Day 34 Down the Cumberland and Ohio Rivers to the Mississippi River

Today we left the Green Turtle Bay Marina at 5:30 am and arrived at Barkley Lock, which is our first lock (and hopefully last one for the day) at 5:45 am only to find out the lock doesn't open until 6 am.  However, as we were approaching the lock, we were treated to a very nice sunrise over Barkley Lake on the Cumberland River. Fortunately, at 6 am they opened the gate and let us in. 

     We really were fortunate to enter first since there was this  large tow that was probably also waiting for the lock. Luckily the tow had been resting for the night and was going to be a while before entering the lock. So, pardon the pun, but Lucky Us as we got to enter first...

      We had a 57 foot drop to the Cumberland River below the dam.  The photo at the right shows the gates opening for us to leave. Before the gates opened, it felt like we were in a very deep hole. We will take the Cumberland River down to the Ohio River where we will also go down river to the Mississippi River.  Our destination is to an anchorage on the Mississippi River just above where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers meet. 

We have two more locks on the Ohio but when we called yesterday they said the wickets are down and are expected to be down today also which means we go right over the dam and not through the lock.  Our total distance today is 92.2 miles and is almost all down river.  We anticipated making good time going down the Ohio River, and the speed is 12.1 miles per hour as shown on the photo of the chartplotter at the left. I had Lucky Us cruising slightly faster than normal at about 9 mph so the current on the river is adding about 3 mph to our speed.  

     It is chilly this morning at 49 degrees, and the high is only supposed to be 66 degrees so we were bundled up pretty well at the start today.   The photo at the right shows the Tennessee River flowing north into the Ohio River about 12 miles downstream from where we entered the Ohio from the Cumberland River. The city of Paducah, Kentucky starts here and extends downstream for several miles. The water in the Tennessee River is relatively clear and makes a distinctive color change as it flows out into the muddy Ohio River.

     There were several shipyards in Paducah, such as the one in the photo at the left. There are several work barges alongside a Harrah's Casino boat. The casino laws vary from state to state, but many states still require the actual casino to be floating. So these riverboat like casino boats are not just for show. There is also a floating dry dock (gray) at the right with a barge inside of it.

     Once again, there were grain shipping terminals along both sides of the river. Many of them are small, but this one for Archer Daniels Midland is really huge (as is the corporation). The covered grain barges are loaded going down river and empty coming back up river. My guess is that most of the grain is headed to New Orleans for shipment overseas.

     As we continued down river we came to locks 52 and 53, which both had their wickets down as was predicted. The wickets are hinged on one end and are mechanically rotated into the up position to form a dam. They are not very tall, but their purpose is not to store (or impound) water, but rather they rise the level of the river to keep it navigable during dry periods. There are locks along the shore, but they are not needed when the wickets are down. When they are in the down position, the only indication of their presence is turbulent water at the surface. The photo at the left shows the turbulence as it interacts with our wake creating small white caps.

      The Locks and Dams 52 and 53 are being replaced by another large lock and dam that is under construction but it is not scheduled to be completed until 2020. There is a safety zone around the new dam, and we had to call and request passage through the restricted channel. We were told to follow the guide boat through the channel, and it was waiting for us to follow it at no wake speed. The three tall structure at the right in the photo are part of the two new locks. The rest of the concrete structure with the crane barges are the lift gates on the dams.

     These concrete structures are pre-cast on shore, and they are carried out and lowered into position by this huge lift catamaran. On land to the left you can see a similar size lift that bring the pre-cast dam components down the hill to where it is shown in the photo. On the ground inside the lift is what amounts to a large rail car that then carries the dam segment out into the water to a point where the catamaran on the right can lift it up. The whole process is something of one of those mega-engineering marvels. I believe that this is the world's first large dam that has been built as a pre-fab structure. All others have been built in place. This construction method has allowed the river to remain navigable without using the new locks. However, when the last segment is in place all traffic will have to pass through the locks.

     About an hour later we began to approach the town of Cairo, Illinois, which is at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Down river from here it is the Lower Mississippi and above is the Upper Mississippi River. Also, the Ohio River is so large that it effectively doubles the volume of water in the Mississippi River. This location is a huge area for staging of barges going up and down the rivers. The photo at the right shows some of the many towboats that are presumably waiting for a tow. The largest tows that we have seen on the Ohio or Upper Mississippi Rivers are 36 barges. However, on the Lower Mississippi River the tows can be as large as 72 barges. The large size is probably possible because there are no dams and locks on the lower Mississippi River.

     There are huge rafts of barges anchored in the rivers with many small towboats moving barges around to make up or break down tows. It is a very busy few miles along the rivers!
    Then suddenly we were at the junction of the two rivers, and we began our turn to head 210 miles up the Mississippi River to the Illinois River. Just as suddenly our speed went from over 10 mph down the Ohio to as low as 2.8 mph going up river. Wow!

     This speed change was not unexpected, but it certainly was a reality check when it actually happened...  It is now after 5:00 pm, and we have anchored for the night.  We made it to mile marker 8 of the upper Mississippi River which is 7 miles further than we originally planned at the start of the day.  With experimentation by running on the sides of the river versus up the middle where the current is stronger, we believe we can average between 4.5 (the Admiral's estimate) and 5.0+ (my hypothesis) miles per hour.  We will be adjusting our planned stops now that we have a better feel for our speed.  We anchored for the night in an old (abandoned?) channel of the river. The setting was pretty enough, but the water was deep (more then 18 feet), the current strong and the debris was thick. We had hoped to be able to take Lucky to shore for potty breaks, but we abandoned that idea due to the strong current. Also, we had several rounds of clearing logs off of the anchor line. Yes, I did mean to say entire logs up to 30+ feet. All night long we heard loud bumps as a log would hit the boat and occasionally scrape down the side. Fortunately, the anchor held very well, and the night cooled off quickly so we only ran the generator for a couple of hours for some cooling and cooking. Long day! However, we have turned the corner, and our adventure up the Mississippi River has begun. The good news is that river levels remain favorable, and the weather predictions are also good. We made great progress today with just over 100 miles travelled, but now the slow up river trip begins. We are hoping to do the remaining 200 miles in 4 days, but time will tell.