Day 152: Boston Bar, IL to Cumberland Towhead, KY
Day 152: Saturday, September 17th: We all got underway about 6:30am this morning and headed down the last seven miles of the Upper Mississippi to the Ohio River. We soon were heading into thick fog:
Shortly the fog cleared and we were able to hit cruise speed:
We rounded Cairo Point where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers converge:
Then we passed back under the same highway we had listened to all night - Interstate 60. Only this bridge was on the Ohio River:
The confluence of these two major rivers presents another huge tow "fleeting" area, where barges are sorted out and re-tied according to destination - up or down the Ohio or up or down the Mississippi:
Some of the barge nests are anchored in mid-river, although out of the main channel:
We soon arrived at the Olmsted Lock and Dam construction site. This new dam will be completed in 2011 and will replace Lock 53 and Lock 52, two older locks upstream of here:
Editorial note: As of the end of 2011, the lock and dam are nowhere near being complete.
The modern dam will have two locks:
Upstream, we all entered Lock 53, one of two for today:
This is the office building for the lock and dam. It looks a lot different from those on the Trent-Severn Waterway:
In the Ohio, the Illinois side still sports gaming boats. Here is a familiar name:
Here is the office for Lock 52:
The dam, like Dam 52, is another wicket dam that can be lowered during high water:
They had been having mechanical and hydraulic problems with the lock for the last couple of days. The tows were backed up by the handful. Fortunately we could fit in the smaller 600-foot lock and were locked through quickly. There was a tow waiting just above the upper gate:
We learned later that we were the last lock-thru for pleasure boats of the day. They had to shut the lock down for repairs after we left. Whew! We were very lucky!
We cruised on and at about 4:30pm arrived at Cumberland Towhead, an ideal anchorage behind an island at the mouth of the Cumberland River. There were five of us there for the night.
We had shepherd's pie for supper. It was delightful. This was Bill's birthday, so we broke out the brownies and one of the candles that were a gift of Gael and Chaz (our webmaster) Cone. Ruth sang "Happy Birthday" and Bill enjoyed the repast!
We slept like rocks in the quiet, cool night.
Position tonight: N37 06.621 W088 25.727
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