August 31 Holiday Yacht Club MM 43.5 East Liverpool W.V

Good morning from rainy W. V. 43 miles from Pittsburg. Were tucked into a local yacht club in East Liverpool 43 miles from Pittsburg.  We motored by it to take a look and from the Google maps it looked too small for us to get into as the slips are very short and narrow and it looked as though they were all full. So went across the river to look at another dock by a boat ramp which ended up being way too small. Then we got a call on the radio from the yacht club asking if we were looking for dockage.They said they could accommodate us and had power and water. They put us right on the concrete entrance bulkhead which is very secure.

We are lying stern to the river so we don’t roll when we get a wake. We have 240 volt power and Carol is a happy camper as we slept with air-conditioning last night. Dockage is $25 and power is an extra $5 which by Tennessee River standards is a bargain. Had only one lock to traverse yesterday, the New Cumberland and got right through. Went through with two small powerboats probably 20 footers and it was pretty apparent they were not frequesnt users of the locks. It was pretty comical watching the show.

    A mile or two out of the lock we encountered a pontoon boat dead in the water in the middle of the river. The man had the cowl off his outboard and was obviously fiddling with it. We came back around and asked them if they needed some help and they accepted our offer of a tow to where they had launched since we were headed in that direction .

 

  We took them in tow and initially I was motoring very slowly but as we continued up river I increased our speed and where they were behind Annie gave them a fairly smooth ride. When we got to where their boat ramp was I wasn’t sure how much water there was by the dock so  we turned them loose and I got into our dinghy and tied onto them and got them to their ramp while Carol took Annie on upriver. As soon as I got them to the dock took off in  the dinghy and got back to the boat. Another daring rescue at sea !

      After that we continued our search for dockage and ended up here at Holiday Yacht Club. . Its actually a really nice facility mostly small cruisers and pontoons and a few house boats. Probably 60 boats total and we are the biggest thing in sight  The grocery store is within an easy walk and we must have had ten offers of use of a car before we got out the marina. We walked to the grocery store and picked up a few things but were somewhat limited by our ability to carry everything back. Should have taken someone upon an offer to use a car. The only mishap was the gallon of milk  broke through the bottom of the bag and the jug busted and there was milk everywhere. I grabbed it and was able to salvage about 3/4 or it by carrying it sideways. Carol was about to start giving me grief when I told her there was no use crying over spilled milk !!!  Yuk!.  ..and that ended that.

    The locals have told u that the two locks between here and Pittsburg are down to one chamber and there is a 30 hour delay getting through. We are going to call them today and see what the situation on locking through is. If its not good we may stay here for a day or two and do some boat work. Its raining today so no chance of getting any varnish. The locals are having a big labor day bash this evening and we are invited so we will likely stay at least one more day..

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August 30 Sistersville, W.V. Mile 137.5 to Wellsburg WV Mile 72

Good morning from Wellsbur W.V.

Got into Wellsburg yesterday afternoon around 5. We left Sistersville with a light fog hanging over the river. Sistersville has the oldest operating ferry on the Ohio River.

  

The Ohio River is becoming more beautiful with each passing day. Over the last two hundred miles the river has narrowed significantly….in some places barely over a hundred yards wide. The current has also decreased as noted by our increasing boat speed. There for a few days we were barely doing 6.5 mph but the last few days we have been making about 7.5 mph. We were told that we would be encountering a lot more tows on the upper Ohio but such has not been the case, at least so far. . We passed only two tows yesterday both south bound loaded with coal. The river is becoming much more industrialized with coal miles and power plants stretched out along the river on both the Ohio (north) and the West Virginia (south) banks

 

 

We have been seeing quite a number of smaller sternwheelers plying the waters of the Ohio. This time of year many of the river towns have their river festivals or river days and these small sternwheelers show up in significant numbers to add some nostalgic images to the festivals. Some of then like the one on the left is an excursion boat while the smaller ones awre old workboats that were at one time working pushboats that have been converted to paddle drive.

