We're anchored out in the Ohio River at mile 949 behind a little sandbar, out of the channel.

It was a beautiful flybridge day with temps around 80 degrees and mostly sunny skies. The Ohio is at a lower stage than the Mississippi and so the water is cleaner, less floating debris, and slower current, which is good because we're headed upriver on the Ohio instead of downriver like we were on the Mississippi. Running at the same 1200 RPMs we were doing 12.5 knots down the Mississippi, but only get 8.5 knots up the Ohio. There goes our better fuel mileage, but at least diesel fuel is down to $3.60 per gallon here.

There are lots of tows on the Ohio and Mississippi, and some of them are huge. This one, that has barges cabled together into a tow 5 barges wide by 5 barges long, is about 1,500 ft. long and 250 ft. wide.







Sometimes the channels are narrow and we pass really close to them.












We also passed many spectacular sized sandbars on the Mississippi. I would guess that the one pictured here is about 3 miles long and about 1,500 ft wide, and totally uninhabited. Of course, it's under water when the Mighty Miss. is in flood, but it's sure inviting today.

We should reach Green Turtle Bay marina tomorrow. We haven't decided yet whether to go up the Cumberland River, or the down the Tennessee to Lake Barkley. It may depend on the condition of the locks.