100...We are 100 days in to our journey. We expect to complete our sojourn after seeing Lake Superior next August. We left on Fathers Day making a total of 420 days, so we are a little less than 20% through. This screen shot of my chartplotter shows areas traveled...sort of.
1,460...We have traveled 1,460 miles, so far, after leaving the Clinton River and Lake St. Clair. Our trip will be somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 miles, so we have traveled about 22% of our expected total distance.
1,400...We have used 1,400 gallons of diesel fuel in the engines and generator. We were getting about 0.8 of a mile per gallon at an average of 13 mph in the lakes, and have slowed down to around 10 mph in the rivers at 1.5 mpg. I am learning that slow is good!
4...Only 4 nights at anchor so far. We anchored in the North Channel of Lake Huron and along the Mississippi River. We prefer being at the dock, but more experience anchoring will likely help in our appreciation of one of the highlights of the trip. This picture was taken after leaving our anchorage at MM 22 on the Mississippi (22 miles north of the Ohio River)...at 6:45am.
14...We have negotiated 14 locks so far (out of 105) ranging in difference in lift/drop from 4 feet to 45 feet. The picture below is a good example of proper locking procedure. I think that is a Leo DiCaprio imitation??? First mate is good for a laugh, or two. We have found the difficulty with locking isn't the locks, it is the waiting. We have had to wait as much as 6 hours for a lock, and 2 hours is quite common.
1 and 2..."I will meet you on the 1 cappie, and watch my 6" is the language of the rivers...except you need to talk real fast with marbles in your mouth with a Cajun accent! Passing a tow (tug boat pushing anywhere from 15 to 42 barges) on the 1 means I move to my right, whether he is going in my direction or coming at me. This is a throw back to when boats used whistles to communicate their intention, eventually saying "pass me on the one whistle" when electronic communication evolved. Later it was simply on my "1", or on my "2". It is a good system, because you can usually decipher a "one" or "two" out of what ever else the tug cappie is saying. "Watch my 6" means watch out for his turbulent wake he is leaving behind him. I am passing this 35 barge tow "on the 1".
4...We have traveled four major rivers so far, DOWN the Chicago Shipping and Sanitary Canal (dug in the late 1800's to reverse flow to the south to reduce pollution of Lake Michigan), the Illinois River, the Mississippi River, and UP the Ohio River. At constant RPM's, we moved 10 MPH in the canal, 13 MPH in the Big Muddy, and less than 8 MPH in the Ohio. Current is a big factor.
2 million...That is how many fish flies were on our boat this morning in Paducah, KY! This picture was taken AFTER I sprayed them off once.
The following picture shows of some of the electronic navigation systems we use every day. The chartplotter (right half of screen) is invaluable to show our position relative to deep water (white), shallow water (blue) and land (yellow/green). For you landlubbers...blue is bad, and yellow is REAL bad, unless you are docking. It does not, however, show location of other boats, which the radar does (left half of screen)...even in the dark and in fog, both of which we have experienced. The yellow dot ahead of me is Jim's Joy, the dot trailing us is Pug II, and the blue dots to right are deep water channel markers.
Captain Bob. "Watch your 6"
Very informative! Captain Bob needs to blog more! Of course , no one writes like your second mate! Glad u r enjoying your journey!
ReplyDeleteBob, what are the details of your new Dinghy? As you know we have the same crane. ReeLeeBlessed
ReplyDelete