Kaskaskia River to Paducah, KY

Kaskaskia River to Paducah, KY

We left soon after sunrise to get some of those 165 miles under our belt before the afternoon wind waves kick in. Our prior record was two 150 mile days skirting the Big Bend of Florida in late April while chasing a weather window. We highly recommend April-May for trailer boats to tackle the Armpit because there are no Arctic fronts blasting down every 5-7 days, even South FL is quite comfortable then, you don’t get the afternoon severe thunderstorms, and you’re not in the Looper Clot fighting for slips.

For this leg you leave the Mighty Miss to hang a left up the Ohio River, against the current, over 250 miles with no fuel since Hoppy’s old rusty pump. At our overall average of 2 MPG combined, we can go 300 miles with 900 pounds (150g) of gas minus a 10% reserve…more going with the current and less going against it. We made Paducah with a range of 60 miles left, and their single gas pump was broken with no fix date.

Eileen had an interesting radio call with the Olmstead Lock (#234) when she asked to lock through upbound:

“We’re not locking you through. Go over the dam.” Hmmm, that’s a first. So we followed a navigation channel over the dam, which appeared to be 20 feet above the prevailing 40 foot depths without incident. Dammest thing. Maybe it shouldn’t count, Eh?

Paducah had a 500-year flood event in 1937 that resulted in the first Federal laws re locks and dams and flood control measures. The city transient docks have the highest pilings we’ve ever seen. A massive floodwall with lighted murals describes the history of the area…very tastefully done. We docked and had the shorepower connected and the AC on in ten minutes flat. The main channel is on the far side of the river, and the towboats seem to slow down when passing the docks. We keep the AIS transmitting full time anyway so they know we’re here.

NEBOLINK log:

https://reports.nebo.global/c39be3b5-c00c-4ce8-…

We’ll take a few days to unwind, see the sights and make arrangements to get back up to the storage yard in NY, pick up the truck and trailer, and load up at a large county boat ramp a few blocks away.Lue lisää