 

Yesterday we covered 61 miles and passed two dams, Pike Island and Hannibal Lock and Dam. Pike Island was number 14 on the Ohio added to four on the Tennessee and I believe there are four more in the last 70 miles to Pittsburg. We have become quite adept at locking through and the wireless headsets we have been using have made life much easier. Actually 61 miles is a lot for us and we didn’t plan it that way. . We were headed for a marina called Rayland because the cruising guide said they had 240 volt 50amp power, so that was our destination. We had called ahead and gotten instructions about entrance depths. and depths alongside their piers because the marina was in a little slough off the main river.  Everything seemed good utill we got there. They had told me we had 4.5 feet coming in. Well, wrong on that one . I was in a foot of mud and the depth sounder alarm was screaming at me as we came in off the river. . I was hoping it would get better as we got further into the basin. Wrong again….got worse. so bad it took me almost 10 minutes to get the boat turned around. I kept going back and forth trying to wallow a hole in the mud but couldn’t get within 20 feet of the dock so we decided to head back out to the river and keep going before we tore something up on the boat.  Rayland was at  Mile 81.5 and was actually a niceooking marina but unfortunately it was not for us.  Back on the river we found the town of Wellsburg listed in the cruising guide about 10 miles upriver  which had a city free dock and a restaurant with a dock. We called the restaurant and they allowed you to stay overnight if you ate at the restaurant. We located the dock on our Google Earth apps on the ipad and headed in that direction. . When we got there the free city docks were no longer in existence even through they were shown  on Google earth. That seems to be fairly common up here in that spring floods and winter ice takes out a lot of docks and actually the river bank for hundred of miles is littered with floats from old docks. So the Crooked Deck restaurant was the only game in town, at least this town.. When we got there they had a brand new dock with good cleats and pilings and was a great  place for us to tie up. Of course the dock had no power or water but we can live with that. We went into the restaurant and it was packed. Now that cam mean one of two things…either they have great food or they are the only game in town. As it turned out, it was the latter and have a very nice dinner. The tab ended up being 30 bucks. so we had a good meal and dockage for 30 bucks. Can’t argue with that !

     Still dealing with the alternator problem on the port engine. I walked Hillary this morning and found a NAPA parts store and an Advanced Auto parts both of which were useless. You tell them the alternator is in a boat and they are clueless. I did find out that the nearest alternator shop is in Wheeling which we passed mid day.yesterday. We would have stopped there but they were having some type of hydroplane races on the river this weekend and the downtown waterfront and park were all reserved. We did see a rather interesting bridge in Wheeling which was very reminiscent of the Brooklyn Bridge and the suspension bridge in Cincinnati. It was built in the 1850’s and for a period was the longest suspension bridge in the world.

 

 

We

 

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August 28 Sisterville, W.V.

Left Marietta around 10 and did a whopping 37 miles to Sisterville W.V.  Passed a few coal tows and that was the high point of the day. Lots of wonderful scenery and one lock to go through.  Found a reference in one of the cruising guides to a boat club in Sisterville with transient dockage with power, so we decided to head for that.   Well,  the cruising guided was wrong. When we got there, there was no place for transient boats  to dock and there was no power. Fortunately the city has a very nicei new transient dock by the park  but no power or water but at least it’s a nice place to tie up and take the dog ashore so we tied up there for the night. 

Mid afternoon Carol l announced that the 12 volt fresh water pump had quit. She took the wheel and I went down to take a look but didn’t see anything obvious. Tried  resetting all of the breakers and checked the connections and all seemed OK. I was conjuring up images in my mind of a burned up pump motor and having to take it somewhere to get it rewound or even worse having to send it back to the manufacturer and that would take weeks to get back. And to make matters worse there are some printed circuit boards inside the motor housing to make it even more complicatedand hard to work on. .  The problem is that we do have redundancy in that there is a 110 volt AC water pump,  but without the 12 volt pump we would have to fire up the generator every time we needed to flush the commode, brush our teeth, use the sink in  the galley or take a shower. The pump is a rather expensive item in that it  costs about a thousand bucks so it’s not something I would carry a spare for. Not finding anything obvious outside the pump I knew it was something inside so I pulled it out of the compartment where it was mounted and proceeded to tear it down.  The good fairy of water pumps must have flown over and sprinkled some magic water pump dust upon us as I found a terminal connection that had corroded and had gotten hot and broken off. I was able to shorten the wire, crimp on a new connector, reconnect everything  and get her up and running again. Probably took two hours of aggravation but in the end were up and going and we can flush whenever we need to. Like is good!!!

