Into Illinois; no, make that Missouri; no, make that Kentucky 37◦09'.948 N 089◦05'.140 W

   We started our day at 6:30am with the most peaceful quiet atmosphere. There was a gentle fog on the river and it was as calm as anything. Below is a picture of our view as we drank our morning coffee. We all got our engines started around 7:30 am.

   Today saw us going through three states. Little Divergence Channel where we started was in Illinois, when we left this channel we were in Missouri and 48 miles down the Mississippi we met up with the Ohio river and turned into it where it separates Kentucky from Illinois. Now we are going up river instead of down. We hit some really good current today and broke yet another record and topped out at 15.2 mph. Unfortunately Jim did have the camera and got a picture. Fortunately I write these blogs and he has no idea what I post, so you will all be spared. However we do have the picture for posterity!

   Jim was the lead boat today so it was his job to negotiate around tow barges for all three of us trawlers. This is to avoid excessive traffic on the radio. When we entered the Ohio river, there was one tow with 35 barges turning in; one barge waiting to turn in; one barge exiting the Ohio river and once in the river there were barges as far as the eye could see. Jim called the first tow and asked which side we could pass that would ensure we were not in his way as he turned this 800 foot long load. He then called the tow that was waiting and asked if we could go into the river or would he prefer we wait until he turned in, this tow  gave us permission. Then he called the third tow coming out of the river, advised we were 3 trawlers coming up river passing the incoming barge on the right; which in boat talk is called "on the two whistles" or "on the two" for short. This third tow gave us permission to stay our course and explained he was on "the one". Then a forth barge came on the radio and said "Hey Captain, thank you for paying attention". Since most of these tow captains barely tolerate pleasure craft; to actually take the time to thank him is really high praise.

 As soon as we got into the Ohio river our speed went from 14 mph down to 7.7 mph. The current in the Ohio is about half the Mississippi's current. Thank god for that or we would only be going 3 mph! Fortunately we only had 15 miles to go on this river today, so we took about 2hrs to get to our anchorage just before Olmstead lock and dam. This dam is actually under construction and is due to complete in 2020. It will be replacing the next two locks on the Ohio river, which we will be going through tomorrow.

    The boats we anchored with yesterday all left at the same time this morning. However the two sail boats are really slow so they were 1hr behind us. The Seamount is a small tug style boat called a Roxborough or Roseborough (can't remember which)  with two high performance outboard engines, so he is way faster than we are. The rest of us are Trawlers and we all run close to the same speed, so we ran together all day. Seamount was already anchored snug and sound when we arrived here. We got here at 2pm, we all anchored around the same area and after everybody got their engine checks done and settled in, we all convened on Perfect Balance for happy hour and a pot luck dinner. It was 89◦F when we first started happy hour and it cooled down to a balmy 79◦F. The party broke at 7:30pm again; owing to the darkness, but we can do it all again tomorrow!  Happy birthday Danny B and good night all.