The weather forecast had me scared all day.  A couple of days ago the prediction sounded like it would rain all day.  But as it turned out, it only rained for 15-20 minutes during the day.  But the sky was heavily overcast all day, making for a dreary day of travel.

After leaving crooked Creek, my first task was Meldahl Dam.  I contacted the lockmaster on the radio and he said he would open the smaller chamber for me.  I never could tell which is the smaller chamber until the gates were open.  I think it took four locks before I figured out that "smaller" meant "in length" not "in width."  And I finally learned that the "smaller" lock was always to the landward side.

The lockmaster was slow to open the lock, so I had to circle and fight the wind for a while.  For once, the wind was blowing DOWNSTREAM, just when I didn't need it to.  The lock was again filled with logs and trash making it very difficult for me to pick my way through without shearing a pin on my little outboard.

While in the lock waiting for the gates to open, the lockmaster and a woman leaned over the wall and asked, "Where you heading?"
It seems that everybody is interested in this little adventure.
I replied, "The Mississippi River."
That seemed to confuse them.  I am sure they expected a city for a destination, not another river.  And the wind made it hard for them to hear me so they walked on.

I've got to learn to give a better answer to that question.  Maybe I'll start saying, "Cairo, Indiana" which is where the Ohio joins the Mississippi.  But it might be more fun to say, "New Orleans" or "Tahiti!"

People have been writing on the floating bitts that you tie up to in the locks.  I guess they had to do something while waiting for the water level to change:
"Extended Play"
"For Good (sex) call Kathy at 735-5812.  Really."
"Butch loves Susie 8-20-00"
I wondered about him dating that one, as if he only loved her on that one day.

About 9 a.m. I spotted something swimming in the river ahead.  I thought it might be geese so I checked it out with my binoculars.  It was two deer!  I have always heard about people seeing deer swimming across rivers, but had never seen it myself.  I thought I might cross their path silently since I was under sail alone, but they are fast swimmers.  I wanted to get close so I could take a picture, so I started the motor and headed them off.  As I got near, it was obvious that they were afraid.  I snapped a picture about the time they had had enough of me, and they turned around and swam back across the river to the side they came from.  One deer looked like a buck with short antlers in velvet.  I guess I interfered with their destiny on the south shore.

Picture of deer swimming in the river

Because of the forecast of rain and thunderstorms, I put the jib below and only used the mainsail.  It is really pretty difficult to mange this boat single-handedly.  I can usually stop the boat so I can go forward, but I wouldn't want to have to do it "in a blow."  And the jib lines kept hanging up on various cleats on the mast when I tacked through the wind.  That required me to hustle to the mast and untangle them.  It was a major hassle.

9:30 Towboat #12 - West Virginia

The wind was blowing from the east which is very unusual.  And even more unusual is that it was blowing in the direction I was going.  The wind at my back at long last!  And I thought that never happened on the Ohio.  They best thing someone could wish for me is, "May the wind be always at your back."  They don't know how great that is!

I was able to run very fast with the motor running and the mainsail up and the keel winched up with no drag.  One of the great aspects of a Cal 21 is the retractable keel.  With 360 pounds of lead weight at the bottom, it really steadies the boat.  And fully extended the keel sits 4 1/2 feet down.  When winched up, the boat only draws 9 inches!

Putting the keel up helps to reduce drag when sailing downwind.  But it was tricky handling the boat that way.  If the wind changed or gusted it could knock me over.  Finally, the wind came stronger and I decided to lower the keel.  But it was an exciting ride for awhile.

I am proud of my Danforth-type anchor and its 15 feet of chain and 150 feet of rope.  And I'm proud of the bracket I bought at West Marine in Chicago last week.  It holds the anchor proudly out front and makes this look like an honest-to-God cruising sailboat!

10:00 Towboat #13 "WKN"

I kept telling myself not to be in a rush.  I have a personality type to always be pushing and always in a hurry.  One of the purposes of riding in a sailboat instead of a powerboat is to slow down and enjoy the scenery.  After all, you are not supposed to be in a rush when you can't go but 5 mph!  Sailing across the Ohio is a totally different experience from say jet skiing across the Ohio.  In one, you whiz by the scenery with the sound of a loud motor hardly noticing anything that is there.  In the other, you have the time to really look and really see the beauty God put before your eyes.