     Walked into Sisterville. Lots of neat old houses from the early 1800’s. The old downtown has banks on every corner. Come to find out, Sisterville was in settled during the oil boom days and apparently this sleepy little community had more millionaires at one time  than any other city i n West Virginia..

Found the grocery store and picked up a few items we needed and then back to the boat for a wonderful dinner of grilled chicken and bell peppers.. 

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August 28 Marietta, Ohio

  Good mornning  from Marietta Ohio.

       We’ve been here three days and  its time to move on.Day before yesterday we discovered the public bus system . We rode all over town for a buck twenty. Cost me a whopping 40 cents and my child bride had to pay full fare. Told her I was going to trade her in for an 80 year old so I could get the senior discount.  Marietta is a real historical river town at the mouth of the Musingum River on the Ohio. The Muskingum is  navigable for about 90 miles an at one time tied into the Erie Canal System. Its navigable but only  for very shallow draft vessels. It used to be maintained by the corps of engineers but due to declining industry on the river they no longer maintain it.Keeping the  river navigable  has reverted to the State of Ohio. However they still retain the old hand operated locks and have lockmasters on site to open and close the old wooden lock doors during daylight hours.

     . Most of the downtown area of Marietta is within 3-4 block of the city marina where we are tied up so its an easy walk to shops and restaurants. The city marina here in Marietta is just below the old railroad swing bridge on the Muskingum River. It no longer carries trains but has been converted into a pedestrian bridge across to the downtown area of  Harmar which is actually part of Marietta.

 

    Yesterday we took a trolley tour of the city and saw what we had missed from the bus line. In its prime Marietta was quite a wealthy city and surprisingly there was a lot of oil money here rom the Pennsylvania oil boom ,as well as boatbuilding.  The city is a museum of early and late 19th century architecture. Unfortunately, the city has flooded three times the worst being in 1937 when the rising waters reached the second story of a lot of houses in river towns down the river. Subsequently a lot of these old river towns have built flood walls completely surrounding the cities to keep the river out. This picture is of Annie in the marina but notice the height of the pilings holding the marina in place. They are prepared for the river to rise at least 30 feet above the present river level.

 

 

    Yesterday we took the dinghy up the Muskingum River to thee Ohio River Museum about a half a mile upstream. The museum is the home of the steam powered paddlewheel pushboat, the WP Snyder.

 

She no longer moves under her own steam power but floats at the museum as part of the maritime heritage of the Ohio River. The museum was very interesting with of  lot of steam boat artifacts,whistles, a calliope. steering wheels, models and photographs.

 

 

    Marietta is having a paddlewheel festival here weekend after next and apparently its quite a production with 20 to thirty paddlewheekers arriving from up and down river. There is live music, entertainment and a from what we have heard a spectacular fire works display. We have tried to figure out how to work it into our plans but we would have to stay here for 10 days or take off and go somewhere else and then return  in 10 days, If we went to Pittsburg we would just get there and then have to turn around and come back and the second problem is that there is no dock space available as it is all reserved years in advance. So I guess we will forego it.

     We are roughly  at mile 172 on the Ohio so we are still 4 or 5 days or longer   out of Pittsburg depending on how fast we travel  and how many little interesting places we see along the way to stop at. We will probably get going around 9am or so this morning. As of this minute we have no particular destination  in mind today . The area is devoid of marinas so there is a good chance we will anchor our tonight. . Carol settled up the marina bill yesterday  and topped up the water tanks so all we really have to do is check the oil in the engines get some ice when the office opens and head out. As usual we have met some interesting people here and now know the lay of the land so when we stop here on the return trip we will have some advantages and may be able to swing some free dockage.  I am not sure of internet coverage between here and Pittsburg but I will post whenever we can get online again.  .

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August 25 Mustafa Island at Mile 197 to Marietta Mile 175

     Good morning from five miles south of Nowhere, Ohio. Yesterday marked one month on this cruise.  We left Polmeroy

Downtown Polmeroy, Ohio with a vintage WPA floodwall

yesterday and had two locks to go through, Racine and Belleville. Now, locking through a dam  is not very complicated unless you make it that way. When we lived on the sail boat we had a somewhat similar situation when anchoring. I am at the wheel and Carol is forward controlling  the anchor. Of course I was 50 feeet away couldn’t see what was going on and couldn’t hear what she was yelling over the roar of the engine. As a result we developed a rather sophisticated system of verbal obscenities and  hand signals involving fingers and arms to communicate.. We now have a similar situation locking through and also docking the boat. Carol  is below doing her best to get lines on and I am in the wheelhouse trying to get the boat where it needs to be but cant ‘see what’s going on. We decided to enter the electronic age and bought a set of wireless headphones before we left. So now we can yell obscenities into the microphone and be assured the other person is hearing it. So went the day.

