Marietta to Mustapha Island

Day 10:  Monday, August 22, 2016

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

A cold front came through last night and really changed the character of the weather.  We awoke to a cool, crisp, very bright morning.  The scenery took on a fresh sharp appearance, in strong contrast to what we saw during the hot, hazy, muggy weather of the past week. I was awakened by the sound of a train whistle

Historic homes along the Muskingum River in the bright morning light

that was blaring out of tune.

Sausage gravy on toast with coffee gave us the jump start we needed to get underway. 

Passing the beautiful Parkersburg  water front

We started the motor and headed out of the mouth of the Muskingum River onto the glassy Ohio.  The scenery was so nice that I found myself taking pictures of things that I knew I would not be interested in two days from now.

The Ohio shore downstream from Marietta is lined with industry like what we saw upstream along the West Virginia shore.  Marathon Oil has a large presence as does some other chemical plants the name of which I was not familiar. 

We picked up a favorable breeze for sailing, so we unfurled the sails and spent a couple of hours motor sailing. We had been motoring along at about 3 knots and the light wind at times kicked our speed up to 4 knots.  I tried sailing without the motor for a while but the wind was too light to make any headway.  And, the wind was basically from right in front of us so we had to tack making our forward progress minimal.

Blennerhassett Mansion  Google Photo

Just downstream from Parkersburg we passed the 4 mile long Blennerhassett Island.  It was here that Aaron Burr and Harman Blennerhassett plotted to establish a Southwest Empire that was considered treason.  Blennerhassett, a wealthy Irish aristocrat, had built a beautiful mansion that later burned.  In 1974, archaeologists discovered the foundation and through careful research were able to reconstruct the 7,000 sq. ft. mansion.  The island is a WV state park and the mansion is open to visitors during the summer months.  The only way you are allowed onto the island is via a

Island Belle Paddle Wheeler

paddle wheeler that carries visitors from the Ohio side of the river.  You are allowed to land at the far end of the island but there is no dock and it is a 4 mile walk to the head where the mansion is located.   

Just at the end of Blennerhassett Island, on the West Virginia shore, is the huge DuPont plant.  It is here where several of our friends from the Mid-Ohio Power and Sail Squadron were employed. 

Interestingly, the temperature today did not get much above 80 degrees, but the extremely bright sun made it feel much hotter.  However, under the shade of our little Bimini, it was quite comfortable.  It was truly a day for a high number SPF suntan lotion.

Motoring along under a beautiful sky

We passed several potential mooring spots and finally settled on the shore of the little Mustapha Island which is about 2 miles upstream from the entrance of the Hocking River.  We arrived at about 4:00. The chart showed that the water was quite deep through most of the chute of the island.  I don’t like to anchor in deep water because of the amount of anchor rode that you need to play out to secure the anchorage.  The water here was up to 30 feet deep up to within about 20 feet from shore.  The bottom rises up quickly to just a couple feet near the shore.  We turned around pointed upstream and eased over to the shore.  We dropped the anchor in about 5 feet of water.

I was having a little problem with the motor not staying in reverse and knew it would only be a minor adjustment problem.  The water in these upper reaches of the Ohio is fairly clean so I decided to don my bathing suit and accomplish the repair.   I climbed down the ladder and to my surprise the water on the port side of the boat was over my head and on the starboard side it was about a foot deep.  I pulled the boat over to the soft muddy bottom and made my adjustments.  Before I got back into the boat, I got a bar of soap and accomplished a river wash-down.

We prepared chicken Alfredo and cheesy grits for supper.  A cold Black and Tan for me and a Heineken for Janine rounded out a fine evening meal.  We spent the remainder of the evening reading.  It promised to be a great night for sleeping.