Up, Up, & Away!

Today was another flawless day. No breakdowns! :-)

We departed Metropolis, IL at 8 am this morning. We had about an 8-mile run up the Ohio River to Paducha, KY. We had one small lock to traverse enroute. Then, turn into the Tennessee River and cruise about 22.5 miles upstream to the Kentucky Lock & Dam.

Up, Up, & Away!!! Up nearly 60 feet, and then slip out into the expanse of Kentucky Lake.

Unfortunately, we had just over an hour wait at Kentucky Lock/Dam for our turn to ride the water elevator. Once it was our turn, we were solo in the chute. If this had been our first lock, it would have been pretty impressive and daunting. But, we are getting pretty used to it now -- even this monster didn't scare us.


Oh! So, this morning, I heard Kelly's FIRST "real" complaint about the trip. Throughout all of the breakdowns, and endless hours at the wheel/helm, and the facilities (or lack thereof,) she hasn't made a single peep or filed a single complaint -- until this morning.

Her exact words, as she stared out into the light drizzle (after 12 hours of straight, non-stop rain,) were, "I didn't sign up for this..." -- (with a sigh...)

"What?" I asked?

"Rain" she replied. "I can handle the breakdowns, the locks, the smell of diesel fuel, etc. But, I want sunny skies. Enough with the rain."

Fortunately, sunny skies are in the forecast for the next few days as we traverse Kentucky Lake (it should only be about a two-day journey, but we might stay for an extra day to enjoy it a bit more...)

Technology: I had grand plans for sharing our adventure (digitally.) I have installed a webcam on the bow of the boat, and had configured our wifi router to broadcast our GPS position and make automatic updates to our blog/website/facebook account. Unfortunately, our wifi router (that I love, love, love) died on day one. :-( And, the cell service has been nearly nonexistent, or we have been "roaming" via third-party carriers (and I don't want to pay their fees.) So, we have remained offline and often turned our phones off to conserve power and avoid the fees. (Sorry.)

We are now at Kentucky Lake Marina. We plan to depart here at about 8am Thursday morning, and log about 100 miles. Kentucky Lake is LONG!!! We are only going to cross abotu 200 miles of it. Probably 100 miles tomorrow/Thursday, then find a protected cove to overnight, and maybe even stay there an extra day/night to just "chill" and soak up some sun (while it lasts through Friday.) Then on Saturday, get underway again and try to finish the final 100 miles of this lake-based leg.

Fuel Economy: We seem to be doing about EXACTLY as advertised/expected (maybe even a little bit better?) They "advertise" the cruising distance of this trawler at 1,000 miles on full tanks (500 gallons of fuel.) But, one of our tanks apparently has a leak. So, we have one hand tied behind our backs when it comes to distance -- right?

Well, we still ahve 250 gallons of fuel aboard. From Hoppies Marina to Kentuckly Lake (240 miles,) we have only used about 80 gallons of fuel. We are getting roughly 3 mpg.

We were hoping/budgeting for abotu 10 hour per day time 10 miles per hour equals 100 miles per day. And, at about 3 gallons per hour, we were expecting to run through about 30 gallons per day. 100 miles/30 gallons = 3.33 mpg.

So, our guestimates appear to be nearly dead-on accurate!!!

But, there is one catch...

We were only expecting to get about 500 miles per tank of gas (250 gallons.) So, we should have only achieved 250 miles per half-tank of fuel (125 gallons.) Whereas, we got nearly 250 miles on only 1/3rd of a tank of fuel. So, our theoretical range would be about 750 miles on the single 250-gallon tank that we have...

We are going to play things conservatively, however, and assume that our good mileage was largely due to the down-stream PUSH of the Mississippi River. (Note, however, that 140 of our 240 miles was actually UP stream -- and for much of that distance, we were also running our generator, too!)

Regardless of how we crunch the numbers, things are AT LEAST on-par with our goals/budget/expectations, and we are likely doing BETTER than expected!

