Captain's Blog

  TRAVEL DAY 133 - Grand Rivers to Paris Landing, TN October 30, 2023 5.63 Hours/ 44 Miles     Tennessee, our 16th state. The morning started cold and rainy. What had been temperatures in the 70's now included a forecast of frost warnings. Time to move south. I returned the rental car to Paducah by 8 am and the car company got me back to the boat by 8:35. Let's roll River Rats!   Prepping for the cold day on the lake     I moved the Troll out of the marina basin and into Lake Barkley. Steam hovered over the warm water and the wind picked up bringing a surprising set of waves. We moved a little down the lake and west through the canal that joins Lake Barkley with Kentucky Lake. Turning south on Kentucky Lake and the waves picked up again as they were pushed by the north wind.     Rough lake conditions     Most of the day was spent with a freshwater following sea. Piloting inside the boat instead of the flybridge with the generator hu...

                   TRAVEL DAY 130 - Cape Girardeau to Olmstead October 24, 2023 7.4 Hours/ 66.2 Miles     We push on with our core group. The River Rats have grown closer as our boats close on the completion of the Mississippi River. Out of our quiet anchorage in the Little Diversion Canal at just before 8 am. Once again we swing out into the swift river current.   River Rat morning     Passing a massive dredging operation, one of many on this river, I got to review some of the things I learned when obtaining my captain's license, day shapes. Day shapes are mast head signals used to visually indicate the status of a vessel. There are three basic shapes, a ball, diamond, cylinder and cone. These black shapes are used individually and together. The dredge had a ball over a diamond over a ball, indicating it was "restricted in ability to maneuver"     Day Shapes Dredge     At Cairo we turned...