Day 7 - Pittsburgh - Fox Chapel Marina

Stats - Today 52 miles, 4 locks, 7 hours.  Total - 474 miles 13 locks.

Just finished typing this - it might be a little long, but long day.

HOLY SHIT - don't think there are any minors reading this (and Bree has heard it before).  It has been a full day!  So I have had a few waters by now (what my brother in law RJ calls Bud Lights) so let me recap and start from the beginning.
Last night we got the torrential rains that I guess everyone else has been getting.  Surprisingly I slept right through them.  No river wake and no wave slap. Marcia  however did not do as well.  We cast lines and heading out around 8:00 this morning.  Drizzling rain but as not as bad as what they were predicting later in the day.  The river came up quite a bit overnight, and with it came the debris.  Really a lot of junk out as we made way to the 1st lock. 

Montgomery Lock has no floating bollards to tie up to, so you have to pass a line up to the lock person who then passes them through a hook and back down.  You then have to hold the line and take in slack as you go up.  The rest of the locks, Dashields and Emsworth are also this way.  There is also no gate system or super structure going across the river, so they were a little different than what we are used to.  Coming down river, they could be really hard to see.  The pictures are from those type of locks, so hopefully you get an idea.  As you can tell the weather was not great again today.  Marcia had to outfit with various rain gear.  Not sure it you can get all of this from the pictures or not.

The river current was running about 3-4 miles an hour, lot of debris and raining.  Normally this would not be a boating day for us.  Normally this would not be a travel day for us.  Normally this would not be a boating/travel day for anyone.  Most people would agree that I am pretty far over on the needle from normal.  This was my view for the better part of the morning.

We were told that this is a new cracker plant going up.  Think it was Keebler, but now sure.  Now I know why I could not get that crane I tried to rent.

The rain had stopped and the river actually cleaned up some.  Still a very fast current, but not as much debris.  I have to admit, it was really cool coming into Pittsburgh and seeing the beginning of the Ohio River, and the end of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers.  We passed the park, the stadiums and the submarine.  The whole area was pretty cool.  We took a ton of pictures, but I will only post a few here. 

We turned up the Allegheny and found out quickly what a 5 mph current feels like.  Man it was moving.  River was only up at 4-5 feet, but that is a lot on this river.  I really believe that this is the fastest current that I have boated in.  Think I am still better off than this guy.

As we were going up the Allegheny, we passed a marina that had diesel fuel.  I knew that we would need to call in a truck to fill us up at Fox Chapel, and here it was right on the river.  We decided to go ahead and get fuel here instead of doing the truck.  Docking in 5 mph current was not fun, especially when the dock hand wanted to cleat off the back of the boat first.  Most boaters know this is a no-no, for others - just not good in heavy current.  We got tied off and started pumping fuel.  I kid you not, I timed it - we were pumping 1 gallon every 30 seconds.  At 300+ gallons, that is a 3 hour or more fuel stop!  They thought it was a filter and switched it out.  It wasn't! We took on 14 gallons!  We left! 45 minute delay! It sucked! End of story, move one - Happy Place....  Oh Yeah - and it was $4.85 a gallon.  Sorry - Happy Place, move on.... 

We were so happy and excited when we exited Elmsworth Lock thinking that we had no more locks to go through today.  That is until Marcia looked in Quimby's and realized that Fox Chapel Marina was at mile marker 9 and Lock & Dam Number 2 was at mile marker 6on the Alleghenhy.  DAMN - pun intended.  They were nice and we got through but lock was in rough shape.

We were very happy to make the final 3 miles to Fox Chapel.  Very nice marina.  Restaurant, swimming pool, outdoor bar, 300+ boats, ship store, etc...  

Docking was the most challenging that I have done so far.  Most of this will only be appreciated by the boaters reading this.  5 mph current, backing into an upriver double finger slip with a 26 boat in the down river side.  Luckily there was an experienced captain that was on the dock to help.  I got the stern close, Marcia was able toss him a stern line which was cleated off.  I powered forward and thrustered to get the bow up.  Threw a front spring line, cleated off, powered reverse, untied the stern line, while powering reverse against the spring, re-tied the stern, powered forward, moved the spring - lather, rinse repeat - you get the idea.  We got in, seriously doubt we would have been able to get in without someone on the dock, stern or bow in.  

HOLY CRAP I was ready for a beer.  I even broke out one of the sacred long necks.  

It is late and I have been typing for awhile now (3 beers worth).  Marcia was reading her book, but think she has gone to bed now.  She is not going to have a chance to proof read this so sorry in advance.  OK so quickly wrapping up because I am tired of typing.

We walked to the ship store, lost the cat, showered, found the cat, walked across the street for dinner (it was awesome), went to the bar, bought the guy who help us dock a few drinks, came back and got carried away typing this. 

Will fill you in on the Marina and Pittsburgh tomorrow.

GOOD NIGHT!