Progress report

September 22 to September 28


     Monday, 5:30 am and it's raining. 8:00 am and it's pouring. Forcasted to last till the afternoon. I hope the tent is keeping Ted dry. I hope we can get somewhere today. I have made plans, but am not sure of what will happen. Cincinnati seems to have a hold on us.

Raining at the motel


     Arlene and I drove through the rain to the Four Seasons Marina to find Ted, Brad and Mick sitting under cover aboard the Guppie. They had given Ted breakfast, so Arlene and I went to a nearby cafe for our breakfast. It was still raining when we got back to the marina, but we packed up anyway and set sail at 11:00 hoping to make 20 miles to Catalina Harbor in Addyston, Ohio. We expected the current would help us make good time. You know what you get when you expect! When we entered the channel I checked the GPS, and our speed was 5.5 mph. It looked good, and I thought we would easily make it by 3:30. Soon the headwinds began, and since our rain cover was up, its resistance lowered our speed. Brad and Mick showed up in the Guppie and followed us for a while as we crossed back and forth across the channel looking for the leeward protection of trees along the shore. The current diminishes along the shore, but the reduction of wind velocity allowed us to make progress even as the wind velocity increased. Finally the rain stopped, and we removed the rain cover.
    We were now making only 2 to 3 mph, and our thoughts of a quick day were spoiled. At 5:00, after hour after hour of pedalling through what seemed to be molasis we spotted Arlene at Mariner's Landing, a half mile short of our destination. A miscommunication had her there. We docked on the inner dock which provided only minimal protection from the wakes of passing vessels. I had hoped to be off the channel at the Catalina Harbor. We met Kevin the dockmaster and decided to stay at the Mariner's Landing since we were already moored, and they had a convenient restaurant there. After supper Arlene went back to her room, and Ted and I made our beds in the tent. At 11:00 p.m. a violent thunderstorm shook our tent and pelted its sides with torrents of rain. As flashes of lighting and booms of thunder invaded our peace, I contemplated a departure, from our warm dry berth under a 20 foot mast, into the malstrom outside to a restroom several hundred yards away. Fortunately the storm passed soon, and we were able to doze off peacefully.
    At 6:55 a.m. Tuesday morning we packed our gear and wet tent and were off by 8:00 hoping to make 22 miles to Rising Sun Marina in the town of Rising Sun, Indiana. The 2 1/2 mph current was little help against the 10 to 20 mph headwinds. By the time we reached Aurora, Indiana,(15 miles of torture) I was ready to find the nearest marina and stop for the day at 12:30. I decided we would at least go two miles past Aurora to an off channel marina. The river made a U-turn just outside of Aurora and turned to the southwest. Suddenly our headwinds became tailwinds and we raised the sail. A relief for our aching legs came as the wind pushed us along at 4 to 5 mph. We would make it to Rising Sun easily. Everytime I say easy, things go wrong.
     A couple of miles downstream our repaired hub cracked from the stress it was receiving from being rapidly spun by our rapid sailing. We quickly pulled the crankshaft and hub from their mounts to keep the hub from completely breaking. We continued to sail on toward Rising Sun with spirits dampened. A couple of miles short of Rising Sun we spotted Arlene waving at us from a ramp on the Indiana shore. We pulled up, and she told us that the Rising Sun Marina no longer existed. We moored there where she was at the Little Farm on the River Campground. She went back to her motel to get the trailer which carried our spare crankshafts and hubs. Our spares were the old style steel and redwood models we originally built, so we had to retrofit our craft's frame to accomodate them. They are heavier and not as nifty as our aluminum system but they will probably hold up. We are still running the aluminum system on our starboard side.
    We shoved a long log under the the hulls about 4 feet back from the bows to prevent the rocky shore from grinding the hulls when the wakes of tows rocked our craft during the night. Ted tied the log to the frame to prevent its escape during the night.
    We met Jim, the park manager, and he brought his granddaughter Josie down to see our boat. We set up camp, left Ted at the showers, and I went back to the motel with Arlene to do updates. Fox channel 8 in Cleveland aired Ali's film toninght.

