Consumption, capacity and distance, oh my!

We hold 280 gallons of gasoline and at planing speed (25 miles an hour) we burn 33 gallons an hour, we have 228 miles to go before we can get fuel.  The math doesn't work out so we will be going slow most of the way. At 14 miles an hour we were burning 9 gallons an hour, the current really helped.  The bad news was at that speed we would only do 140 miles in 10 hours and we had 158 miles on the Mississippi, not to mention time on the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers before the next available gasoline.

Morning Mist 

Mississippi River in the morning

John got up at 5:30 so we could get an early start, but it was still dark.  It finally was light enough at 6:30 and we left. Fred, from Boreas, gave us a hand getting away from the dock.  We won't have to worry about locks until after the Ohio River.  The Mississippi River has a very strong current and there is much turbulence and many whirlpools.  The river also has many wing dams that keep the current in the channel and stop the buildup of sand bars, but contribute to the unpredictability of the water. 

Whirlpools:

Wingdams:

There was lots of traffic on the river including a deer who wanted to see what was on the other side.

The Mississippi was an adventure for Tuggsy and Baby Tuggsy, a gift from Shannon.  Here they are pretending to be cruising down the great river under their own power.

One of the few times we were running fast we raced this train but he beat us easily.  We tend to forget how much freight still moves by rail in this country, especially since in Michigan many former railroad beds have been transformed into hiking and biking trails

After 159 miles we made the Ohio River and started upstream, our speed was cut by about 7 miles an hour, we lost the current from the Mississippi and gained the current against us for the Ohio.  We traveled at 7 miles per hour.  Half the speed we were going on the Mississippi for the same fuel consumption. 


We have traversed under many railroad bridges, but this is the first time a train was going over as we cruised under.

We went 15 miles up the Ohio, which took us over 2 hours, and anchored for the night at about mile marker 966.   We had traveled 175 miles in thirteen hours, a very long day.  We anchored close to the Kentucky side out of the barge traffic and had a fairly quiet night.  This picture was taken at our anchorage.  Looks far from civilization, doesn't it? 

This is looking forward from our anchorage. This is a new dam which will replace 2 older ones.

We got an early start in the morning, all we had to do was pull the anchor and take off.  We had to go 32 miles to the Tennessee River, which doesn't sound like much until you do it at 7 miles an hour.  There are 2 locks in this 32 miles, but the Ohio River is high enough that they aren't using them right now.  They have the weirs lowered and boats just cruise over the dams.  We stopped at the public dock in Paducah, Kentucky, where John thought he would walk up to town to get a few things.  The only businesses in walking distance are restaurants and bars, so it was a short visit.   We continued another 22 miles and arrived at our largest lock so far. Kentucky Lock raises boats 57 feet.

We got to Kentucky Dam Marina about 5 PM and got gas and a slip for three nights, we need to clean the boat and rest.  The bad news is this is a dry county.  The good news is they have a courtesy car and the next county is "wet".  We did learn a new county designation here.  We were actually in a "moist" county which allows the sale of drinks by the glass so they can attract chain restaurants, which don't build where they can't serve alcohol.

This is the Mary Frances IV at the dock in another large floating marina with 442 slips.