TRIP 4 LOGS
August 30-September 7, 1998
Grand Rivers, KY to Houston, TX

Houston, TX to Grand Rivers KY, Sunday, August 30, 1998

     Angela and I flew to Paducah, KY with our friend, Wally Moore, on Sunday, August 30, 1998 to conclude our cruise and bring our Carver 440, ILLUSIONS, home again.  Our tickets were for Saturday, but the Northwest pilots went out on strike.  TWA would take us on Sunday, but not Saturday.  We got into Paducah about noon, hungry and tired after having very little sleep.  We had worried about the flights for a couple of days, not knowing when or if we would be able to go.  Luke, from Green Turtle Bay Marina, picked us up at the airport and drove us to the marina. 

      We used the loaner van at Green Turtle Bay Marina to look for Lower Mississippi River charts and buy groceries.  The ship’s store at GTB had the charts when we were last there; I should have bought them then.  They were unavailable on that day.  We visited the powerhouse at Kentucky Dam and found out the lock was indeed working (the internet page for the Corps had said on Saturday night that it was closed).

     After putting things away, we decided to go eat early.  After all, we had not eaten much all day, skipping lunch, not much for breakfast, etc.  We borrowed the loaner van about 5:30pm and went to Grand Rivers to the Iron Kettle, which Luke had recommended.  Well, we all ate so much at the country buffet there that we could hardly move.  Good food such as salad, fried catfish, fried chicken, turkey and gravy and dressing, meatloaf, the best in vegetables and breads, and, of course, deserts.  We were miserable.  We walked to Patti’s and bought a few souvenirs and went back to the boat.  By 9pm we were all asleep.

Lake Barkley to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, Monday, August 31, 1998

    I was up at 4:45am, and Wally got up about 5:30am.  We pulled out at 6:15am with some fog but with a great sunrise and a cool breeze.  We phoned the lock and found it to be available, so we went upstream on Lake Barkley (Cumberland River) to the Barkley Canal, which connects The Cumberland River to the Tennessee River and Kentucky Lake.  A few miles downstream, then, and we were at the Kentucky Lake lock and dam.

     After dropping 57 feet, we motored 22 miles to the junction of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River at Paducah, KY, and 4 miles on the Ohio to Lock and Dam (L&D) 52, which lowered us 10 feet.  The Ohio River was wide but not very deep.  There were several tainter and weir dams in this area.  At L&D 53 the weir gates were down, allowing us to pass over the dam and bypass the lock chamber.  That was 29 miles further downstream.

     47 miles after the merger of the Tennessee and Ohio rivers, the Ohio merged with the Mississippi River.  After passing Cairo, IL on the Right Descending Bank (RDB) and going under the Cairo highway bridge, we were able to look upstream at the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers at the same time.  The state of Missouri was on the west side of the Mississippi River.  We had been at that spot in 1997 when we came down the Mississippi River from St. Louis and Chicago.

     The afternoon was hot and humid.  The river was slightly higher than it had been in 1997.  The current seemed stronger, maybe 2-3 knots.  There was a lot of commercial traffic, and lots of barges being rafted up on the rivers in preparation for moving up- or downstream. 

     Our goal for that night was to anchor in the same spot as we had in 1997-it worked well for us then, why not? We pulled into the anchorage on the downstream side of Island No. 14, KY at 6pm and dropped anchor.  By 7pm we were having dinner, and it was good.  All of us had sworn to give up food forever, but we changed our minds when Angela fixed such a fine meal.

     We covered 173 miles on the day in 11 running hours.  We had been through two locks and around another.  We had reached IL and MO for the first time on this trip, bringing the state total for this cruise to 10 (TX, LA, MS, AL, TN, NC, GA, KY, MO, and IL).  We had skipped the fuel dock at GTB since it didn’t open until 8am, so our fuel was low; but hopefully we had enough to get to Memphis, TN.  We turned in early to be able to get up early on Tuesday.  Our plans included some 200+ mile days in order to get home before Labor Day.

Island No 14, KY to Mile 626 on the Mississippi River, AR, Tuesday,
September 1, 1998

     On Tuesday, September 1, I was up at 4:45am and had the anchor up at 6am.  We went slowly for two hours, running just one engine, to conserve fuel.  We didn’t know how much had been used by the mechanics working on the boat at GTB, and Angela was asleep, so we motored along at 8-9 knots.  The weather was great-cool breeze, blue sky, and temperature about 70F.