Little Farm on the River


     The mooring worked fine throughout the night, and Wednesday morning we broke camp and left at 8:45 with high hopes to do 25 miles to Turtle Creek in Florence, IN. The new paddlewheel and crankshaft worked fine and seemed to require the same effort as the aluminum side. When we left we were doing 4.7 mph, but our speed soon diminished as the headwinds increased to 10 to 20 mph. We made 4 easy miles in the first hour. We made 11 tough miles to Patriot, OH by 12:30. I decided we weren't going to make 9 more miles to Turtle Creek by nightfall, and I was getting exhausted. I decided to land at Patriot, but I overshot the public area by 3/4 mile. We tried the creek in Patriot, but we kept getting stuck in its silted mouth. An absurd sign at the creek's entrance said NO WAKE. We dragged the boat out of the silt and tried the shoreline on the banks of Patiot. They were also silted up. We put our reserves in gear and pedaled another 1 1/2 miles downstream where we spotted a good gravel and sand beach. Logs were readily available to hold the boat off the rocks. We even found a big log to mount in front of the bows to keep the boat from washing up on shore during the wakes we were observing.

Downstream from Patriot


    Steve, who lived across the road, came down convenient steps leading from the nearby road to the shore. He was friendly and said we could camp here and that Arlene could park her car in his driveway when she comes to meet us. I called Arlene on the cell phone, and 1/2 hour later she was there with dry tent, food, beer, and Glucosamine. (for our aching joints) We take 2 Glucosamine Chondritan tablets a day. After Arlene left, mosquitos began their evening hunt so Ted and I secluded ourselves in the tent for the evening. During the night the water rose 4 inches, and at about 3:00 in the morning a huge wake broke upon us and for a couple of minutes waves continued to pound our craft. We could feel the waves breaking on the underside of the catamaran's trampoline. We were too sleepy to investigate then, but in the morning we found our craft to be higher on shore and no longer perpendicular to the beach. One mooring line was very slack.
     That Thursday morning we were up at 7:00 and off at 8:15. After our past two days of headwinds I scheduled only 18 miles. We also needed to go through the Markland Lock. Of course the winds slackened and we easily made our goal of Vevay by 1:00. The next good stop would be 17 more miles, so we decided to stay at Vevay. (pronounced Veevee) After Arlene brought us lunch the reporter from the Vevay newspaper came by to interview us.

Landed near the park at Vevay


    We've pedalled 669 miles so far and now have seen the end of the first third of our journey. We left Ted at camp while I went back to the room to make updates to the progress reports. Hopefully Arlene will have local internet access at her next motel where she can upload the last several days of updates. Friday morning an extremely thick thick thick cloud of fog enveloped Veyvay. We tried to launch at 8:30 after breaking free of the submerged branches that had ensnarled our craft overnight. A hundred yards down, as we passed the launch ramp, I quit this foolishness and beached the craft. The current was 2 1/2 mph. Danger of running into something stopped us.
    I talked to a local, who happened to drive down in his truck, and he told me how the two boaters perished at Markland Dam a week or so ago. They strayed too close to the bottom of the dam and got sucked in. There are warning buoys to keep you away, but sometimes boaters ignore them. (Even older ones)
    I noticed the fog breaking at 9:30 and gave a quick farewell to the fellow I was talking to. I hurried to the shore, and we launched quickly. Wth the current, we were doing 5.9 mph and made Rivercrest Marina on the west side of Madison, Indiana by 1:15 (20 miles). Arlene arrived shortly and brought us food and a six pack of beer for me for when we make our camp. We pulled out at 2:00 and ran into mild headwinds, but the worst seas came from all the powerboats heading upstream toward Madison. Dozens of 30-foot or better boats created wakes better than two feet from multiple directions. Some were considerate and slowed for our small craft. Others didn't even look behind them, to see us struggling with their upheavals. It was amazing that we saw no tows this Friday. After intense struggling with headwinds we beached for a break, but the wakes from the 30-footers rocked the boat violently on the beach. We backed out quickly, and once we were 50 feet from shore and perpendicular to the current, we noticed we were making progress downstream. With our craft sideways, the current didn't slip by us but dragged us against the wind. A few days ago I saw Mick do that with his pontoon boat, and I think he was trying to teach us something. The lesson paid off, and now if we have current and want a break from headwinds, we can do it without beaching.
    A friendly couple in a small powerboat saw us drifting sideways and came along to talk to us. They gave us cold drinks. They offered beer, but I had to turn them down since I needed all my wits while on the river. We pedalled to the center of the river where the current was strongest and did 4 mph while quartering the numerous wakes. At 5:45 we entered Corn Creek, just upstream of the Louisville Gas and Electric Company. We had made 33 miles and were only 17 miles away from Tartans Landing Marina. (our hoped for stop on Saturday)
    Corn Creek was a terrific stop, but the beach around the bend in the creek hosted a NO TRESPASSING sign. Violent thunderstorms and wind were predicted for the night, so we had no choice but to stop there. Mosquitos were on patrol, so we hurriedly pitched the tent after removing our gear from the boat. Once inside I drank my sixpack, we relaxed, and I forgot all about the impending storm. At 1:30 a.m. we were both awakened to flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder. The winds began, and the sides of our tent were pushed in by its fury. Soon, torrents of rain pelted our shelter, and we could not shut our eyes to go back to sleep. I remembered saying, at the beginning of the day, that we would need to take the mast down tonight for the impending storm, but the pesky mosquitos had distracted me from that precaution. We prayed. We justified. (The trees are taller than the mast.) After 45 minutes of wide eyed wakefullness the storm diminished to a drizzle, and we dozed off. A couple of hours later I awoke to a gurgling sound. I wondered if the boat had sprung a leak, but it was the rising creek lifting our boat and slipping under our starboard hull. Our port mooring line was slack that morning at 7:00 when the first light of day urged us out of our bags.
    Wet conditions slowed our packing, and we finally set off at 8:15 carefully negotiating the bend of Corn Creek in its 4 mph current. (Only 17 miles to Tartans where Dolores had welcomed us through email correspondence.) Mild headwinds and turbulent wakes gave us a slightly rough time reaching Tartans near Prospect, Kentucky. At 12:30 we were welcomed by Neal, Dolores' husband, as we pulled into the protected bay that houses the Tartans Marina.

