Great Loop Day 056 Sunday, Oct 23, 2016, Bean Branch Creek to Metropolis, Illinois Ohio River
Bean Branch Creek to Metropolis, Illinois Ohio River
“Good books, good friends, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
― Mark Twain (Author), Life on the Mississippi
<Day 55 Part 2 Previous Post | First Post | Next Post Day 57 >
Day 56 Sunday, Oct 23, 2016. Bean Branch Creek. Today was going to be a long day for a short distance. Got up this morning to a light fog not the heavy kind like we had encountered yesterday. After a light breakfast, I weigh anchor. The big boys got a jump on me. I'm way in the back as I struggle to try to play catch up. Moved the throttle up to 5.5mph, a little better. Sometimes 6mph. Staying in the channel. I see my chart shows I can cut a couple of channel markers. I make my move watching the depth. One goes fine the other I have to back off and head for the deeper water of the ship channel. Eight feet of depth is my limit. Shoaling can bring up a mound of mud and when you hit it holds you there.
Sunrise on the Ohio River.
Scott gets the Mucho Gusto ready to head out.
A little further up the Mystic was heading out.
Nearing the Lock and Dam 52. As I mentioned, Lock 53 is gone, We got through Olmsted Lock and Dam yesterday and when finished in 2020 will replace both Lock 52 and 53 as well but for now, we have no choice. Scott and Dave are stopped at Lock 52 as I catch up. No go! We have a two-hour wait according to the lockmaster on our VHF marine radio. We pull back and drop our respective anchors while the Lock personnel are out in the middle of the river dropping the wickets at the dam. We are not going to lock through. The wickets on the dam are getting lowered and the Lockmaster will give us the word when we can motor on through the main channel of the river where the wickets are located. That would avoid them from using the lock.
Up ahead we can see the dam and water pouring over it creating lots of turbulence in the river below. They are trying to lower the wickets manually one at a time.
"It takes a lot of man power and man hours," said lockmaster Randy Robertson, "We’re in a time warp; we’re doing it the same way as in the 1920s."
The dam at 52 had to be raised during the second week of August due to low water.
"A dam raise is never the same," said Robertson, so when the crew begins, they never know just how long the process might take. There are a total of 487 wickets, but 312 of those are pass wickets that can be raised and lowered all at once. The rest have to be raised and lowered manually one at a time.
"It normally takes 12-16 hours, but it has been even 30 hours non-stop," said Robertson. This happens at any time during the day or night, and the crew doesn’t leave until the job is complete.
"We don’t have a lot of free nights and weekends," joked work leader Jeff Kelly.
To read more about the fascinating history and the people that work on Lock 52 on the Ohio River check out this website:
Raising wicket dam soon to be a ‘lost art’ > Louisville District > News Stories (army.mil)
Wickets are being lowered as water continues to flow over the dam. Several hours later the Lockmaster replies on the radio it’s going to take another 2 hours for the river to settle down. Large tows with their barges are waiting with us on the lower portion of this Lock 52 and there are other tows upriver wanting to cross the dam, all waiting on the Lock Master’s word. It's afternoon now. No word. We wait longer. Then the radio crackles alive and the word gets out. Not good. The Lockmasters inform us the river refuses to settle down. No one goes thru till the next morning. What is this now, plan B or C? I lost count. Now we need to find a place to spend the night. There is a safe anchorage over on the Kentucky side. The big boys are going there now. The Lockmaster suggests a dock for a smaller boat at the port city of Metropolis, Illinois. Without hesitation, I go for it. The weather may be a factor. If the wind keeps blowing like it did today the dock will not be comfortable. I check my wind app. Diminishing tonight, good. I weigh anchor and motor the mile back. I glide close to check the depth, it’s 5 ft then 4.5 ft. should be OK.
I round up on my port side to point up the river. Perfect landing! I tie off. Still a bit rough but not too bad. After three nights, once on the wall, and twice on the hook, it’s good to be tied to civilization.
My concern is what if the river level drops? Will the Sea Marie be stuck here on the muddy bottom like Steve aboard his 50+ foot steel boat Twolynn at the Alton Marina?