     After 8am we cranked it up to 18-20 knots, aided by the downstream current of 2-3 knots or so.  Our overheating problem was apparently solved.  I called GTB and asked what they had done to it.  The first thing was to clean the raw water heat exchanger, but that didn’t really solve the problem.  They told me the thermostat in the starboard engine was not made by Caterpillar (strange, since the CAT dealer put it in on May 29!), so they changed that.  The real payoff was cleaning the fresh-water cooling system; apparently it was corroded and obstructed.  They put back the temperature gauge I had taken off the other side and repaired the Glendinning (repair number 5).  According to their heat guns, both engines ran the same temperature now, about 190, but the starboard temperature gauge said about 6 degrees warmer than that.  It was so nice to not have that overheat alarm going off all the time.

     All day we listened to the weather forecasts about Tropical Storm EARL off the coast of Louisiana.  It seemed we might be hurrying towards a hurricane, which was hurrying towards us.  It was a hot and hazy afternoon.

     About 1pm we pulled into Memphis, TN and filled up with fuel at $1.09 per gallon.  The port tank took 192 gallons and the starboard tank took 187—we still had over 100 gallons on board!  We made 294 miles on that run, which averaged 1.29 gals per mile, even without knowing how much use it got at GTB.

     By 2pm we were back on the water again.  The aft deck refrigerator had quit cooling, and the voltage meter on the A/C 110-volt panel had gone out, but otherwise we were in business. 

     A few miles below Memphis, in Mississippi, there were two complexes that apparently were casinos.  We had seen them in 1997.  The first one had a high-rise hotel named “Gold Strike”, along with other, lower buildings.  The second one was an imitation castle, with turrets and flags.  That one had no visible name but was located very close to the river’s edge.

     We passed Helena, AR and our anchorage from 1997, intending to get an early start towards Vicksburg on Wednesday.  There was a bridge across the river there and a casino on the MS side of the river.

     At Mile 626 we spotted a possible anchorage on the RDB and checked it out.  It suited us well, and we dropped the hook at 7:30pm.  Angela was immediately cooking, because the sun had already set; and we ate a fine meal at 8:30pm.

     There were more barges on the river than I remembered from 1997, and the current was swifter.  This trip I found myself moving more into the deeper section of the river to pick up more speed rather than taking the shorter route along the inside edge of the channel.  Our overall speed for the day, after 13 running hours and 232 miles, was 17.8 mph.  On about the same trip the previous year we made 16.5 mph.

Mile 626 on the Mississippi River, AR to Vicksburg, MS, Wednesday, September 2, 1998

     On Wednesday, September 2, I woke up early and could not go back to sleep.  Wally and I had talked about leaving at 5am, and I think he had trouble sleeping, too.  I was up at 4:30am, showered and dressed at 5am, and I pulled up the anchor at 5:10am.  Wally was immediately there beside me, and we talked to each other while making our way out into the river.  It was very dark.  As we eased out of the old channel we were in, two towboats with their barge strings were passing each other just downstream of us.  Searchlights were flashing all over the place.  We were asked to pass the upbound tow on the two-whistle side, so we moved across the channel, trying to find the red markers in the dark without blinding the tow.

     Next, we passed the down-bound tow on the one whistle side.  Radar was great; it showed the buoys and the banks of the river.  It showed the wing dams, which were built out from the banks to the buoys.  If we ever got between a buoy and the bank, we could run over a wing dam.  That could mean repairs or replacements for props, rudders, and shafts.  It was important to stay within the buoys and not get outside them.

     That was exciting, and everything worked out fine.  The sun came up and lit the sky sufficiently to plane off about 6:10am. We went from 12-13 knots to 18-20 knots on our way down to Greenville, MS.  Tropical storm EARL had not strengthened or come ashore, but it had turned to the NE and moved to the east of us.

     Our plan was to buy diesel in Greenville, at a low price, and top off in Vicksburg, which we thought was more expensive since they have to truck it to the boat.  From our experience in 1997, that seemed like the best plan.  We called Vicksburg a day early, as required, and ordered 100 gallons.  The price quoted was $1.25 per gallon.