     The river here is very scenic but not much of interest to stop at. The number of coal barges is gradually increasing as we get further north.

    The high point of the day yesterday  was when we passed a pushboat with 12 barges loaded with coal going up river. We were moving a little faster than he was so I called him on the radio and asked permission  to pass him on his port side. This is more than just a formality as he has more instrumentation and is more aware of other  barges and tows in the proximity than we are.  He was was very courteous and said to come on around but it was going to cost us. Wasn’t quite sure what he meant, then he asked me if the calliope worked. I guess he saw us coming up  from behind on his radar and looked out the window and saw us and saw the calliope as we approached. .  I assured him that it did work, so we fired it up and the skipper and crew all came out of the wheelhouse and stood on the outside bridge deck as we passed playing the calliope. We got lots of waves and thumbs up of appreciation.

     We did about 53 miles yesterday as Polmeroy was 249.5 and Mustapha Island at 197  looked like a good place to anchor for the night as there were no marinas till Marietta which is another 18 miles. Now, when we anchor we have to find a place to walk Hillary which involves loading the dog in the dinghy and then finding a suitable place to land the dinghy. Well, when we got to the anchorage is was pretty well protected from the wakes of barges but the island is absolute jungle with no place to land or  walk the dog. On the land side of the “chute” which is what they call the run of water behind the island there were a bunch of houses and dockS and some boat ramps. It was Sunday afternoon and there we a few  people out in their yard and on their docks. I motored over and told Carol to step out on he bow  ask some people if it was OK to land our dinghy at their boat ramp to walk the dog. Well they said, no problem  but insisted that we tie up to their dock and use their power which we gladly accepted. After getting the boat tied up they came aboard and introduced themselves as Mark and Dianna otherwise known as “Meat and Taters” They  didn’t have 220 on the dock  so we couldn’t  run the AC but 110 was enough to run the  battery chargers, the refrigerator and some of the 110v lights on the boat. The evening was very cool and after dinner  when the sun went down and the bugs went away we opened up the boat and it was quite cool with good sleeping last night.

     Monday August 25

Got going midmorning today from Mustafa Island  after some boat chores. Starboard engine  lift pump has been leaking a little diesel fuel. Cant tell exactly where its coming  from. We have these oil absorbent  pads we call diapers that suck up petrochemical products but not water. When they come in contact with diesel fuel they turn red. I cut them up into small strips and tie-wrap them onto all of the diesel fittings and in short order you can tell where the leak is coming from. That was my firs task of the day.

     After getting under way we came to Parkersburg WV, about 6 miles upriver.. None of the cruising guides had much to say about it so we decided to bypass it and run on into Marietta where we are now.

We may stop in Parkersberg  on the way down river. Made a total of about 18 Miles today .  We are tied up at the Marietta City Dock. First thing that we’ve seen that really looks like a marina in three weeks. They actually have electricity here. Still not enough to run the entire boat but we can run the air conditioning if we need it although its really quite cool. I am sitting on the back deck and its 72 degrees outside. It was absolutely a gorgeous day on the river . Once we got here, we did take a dinghy ride up the Muskingum River where the marinas are. Not much here in the way of interesting looking boats….mostly pontoon boats, small cruisers and a plethora of house boats. We are seeing a handful of small paddle wheelers. Suspect that some of the are here for the paddlewheel festival coming in two weeks. Wish we could be here but will probably be in Pittsburg or on the Alleghany or Monongahela Rivers when its going on.

     Tomorrow we will walk to town which  is stones throw from the boat. Apparent lots to see and do here. The Ohio River Steamboat Museum is here, the WP Snyder which is a paddlewheel steam powered push boat is here. Also lots of antique stores and shops. So we will do the town tomorrow and then decide if we want to spend another day here. The people on the boat   front of us here at the marina have offered us the use of their car so we may make a Walmart run sometime. Marietta is about 175 river miles from Pittsburg which is 4-5 days at the rate were moving. 