That reminded me of the following article I read entitled "The Three Mile An Hour God:"

"Those of us who work in offices have the opportunity of introducing staff. On one such occasion a colleague of mine, a bit late in her arrival, began with an apology: "Sorry we just came running into the office." Then she corrected herself: "But we didn't really run." Yes, they did. We all do.

"We are living in a world on the run. The faster the better; a treadmill of speed whisks us through our days and into our tomorrows. Express buses, bullet trains, jet planes, rockets, space ships. Escalators, elevators, people movers.  Who has time to walk? We race from place to place and task to task. We live by schedules and communicate by fax machines and modems. Even ordinary telephones are not enough; we need portable phones and devices that record messages alarms and buzzers, whistles and sirens. The pace is hectic.

"A while ago I was in Tokyo for a Lutheran World Federation conference on 'Mission in the City.' The crowds in the streets, at the airports, on the subways, were like those in Ottawa on the first of July. One was literally shoved  into and out of buses and buildings. Often we were able to see only the blur of persons in motions; we saw no faces.

"In his opening remarks, the keynote speaker at the conference, a Japanese theologian, asked us to reflect on the speed at which we are living. 'The context in which most persons live is fast-moving urban life, with its noise, its hustle and bustle, its dominant impersonal relationships,' he noted. 'People no longer see one another with faces, but as numbers and replaceable units in productive processes and systems.' After a pause, he contrasted our speed with God's pace. 'Our God,' he said, 'is a three mile an hour God.'  That is the speed at which humans walk. That is the speed at which Jesus wended his way through Galilee  touching the ill, chatting with widows, pausing in marketplaces to observe children at play, plucking grain in the fields on a sabbath day. 'The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath,' he said.

"We were created in the image of a three mile an hour God, and we have been called to be partners in ministry with a three mile an hour God. There will be no growth among us unless we stop running: no increase in understanding, no growth in faith, no sight for the blind, no help for the poor, no compassion for the outcast (and, for that matter, no increase in the numbers of the faithful)  unless we stop running.

"This world on the run needs people who are moving slowly enough to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice; people who are moving slowly enough to notice smiles of joy and tears of sorrow; people who are moving slowly enough to reach out to those in pain, to comfort those in suffering, to offer hope to those in despair.
(THREE MILE AN HOUR GOD appeared in the Spring, 1996 (Vol. 3, No. 1) issue  of PNEUMA, the newsletter on spiritual direction in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.)

10:20 Tug "Valvoline" = #14

I passed by Point Pleasant, Ohio, birthplace of Ulysses Grant, but I passed on.  I was also tempted to stop at New Richmond at the Skippers River Café just because it would be fun.  But I didn't really need anything, and I wanted to keep going.  (You can see that I have real trouble with that 3 mph stuff.)  But New Richmond was another beautiful, quaint little town on the Ohio.

At 11:30, I put in more gas and it must have had too much oil because the motor was running fitfully.  I tried putting in extra un-oiled gas using the 1/3 cup measuring cup Sarah loaned me.  I won't tell her it had gas in it when I give it back.  I added a good bit of pure gas to lower the oil ratio, but the motor did not run better.

1:55 Tug "River Wildcat" = #15

Well, at 2 the motor finally died.  That made me sick.  I quickly found the mouth of the Little Miami River, which ran into the Ohio on the outskirts of Cincinnati, and anchored.  I could hear a steady beat from loudspeakers with music playing at a nearby horse racing track and amusement park.

I got the motor in the cockpit and cleaned out the sparkplugs.  After fiddling with it for 1 1/2 hours I finally got it running pretty good again, but I thought the carburetor needed some cleaning too.  That would have to wait for later.

Motor trouble really worried me.  I knew far too little about motors to depend on them as much as I did on this trip.  There are several situations that could be very dangerous without power.  An approaching towboat with barges is a serious threat to life and limb because they cannot maneuver very well.  Also the areas around the locks would be very difficult to handle without power.

