The Ohio & Cumberland Rivers

As you can see from this photo the sun was already high when we hauled up the anchor and left our overnight spot.  It turned out to be one of the best anchorages we have had on this trip. When you ask God to do things expect the best! :-)

We soon came to the Tennessee River on the starboard side of the boat.  It flows into the Ohio.  Normally that would be the river most of the barge traffic would take but the lock, Kentucky Lock, is closed for repairs so ALL the barge traffic has to go through Barkley Lock on the Cumberland River!

Here the Cumberland River splits off the Ohio on right side and we took this turn and now were completely in Kentucky... leaving Illinois behind.

Up the Cumberland we came to "Kentucky Chute" on the Port side. This is just an area so named before there was a dam there... can't get past the dam now.

We went under several bridges today but since this bridge had such a long name I thought it deserved a photo.  It is the Lucy Jefferson Lewis Memorial Bridge at Smithland, KY.

We had almost relaxed about the barge traffic on the rivers until we finally did come to one of those sharp blind turns AND without any warning met a barge just nosing around it!  It is hard to see as he blends with the surroundings... can you find him?

Then we came to what must be the “Fleeting” area for the Cumberland River....barges everywhere!

We had a short time where we had no barges on the river.....

But not long after this short piece of river came the barges, some right at us and some we passed.

Here is the bridge by the Barkley Lock.    It is where the lock master told us to call him again.

Another pleasure craft waiting to lock through with us.  When we called the lock they told us it would be a two hour wait....

Lock right in front of us to far right.   Dam in center.

We tried anchoring putting down over 100 ft of chain but still drifted back toward rocky shore of the river so we had to go slowly up and down this area of the river... waiting waiting and hoping again not to run out of daylight... Captain said no choice to anchor before dark if we can't get into lock because there is simply no place on the whole river (30 miles of it that we had traveled) to anchor!

Finally, after over 3 hour wait we were called into the lock.

I had to loop my line around a high floating bollard.

Huge lock doors shutting behind us.

We were raised up 57 feet and when the doors opened on the other side this is what greeted us..... just enough room to make it around them on the right side!

The not so good thing about these last few days on the MS & Ohio Rivers is that there are over 200 miles without any service: no fuel, no pump out, no marinas and not a lot of good anchorages.  So tonight we are so happy to be in this very nice marina and just across from us are two BOAT-US boats.... just the best when it comes to rescuing you in any kind of trouble!

There are about 15 Looper boats here! We will enjoy the next few days here before we head out to cross this big beautiful lake in the Tennessee River Canal and then on to the TN River....well, I think that is the plan. :-)