 

 .This is the chandelier in the lobby of the old Lafayette Hotel. Its an actual steering wheel from an old paddlewheeler.

Downtown is complete with old brick buildings dating to the early 1800’s now boutiques and antique shops.

 

 

A time exposure of Annie taken from the old railroad bridge, now a pedestrian bridge across the Muskinggum River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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August 22 Galliopolis, Ohio

This is another  quaint little river town right on the water  with early 1800’s architecture. It has a gorgeous litttle park right across the street complete with an elevated bamdstand/gazebo built in the post civil war era. Park is exquisutely maintained with flowers and plants abd a plethora of historical markers. These is some type of festival going on this weekend as there are multicolored tents all over the park

 

. Downtown  is one block over and strethes for five or six blocks. Unfortunately as often happens, the downtown  has met the fate of a lot of smaller towns in that many store fronts are empty and have moved to the edge of town close to Walmart. As usual people are very friendly. There is a nice Foodland witin  a few blocks  and a hardware store two blocks further that had the electrical plug I needed.  I had to walk over there this morning to get some distilled water to service our many batteries on the boat  The hardware store had the correct plug but only had one of them and I need two. So, shortly I will jump in the dinghy and go to West Virginia Electric. Its next to McDonalds on the edge of town and McDonalds has a courtesy dock. Now i have been through a gazillion drive-thru’s but never a float through.

A guy just drove by in the parking lot in his car and stopped and was trying to tell me something. We have the generator running and I couldnt hear him so I walked down the doxck to find out he was just saying we had a nice boat. But then it dawned on me i needed some gas for the dinghy and asked him where the nearest gas station was and he said about six blocks away. Well carrying the empty gas can for six blocks is no major chore but it becomes more of a problem when its full. Anyway he offered to take me there in his car and I accepted and then he took me to the electrical supply place where I  got  my other plug. So aside from a quick run to the Foodland for some incidentals we are good to go. It takes probably about two hours to service all of the batteries on the boat and I am going to tackle that here shortly.

    Have serviced all the batteries and found the start batteries are bad. Actually I had noticed that they were getting a little sluggish. Between   Carol and myself we were able to get them out of the engine compartments and onto the aft deck. Carol  has been online for an hour trying to locate new ones. With great fortune we were able to locate two of them here in big city of Gallopolis. And even better they are going to deliver them right to the boat. And so goes the day .When they arrived, Josh  the delivery man helped me get them into position in the bilge. Needless to say Carol was very happy about that.   It’s very still and humid today. Has been raining off and on. We may head out this afternoon after we get the batteries installed or we may decide to hang out here another day and check out the festival in the park.

 

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August 20 Huntington, West Virginia

Good morning from Huntington West Virginia. This is our first stop in W. V. Got in day before yesterday in the afternoon. We were headed for a marina that was supposed to be here but when we arrived it was no longer here.  Actually gone completely and the city had just finished pulling the pillings out of the river that the marina was tied to. We ended up tying up at the city wall which is free and actually very nice but no power or water. But the upside is that it’s only a block to downtown with a plethora of restaurants and shops. 

     Huntington in the home of Marshall university named after George Marshall, the Supreme Court justice. One of the most noted  things in Marshall’s history is that of the plane crash that killed the entire Marshall football team and most of their boosters back in the 1970’s. The team was returning from an out of town football game in North Carolina on a chartered plane with the team and a good number of the local citizenry who were Marshall boosters. The plane went down on its final approach to the Huntington airport. There was a movie made about it, focusing on the tragedy and the towns and the University’s recovery. Movie starred Matthew Mccougnahey and is called “We are Marshall”.

     Met some people yesterday who is the son and daughter in law of a very good friend and they showed us around the town and University. Had dinner with them last night and hit if off incredibly. Invited them to come back to the boat and have dinner with us out on the river this evening somewhere. Actually there are two choices, upriver and down River. So we will stay another day and takeoff in the morning towards Pittsburg 

    Was a little warm last night so we decided to run the generator and fire up the AC. Also we needed to  get a good charge on the batteries also for the refrigeration so that was a good excuse to be cool last night. Had a thunderstorm last night with some rain that cooled everything down a good bit. I’m sitting of the aft deck drinking my morning coffee and watching the sun come up. It is really nice to have the ipad working because for two weeks since we left Louisville we have not had reliable internet connections.