4:05 Towboat #16 - Kirby / City of Pittsburgh
4:10 Towboat #17 - "Barbara

I passed through the Cincinnati area between 3 and 5.  It was a great time with lots and lots of interesting things to see on shore.  I am always fascinated with the river dwellings.  The variety of houses on the bank provides endless interest.  In the suburbs, I spotted several steeples pointing to the sky and wondered if any of those churches needed a pastor; one who loved the river!

Downtown was filled with skyscrapers and businesses right on the river.  I could have stopped at Hooters or Applebees for a meal.  I could have spent the night in the Embassy Suites.  But it was only 4:30 and I had miles to go.  Both CINergy Field and Paul Brown Stadium are right on the river as well.  The Delta Queen, the oldest overnight steamboat on American waters, makes Cincinnati it's home.  Once a year, Cincinnati sponsors a river festival in which all of the river steamboats up and down the river come for steamboat races and a grand celebration.

Photo of Cincinnati church on a hill that surely needs a pastor

Photo of Cincinnati skyline

Cincinnati has four nineteenth-century bridges, the most of any city on the Ohio.  Most of them are standard bridges, but they can boast about Roebling's great suspension bridge of 1856.  It is a noble bridge with ornate artwork all over it.

Picture of the Roebling bridge

4:30 Towboat #18 - Nancy Sturgis
4:55 Towboat #19 - John J. D.

Just on the far side of Cincinnati I spotted six teenage boys playing on the shore.  I don't think they were camping but they had a fire going.  I watched them for some time as I slowly passed by and reflected on my own teenage days.  It also reminded me of so many coming-of-age movies about this kind of typical junior high behavior.

Then I saw a big industrial plant on the left that had "Mile 475.5" written on it.  I thought that was funny because we were at 477.5!  The sign was wrong.  How odd!  Or was it?

I began desperately looking for identifiable markers to prove where I was and who was right.  Just as I was sure that I was right and the sign was wrong, I came to the Riverside Ferry.  In fact, there were two ferryboats crossing the river at the same time, both loaded with automobiles.  And my Kentucky map had a clear indication where the roads and the ferry were.  I was wrong!  The sign was right!

I've got to learn to quit arguing with signs.  It's a personality defect.

Isn't it amazing how your mind can prove what it believes is true?  In those few moments, I found all kinds of businesses and depots that perfectly matched the chart.  However, I admit that I was bothered by the bend in the river that didn't go at the right angle.

I kept hearing thunder booming in the distance, so I put on my rain gear again.  The clouds didn't look like thunder clouds, but there was that sound again.  About 4 miles later, I realized I had been hearing the jets take off from Cincinnati International Airport.

5:25 Towboat #20 - Jack Flahaut
6:00 Towboat #21 - Mac McGinnis
6:05 Towboat #22 - Ashland
6:35 Towboat #23 - Captain Charles H. Stone

About 7, I found my destination - the Fore and Aft Restaurant and marina near Addyston, Ohio.  A restaurant and a marina; that sounded like a wonderful combination!  I thought they might let me spend the night if I bought supper there, which they did!  And I did, a wonderful dinner of hot Chicken Monterey, baked potato, and fresh hot bread.  I ate too much, then went for a walk, but I didn't find anything else useful, like a motel or a store.

Fore and Aft Restaurant viewed from the shore

I called Sarah and reported in.

I was concerned about several things.  I was a little concerned that my cell phone batteries seemed to be going down too quickly.  I had the recharger with me, but needed an electrical connection.  I found electrical outlets on the dock, but they were not turned on.  It was obviously not yet the season for much boat activity at the Fore and Aft.

I was also still bothered by the leak in my boat.  Every day I was sponging out more and more water.  It was nothing dangerous, but water is supposed to be on the outside of a boat, not on the inside.  If I had had the time for more testing of this boat, I might have solved that little problem before starting.

But mostly, I was concerned about the outboard motor.  Running fitfully is nuisance enough, but when it quits completely in the middle of the river, that's a problem!  I really needed that motor to run when I needed it to.  I determined to try to work on the motor with morning light.

As I readied for sleep, the predicted rain finally started falling hard with a steady drumming on the cabin roof.

Mile 484  Fore & Aft Restaurant at Addyston
Mile 434 Crooked Creek
          50 Miles made good today

Next