Day 11 - Prima Marina

Stats - Today 59 miles, 2 locks,  4.25 hours (not a typo) - Total - 584 miles 19 locks.

So this was our view this morning.  I was very confused at first as well, not understanding what I was looking at.  I then remembered it was the sun.  I think it has been almost 8 days since we have had a sunny day.  The river is still running high and fast, but at least it is not raining.  It is amazing how good a sunny day feels after all the rain.  It made the trip today enjoyable.

We called the 1st lock as their small chamber is not working.  They said they had a barge getting ready to lock through and it would be about a hour.  We cast off lines at 8:45 and started the 12 miles run to the lock.  We were barely above idle, and moving about 12 mph.  We arrived at the lock just as the barge was pulling out.

I promise that this will be the only lock picture of this post.  If anyone wants to see more lock pictures, then go back and review yesterday's post.  Good news is, as you can see, the debris is much, much less today.  

With the river having less debris, we were able to make great time today.  Cruising at the same rpms (2200), as we did on the way up, we are a good 6 mph faster.  Think I may try to go WFO (Wide F*#king Open), just to see if the boat will hit 40 mph.  Just kidding, probably not worth it.  Well maybe.

Not a lot to see as we cruised, but added a few pictures anyway.  Thought the cleared hillside was kind of cool.  Not sure how long it took them to do it, but guess the road was important.

With the river conditions the way the are, we decided to not stay at the Wheeling Yacht Club on the way back.  Would have been very difficult to get into the slip with this current.

The river is up here also.  You can partly see the Wheeling public wall where the band was playing last week when we stopped.

We decided to go another 12 miles below Wheeling to Prima Marina.  Nice parallel dock, but no power or water.  Restaurant is right here and they have a live band tonight.  Had to look at my phone to realize that today was Friday.

We are also going to get another delivery of fuel from Will.  With the current, I don't think we will need much, only 100-125 gallons, but going to top off just in case since we can.  No more fuel for 200+ miles.  Actually the dock that we need to move and tie up to is just about 200 yards from where we are.  Hoping he has a long enough hose that I can bow into the dock and not have to back up against this current.
Typing some of this up now to save me time later, after pre-game, happy hour, and after dinner drinks.
OK - so this will seem pretty fast you reading this, but it is actually 4 hours later.  We untied and Marcia walked up to catch the lines at the dock where we were getting fuel. Will showed up and we took on 115 gallons.  Not bad for 110 miles.  Higher mathematics, but that is almost a mile to the gallon.  Unheard of in this boat.  Guess 4 mph current does have some advantages.  We ate dinner and had drinks up at the Prima restaurant and bar.  They are not charging us for the overnight dock.   Picture is from the bar just as the sun was going down.  It is the longest day of the year, in case you forgot.  It is cooling off tonight so will not run the generator.  Nice night sitting on the bridge listening to the band, who is pretty good.

We don't know how, but Lucy continues to find new spots to hang out in on the boat.  Here she is actually sitting in the bar sink.  For those of you that know our boat, the sink is not that big.  Probably why she could only get half in.

Plan tomorrow is make it back to Marietta.  Still a lot of debris floating by, so hoping tomorrow is at least as nice as today was.