     Today will likely be a work day on the boat interspersed with some grocery shopping. I am thinking about tackling some of the varnish. 

                                                 

Watching the sunrise on the Ohio. 

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August 18 I think its Sunday but who cares? Franklin Furnace, Ohio

Sorry about the last few posts. They’re very confusing with regard to dates because today was the first day in about 4 that was able to get on line. Were currently at Holiday Point Marina at mile 339. Came up from Portsmouth yesterday the home of the Shawnee Boat Club where we tied up. 

The boat club is interesting in that’s it like a yacht club. Its owned by 30 individuals with boats and you buy into the club like a yacht club with out all of the yacht club fluff and you don’t have to dress up….actually you  dress down. …, just a bunch of good ol’ boys that like to drink beer and play with boats. .. They have a long  transient dock on the river somewhat exposed but not a terrible place to tie up. Power was as usual marginal as they had no 50 amp 240 volt outlets so we had to make up an adaptor plug and get by with 120v. The local people were very friendly and accommodating. The drove us around town and showed us all of the sights. Took us to a local steak house and said to call when we wanted to come back and they came and got us. The town has a pretty neat suspension bridge that’s unique in that the span is supported by two columns which are in the center of the two lanes.

   

I took this one by hand holding a 3 second exposure.

The most interesting thing about Portsmouth was the murals. The floodwall must have stretched about a half a mile or more and inside the wall was completely covered with incredible murals of Portsmouth and the Ohio River that stretched the entire 1/2 mile plus they were on buildings all over town.. Will show some at the end of the post. Larry and Diana are leaving today and they rented a car to drive back to Cincinnati so we had a car to go to the grocery store. On the way we found a farmers market and bought some  local produce and then visited the local Kroger to replenish the stores.

Not sure what time we will head out this morning. Most likely whenever we get a few boat chores done. Were currently at the Holiday Point Marina in Frankiln Furnace Ohio. Advertized as the nicest marina on the Ohio..Actually probably one of the nicest since leaving the city docks in Louisville which were first rate.  People  here very friendly. Was told that there was plenty of water coming over the bar at the entrance which turned out to be not quite true as the depth sounder alarm was screaming at me as we came in. Churned up a lot of mud here at the dock when we were tying up and were presently sitting in the mud. We were able to pull the boat over to the dock and get tied up. Aside from not having 240 volt power its not a bad place. Fortunately it was cool last night and didn’t need the AC. Got by with a fan. . Don’t have a destination for today  yet but will survey the charts and see what lies ahead.

.Portsmouth was the birth plce of Roy Rogers and Day Quyle

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August 13-14 Maysville Kentucky to Portsmouth Kentucky

August 17 

Good morning from Maysville, Kentucky. Have had no internet for several days so that has prevented me posting. We are actually about 70 miles beyond Maysville at this time. Currently at Holiday Point Marina at Franklin Furnace, Ohio. at mile 339 which means we have come about 850 miles so far with 340 to go to Pittsburg. We now have West Virginia on the south bank and are told that the number of coal tows will increase dramatically as we get further upstream. Maysville was a very quaint little river town only a blocks walk from the boat .Apparently this awrea played aprominent role in the underground railroad for run away slaves during the civil war.

 

 

     Got in to Maysville at mile 407 last evening about 5:32.Remember the time exactly as we were all upset that we were 32 minutes late for happy hour. Fortunately we worked very hard and were able to drink fast to compensate for lost ime.. Larry and Diana had been here before and said Maysville was pretty big and suggested we wait till the morning to see the town, which we did. The city sits right on the river and until the construction of the next dam upstream it was subject to flooding.

     The dock in Maysville was a free city dock. It had no power or water but was a good place to tie up and the dock was in decent condition.  Annie took up  most of the 75 feet it offered.We layed up against the wooden floating dock with fenders out  and we tied our docking lines to concrete pillars on the  bulkhead. We were relatively protected from the wakes of barge traffic by big concrete ice breakers in the river. They are designed to break up large ice floes into ice cubes or something like that. Seen here in the very lower left of image.

                         The tunnel through the floodwall down to the dock and river  is decorated with fired hand print clay tiles from the local elementary schools which we thought was very neat. . 

