Portsmouth to Huntington, town wall

The start of the day was way more exciting than we anticipated.

The plan: We were docked on a t-head. The next t-head over, just 150 feet away, was the fuel pump and pump out. We don't really need either at the moment, but "a bird in the hand" type of thing. Remember I was singing the praises of our low draft boat?

The story: Right away I could feel things weren't quite right. Trying just to edge off the t-head I felt resistance. I couldn't move forward with ease, nor out. We pushed off hard, hoping there'd be more depth in the channel. My gauges were blinking, giving me bad readings, and we churned up mud everywhere. So we bagged. Just not gonna happen.

Rain ahead!

I backed her out into the pool behind us, getting reading of 3 feet, and spun her to face the exit. Then we slowly followed the same path out that we came in on. Looking at the banks around us we could see the water line had gone down by nearly a foot. Just as we were about to get to the river the nose of inQuest came up a bit, which pretty much means she's on land. "Push hard!" Russ called, standing on the bow. I gave her some spurs and we essentially plowed them a new channel about 3.5 feet deep. Shawnee State Park, you're welcome.

This is what our AIS looks like
We are the green boat.
All the yellow boats are tow boats.
No, it's not normally packed like this!

Another lock, Greenup, which went perfectly. We hailed, both chambers are working, the small one was open and waiting for us. I love that.

All day the skies were threatening with rain and storms. Personally, I'm thrilled to see them. Once this front moves through we should be getting cooler temps, by a 20 degree drop.

As we sidled up to the Huntington free wall the rain started. Almost perfect timing.

Total Lock Count: 21

Lots of walled towns along the river.
Has a European feel to them. This is Ironton.