It strikes me on rereading this that it would probably not be of consuming interest to the general reader, but is probably written to interest those who are boaters contemplating a voyage such as this. While it seems that there were many problems, it mus be remember that this in effect was the shake down voyage. If I was told once, it seems I was told a hundred times, it would have been better to put the boat in the lake in summer and run it around for a couple of months before starting out. I knew that! However, weather and other things always got in the way of the launching. So, one does what one can!
After this rather lengthy delay were were ready to start the trek again on Sunday, October 20th, 1990, when we departed Hamm's Holiday Marina at 0900. Fog held us up until this time. The crew was Al Nurszyk, my nephew, Bill Lavery of Fairhope, Alabama, and Jim Bryan who joined us from Coldwater, Michigan for the trip down. Managed to make it out of the marina and in to the main channel without incident. Passed right over the Peoria dam as the lock-master said the wickets were down, so we skipped the lock-through. There was quite a little barge traffic, but Peoria Lake is wide and the channel is well buoyed. A word about the tow boat pilots - they are extremely helpful, or at least were to me and other pleasure craft I was aware of. They advise meeting and passing directions. It is be to do what they suggest. While it is a little scary to cross over in front of the barges coming towards you, to meet them on 2 whistles; with enough forewarning there is no problem. The tows are normally about 3 wide and 5 long, though one we saw on the Ohio, I think, was 5 wide and 6 long. Very intimidating, when one considers the millions of pounds of cargo they are pushing through the water. There is no way they can maneuver the front ends of the line of barges, so they when they round a bend they put the front end where they want it and swing the stern end around to lin the load up in the new direction. I found the best way in the beginning to find out what to do was to call them, identify yourself and then by river position, and ask what to do. Normally this could be done when they were still about a mile away. For the last week and a half, because of experience, were were able to dispense with the radio traffic and point to a course where you know was the most logical and so we could meet without a lot of chatter. I'm sure they appreciated this as they must be a lot busier then we were considering the load difference.
The Lock-masters are also very helpful to pleasure vessels. As it turned out, I found the best way to negotiate the locks was to call it about one hour out and give them an ETA and ask their advice. This allows them to adjust their pass-thrus to maximize efficiency. They will try to pass as many vessels through they can at a time.
The weater was cold, in fact it was chilly and cold all of the trip wht the exception of the last 2 days. Generally, we had an 8 mph win in our faces all trip.
It was also cold at night. When we tied up at a marinas where there was shore-side power, the crew in the main cabin had the advantage of a little cube heater. Great piece of equipment, these ceramic cube heaters. Kept the main cabin at 70 f. The rear cabin depended on blankets. Another cube heater is indicated, for the future.
More to post as time permits for this chapter.
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