The entire city is protected from the river floods by a 15 foot high concrete flood wall that has doors that can be closed to keep out rising water. The  city side of the walls have been decorated with colorful murals depicting local river history.

 

 

     Had a very pleasant dinner on the aft deck…Carol cooked her chicken Panang. Evening was cool with a nice breeze blowing through the boat and we all slept very well.   Certainly has been cool enough and have not needed air conditioning so far since we have been on the Ohio. All of the locals say it is usually hot, humid and muggy here this time of year but so far have have not had a bit of it. We open up the portholes and doors on Annie  and at times have had to sleep under blankets.

     Have to insert something funny that happened last night so bear with me. I’m going to try to paint a visual image of this. Now I am getting old and like a lot of old  men have to get up several times during the night to pee. …sometimes twice, sometimes three of four times or more depending on what I have had to drink…and last night was no exception. We sat around telling funny stories and I was imbibing my gin and tonics and Larry his Makers Mark until bedtime. Now, you have to understand that taking a leak on a boat is not quite as simple as it is at home. First, in order to flush the toilet it takes nearly a gallon of water out of the fresh  water tank, the fresh water pump comes on, which makes lots of noise,  the toilet flushes which makes a loud slooooosching sound,  and then the vacuum pump comes on to suck the waste out of the commode and deposit it in the holding tank, and that makes more  noise and  puts a gallon of waste water in the holding tank. Now multiply that 5 times over for one old fart like me  on the boat peeing all night long .Double that  for two old farts on the boat. So now you have depleted your water supply by ten gallons and have put ten gallons of waste water in your holding tank. Now multiply that by several nights and it doesn’t take  long to deplete the water supply but more importantly it fills up the holding tank and you have to go into a marina to have it pumped out, sometimes at significant cost and finding a pump-out station up here is not so easy. . In addition when  you have guests on board that are not used to boat noises, it can be quite disconcerting  with all these pumps coming on and wakes them up.

     With that said I got up several times last night to pee. It’s cool and we have the boat open so the door to the  saloon below  is open to the back deck. So I wake up a 3 AM to take a leak. In my sleepy and semi-stuporous state I still have enough cognizance about me to not want to waste water and fill up the holding tank. Now I am not known for sleeping in pajamas…or anything else for that matter. In actuality sleep  butt-ass naked. . Its 3 o’clock in the morning and except for the security lights on the dock it was pretty dark outside. Now its just as easy to step outside onto the deck and pee over the side of the boat as it is to go into the head and make noise and waste water. Now the aft rail nearest to the saloon door is just above pecker height, and even as well endowed as I am, I can’t quite make it over the rail without standing on my tiptoes. So, here I am three oclock in the morning standing on  the back of the boat, butt-ass naked standing on my tip-toes, trying to take a leak. I had just convinced Willie to let her rip when a strange voice from behind me says, “nice morning, isn’t it?”  Holy crap!!! Well, needless to stay it startled me, I jumped back about a foot, pissed all over the boat, all over my legs and feet and almost crapped in the pants I didn’t have on. There was some guy fishing on the dock. Needless to say I covered the six feet from the rail to the saloon door in world record time…muttering something like, “sure is”, in reply. So went the night. Next time I had to get up to pee I looked around first.

    After breakfast we meandered into town. Maysville is an old River town from the early 1800s with incredibly neat architecture.

 

 

  We wandered around the town for a few hours and took the tour of the local museums. Saw an incredible collection of miniatures and a historical museum of the area around Maysville. Came cross a carpenter shop that make reproduction antique furniture. The owner was a true craftsman. Spent a half an hour talking to him as he and Larry had some mutual friends.

   Back to the boat and got  underway. Anchored behind  Brush Creek Island last night at Mile 388 about 20 miles upstream from Maysville . It was completely protected from the channel and tow boat wakes. The Island had a bar at the downstream end and it was  a perfect spot to land the dinghy to take Hillary ashore. It was fairly deep up to the shore so I could beach the dinghy without getting the outboard in the mud. Very pleasant and again very cool night on the boat. Awoke to thick fog this morning and had to wait a few hours till the fog lifted. After visibility improved we left for Portsmouth which is at mile  355. Passed a coal barge going our way but it took a  good while to pass  as we were both running close to the same speed and we had to throttle up a bit to get around him. .

