Great Loop Day 057 Oct 24, 2016, Metropolis to Cumberland Island Towhead Anchorage
Metropolis to Cumberland Island Towhead Anchorage
“On this up trip I saw a little towhead (infant island) half a mile long, which had been formed during the past nineteen years. Since there was so much time to spare that nineteen years of it could be devoted to the construction of a mere towhead, where was the use, originally, in rushing this whole globe through in six days? It is likely that if more time had been taken, in the first place, the world would have been made right, and this ceaseless improving and repairing would not be necessary now.” — Mark Twain “Life on the Mississippi”
<Day 56 Previous Post | First Post | Next Post Day 58 >
(Note: If the newsletter is truncated in an email, readers can click on "View entire message" and they'll be able to view the entire post in their email app).
Day 57 Monday, Oct 24, 2016. (Spoiler alert: I am sitting on my boat at Green Turtle Bay Resort and will go into flashback mode to recall the events from yesterday)
Leaving Metropolis.
Got up early at 6 am waiting for word on crossing lock 52. No word yet. I went ashore to use the restroom at the Fort Massac State Park Visitor Center. Such a nice place! Walked around and on the grounds of this old 1802 restored fort. I carry my VHF handheld to continuously monitor the lock activity while I am onshore.
Life in the early 1800s as a soldier
A large collection of stone tools and arrowheads are on display. Collected locally by John Mallin.
Model of one of several boats used in Lewis and Clark’s Expedition. How they made it up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers current was no easy task.
I'm back on the boat and the radio comes alive. Lock 52 reports the river not settling as fast as they like. The wickets were still being dropped to allow the tows to travel the main river channel outside the lock. They were going to allow the barges upriver to continue southbound first. The pleasure crafts would be allowed to travel the main channel between the barges. Good news but they advised us the current was stronger in the channel and only boats with significant horsepower should attempt to make the trip. They said sailboats may have to wait longer. That was bad news. Then the good news. They would open the lock for us sailboats so we didn't have to struggle over the fast current on the main channel.
Note the tow in the background. Tows with barges don’t use anchors as we do. The captains beach the barges on shore when there is a long wait and are strong enough to get ungrounded going in reverse.
No shore leave now. I prepared to disembark off this tiny dock to meet the other sailboats still anchored on the Kentucky shore. Together we entered Lock 52 heading northbound. Nice to find slack water inside the lock. Gates closed behind us and the water raised us perhaps a foot or two. Gates opened on the upriver side and we powered thru into the Ohio River current. 3/4 throttle making 5 - 5.5mph. We never found out why the lockmaster didn’t use the lock yesterday to get us through. Hmmm if they had done this I would have missed my visit to Metropolis. and that was worth the extra day.
Entering Lock 52. The wickets are all lowered and tow traffic is cleared to travel the main channel.
Mucho Gusto throttles up leaving the lock.
After half an hour or so my rudder kicks up. I hit something big. Doesn’t look as if anything got damaged. I slow the outboard to idle as the boat speed plus the current prevents me from lowering my rudder. I pull on the line that lowers the rudder harder, done. Power back up.
A detailed section of Skipper Bob’s guidebook with enough information to stay out of trouble.
We hug the starboard shore and I see the tows lining up to head downriver. We continue up to Cumberland Island towhead anchorage. 19.2 miles upriver. If you do the math you would see it took us 4.5 hours to get there and should be lots of daylight to set our anchors. Luckily the river was wide and there were no tows to worry about. The depth of the Ohio River here averaged 30ft. Lots of vegetation on both sides. We reach what looks like an opening on the starboard shore. All the boats in our little flotilla had set their navigation programs for this towhead. Hard to miss. The current increases in the main channel. Everyone reports going 4- 4.5 mph. Mystic and Mucho Gusto turn starboard heading into the channel. I follow Mystic who has perhaps the best anchor on the market. His anchor sets and the boat stops dead in the water. Dave on deck waves me in to tie off his port side. I signal I am on my way.
Beth onboard Mystic looking at me, suddenly and frantically, screaming and pointing to something behind me. Oh no, something must be really wrong!
I yell back to her, " What did I do?"
Beth jumps up and shouts out, "Look at all the jumping fish."
Whew! We must have disturbed the invasive Asian carp. Just as I turn around, they are jumping out of the water into the air in a frenzy. In a few seconds, the action subsides. My breathing returned to normal as I was not expecting that.
Mucho Gusto drops anchors closer to shore then raises the anchor and moves out. Says there's a tree stump next to them. No one wants to anchor near trees as they grab anchors and refuse to give them back to the owners..... break... Got my 3rd load of laundry ready for the dryer. Glad the laundry room is only a few hundred feet from where I'm docked here at Green Turtle Bay. Sure would be nice to have clean dry rugs again!
Ok, Scott in Musto Gusto backs her up and motors along the starboard side of Mystic. The plan is to go forward drop anchor, back up, and raft onto the Mystic. Scott's not sure his anchor is set in this muddy bottom. Rhonda sets up a bridle between their anchor rode and both hulls of the catamaran. Anchors holding. They raft off. I ask Dave on Mystic if I should launch my anchor. He says the Sea Marie is small enough as to not make a difference. I agree. The current in this channel is keeping us straight and secure. We settle down and join the Mystic for snacks and share some food as we discuss the day's events.
The sun sets behind our sterns in a cloudless sky. My solar-powered rope lights automatically switch on. The stern rail solar lights are on. I bring out my battery-powered anchor light and clip it to the mast lines as it lays across my deck. I think we are pretty well lit up for the night. In the morning we head up the Cumberland River......
