Well we started out the day early at 6:45, it was chilly but clear. We had decided to see if we could do 160 miles today in 11 hours. That would put us at Mile 1 of the upper Mississippi and we could make our way up the Ohio to the Cumberland tomorrow.
Things were going pretty good, at 7 gal/hr we were averaging about 14.5 mph. Charlotte heard a noise about 2:30 and we pulled the transmissions to neutral. After a few minutes we determined we had something wrong with the port prop, probably picked up an old rope. We still had the starboard side so we tried to limp along but if we tried to pick up speed we heard a thumping sound. So here we were about 40 miles from our anchorage and putting along at 5 miles per hour.
About that time the Green Turtle Marina returned my call from earlier in the day about reservations, I got the number for Gordon who runs the BoatUs operation in this part of the world. Fern had told us last night that he was the guy to call if we had problems. Gordon said he could be there in a few hours.
We look for alternative anchorages but found nothing close in our books or active captain. Charlotte had me call the towboat about 2 miles south of us and ask if we could tie up to him. He said we could so we headed that way. When we got close he said we were welcome to tie up but he would be leaving in a few hours.
We asked him how deep the water was where he had stopped against the bank, he said 19 feet. I asked him if we would be out of his way if we anchored behind the wingdam in front of him, he said that would be a good spot for the night.
Our first attempt was too close to the wingdam and after the anchor set the boat started to swing back toward the wingdam. We pulled the anchor and moved back till we could see the current all moving south and tried again. The anchor set for the night.
At this location we have no phone, but were able to get limited internet. Only enough to get and receive emails. We called Matthew on our Satellite phone and he got a hold of Gordon. When I called Matthew back he conference in Gordon and we learned that we would not see him till morning.
We were just north of the three most dangerous bend in the Mississippi, he was glad to hear about our anchorage and suggested we leave a lot of lights on in the boat, no problem we will be up.