     Made it to Portsmouth without incident and got tied up at the Shawnee Boat Club which is slightly better than most that we have been at.. After we got tied up we tried to plug into shore power to get the refrigerator going and batteries charging. They said the had 240v 50amp service when we called them  and of course when we got there  the only 240 outlet on the entire dock did not work so I had to get out my bag of plugs and receptacles and make up an adaptor  plug so at least we could get 120 volt power on the boat and get the refrigerator powered up and batteries charged.

 

     We had a little issue with our boat insurance coming up here. We thought we had insurance on the boat that covered us on all inland rivers including the Ohio. We read the policy and it was very confusing so we had to email the insurance company and get clarification. Well they wanted all kinds of information like where we were going and when we were going to be there and where the boat would be berthed, none of which we could answer directly. Then they wanted to know what type of security we had when the boat was unattended so I sent them this picture.

 

And any of you who know Hillary know she can’t see, she cant hear, and if someone broke into the boat she might lick then to death! 

 

 

 

 

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August 18 Augusta Kentucky

Good morning from Agusta Kentucky. We got away from Steamboat Marina sometime around noon…our typical early morning start. Carol and Diana went to the grocery store for goodies and I stayed at the boat to fill water tanks, pump the holding tank and the other necessities. Spent another two hours trying to track down the infamous leak. It’s a miniscule leak but every few hours we have a quart of water or so in the bilge. I thought I had it resolved before we left but it seems to have resurfaced again.  It is coming from under one of the fuel tanks but there is nothing under there that can leak so I suspect it’s originating somewhere distant and just ending up there. So for now the mystery continues and we continue to pump it out.

Had one dam to come through yesterday and got through without incident in spite of the fact the wind was howling. Wind was blowing 20 mph most of the day fortunately it was behind us rather than on our nose. Our planned destination was Ripley  but we decided to walk around the little town of Agusta which is a quaint little river town on the Kentucky side. They have a nice concrete dock along their waterfront park. However all of the cruising guides said it was silted up and said we couldn’t get in.  Augusta has a small car ferry and we called them and they said they thought there was 3-4 feel along side. After a couple of try’s to get the boat turned and up into the wind I decided is wasn’t worth it and had decided to not try to battle the wind and go on. As we were pulling out I decided to make a wide swing at full throttle and finally got the boat turned around and eased over to the dock .we were in fact in the mud but it was soft silt and we were able to get lines on and pull the boat up to the dock. The dock has a huge rubber fender it’s full length and with our own fenders down we were well protected from hitting the dock when tows went by.

We walked the dog and then walked into town. The town is very old and some of the houses are late 1700’s but all are restored end and maintained impeccably. By the time we got to town it was after 5 pm and most of the businesses were locked up for the day.

The old town had the fortune of being an old river town as well as being a railroad town which added to its affluence in its day.  The downtown is only a few blocks long and ends at the railroad tracks. As we got to the tracks we saw a train coming in the distance. I have always wanted to put a couple of pennies on a railroad track and have the train flatten them  out. I am 67 and have never done that in my entire life. Well, yesterday it happened , I put my pennies on the track and collected them after the train passed. Eureka….I now have two  copper pennies unidentifiable as such that are the size of quarters and about the thickness of cardboard.

The  town has a small ferry that takes cars back and forth across the river. I was intrigued by the ferry and Larry and I went down and got a guided tour of the ferry and heard all of the horror stories about the times the ferry broke down and drifted downstream full of cars and the time the engine  blew up in mid river.

On the way back to the boat the girls stopped to talk to some guy in an old car that was passing by. That in itself is not unusual as we are strangers in a very small little town  and people are very friendly here.

The girls got back to the boat and were all excited because it was Nick  Clooney, Rosemary Clooneys brother  and

George Clooney’s father. George was born and grew up here and went to Augusta high school.  The Rosemary Clooney house is right here on the waterfront and that’s where the famed female vocalist lived before moving to Hollywood.

Back at the boat we had some grilled pork chops and polished off the last of the corn and screen beans from the farmers marker and had a fabulous dinner on the aft deck.

It was actually cold last night and negated any need for air conditioning. So we just opened up the boat and had a great night sleeping. I didn’t feel a single tow going by the entire night so staying here was a good choice. This morning the wind has abated and the river is flat with only a whisper of wind. Off toward Ripley or Maysville.

 

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