Cairo, Illinois is located at the convergence point of the two rivers and is by the far the busiest port that we have seen so far. Note the special day mark at the convergence point of the rivers. The red nuns and green cans flip location on the Ohio so one must remember which side of the channel markers is the correct place to be. Fern gave us a very good tip in that if one notes the current of the river, then knowing the buoy placement is easy: If you are traveling with the current, the red nuns will be on your left; if you are traveling against the current, the red nuns should be on your right [red right returning (as if from sea)]. Once again Fern has taken our seamanship to a new level.
I thought things were hopping in St Louis, but I have never seen so many tugs and barges in one place. These tugs seem to be scurrying from one spot to another pushing, pulling and moving barges in every direction. We waved and tooted at four of our cousin tugs as we passed. What Mark noticed immediately upon entering the Ohio was that our speed dropped considerably due to the fact that we were now traveling against the current. At the same rpms, our speed went from 10 knots on the Mississippi to about 6 knots on the Ohio.
Immediately I loved being on the Ohio River. Maybe because the Ohio forms the southern border of Indiana or maybe it is the stories that I grew up with about the flatboats traveling the Ohio that make this river so special to me but I think this river is my favorite. It is not as muddy or as rapid as the Mississippi but we encountered much more barge traffic on the Ohio than we did on the other two rivers combined.
As we approached Lock 53, we were told to come on and that we would have no wait. Just before reaching Lock 53, we passed the location of the new Olmstead Lock that will eventually replace Locks 52 and 53 on the Ohio. It is fascinating to see how construction work is done in the river. I can not phantom the engineering and architecture that is involved in a construction project like that. This lock was originally to be completed in 2009 and now the target date for completion is 2012. 
We made our way to Lock 52 again passing more tugs and barges. As we got to Lock 52, there was a major back up of commercial vessels waiting to be locked through in both directions. This is the busiest lock in the United States and it was very evident. We even had difficulty in hailing the lockmaster simply because the radio frequency was so busy. At the time we were the only pleasure craft (non-commercial vessel) requesting a lock through so we just assumed that we would be waiting at least four to five hours. These locks, like the ones on the Mississippi, have two chambers that can go either up or down and it just so happened that the small chamber needed to go up (the direction we needed to go also) in order to bring down a small vessel with a priority load shortly after we took our place in line. Remember how it was when we were kids and you got called out of the lunch line for a special treat? Well, this is exactly how we felt at hearing that we would be able to be locked through so quickly – it was just our lucky day and we were going to catch that brass ring while we could.
After Lock 52, the landscape started to look like home to me. I began to recognize trees, bushes and rock formations of southern Illinois and Indiana. We passed Metropolis, Illinois on our left and Paducah, Kentucky on our right as we made our way to our evening’s anchorage at the mouth of the Cumberland River. There is a great deal of controversy currently about whether Paducah will or will not allow overnight stays at their city docks, so we decided to not even consider staying in Paducah, even though it looked like a charming place to visit. My mother was a quilter and she made many trips to Paducah, and I would have liked to have stopped to visit their quilt museum – maybe another time.
We came to our anchorage location with about an hour of daylight to spare. We had plenty of water under us and we were nicely tucked into the cove behind Towhead Island at the convergence point of the Cumberland and Ohio rivers. The weather again today has been beastly hot. We were both literally dripping with sweat, grime and a major feeling of accomplishment in that we have made it this far and are still loving our adventures.
Hours on the water: 10.25 hours
Nautical miles traveled: 58
Number of locks: 2
Time spent waiting at locks: 30 minutes
Tomorrow's Destination: Green Turtle Bay Marina
What we're listening to: mhl play list from lle I Pod
What we watched: 0
Lesson for the day: Life is really great at 6 knots
Obligatory knitting report: Mittens for Wunder Kids
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