Good morning!  Up early this morning to try to get through Lock 52 in a timely manner.  We plan either a very long day to get from Bean Branch Creek to Green Turtle Bay Marina or two short days all depending on the lockage.  Our plan B would be to get to Cumberland ToeHead anchorage and make the last leg of our Ohio River travels to Cumberland River the following day.  We shall see when we get to Lock 52.

We were a bit concerned about our anchorage getting rocked by the passing barges.  I didn’t really feel much wave action from them at all.  The barges didn’t start coming by until early morning.  One in particular had a strobe antenna array that looked like a lightning bolt.  Everyone definitely saw him!  I guess that is the point of night-time barging.

Early light at the power plant across the way

Leaving Bean Branch Creek anchorage

Sunrise on the Ohio River

Approaching Lock 52 – Blue skies, muddy water, great day on the water!

There were 5 Loopers in line to go through Lock 52 today.  As before, we Pleasure Craft were told stand by and he would get back to us.  The LockMaster told us we needed two 50 foot lines, bumpers ( yes he said bumpers ) on the port side, and have life vests on all occupants.  I run around and get the “bumpers” or in nautical terms “Fenders” ready and deployed.  I find our extra long lines we bought just for this purpose.  I am geared up with my safety equipment standing at the ready on the bow.  Then….we wait.  As I am minding the time, I start looking at the suds floating by the boat.  Hmmmm that one looks like a duck.  That suds looks like a flower.  A way to handle the stress of “wait over there and we will call you soon”.   Several of us pulled over to the side of the river and dropped our anchor again not knowing how long it was going to take.

How many things do you see in the suds?

Two hours of waiting and finally we could go into the chamber!!  Yea!!  We were instructed to go into the lock one at a time.  Fill from the back to the front.  That was a first time for me.  We normally fill from the front to the back.  The Lock 52 Attendents carefully threw a line down to us with a hook on the end.  We looped our long line on it.  They pulled up our line and wound it around a fixed bollard or rail then tossed our line back to us.

Entering Lock 52

We waited for another 20 minutes after the doors were closed before they started letting the water in. We figured the lock master had to walk from our location a half mile to the controls.  We were going up 12 feet.  This is a large lock and the first in which we had turbulent water.  The normal bouncing off the walls, to and fro kind of fill.  Interesting.

BamaDream and 3 others Loopers behind us

Out of Lock 52.  The last lock on the Ohio River!!  It only took 3 hours to get through this lock.  Some folks have had to wait quite a bit longer.  Remember, pleasure crafts have the lowest priorities.  We are pleased as punch that we made it on such a beautiful day!

Leaving Lock 52 – on the Ohio River

Illinois side of the Ohio River

Kentucky side of the Ohio River

With our almost 3 hour delay getting through Lock 52, we opted for another night on the hook and make a leisurely cruise to Green Turtle Bay tomorrow.  There are three Loopers in this anchorage. A very calm cool night is forecasted.  Perfect weather!

Approaching the Cumberland Toehead Anchorage

Evening at anchorage….

Sunset at Cumberland ToeHead Anchorage