I placed a phone call to the Lockmaster and he assured me the river level will not be lowered at the Metropolis boat ramp dock and I should be able to continue tomorrow. That’s a relief.
This is a State Park with a boat ramp. People frequent this shore. Mickey likes it too. One guy came over to talk and Mickey not being the shy one wanted his attention as well.
My little sailboat on a big river.
My private dock for the night.
Best seat in town to watch the other boaters getting out on the river.
Metropolis, Home of Superman. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Meet Joe Troutman 93 yrs young. WWII veteran. Grew up in Metropolis all his life. Worked as a welder in the local power plant before the war and came back to that job after. He stopped by this State Park as he often does and offered to take me to town. We hit the local Big Joe's Supermarket (In a competition for the largest statue in town) for provisions and stopped for 11 gallons of regular gas at the local Citgo Service Station at $2.17 a gallon. He then took me on a driving tour of his town. The main attraction was the giant statue of the big guy himself, Superman. Big ain't he! I mentioned to Joe, Superman was created in Cleveland by Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster. Children of Jewish immigrants. Together they sold the idea to Detective Comics later to be known as DC Comics. I thanked Joe for his kindness and generosity as I loaded my boat with goodies and gas.
The Man of Steel fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
The Superman museum across the street was closed.
Big John, either is saying hi or ready to swat you!
Checking the cooler, I still had a small amount of ice in the cooler but needed to be drained of melted ice water. Onboard I have a short section of tubing I use to siphon the water to the bilge which then pumps it outside the boat. Only this time the pump didn't turn on. The bilge filled and no familiar sound of humming from the pump. I checked the connectors on the pump wire and there, where the wires were connected I noticed major corrosion the wires literally just fell apart. This was one of my future projects to rewire the bilge. Now it needed my full attention. Getting dark I needed to find out if the pump still worked. Let’s see if I can hot wire the pump wires directly to the 12-volt deep cycle house batteries a few feet away. Luckily, I had a section of double-strand wire laying in front of me. Reached in my toolbox which serves as a step into the cabin for wire strippers. This will be a jury rig just to test the pump. The bilge pump on the Sea Marie has a built-in float switch, when water raises the end of the internal switch it turns on the pump. Off when the water level drops. There are 3 wires coming off the pump, black, brown, and a brown with a white stripe. It's pretty simple. The black wire is the common or negative wire. One of the brown wires connects to the built-in float switch and the other bypasses the float directly to the pump when it connects to the positive terminal of the house battery. I should have a bilge pump switch installed. It's a 3-way switch, one for off, one for the float switch wire, and one for the continuous pump wire. That was my future project. For now, all I need is the negative black wire to the negative battery terminal and the brown to the positive. Don't need to hook up the brown with white stripe as that goes directly to the pump for continuous pumping. Wired striped, twisted the ends, and now hooked up to the battery. It works. The bilge was now filled to the top with melted ice water I siphoned earlier out of the cooler and with the pump on dumped it out to the river. Made darn sure the exposed twisted wire didn't touch each other or sparks will fly. Taped the ends with electrician tape and closed the bilge cover making sure the wires didn't get cut by the cover. Now I can relax and have my dinner.
Simple affair tonight. It is dark and no electricity for the microwave. The water was still hot in the thermos. Use that for my ramen noodle cup. A salad with cheese and French dressing. Then for the highlight of the evening, Apple turnover with a hot cup of coffee. Salad on a Styrofoam plate, cheese sprinkled on, and topped with French dressing. Time to dig in. So simple and so good.
Mickey who has been wandering and exploring the dock after his treat of Best Choice beef cuts decided now was a great time to use the litter box 2ft from my dinner. The smell from the litter box permeates the entire cabin overwhelming my taste buds and is quite disgusting. I move out to the fresh air of the cockpit to enjoy my salad until Mickey finished covering his excrement with cat litter. The joys of having a cat onboard know no bounds. Now the apple turnover with that cup of hot coffee. Yummmm! Coffee, somehow makes this journey all worthwhile... Fair Winds and Gentle Seas…
Comment from 2016:
Robin R Slike How cool is that!
Pogo Bob In the silver lining department, congrats on scoring some "insurance" fuel! One less thing to worry about!