     We called the Greenville Yacht Club to find out the price of their diesel, but the lady who answered didn’t know.  We called the casino fuel dock next door and were transferred to the wrong extension.  When we called back, no one answered at all.  Wally didn’t see the river, and we went 4 miles downstream before we found out and turned around.  Some might say we had been advised to not go there.

     We did go up the river to Greenville, past a few miles of shipbuilding and unloading facilities and fleeting operations, to the casino first, about 5 miles off the Mississippi River.  Their price for diesel was $1.39-too high.  Next, we went to the yacht club and tied up.  Their price was $1.009 per gallon, what we had hoped it would be.  Wally started fueling, and I changed the oil in the generator.  When I was finished, we had only added 30 gallons of diesel to the starboard tank.  Their fuel pump was very slow.  At that rate, we would be late to Vicksburg, so we stopped fueling and headed down the river.  By noon we were in the Mississippi River.  It was 100 miles to Vicksburg, and we needed to be there before 5pm to meet the fuel tuck.  We called Vicksburg again and upped our fuel request to 400 gallons.

     We had thought our fuel was very low on our arrival in Memphis, but we still had 120 gallons.  We concluded the gauges must read empty before the tanks are dry.  We believed we could get to Vicksburg easily, so we pushed it and saw speeds of 20, 21, and even, occasionally, 23 knots.  When we were in the deep water and had the current working for us, our speed picked up to levels we had not ever seen.  Also, we had a strong wind from the north and NE to help push us along.

     I called Vicksburg again and asked the fuel dealer there if they could pick up some oil filters for the generator.  She said yes.  The diesel deliveryman brought the filters with the diesel.  They charged us $10 each for them, but I was glad to get them. 

     At 4:45pm we were tied up at the barge where we were to receive our fuel.  We called the dealer at 4:30, and she said their driver was late but would be there.  He arrived about 5pm.

     We put 200 or so gallons in the starboard tank.  We put 100 gallons in the port tank, and the driver said that’s all he had.  He said he thought we only needed 300 gallons.  His most recent delivery had been for 700 gallons; he took 1000 with him, thinking our 300 would come out of that.  (How did he know to get the fuel filters and not know we needed to get 400 gallons?)

    We asked him to go back and get some more, but he said everyone left at 5pm and it was after 5.  He charged us $1.00 per gallon instead of the quoted $1.25.

     The fuel transfer pump became very important at that time.  We had never used it before, but it appeared to work fine. 

     We showered and changed and went up the steep hill to Harrah’s Casino.  We had a nice buffet there, and no one ate more than three plates, not counting deserts.  Sometimes, we do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

Vicksburg, MS to Berwick (Morgan City), LA, Thursday, September 3, 1998

     On Thursday, September 3, I was up and showered by 5am.  When I started the engines, Wally got up and helped us away from the barge.  We were shortly thereafter in the Mississippi River, in the dark, with a tow and his barge string right in front of us.  That was a great way to wake up in the morning-very exciting.

     Natchez, MS was about 70 miles downstream.  These places have several casinos but no marinas or fuel stops.  We planned to get to Morgan City, LA and buy fuel there.

     By noon we were looking for the entrance to the Old River Lock.  Quimby’s was wrong about the mile marker, and we had no charts, so we passed it up by mistake and had to double back.  It cost us a half-hour or so, plus our position in the lock, so it was 1pm when we entered Old River.

     This used to be the outlet for the Red River (into the Mississippi), which now forms the Atchafalaya River.  It’s 4-5 miles between the lock and the zero point on the Atchafalaya.

     Our fuel situation was not good.  Last year we bought 318 gallons in Morgan City.  This year we started with 300 plus what was in the tanks, which wasn’t much, and we had run the generator all night from that. Plus, we had 4 miles down and 4 miles back up the river looking for the lock.

     The trip to the Morgan City area is 115 miles on the Atchafalaya River.  Our fuel gauges went below ‘empty’ about 25 miles from the end.  We were worried.  There is virtually nothing on that river that could have helped us, unless it would have been a passing barge.

     At 7pm, we turned the corner at Mile 115.  We had checked in with Berwick Traffic, the US Coast Guard radio service to control traffic in that busy harbor.  We started the generator and moved slowly downstream to L&L Oil Co.  We tied up and put 225 gallons of fuel in the starboard tank and 220 in the port tank-a total of 445 gallons.  We learned some valuable information about how much our fuel tanks would hold!

