ORE 9

Friday

Sorry, no photos to post today. At least none that would not be considered inappropriate. (Dawg pulled his bathing suit up tight to look like a sumo wrestler. The mental image of that should be enough. You're spared the actual photo.)

Left Evansville about 8:45 and started back southbound. It was 170 miles from Kentucky Dam Marina to the Inland Marina. We took on fuel and water here. Downstream, we make about 1.2 mph more going the same rpm's.

We listened to the barge traffic on channel 13 and figured out that there were 6 towboats within 10 miles of us. We got to the John T. Myers lock at 3:00 pm. I called the lockmaster, and requested that we be locked through. She replied that she had one north bound in the chamber and two more waiting. we knew there were 3 not far behind us. I asked her if she would let us ride down when she emptied the chamber for the next north bound. She called the north bound tow, the "Sandy Drake" and asked if he could leave room for us to get by at the lower gate. He radioed us and asked us what size we were. I told him 25' by 8'. He agreed to stop short. The lockmaster told us to get in behind the exit wall and be ready to come in when the north bound came out. I've never been so close to the gates when a barge was coming out. After he was out, we were in and tied up as the gates closed. At the other end, we just cleared the Sandy Drake, and we through by 3:45 instead waiting a very, very, very long time.

We've seen several eagles, including three today. One was sitting on a sandbar. And speaking of sandbars, we saw a woman sunbathing topless on a sandbar. She was laying face down on a blanket, but Dawg swore she was topless. I guess it's not a code after all.

This entire stretch of the Ohio only has one highway bridge over it--at Shawnee town.

When I came down the Illinois River a few years ago, I learned about Asian Carp. It's a species not native to the U.S. They came here in ballast tanks like zebra mussels. The carp grow quite large, and jump several feet out of the water. It appears they've made it to the Ohio. Today, we saw the latest sport. We saw five guys on a big johnboat with about a 50 hp outboard. They had the motor tilted up a little and making a large wake. Evidently, the Asian Carp like the wake, and were jumping behind the boat like dolphin. There must have been 20 carp following along with the johnboat, jumping several feet in the air. So, the sport of it was this.................the the guys were standing up and shooting the carp in midair with a bow and arrow. And yes, we saw them get one. Captain Ahab Dawg stood on the transom with his harpoon the rest of the day, but we didn't see any jumping carp.

We're anchored tonight behind Cincinnati Island. I imagine that two guys swimming naked might seem suspicious. But three guys swimming naked................that's normal.

It rained tonight during the card game, but it had stopped by the time Rich put up the tarps in the steerage section.

Dawg brought the plague on board at the start of the excursion. Rich caught it, and now it's my turn.

T, D, & R