3 September, 2021. Planned short day to a safe anchorage

 

12 SM; 2.5 hours

Relatively easy day.  No rush to wake up or get up.  Secured on the inside of the substantial Paducah city docks.  Cool night and morning.  Slept well.  We arranged for an instacart grocery delivery vice taking an UBER which probably would have cost as much considering transportation both ways.  Excellent service and we put away our provisions.   Topped off the fresh water tank.  Called the city and requested fuel.  I am certain Serenity had fuel to make our destination, but it is a barren route with zero chance of resupply or even reasonable rescue so why risk running out?  Took on 22.4 gallons.  About what I expected.  

Impressive floating walkway from floating dock to waterfront @ Paducah

We verified all gear stowed away, lines ready, the checklists completed. We untied from the fuel dock at 1150 and re-entered the Ohio river headed NE.  River has risen some during the night as forecast.  We expected more debris and current but about the same as yesterday.  About 2.5 mph current.  Our speed over ground 5.0 mph.  We are heading to a well regarded anchorage behind an island and clear of the main river and shipping lanes.  Only a short distance but still takes 2 1/2 hours due to the slow speed.  We have followed a very large tow/barge complex since departing Paducah.  

Tow dry dock repair facility

Kentucky side of Ohio—attempting to ID trees.  Cottonwoods?

Follow this captain for 12 miles before we exited the river

We exited to the SE off of the river to an area between KY on the south and Cumberland Island on the north.  It is called the Cumberland Towhead.

The term "towhead" implies an islet (small island) or shoal within a river (most often the Mississippi River) having a grouping or thicket of trees, and is often used in the Midwestern United States. ... The term "towhead" was popularised by Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Water upon entry was 20+ feet as we made our way deeper into the protected area.  Easing toward the north shore we dropped and set the anchor in 12 feet of water at 1410.  Lovely spot, current to keep us orientated, quiet and we are the only boat here.  Kim’s anchor video  Warmer this afternoon with a slight breeze but high clouds came from the NW and temperatures have dropped a few.  Pleasant sunset; water is smooth and the current carries flotsam and jetsam past.

Today’s intent was to finish the Ohio portion of our journey.  Tomorrow morning we will exit our anchorage and maybe do 1/2 mile on the Ohio then turn SE and travel up the Cumberland River 30 miles to the Barkley lock and dam.  Due to hurricane Ida’s heavy rains last week, the dam is passing high amounts of water.  We anticipate 2 mph current to buck again tomorrow.  So, the 30 miles will take at least 6 hours.  There is less commercial traffic on this lock so we should have a good 6 hours of daylight remaining in the day if we have to wait for our turn to lock.  There are no anchorages on this stretch.  This lock lifts 47 feet up to lake Barkley.  An anchorage is a couple of miles after we exit the lock into lake Barkley.

6288 SM journeyed; 2079.4 hours hobbs