     By 8:30pm we were tied up to the Berwick, LA Town Dock.  Angela fixed spaghetti and a salad, and we congratulated ourselves on having come over 260 miles that day.

Berwick, LA to Galveston, TX, Friday, September 4, 1998

     Friday, September 4, I cranked the engines at 5am and called Berwick Traffic.  Just then, the railroad bridge went down, and we were told to wait.  (Berwick Town Dock is between the RR bridge and the highway bridges.)  At 5:30am we were able to move out into the river and through the RR bridge.  It was foggy, humid, and about 73 degrees.  We checked out of Berwick Traffic’s area at 6:20am or so and headed for Intracoastal City, 60 miles away.

     The weather forecast was excellent for an offshore run, which I had wanted to do sometime when conditions were right.  We looked at going out into the Gulf of Mexico at Freshwater Bayou and coming back in again at the Calcasieu River or the Sabine River.  We decided that a run to Galveston was possible, and these other rivers could be alternates if needed because of the weather, etc.  The distance to run offshore to Galveston was 130 miles.

     We arrived at the fuel stop in Intracoastal City at 10am and were moving again at 10:30.  At 11:40 we entered the Freshwater Bayou Lock and dropped one foot into the Gulf.  At noon we were planning on smooth, green water, headed for Galveston.  We thought we might be able to join the TMCA Labor Day Cruise to Offatts Bayou in Galveston.

     It was a real pleasure to finally be offshore!  I had wanted to use the offshore option on several trips when the weather just wasn’t right; the beginning of the 1998 Cruise is a good example.  I had forgotten how many oil platforms are out in the Gulf, and how many crew boats, ships, and helicopters, etc.  The radio was busy all the time.


     We set a course straight for Galveston, about 262 degrees.  As we got further from the coast, the water turned blue and pretty.  We saw occasional dolphin jumping in front of the boat.  Supertankers lay at anchor while their loads were lightened (they are too large to go into the harbors) at Port Arthur and Galveston.

     The greatest distance we were from the land was about 20 miles in 45-48 feet of water.  The water turned green off the Sabine Bank, south of Port Arthur, then blue again after we passed that area.  There was a slight swell until we approached Galveston.

     Sometimes it seems the worst weather, seas, accidents, etc happen as we get close to home.  That time, it got rougher as we approached Galveston; but I wanted to fuel up and have dinner, so I was not slowing down.  When I saw the log in the water, I couldn’t believe it was there.  After all this distance, in all these rivers and lakes, watching for logs every minute, how could there be a log in front of the boat out in the Gulf?  Bang, we hit it and ran right over it.  Angela came up from down below to ask ‘what was that?’  I knew at the time I should pull back on the throttle, but I didn’t. It happened too quickly.  Maybe the motion of the boat was just right to go over the log with no damage, because we concluded none had occurred.

     Coming into Galveston, we were getting closer and closer to the shore on an angle with the shore.  We didn’t know how much we could trust our electronic gear (Wally particularly didn’t trust it), so we were looking for familiar landmarks with our eyes.  I saw the city skyline, including the American National Insurance building; and it turned out to be several ships at anchor.  Wally saw the lighthouse at the end of the south jetty, and made me turn toward it, only to have it turn out to be an oil platform.  We were excited about getting home, and we were a little early seeing it.

     When we finally spotted the lighthouse on the south jetty and the end of the north jetty, we were in great shape to go around the green marker and enter the channel.  It was rough, at least 3-5 foot seas, the same as I remembered from previous trips returning late in the day.  We pulled up to the Galveston Yacht Basin for fuel at 7:45pm.  They tried to tell us they were closed, but Wally told them it wasn’t 8pm yet and we needed fuel.  By 8:30pm or so we were tied up at Fisherman’s Wharf, waiting for Carol, Wally’s wife, to join us.

     Carol had not had a good week, and so our homecoming was dampened by the sobering problems she was bringing to our attention.  It was very noisy in the restaurant, and Wally has a hearing problem that magnifies loud noises.  It was late, and we parted after dinner, the two of them to Clear Lake by car and Angela and I to Offatts Bayou.

