Tuesday August 8, 2017
All set
Today was spent at breakfast followed by a mini trek to a fabric
shop about 20 miles away across the Kentucky Dam followed by a boat wash down. Then a call to the AIS supplier asking why we
were having issues getting AIS data to the flying bridge chart plotter. After some advice from them, another couple of
hours were wasted trying various connection methods all to no avail. Mary made a last run to the local food
store. The plan is to get up around 6 Am
and call Kentucky Lock and Barkley Lock to see which has the best chance of us
getting through in a timely fashion.
Currently, Kentucky Lock has a delay time of 6 hours while Barkley has a
delay of 15 minutes. Going through
Barkley right here by Green Turtle Bay and thence down the Cumberland adds 25
miles to our trip, but avoiding the delay at Kentucky Lock will make up for it. Our likely anchorage tomorrow night will be
on the Ohio River fifteen miles short of the Mississippi in the current and not
something we would normally like, but that’s all there is down there.
I talked briefly this morning with the owner of a big yacht which
had just pulled in from up north. He
said the current in the Mississippi was 2-3 MPH, which is about as good as we
could have expected. We should find out
for ourselves Thursday morning.
Our sole mechanical concern is the generator’s seawater pump. After I got the new injectors installed and
started it, there was a lot of squalling noise and no water through the
exhaust. I shut it down and went to
investigate and found the seawater pump to be very hot. I restarted the generator, and the squalling
noise wet away quickly and water came gushing out of the exhaust. I suspect this pump will eventually fail; I just
hope it isn’t for another couple of weeks!
