October 22, 2009 Ohio 945.0 to Green Turtle Bay

October 22, 2009

Ohio mm 945.0 to Green Turtle Bay Marina, Grand Rivers, Kentucky

Well, we made it through the night, and Mark thinks it may have been his best night of sleep. We are all getting better at the morning anchorage routine and Port knows what he is supposed to be doing once ashore. At least this morning we didn’t have frost to deal with. Yesterday, I was leaving my footprints on our canvas as I wiped the condensation off our windows.

Mark did some maintenance on Grateful. As we were coming to the end of our day yesterday, Grateful’s port engine was surging, and increased RPMs did not increase our speed. Mark drained the fuel filter on the port side. Grateful began the day running well.

We followed our GPS track back into the channel – we made it into the anchorage safely last night so going back the same way made the best sense – slick. We made it into the channel ahead of a 28-barge tow. Even at 7.0 knots per hour, we travel much faster than upstream-bound tows. We passed Metropolis, IL, with a Harrah’s casino boat, Ft. Massac, and the remains of Lock & Dam #52. As we passed over the remains of the dam, the turbulence was incredible.

We made the junction of the Ohio and Cumberland River at 11:30. It took 2:45 to go 22 miles. We were sure that we were going up the Cumberland because of the red/green marker. The going was slow here as well. There were very few channel markers as the river was narrow but depth ran at 30-60 feet. River industry, bluffs showing autumn colors, a Halloween scene (big birds in dead tree) and a helicopter being refueled mid-air were some of the highlights. A lowlight was that Grateful’s port engine started acting up again. In a clear stretch of river with no tows in sight, Mark shut down the port engine, went below and drained the fuel filter again while I kept Grateful in the channel with the starboard engine. We had both engines again, but something was still wrong. We were able to get through the huge Barkley Lock & Dam with a lift of 57 feet and made it to Green Turtle Bay. We pulled into the fuel dock for diesel and pumpout just as it started to rain. We took on another 304 gallons, but had only traveled 250 miles. Because we were Great Loopers, we were able to save 15 cents per gallon.

It is great to be safely tied in a marina with power and water. I worried about the last hour of our trip waaaayyyy more than Mark. I am glad he had things under control. He has made arrangements to have the diesel mechanic from this marina check out Grateful’s motors on Monday. So we will stay put at least until then.