We left our anchorage early and finished the 7 miles we had left of the Mississippi River. When we turned into the Ohio River, we were going upstream and our speed dropped but not as much as we had expected. The Ohio River was smooth – not the boiling cauldron of the Mississippi. Soon after, we encountered barges by the hundreds – they were parked in the middle of the river which was just outside the channel. Tows were everywhere as well – many were moving the barges around. This must be a staging area for where barges are kept until needed – I can’t imagine how they keep track of where a particular barge is.
We had three locks on the Ohio. The first one was the Olmstead Lock, which is still under construction and will replace Locks 53 and 52. There were tows lined up at the Olmstead Lock waiting for lockage. Correction – the lock isn’t operational yet so we weren’t actually waiting for lockage but for an escort by a tow through the lock and up to lock 53 due to the construction. We waited less than an hour before being escorted up to lock 53. Fern had told us lock 53 had been removed but not so! We had to wait for a tow with barges to complete his lockage before we were allowed to enter the main chamber of lock 53. This lock was in bad disrepair – I can see why it is being replaced. We then had 24 miles before Lock 52.
Lock 52 had the Ohio River shut down for some period of time just a few weeks ago. We arrived at 2:30 PM and contacted the lock master who told us to pull over to the starboard and throw out the anchor – it would be a 2-3 hour wait. So we did just that and then tried to find what little shade on the boat we could since it was yet another 90+ degree day. Six hours later, in the dark, five pleasure craft (one of which was us) were called into the chamber as well as a tug. Since the lock was in such bad condition, we did not tie off to a bollard like normal – the lockmaster had us float in the middle. An hour later, we were exiting lock 52.
After Lock 52, we continued on in the dark to the new Paducah Marina which was 3.5 miles away. We actually stayed there the first night it was officially open even though we didn’t see any of it since it was dark and late but we did make it there. The marina had agreed to allow two boats to raft off each other (at the same price, of course). When the five boats arrived, there was only room for one boat so two of us tied up on the fuel dock. Those on the dock moved boats closer together to make room and several rafted so we all actually stayed there. We were all very hot, tired and glad to be tied up somewhere with power!
We have really been lucky – we’ve squeaked through several locks before issues were encountered and shutdown. The Illinois River was closed for a week while dredging was performed – remember the barges we saw run aground? Many loopers have been stranded on the Illinois and Mississippi for days waiting for the locks or rivers to re-open after being closed.
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