     We got to The Landings Marina about 11pm.  It was after midnight when we tied up, plugged in, and paid for the slip for the next three nights.

Labor Day Weekend at Offatts Bayou, Saturday-Sunday, September 5-6, 1998

     On Saturday, September 5, we visited with some friends in TMCA (the Texas Mariners Cruising Association) who were down for the weekend cruise to Offatts Bayou.  My son, Chuck, and his fiancée, Marina, came for lunch; and we took the dinghy out to see Marc and Cindy on NORDIC.  The four of us ate Japanese at Yamato’s, and Marina slept on a boat for the first time (she’s Russian and just arrived in the USA).

     On Sunday, September 6, the TMCA arranged several tables together at Moody Gardens for brunch at 11am.  Our 4 plus my daughter, Darby, and her friend, Carrie, helped push the total number there to about 40(?).  We then saw “Mark Twain’s America” at the IMAX movie; it was very good.

     Later, the young people went to the beach, and I went into the engine room.  I cleaned two sea strainers, replacing the basket on one, and flushed out one A/C hose.  No debris emerged, so I did not flush any others.  I changed the oil and filter on the starboard engine.  The oil-change pump quit, so I did, too.  Angela prepared a lovely dinner, and we planned our return home for the next day.

Galveston, TX to Houston, TX, Monday, September 7, 1998

     On Monday, September 7, Labor Day, most of the TMCAers had left by the time we were up and about.  Angela had been ill the night before, and we both were tired.  The weather forecast was not good, and we postponed Marina’s first boat ride until a nicer day.  I checked the oil change pump; it still would operate in only one direction.

     We ended our cruise with this stay at Offatts Bayou, Galveston, where we began it on May 23, over 3 months ago.  It was nice to be back home, but I could not believe how shallow the water was!

     The ride home was somewhat rough, but we’d been through worse, for sure.  The sun tried to come out, but we had occasional rain and 100% humidity.  We left The Landings at 11am and tied up in our slip at South Shore at 2pm.  On the way we filled up with fuel so we would have a complete total on our fuel for the trip. 

Statistics for the 1998 Cruise

The following is a summary of statistics for the four trips in this cruise:

               Engine     Generator                    Fuel           Travel         Lay       Total
                Hours         Hours      Miles      Gallons         Days         Days      Days 

Trip 1         130            194         1562         2332             14             9           23 
Trip 2           45            173           523          736             10             5           15 
Trip 3           34              35           460          641              6              4           10
Trip 4           71            105         1140        1590               6              3            9

Totals         280           507          3685         5299            36            21           57

     Speed averaged 13.2 mph based on running hours and total fuel used, including generator use, which was higher this year.  On our CT to TX Cruise in 1997, we averaged 13.8 mph.  Also, this year we were not able to go as fast due to the overheating problem on the starboard engine during Trips 1-3.  Fuel usage averaged 1.44 gals per mile.  It was 1.36 on the CT to TX Cruise.  Fuel averaged $0.98 per gallon, compared to $1.33 in 1997.

     During the four trips, we had been traveling on the water 36 days or an average of 7.8 running hours and 102 miles per day.  We used about 147 gals of fuel per day of travel, on the average.  Our long day was 15 running hours, 264 miles, Vicksburg, MS to Berwick, LA.  Our short day was Guntersville to Huntsville, AL, 2 hours, 25 miles.  Actually, on two of the “lay” days we took short trips on the upper Tennessee River to see houses, etc.

     We saw or visited 11 states on that cruise:  TX, LA, MS, AL, TN, NC, GA, KY, MO, AR, and IL.

     We stayed in marinas, paying for our slip, 14 nights in Trip 1, 5 nights in Trip 2, 9 nights in Trip 3, and 5 nights in Trip 4.  We anchored for the night twice in Trip 1, five times in Trip 2, none during Trip 3, and twice in Trip 4.  We had free dockage in Chattanooga for two nights during Trip 1, and in Knoxville for ten nights in Trips 1 & 2, plus the 13 nights between the two trips, and one night free at Berwick Town Docks in Trip 4.  We paid reduced rates at marinas for the two layovers between Trips 2 & 3  and 3 & 4.  The most common charge for a single night at a marina was 50-60 cents per foot per night.