Photos: Internet access has been slow. And when "roaming," it can be costly. So, we will post photos when we get the chance (they may not match the date/time of the blog entries...)

Blogger doesn't seem to support photo captioning anyway, so you will have to make up your own captions.

The water seems to get smoother and clearer with each passing mile. We only passed maybe two tugs/tows all day today (granted it was a relatively short day.) Short or not, our goal was Kentucky Lake, and we are here!

Tonight: BBQ (again -- still cooking up the steaks that tawed during our electrical meltdown.) Laudry, a few MINOR boat chores, and a restful night's sleep (secure in a slip/dock at the marina.) No worries about our anchor lossing it's hold in the current, and washing aimlessly downstream in our sleep. No worries about tugs running us down, or washing us ashore with their wakes. No worries about 3-foot river level drops OVERNIGHT -- leaving us high & dry on-the-hard when we awake.


Rehtorical question: How can SO MANY cities, that came to life due to their proximety to a river -- turn their back on the river that created the city? Every major river-front city SHOULD have a marina (whether it's a private marina, or a municipal marina.) A place that welcomes waterborne tourists/visitors. Most boat owners have a significant amount of discresionary income. Plus, MOST boats hold a LOT of fuel, and burn through it pretty quickly! That's a LOT of lost revenue for the city. Lost tourist dollars.

And, when there IS a marina along the way -- why does it SO OFTEN have to be such a hole-in-the-wall? Hoppies is a legend on the Mississippi River. But, it's just a couple of old barges anchored along the bank of the river. They have ONE bathroom ashore, which is BARELY better than an out-house. They have no showers, no restaurant. The sell overnight dockage at $1 per foot. (I only pay 80 cents per foot for a much nicer dock/slip in Kentucly Lake.) Hoppies only has fuel, water, and electrical power (and one bathroom) -- that's ALL it has!

But, even here in KY Lake, how much effort would it be to install a couple of hot tubs? What about a couple of dock carts? Or even a HUGE neon sign that says "FUEL!"

Where is the "St. Louis Marina" Where is the Cape Girardeau Marina? The Cairo Marina? The Metropolis Marina? The Paducha Marina?

The little city of Alton, IL has a marina that puts most others to shame! They have excellent facilites, and a motivated staff to match! They bring drinks & bags of ice to your dock/boat. They collect your garbage from your boat/slip every morning. They have a pool, two hot tubs (which are all open until midnight!) A snack bar and mini-grocery/convenience store. They host/promote at least one event per month. They roll out the red carpet for EVERYONE!

Now THAT is riverfront hospitality!

Of the 10 or so piers of slips in Alton, only one is reserved for transient overnighters. All of the other docks are for local boat owners, and they are nearly sold out.

I cna only imagine that the same woudl happen for a STL-based marina, or a Cape Girardea or Ste Genevieve marina. And, for small, lost cities like Cairo and Metropolis, a riverfront marina can bring new guests, and new residents.

I am SHOCKED, however, by the lack of boats/cruisers to be seen on the river during our journey. We have only seen maybe three to six other pleasure boats passing buy us: One from Alton to STL. One cruiser heading upstream on day two. One power-catamaran trawler on day three. Nothing on day four (because my head was burried in the engine room, and it was RAINING all day.) And nothing today (not cruising anyway...) Sure, here at the marina, there are TONS of boats in these slips -- labeled with cities like "Clearwater Beach, FL" and "Chicago, IL." But, MOST of these boats stay here -- forever. They are simply floating condos for remote snowbirds -- waiting for their semi-annual visitors/hosts.

Many of the boats even sport such names: "Lake House," "Beach House," "Floating Condo," etc. I guess the given name of our boat kinda fits our wandering spirit -- Venture Out.

Well, it's getting late, and I need to help Kelly fetch the laundry from the dryer.

Nite all,

Nick (& Kelly.)