soon. It started to pour making it difficult to see through the vinyl windows. We made the decision to stop as soon as we found a good place to pull out of the channel. Luckily it didn't take us long to find a good place about 2 miles past the lock. Of course dropping the anchor in the rain is never fun. Sandra found out this area was called the Monkeys Eyebrow. It was on the Kentucky side of the river. We were thankful to have found a perfect spot so quickly! It would not have been fun traveling in such miserable weather. 

We traveled 61 nautical miles (70.198 staute miles) in about 7 1/2 hours.