We end our journey on the Mississippi by turning left on the Ohio River. After a few days of traveling with the current (did you know that it only takes about 3 days for the water flowing past St Louis to reach New Orleans?) we are now going upstream. On the Mississippi we gained about 3 mph doing downstream, but now on the Ohio at its full discharge to the Mississippi we lose 2-3 mph.
This stretch of the journey has also been problematic for boaters as this part of the Ohio includes several major lock and dams that are prone to regular breakdowns and high volumes of tow traffic. The Ohio serves barge traffic all the way up to Pittsburgh and the Tennessee and Cumberland make their way to Knoxville and Nashville so when the locks breakdown or there is a flood the traffic delays can result in a whole day of waiting for pleasure boaters.
We are lucky and happy (Happy!) that ongoing construction to replace problematic Locks 52 and 53 on the Ohio are making progress and flood flows from just a few weeks ago have been released. Our passage on to the Tennessee is about as easy as could be.
On the downside the generator is misbehaving and the inverter will not let it charge the house batteries. With hotter than normal weather for this time of the year we revise the remainder of our cruising plan to make all overnight stays at marinas so we can use shorepower to recharge the batteries and keep the drinks cold in the fridge!!
The new Olmstead lock and dam will replace both locks 52 and 53 and is a massive construction project.
A 5300 ton capacity crane!
For the last night before we find out the generator is kaput we anchor in the Ohio River with buddy boat Rejoice, a stately craft