Entering Tartan's harbour. No wonder people scratch their heads when they see us...Photo by Neal South...

Can you find our cruiser in this picture?


    Arlene was waiting with Neal on his boat to welcome us. She took us out to eat, back to the motel for showers and Ted to church. We attended a party at Tartans, and I went back late to the motel with her to create these latest internet updates. Neal and Delores gave us much help and introduced us to many people.
    Sunday morning Arlene and I were up at 5:30 and out to the boat trailer to remove the paddle wheel blades from the broken hub. We had borrowed a torch from Neal to heat the aluminum spokes to expand them allowing the swollen wooden blades to be released. We grabbed some fastfood breakfast for Ted and me and headed to the docks. After packing the boat I lubricated all the crankshaft parts, and we set off late at 9:30 for a short 16 mile run to Louisville, KY. A couple of miles down, as we came upon Heather's on the River Marina, voices greeted us from the docks. They wanted us to stop and come on in for a free breakfast. We had to decline since we had just eaten. The Marina was long, and as we approached the further end, near the restaurant, the cook ran out and said that the boss wanted to talk to us. We pulled over to the docks and Tom, the owner of the marina, came out and made a hundred dollar donation to the ALS Association. I am sure glad we stopped and only wished we hadn't eaten earlier.
     Soon the river led us into a tight reach with 10 mph winds. A tight reach is wind coming from 20 degrees forward of the beam. The little main sail we were using barely powers up in a tight reach, but at least the wind was not hindering us. For the first 12 miles the wind direction was constant, but of course the last 4 miles turned to murder as the wind shifted to the front of us and gusted to 20 mph. When we strayed too close to shore near parked barges we lost the two mph current, and it took 5 minutes to struggle downriver the length of one barge. We tried to stay near the center of the river, and when our legs gave out we would turn sideways to the current so it could grab our hulls and keep us from blowing upstream. It took 2 1/2 hours, through heavy seas, to make the last four miles to the Louisville Riverfront park, where a battle of the heavy metal bands, playing there, undoubtedly was creating some of the severe headwinds we had encountered. Bill and his wife, locals to this area, showed up in their boat to greet us. They invited us out of the wind onto their vessel, where we got warm while eating snacks and drinking coffee. They have been following our trip on the internet. We ate at a nearby restaurant, and then we set up the boat for the night.

Riverfront Park in Louisville



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