Dave and Kelly's Boat Trip: Tuesday, September 19 - Bean Branch Creek, Kentucky (OHIO RIVER!!!)

WHEW! We made it to the Ohio River, but it was a VERY long day! Let me start at the beginning.

We pulled up anchor from this beautiful spot at 8:30 a.m.

Notice all of those "looper" flags!

As we leave, we get to pass by the beautiful "Moon River"!

Notice the towboat pushing south on the main channel behind "Moon River".
Below, "Rambunctious" leaving our anchorage.

At mile marker 43.7, we see a train going across the Thebes Rail Road Fixed Bridge. A massive pile of rocks sits just south of the bridge.

A little further downstream, and we see "Miles To Go", a boat that was at Hoppie's Marina with us (didn't anchor with us, instead he chose to drive at night; as we were anchored we saw Tow Boat U.S. go to help him, as he had run aground, so he probably decided to anchor at that point😉), and a canoeist.

Once in awhile, instead of the rock dikes, we see "fixed wickets",

that help with the flow of the Mississippi River.

At Mile Marker 21, our compass points due North! I sure hope we're going the right way!!! Again, because there are no more lock and dams, the Mississippi snakes back and forth around many bends.

Soon we see the Cairo, Illinois bridge, and after we pass under that, we see the confluence of the Ohio River and Mississippi River!!!

Looking ahead at the confluence, we see sandy beaches to the left in Illinois,

as well as to the right in Missouri.

Getting ready to celebrate!!! (Thank you Brad and Jeannie Olson!😘)

HERE WE GO!!!

And we are now on the Ohio River! "Unruly" is right behind us and

then in the distance we see "Moon River" make the turn.

If you need your towboat repaired, to the left on the Illinois side, you can get service!

Everywhere we look, we see tows and barges!

Soon, we see beautiful, sand beaches on the right side, in Kentucky.

At this point, the story gets pretty interesting! Since Locks and Dam 52 and 53 were built in 1928, they are in disrepair and therefore a new lock and dam is being constructed to replace them. However, this new lock will not be completed until 2020.

Coming up to the new lock and dam which is under construction.

It's interesting to see the process of how the lock and dam is being built.

We float right through the lock chamber following Moon River.

About a mile upstream from the construction, we see Lock and Dam 53. This kind of dam is called a "wicket dam" (see picture above where there is a "fixed wicket"). Wicket dams consist of movable planks that are only raised when needed. The wickets are constructed of heavy timber about 4 feet wide and up to 20 feet long. Raising or lowering the wickets is done by crew on a maneuver boat that moves along the upstream face of the dam. At high water levels when the dam is not needed, boats go right over the dam. The pictures below are all of the wicket dam at Lock 53.

Because these locks are so old, they break down often. This was the case with Lock 53 today and also last week as we heard on the Looper Website. The lockmaster told us that a maintenance crew was working on getting the lock operational and didn't know exactly how long it would take. So, we needed to wait. We follow Moon River to the auxillary long wall, where we tie up to wait. I'm not exactly sure what the wall was made of, as it seemed that it was coated with two inches of dried mud from previous floods! YUCK!!!

After waiting for about two hours, we finally get the okay to go through! Here's our looper friends leaving the auxiliary wall where we waited.

As we enter the lock, this is how the lock wall looks!!!

You can see the wicket dam on the other side of the lock wall.

Once we're in the lock, I need to hand the lockmaster a line which he wraps around the ballard

and returns to me.

YIKES! Yes, this lock needs to be replaced for sure!!!😲

At least this lock wall gets its own green buoy!!!😂

Well, we did not anticipate that this is how today would go! So, considering how late in the day it is, we decide it's best to find an anchorage off the channel and deal with whatever Lock 52 will bring our way tomorrow. Nine miles north of Lock 53, we find an anchorage; "Bean Branch Creek". We see a towboat there, and after talking with the captain, we find out he will be pushed into the Kentucky shoreline all night . . . so, a perfect anchorage, with someone watching over us!