Day 6 - Wednesday, October 21, 2015

We were anxiously awake before sunrise, wondering what the day would hold.  We knew we needed to find a replacement part for our engine and we were told that some of the locks that we would come to today were notorious for LONG waits due to some construction and lots of commercial traffic. We were told that one boat waited over 20 hours to lock.

We pulled anchor at 06:50 and headed for the Ohio River.  While underway, I made several phone calls to different Cummins locations to try to get the part we needed (the west coast was not open yet).  I called our local Cummins in Chattanooga and they requested that I email them the pictures I had. I did.  Meanwhile, I called Matt with Cummins corporate in Nashville, TN to see if he could help.  I emailed the pics to him as well.  While I had all of my resources searching on the East coast, the folks at Seaboard Marine that I had called last night on the West coast called me back about 10:30.  They wanted to know exactly which part I needed so I emailed the pictures to Brendan at Seaboard. Now I had 3 resources tied up looking for my part.  By noon, I still had no return calls so I started calling back, beginning with the East coast folks. No luck. They were still searching for the part number so they could locate the part for us.

We approached the first lock in Olmstead, IL, at MM 964.5 on the Ohio River at 11:50.  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get through the Olmstead lock.  The next lock was only two miles up River at MM 962.6, Lock #53.  We locked with BeeLine, the sailboat from Canada that we had anchored with and boats named Blue Water and Iconic.  It only took about 20 minutes to get through. We exited the lock at 14:45.  At this point, we still had no news on finding the part to fix our engine.

Finally, at 15:35 the call came through that our replacement part had finally been located!! Seaboard Marine on the West coast had come through!  Brendan emailed a picture of the new part. That was it! Once verifying the part via email, I called him back to confirm and gave him a credit card and instructions to express ship it to Green Turtle Bay for early morning delivery tomorrow.  He assured me he would do just that.  Things began to look up!  The thought crossed our minds... what if the part didn't fit or what if we got the part installed and then found another problem?  No need to worry further.  It was time to focus on getting to Green Turtle Bay tonight.

At 17:10, a boat named Serendipity waked us as we were getting closer to the next lock.  Remember, we are making our way very carefully on one engine and taking it slow.  This boat passed us full speed and rocked us pretty hard.  At 17:21 as we approached Lock #52, another boat, Second Knot, waked us.  Even if we were on two engines, their behavior was very rude and inconsiderate.  Capt Bart got on the radio and reminded the two boaters (who happened to be traveling together) that their actions were intolerable and inexcusable. They applologized.

We tuned in on Channel 13 on our VHS to hear the lock chatter.  The lock master called out Serendipity and Second Knot to move out of the way!  They responded by asking how deep the water was over by the edge and the lock master responded that all he knew was they were in the way and needed to move immediately!  They then asked about locking and were told it would be after dark before they could proceed.  They informed the lock master that they would anchor out and wait to lock in the morning. They promptly moved aside and we waited before contacting the lock master for permission to lock.  We identified ourselves and expressed our intentions to lock whenever the lock master could work us in.  At this point, we were committed to getting to Green Turtle Bay in order to get our part and fix our boat.  The lock master instructed us to stand by and he'd be in touch.  We ended up getting through Lock #52 around 20:15.  Now we were at the mouth of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.

We arrived at the Kentucky Lock in Grand Rivers, KY on the Tennessee River at 23:50.  It was a 57ft lift and took only about 35 minutes to get through.  It was now 00:25.  We had only about 6 miles to go to reach Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, KY.  We arrived safely at 01:15.  Thankfully, Captain Bart had been here before and knew exactly how to get to Slip #10, our assigned slip for the night.  We docked and tied up and got to bed about 02:30 in the morning.

We had travelled 83.5 miles today at a maximum speed of 8mph (due to being on one engine).  It was a very long day.

This was a beautiful gift this morning - sunrise at Angelo Towhead.

Approaching Olmstead Lock

We found this picture on the Seaboard Marine website that sort of illustrated the part we needed but this was a different engine than ours.  We kept looking for a better picture.

A tug locked with us in the Olmstead Lock.

Leaving the Olmstead Lock about 13:00.

We received this picture from Seaboard Marien via email.  That's it!  That's the part we need!

This is a picture of the new part.  It's on its way to us now!

Lock #53.  We locked with other boats.  We were instructed to "float" in the lock.  We locked with Bluewater, BeeLine and Iconic.

While underway, I decided to tackle a cleaning project to help pass the time now that we had located our part.  This is a picture of our mid-ship bilge before cleaning it.

Now, it looks much better!

I-24 Bridge (MM 941 on Ohio River) prior to reaching Lock #52

Sun beginning to set after we passed under the I-24 Bridge.

Finally locking at 20:15 in Lock #52.

A little spooky in the locks at night.

Left Lock #52 about 20:35.

Locking at 23:50 in the Kentucky Lock.  It's a 57 foot lift.

Left Kentucky Lock about 00:25.

Only 6 miles to go under the moonlight to reach Green Turtle Bay on the Cumberland River.  We definitely put in a full day today.