Wed - Thu, Sept. 5-6, 2018

We began our day anticipating a long journey of 92 miles, all the way to Paducah, KY, knowing that a new transient dock (just opened last September) would be waiting for us. Thoughts of power, possibly water and a dock to step out onto were true incentives after our previous night of anchoring. (We will have to anchor again, of course, but preferably not today!)

We passed by the biggest tow/barges we have yet seen on the river, a 4x6, meaning it was 4 barges wide by 6 barges long! One tow pushing 24 barges is pretty amazing!

At noon we hit a milestone – we turned off the Mississippi onto the Ohio River! Now heading up river, we were going against the flow which would slow us down a bit. A new lock & dam, that had been planned and under construction on the Ohio for last 30 years, the Olmsted L&D, was just put into service the end of August. It will replace Ohio River Locks 52 and 53 which were completed in 1928 & 29, respectively. It was a hot but beautiful day so we didn’t mind having about an hour’s wait… until just as we were instructed to come up to the lock and prepare to enter it, the sky burst into a deluge of rain! (Why does this happen to us at locks!)

Honestly, after the sweltering heat, the rain shower didn’t feel so bad. It was just frustrating to get everything closed up while at the same time trying to get into the lock and tied up to a bollard - ugh!  We had a lot of wet things but… it is a boat … it is made to get wet … and so it did. No problem - everything dries out pretty quickly in this heat. :-)

As we pulled out of the lock, Brian noticed the engine sounding odd. Asking Sue if she heard it, resulted in a negative answer, but that didn’t deter Brian, and it’s a good thing. Once we were a reasonable distance from the lock, and of course by then there was no rain, Sue could tell the engine sounded strange too. An evaluation of our power, ability to steer and change gears (only 2: forward & reverse), it appeared we completely lost the functioning of our port transmission. OMG – How can this be!  The starboard transmission was just repaired! Uuugggghhhhh!

So, we limped along on one engine going 7.5 to 8 mph, past Lock 53 (no longer functioning) then had to wait at lock 52 which had a big backup because one of its 2 locks was closed due to an eddy at the lock gates. Fortunately, they opened the auxilliary lock for us – guess the eddy had disappeared by then – and we were the only boat small enough to go through it at the time.  By the time we arrived at Paducah, it was already dark, but their new dock is well lit and we were able to get Bo to the grass. What a trooper he is!  It was a long day for him, but he held out all the way up the long stairway to the grass on shore. Good boy!

We stayed at Paducah 2 nights to research the transmission problem and do some planning. The Paducah dock is near a park which is part of a newly developed area of the riverfront. Sadly (for Sue, not so much Brian) we missed getting to see the National Quilt Museum within a few blocks walk. We did get to see impressive murals of Paducah and the area’s history that are painted along the flood wall. It’s called “Paducah, Wall to Wall, Portraits of Our Past.” While walking along and reading the inscriptions for each painted section, an older gentleman came up to us and wanted to know what we thought. It turns out he was one of the people in charge of the project. He introduced himself as Prof. John Robertson and he came to Paducah with the Illinois Central Railroad back in the early 1940s. He told us a bit about himself and Paducah history. Although he gave up a position of seniority at the I.C.R.R. to teach history at the Community College, he seems to have a great love for art as well as history. 

We had a delicious pizza (just like they make in Italy!) at an interesting place - the former Greyhound Bus Terminal turned into a restaurant. We didn’t stay for the band later in the evening as we wanted to be up and moving early the next morning, on Friday, Sept. 7.