It's just a few miles downriver on the Ohio to Paducah, the mouth of the Tennessee and the Big E marina, our mooring of choice (because it was the only choice) for the night. Let me take a minute to describe to you the Big E. It will be a little difficult because ones mind tends to blot out traumatic experiences and this marina qualifies as just that. (I'm sorry I don't have pictures) If you have ever seen those steel grates that are hooked together by our country's air force to lay on level ground and make an outpost landing strip, you know what I'll be describing. If you haven't, any level of imagination will do quite well. These steel grates, made up of empty spaces connected by the grating, provided the walk space on the dock. A small child would be in danger of dropping through those grate openings and I'm sure many cell phones have been victims themselves. The grates were free floating on 55 gallon oil type drums. I want you to get the real picture here, free floating means the line of grates, connected together, were moored to the bank at one end a to an anchor out in the river on the other, with lots of slack to move up, down and all around at the unpredictable whim of the Ohio River and its many passing towboats and barges. It is safe to say that this was the most exciting night of marina sleep I had had at that time and for sure since. I understand the Big E marina no longer exists; I trust its demise wasn't catastrophic.
The Big E was important because it was the last on river gasoline until we arrived in Memphis. Let's see almost six hundred water miles and a boat with a one hundred and fifty mile range. I carried gasoline in cans, which is more dangerous than the perils of the cruise itself. I guess I had no choice but I don't recommend it to anyone who might read this account. To make the trip possible, I carried six gallon cans of gas on the front deck and cockpit to trim the extra load. About 100 gallons worth. Don't do it. The extra weight high high on the boat changed the handling characteristics and multiplied the effects of the river's strength. I changed my gas handling method on the trip from Little Rock to New Orleans and I'll talk about that as we progress along the circumnavigation.
1 comment:
I would appreciate a call to hear more about Big E Marina. I am departing from Chicago this weekend down the IL, to the MS to the Ohio R. and on to Lake Barkley. Problem is that I have gasoline powered engines and I do not think that I will have enough gas to go from Hoppies Marina, south of St. Louis to the KY Dam area. Plese give me a call at 630-248-1454, my name is Tom McGuire.
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