We Made It

It was a whole chapter in itself, and a difficult one at that. It was also not our favorite part of the Loop, but yet it was fascinating because of that difference. The Rivers: Illinois starting in Chicago, The Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, and now the Tennessee at the beginning of Lake Kentucky.....these were the rivers that challenged us.

Part of the issue is that most of these rivers were shallow if you wonder outside the main "sailing" channel. They were all muddy water, and fast currents. The Mississippi was really fast after the Missouri joined it north of St. Louis. The Ohio was also running fast still draining this summers rains from the northeast and that was current right on our nose. So in the Mississippi we cruised at 12-13 mph, and in the Ohio we only went around 7.5 mph.

Another fun sport on the rivers is staying out of the way of the big tows. These are massive collections of barges (each one being 50 ft. X 300 ft.) being pushed by a huge tug boat they call tows. The barges are full of the things we need in this world that can be filled into big tanks, or dumped into the barge itself. Many tows on the Mississippi and the Ohio were 6 wide and 6 deep. They are really fun to see coming down the river at you out of the mist or rain. Yikes.

But we made it through the Barkley Lock on the Cumberland River here in western Kentucky. This dam and one even bigger a mile to the west on the Tennessee River were TVA projects from the 30's and they are massive structures. The lock to elevate us from the river up to the lake, was 57'.

Now we are in what is called "The Land Between the Lakes" in western Kentucky and Tennessee. Kentucky Lake (the Tennessee) and Lake Barkley (the Cumberland) run parallel to each other for 60 miles to the south and form a state park that is beautiful. Both lakes remind me of the Ozarks, with lots of coves and creeks off the main branch, but maybe not as curvy as the Ozarks. Lake Kentucky is where we will spend the next month and its pretty much a straight shot south for 200 miles to the next dam. Then there are a series of dams, each with a lock that makes the Tennessee navigable up to Chattanooga and Knoxville, some 600 miles from here. Whew!!!

We have been decompressing from the rivers here at a very nice marina called Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, KY, cleaning the boat, doing service work, and in general collecting our wits for the next session. Since we traveled the rivers in packs of Looper boats, there are quite a few here doing the same thing...resting and preparing for the next leg. So natuarally at 5:00, break out the lawn chairs and grab a beer or wine, because we all have to get together, drink, and tell stories of how we survived the perils of "The Rivers".