Gallipolis to Ashland KY

Day 14:  Friday, August 26, 2016

You can monitor our trip at the link: Second Winds Progress Live

This has been quite a day.  It lived up to the sizzler day that was predicted. The temp topped out at around 93 with a heat index of above 100.  It was hot!

Our first meal of the day was cheesy eggs, bacon and toast. We started the day

Traveling in the fog

early knowing that it would be hot and there were no good anchorages between Gallipolis and Huntington, WV,  about 35 miles down the river.

We motored away in a fairly dense fog.  With our Automatic Identification System, AIS, we could tell that there were no barges close to us and our GPS  gave us our position on the river. We felt secure in traveling along slow.  We also hugged the Ohio bank so that we had a visual reference.  The fog burned off in about a half hour.

Some fishermen who had actually stopped.  They later zoomed buy us.

The river along this part of the trip winds south through sparsely populated beautiful country. There were a few fishermen flying by periodically but other than that, we saw no other folks on the river. 

At the Robert C. Byrd Lock and Dam, we had trouble raising them on the radio. However, after the second attempt, we heard a barge, the Linda Reed call the lock and tell them that a sail boat, Second Wind, was southbound and wanting to lock through.  He called us back and told us that the lock told us to head for the auxiliary chamber.  As we approached the lock, the lady operating the gates had them open so that we were able to pull right in.  By the time we were secured to the wall, the rear gates were closed and we started down.  It was the fastest passage through that we have

The Linda Reed

experienced on this trip. 

As we were leaving, the barge pilot radioed that he would hold back allowing us to get out ahead of him.  I asked him which side of the river he preferred that we travel to make it easy for him and he replied that it would be best if we stayed on the West Virginia side.  I asked his what speed he would be traveling and he said between 3 and 4 miles per hour.  We started out at 5mph in order to get out ahead of him and gradually increased that distance

throughout the day.  By the time we reached Huntington, we were about 3 miles out in front. In Huntington, we stopped for fuel during which time he passed us by.  Back out on the river, we then followed him on down to Catlettsburg where he pulled off.  He was carrying

15 fully loaded coal barges in his tow.

Our guide book told of two different marinas that provided full service in Huntington. As we were approaching the first one, I began hailing them on the radio to no response.  I then called them on the cell phone and their number had been disconnected.  I pulled up alongside of one of the many boats moored there and ask a guy if they have fuel and he said not,that the closest fuel is 6 more miles down the river.  Back out on the water, I called the two listed for the second marina and both of them had been disconnected as well.  We were well into our last tank of fuel, so I was becoming a bit concerned. 

Tow in dry dock for repairs

As we approached the Huntington’s beautiful Harris Riverfront Park, we called out to a boat waiting to be pulled out of the water to inquire about fuel and he said that the only fuel was just above the next lock which is 30 miles down the river.

Ugh! I was not sure we had enough fuel to get that far. It was by now extremely hot and the only relief we found was from the wind that we created as we were motoring along.  The next major town is Ashland, KY’ about 12 miles on down the river.  Our “untrusty” guide book promised a good ramp and nice park for spending the night. But about a mile down the river, I was struggling with the low fuel problem and finally decided to turn back to the Riverfront Park and see if I could pay someone to take us to a gas station to get 6 gallons of fuel. 

As we pulled up to their beautiful mooring wall, we stuck our keel in the mud about 10 feet from our destination.  We raised the keel and moved to another section of the wall where we came to a stop in the mud right at a mooring point.  Another problem with this wall was that, as we found out later, the river is low and our boat was not high enough to hit the wall over hang, so Janine would have to stay on the sweltering boat, holding if off.

By now, all of the people who were earlier at the ramp were now gone so I called Uber and was able to get picked up by a guy in a nice new looking Honda Pilot.  He willingly put my fuel tank in his car and drove me to a 7-11 grocery that had fuel.  As I

Tow Detroit hauling benzene up the river

was walking up to meet the car, a large fellow who appeared to be working out offered to help carry my tank to the top of the levee.  I declined but as I came back with the full tank, he again offered to carry it down to the boat for me.  Again, I declined but was most appreciative.

On our way down to Ashland, we passed Catlettsburg where the Big Sandy River joins the Ohio.  Immediately we began to notice a tremendous amount of floating trash on the river.  It looked like a garbage had dumped its load of trash out onto the water.  And, as we pulled up to the mooring wall in Ashland, the water was covered with old bottles, Styrofoam, logs etc. 

The wall, like the one in Huntington, was too high for us to moor but they had a

Trash along the riverside

couple of ladders that came down into the water one of which we were able to finally get tied up.  During that landing process a fellow came running over to help saying he was ex Coast Guard and had done this many times.  He took the lines and worked feverously until we were finally secure.   Jeff Ross was now out of the Coast Guard and CEO of a cell tower company.  He stood around talking for a good 20 minute offering to take us or go to town for us to get anything we needed.  Later that night, he returned with a large bottle of wine, a wine opener, several small bags of candy and an air freshener as parting gifts. 

Jeff was just one of about 10 or so folks who came to see this curious boat tied along their park wall.  The last couple to stop by came at 5:00 in the morning as I was typing the blog.  They had been out all night and wanted to talk.

Three days ago, we had gotten out spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner but until toady circumstances and precluded our preparing them for our supper. And today was to be no exception.  We decided it was too hot to cook so I broke out my emergency stash of SPAM and with mayo, used a soft taco shell to make a fabulous wrap.  Janine had one of her chocolate Uncrustables.  Life is good on the river! 

We finally got ready for bed at about 9:30.  It was still 88 degrees in the cabin of the boat and we were both dripping sweat.  We opened all of the port holes and the front hatch to let in a bit of air.  I also left out one of the three drop board that close the back passageway hoping to create a draft. As I was buttoning down the back hatch, I noticed that just upstream from where we were moored, two extremely bright lights came on and the loading operation at the neighboring aluminum recycling plant second shift began loading a barge, dropping huge scoops of the noisy metal into a steel barge.  The noise was amazing.  And then, a train came roaring past on a track 100 feet up the levee from our resting spot.  It, of course, had to blow the obligatory road crossing warning whistle for the street that comes into the park. 

We finally got to sleep when a barge passed, causing a wake which rocked and bounced the boat against our mooring ladder for a good 5 minutes.

It was going to be a long night.