Cumberland Tow Head

We left Hoppies after breakfast at about 7 am with the thought that we would stay the  night tied to the Kaskaskia Lock for the night. We  reached it about 10:30 and thought that it was too early to stop for the day so kept on going. We  ended spending the night at a very nice anchorage called Little Diversion.  Southern Belle and Passport were able to raft to two larger boats that already had there anchors down, so it was and easy anchor thanks to Gull Wing and Superior Lady.  After a nice happy hour aboard Superior Lady we were ready for dinner and bed. 

We had set the alarm early ,we had wanted to get an early start but as we were doing our morning routines the fog rolled in. There was a total of 12 boats in this area and at one point we could only see the two closest to us ,and could not see the entrance at all. At around 10 am the fog began to clear and there was a mass exodus out into the Mississippi. Weather has not been great the past several days with clouds, rain and fog.

We experienced a lot of turbulence along the Mississippi.   Many whirlpools that the picture did not do justice 

This day was to be a shorter day cruising, but as it turned out that was not to happen. We planned to anchor at a placed mentioned by Fern our guru from Hoppies as being a good place called Boston Bar. When we arrived , we found  as little as 2 foot below the keel and with the possibility of water dropping over night, we decided to go on.  We ended up spending the night in the Ohio river rafted with six others for the night.

Aboard Passport with Chris & Kerm from Southern Belle.

Once we had gotten all the anchor’s set and all the others had joined us, we were surprised by a canoe with two young men who pulled up to ask if they were close to an area that they could set up their tent. They were on a trip from Ohio down to the Gulf of Mexico by canoe!!  After chatting with them for awhile it was decided that they would stay with us on the bench seats of our fly bridge.  The reason for their trip was to raise money for an orphanage in Africa.  Their web site is Sugar2salt.com.

In the morning they said that they had slept very well, but then again that was compared to the thermarest that they were used to sleeping on. After breakfast of raisin toast and several goodie bags from the others at anchor they departed on their journey.  It was truly nice to meet up with them.  Their moms and dads should be very proud of them, they were both very nice young men.

Ben, Mary, John & Jon

All packed and ready to paddle

And they were Off.

An old fort at Paducah.

We did not have to go through Lock 53 as the wickets were down but we did have a bit of a wait at Lock 52. It was not a easy lock as there was a lot of turbulence.  So we were happy to be done with that.

A Small paddle wheeler pleasure craft

Our anchorage today is at Cumberland Tow Head with the same group of boats that we were with last night.  It is the end of our trip on the Ohio River and the start of the Cumberland River. Tomorrow we will continue on the Cumberland to Lake Barkley lock and then to Green Turtle Bay Marina, where we plan so spend a week.

All Rafted together.

Another view of the "Raft" from our bridge.

Sun setting at our anchorage.

Hope every one sleeps well,

Mary and John