Launch Day on the Monongahela

Day 1: Saturday, August 13, 2016

We are finally on our way.  We headed for Pittsburgh on this morning at 7:00 am and arrived at the Pittsburgh’s South Side River Front Park at about 10:00.  By that time, the temperature was in the mid-80’s and the humidity was quite high so we pulled the boat under a bridge to get out of the burning sun while we raised the mast and rigged the boat. 

The rigging process took us about 3 ½ hours to complete.  It is one of those jobs that never gets easier and in the heat that had climbed to 91, we were both drenched in perspiration by the time we headed to the launch ramp.  The shade of the bridge was a God send, however, the top of the mast ended up just a few feet from the bridge which made for some tricky maneuvering to head out.

Duquesne Incline

The ramp is a good one, however, the dock is about 40 feet downstream from where the boat floats into the river, so I backed the boat down to the point where the boat was just about ready to float and then got into the water.  Janine then backed the truck until the boat floated off.  I waded the boat over to the dock. Now, not only am I wet from sweat, I am wet above the waste with Monongahela River water.  I must say it really was refreshing.

Our goal was to motor about 4 ½ miles around the point where the Monongahela meets the Alleghany to form the Ohio and on up the Alleghany River to a marina where we were going to moor the boat for the night.  Along the way, we were met by a fairly significant thunder storm that cooled us off further.  We did not don our rain gear opting for the refreshing dousing of the rain. 

We were assigned a slip and, after securing the boat, we headed to the street were 

we met our Uber driver who took us to back to our truck.  He was an interesting young man who was making his living drive his car for hire.  The trip back to the truck was only a 15 minute ride and cost us $9.00.  I gave him a $2.00 tip and headed for the truck.  I

Washington's Landing Marina

dug into my pocket for the keys and remembered that I had taken them out during the rains and had left them on the seat of the boat.  I ran back to the Uber guy and asked for another trip to retrieve the keys.  He gladly obliged.  When we got back to the marina, he offered each of us a bottle of cold water that he had in a cooler in the trunk.

Back at the truck, I started to give him another tip and he told me that I really didn’t need to do that.  When we got into the truck, I commented that I probably should have given him another gratuity and Janine told me that on the first trip, she had given him a 5 dollar bill at the end of the first trip.     That’s a 7 dollar tip for a 9 dollar fare.  No wonder I was willing to give us a bottle of water and refused another tip! 

We drove back to the marina where we dropped off the trailer and headed for the home of our son, Scott and his family.  We dined on pizza and spent the evening being entertained by our two grand kids, Wyatt and Joseph.