#5
One of the things I did to the boat was pull the prop off. I did this while it was dry docked in Evansville. Being an old boat, I was afraid of frozen parts. Actually I put a new prop on @ the same time. I had a devil of a time getting the lock bolt & hub nut loose. The spline was dry also & removing the old prop also took some coaxing. I was sure glad I was "standing" on firm ground for the job. Everything went back on with grease except the lock bolt.
So.... when I found the vibration to be the prop & not anything in the out drive, It was an easy task to use the skiff & put the old prop back on. I was assured that the new prop would fit both the long & short shafts of the Volvo, if a long shaft, just add washers as spacers. WRONG! The washers will shift & tear up the inside of the prop. An issue I am now taking up with the prop maker.
We were still having no luck in finding fuel. We were given permission (gotta love cell phones) by the Paducah police to tie up to the city fishing/swimming dock. We were once again met with a cool reception by the guy running the store & bait at the top of the hill there/ Actually he outright lied to my friend’s inquiries.
Ah, but all was not lost! A gentleman in the store overheard the conversation & caught up with my friend. " That feller is lying" he said," There is diesel a few blocks from here". So for a tank of gas in his old Lincoln car he & my buddy made 3 trips to fill the 3 five-gallon cans we had & enough fuel was added to make Memphis.
By now it was dark. We stayed tied to the city dock for the night & ordered a pizza. (This took some doing because they thought it a hoax), but finally they delivered the pizza. Love those cell phones!
We were underway before daylight of the 5th day. We foolishly thought that the early bird would lock thru. Wrong! "Just paddle around up stream" That from the Lockmaster. Things obviously had not improved overnight. 52 was down to 1 chamber & it's gates were not working properly. They had their hands full. It was here that we had our one & only close call with a barge tow.
My poor buddy. He had tried to jump ship & the city dock and "Just go home to Arizona" His wife was having fun meeting all the challenges AND wanted the T-shirt that said she had come down the rivers. They choose to stay but my friend entered into a "zone" & became preoccupied with his own thoughts.
While we all were fixing breakfast (he at the wheel), we looked out just in time to stop him from going over the dam! We were alerted by radio blasts from a concerned tow captain waiting his turn for the lock. "Ya'll SEE that dam, don't you?" A very dry warning After that little "event" we ate, paddled around until almost noon. The banks were lined with barge traffic and other tows were coming & going everywhere in the channel. I had NOT enough anchor rope to drop an anchor out in the deep center. *Another thing learned). So paddle around we did.
Finally around noon it was our turn. We were to lock thru with another recreational boat & we were summoned. Just by chance, my friend was @ the helm. We had gone 1 of the 2 miles from the lock (a distance suggested to us by a tow captain worried we may again wonder past the white buoys @ the dam), when at the VERY last second my bud decided to cross in front of the tow that was leaving the lock & bound upstream, safely on our port side! Oh my gosh!!! What excitement there was. Horn blasts, screaming, wheel spinning, everything at once it seemed. He "woke up”, and barely managed to get back to the side of the barges. Crew members were out@ the rails, shaking their fists & channel 13 was crackling with some VERY unkind comments from the tow captain. His wife moved to turn off the VHF but I grabbed her hand. I was mad & scared, my zoned out friend needed to hear the comments. The radio traffic continued for 30 min. or more. The lockmaster said nothing past the instructions on which side to tie up.
OL lock 52 is scarred with a million hits from years of traffic. It's bollards don't float, they are "fixed" at the top of the walls. A fellow will come out and loop your rope. As mentioned by others, by the 3rd lock it's old news. We had no issued & we and a very new cabin cruiser left the lock. He soon made our 8mph look very slow & we never saw them again. While the 3 of us tried to lighten the remainder of the day, my poor friend was sullen & quiet. On to Cairo (Karo).
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