Portsmouth to Brush Creek Island

Day 16: Sunday, August 28, 2016

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

We both slept well.  I think we may be adjusting to this heat in a way that I never imagined we could.  When we crawled into bed last night, it was still 88 degrees in the cabin.  But, with the hatches open and our little fan in the v-berth blowing, we fell right off to sleep.  As I type this, it is now 78 degrees with a promise of another

The Shower Trailer at Shawnee Boat Club

sweltering day.

We had our last bacon and egg and toast because we ran out of bread and have only enough eggs to prepare several other meals that we are carrying.  We still have plenty of sausage gravy so we will be alright.

We both took a shower in the marina trailer and were surprised to find that, yes it was a shower, it was a really nice one, albeit that it small and well used.  It felt good to be stand up shower clean.

The Flood Wall in Portsmouth OH

We got underway at about 9:00 again on smooth glassy waters.  Shortly downstream from the Shawnee Boat Club, we passed the Portsmouth flood wall which, like others we had seen, had been painted with a mural. This one was quite different, however.  On the river side of the wall one panel was a huge welcoming sign inviting you to their town and then across the top, l would estimate 200yds of the wall, they had painted large stars with the names and signatures of prominent citizens who had at one time called Portsmouth their home.  On the other side of the wall are beautiful murals depicting the history of the area.  We had visited that side on our earlier trip and had to pass it up this time.  There was no dock at the wall so we couldn’t get off the boat there.

The next 30 miles of the river was through very sparsely populated forest covered hills and bluffs.  At approximately 100 miles downstream from Point Pleasant and 100 miles upstream from Cincinnati, we passed the historic 100 Mile House.  This beautiful well-maintained 22 room mansion was built around 1927 by a wealthy shoe manufacturer from Portsmouth.  The exciting thing for us is that in about 1993, Janine and I stumbled upon the house that was at that time being offered as a bed and breakfast.  We

The 100 Mile House

spent a cool summer evening relaxing and sleeping in a well-appointed room with a balcony overlooking the river.  I remember awakening to the sound of a barge churning her way up the river.  We awoke in the morning to a fog shrouded river and after a super breakfast, we sat in the fog on a patio built out over the edge of the river.  It was truly a magical experience.

It was hot.  But, I think we are becoming acclimated to the heat.  Our clothes are all soaked with perspiration and beginning to develop an aura of their own. We wear our clothes for several days until they are so bad that we put them into our dirty cloths bag and break out another set.  We do that until all of our clothes are thus soiled.  Then we return to the dirty clothes bag and dig out the least offensive garments for the second round. We keep back one change of clothes that we wear out into public and are careful to take them off as

Quaint little town of Vanceburg KY

soon as we return to the boat.

We found a nice little island with sand beaches where we decided to drop anchor for the night.  Brush Creek Island is one of the few remaining islands in the river.  The building of dams backed up water over what earlier voyages talked about as numerous islands.  We found what appeared to be a perfect spot near the head of the island, but it turned out to be at the end of a long stretch of open water on the river and a storm was brewing, causing waves to come running down on our site. 

So, we pulled the anchor and headed for the tail of the island where there were a number of boats pulled up onto the shore and folks swimming.  The water was

A Traveling companion

fairly deep to about15 feet from the shore so we dropped our anchor unusually close to shore.  The boat swung around and ended up in about 4 feet of water.  The air was so hot and the water was so inviting that I decided to wash the clothes on my back directly.  Janine put on her swimming suit and we spent the next 2 hours submerged in the beautiful Ohio River.  During that time I used a scrub brush to remove the fresh green algae that had accumulated in just 15 days in the warm waters.

The boat continued to swing up close to the shore so I took our second anchor and walked down beach behind the boat and set the hook in some deeper water.  It held the boat quite well until just after we finished eating our evening meal when a storm that had been brewing downstream produced a wind from the back of the boat.  The anchor drug until it finally caught firmly, holding the boat, along with the front anchor, directly across the path of the wind.  I released the anchor rode and walked it to the front of the boat which allowed the boat to swing on around

Little Brush Creek Island with her sandy beach

and face into the wind and this arrangement worked for the remainder of the night.

After our evening meal of spaghetti and meat sauce, I took our remaining dirty clothes and did a bucket laundry job.  Once completed, Janine took some of her wet clothing and hung them on a hanger from the Bimini.  While we were cleaning up the dishes, a gust of wind came along and blew her clothes out into the river.  But along came SUPER STEVE.  I ran out onto the cockpit, (like Clark Kent) I ripped off my clothes, (except I didn't have a red suit and cape), climbed up onto the side of the boat and made my perfect Michael Phelps shallow dive, (Janine gave me the perfect score), broke to the surface in an effective breast stroke, captured the offending garments, and returned to the no longer distressed Lois Lane, I mean Janine.  Luckily the boaters and swimmers had all left the area.  I hadn’t been skinny dippin since I was a kid and found it to be quite enjoyable.  I highly recommend it to all.

The rest of the evening was quite uneventful.