Thursday, September 6, 2012

Neither of us slept very well last night.  We weren't worried about out anchor holding because we had tried to lift it to move to deeper water and it wouldn't budge.  But, we were worried that we were out of the way of all of the barges waiting to lock through Lock 53.  We must have been out of the way because none of the tow captains said anything about where we were on the radio.  And those guys aren't shy.  At any rate, we were up at 5:00 again.  John called Lock 53 and the Lockmaster told him it would be about 3 hours.  He told us to tie up to the lock wall and wait.  So, when we tried to lift the anchor this morning, it lifted up to a point, but it was hooked on a cable.  John tied a rope to the cable and pulled it over, lowered the anchor a bit and the anchor was free.  One problem solved.

We ended up having to wait four and a half hours at the lock.  We locked through with a boat named "Chillin'".  When we were four or so miles away from Lock 52, Richard on "Chillin'" called the lock on the phone and the Lockmaster told him that if we could catch up to the work boat, we could lock through with him.  So, we poured it on.  The Lockmaster told us to just float in the lock and not tie up.  We really appreciated that they waited for us.

When we got to Kentucky Lock, there were two tows waiting, and one coming out of the chamber.  John called the Lockmaster on the phone and he said that we could lock through when the one in the chamber was out of the way.  The other two tows were changing crews and we were finished locking  by the time they were ready to lock.  After having to wait for awhile at the first lock, we went right in at the other two.  Lucky us!

WE CROSSED OUR WAKE AND COMPLETED THE LOOP AT KENTUCKY DAM MARINA TODAY!!!!!!  And guess what.  We were surprised to find our friends Mike and Linda standing on the dock when we arrived.  They are staying for the weekend.  What a great ending to a great trip.

 This is the construction at the Olmsted Lock.  This Lock was originally supposed to be open in 1999.  Our guidebook says it is supposed to be open in 2013.  The Lockmaster told us it is now supposed to open 2026.

 The lock wall inside of Lock 52.

The entrance to Kentucky Dam Marina.  What a welcomed sight.