Ohio River to Cumberland River

Today will be our last day on the Mississippi River as we move on to the Ohio River a short ways.  We will have traveled 221 miles on the Mississippi and about 58 miles on the Ohio River that will lead us to the Cumberland River of which we will also stay on for just about 36 miles, the Cumberland runs us to the Barkley Lake and the Kentucky Lake.

Friday 9-23- We anchored on the Ohio River (mile 966) on the Kentucky side there, we dropped anchor and then an hour later there were 7 of us rafted together. Oh, and a canoe! here is the crew of Passport and Southern Belle.

 This is the canoe they were paddling by and asked if we knew of a grassy spot for them to pitch their tent. Hmm after talking to them Passport offered their upper helm to them for the night.  Ben and Jon are on an adventure and are sponsored by a few business, churches and others to raise money for orphans,  Sugar2salt.com for more info.  they are planning to take that canoe down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, they started in Ohio.  And we thought this was an adventure?

This paddle boat also is heading for the Mississippi.

 Saturday 9-24 another anchorage at the Cumberland Island Towhead again 7 of us rafted together.

Sunset at the Cumberland Island Towhead

Life is Good!  ey? Mike

This is a great picture of all of us rafted at the Cumberland Towhead it was taken before NautiNell got there.

2nd and 3rd day on the Big Muddy

We left hoppies on Tuesday 9-20 and headed back out onto the Big Muddy next stop Kaskaskia Lock  It is very nice for the lock master to allow us all to tie up to this lock as there are NO marinas on the Mississippi River.  We were the 2nd boat in for the night but 7 more were to follow.  As I understand it, it depends whether the on duty lock master will allow you to get off your boat or not, we were lucky enough to get the one that would let us leave our boats.  So, once everyone was in it was Happy hour on the wall.

9 boats rafted on the wall

We noticed that the foliage is beginning to change on the river, glad to be heading south as the temperatures are cooling down, especially in the evening.

The scenery is getting prettier as we head downbound on the river.

It is wise to radio the barges as to direction on what side they would prefer you to pass,  there sure is alot of heavy metal there, the law of tonnage applies here.  Some of these barges are 5 wide by 6 long, most we have encountered are 5 by 5.

After you get by them its the backwash that can really throw you around,  alot of power there for sure,  each engine is 5000 horse.

Yes that looks like the route we are taking.

On the 3rd night we anchored out in Little Diversion Channel, Skipper Bob said that there was 10' of water and room for several boats, more if rafted.  We did have 7' of water under our keel and on our raft was 5 boats.  However, the book also said, do not anchor here if heavy rains are forecasted as the channel will flash flood resulting in lots of debris and strong current.  Well of course it did rain during the night, I am happy to report no flash flooding occurred.  Getting into this channel was quite the challenge as you need to go past the channel, turn around, and come up river against the current of 5 knots or more to enter the narrow channel.   

Looking up the Channel was a raft of 4 and another raft of 2 and 1 boat anchored alone next to us down at the bridge.  In the morning we will be anchoring out again but this time we will be on the Ohio River.