Saturday, December 15, 2012
This is the END
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Kentucky River

A few miles back up the Ohio River, north of Madison, is the start of the Kentucky River. We've driven over this river many times as we've traversed back and forth across the state these past 10 years and have always thought it would be great fun to cruise it. So when Wendy & her family came up for a week long visit from Texas we thought it was a perfect time to investigate the river. Turns out we could have only traveled as far as the old Lock One, which is no longer operational. When the river is high, and if you have a smaller boat (not a vessel such as Refugio), you can go over the top of the lock and continue your journey, but we were happy to drop anchor at the first bend of the river. Our depth was 20+ feet, we were able to observe any other boat coming from either direction and the water & air temps could not have be more perfect for a swim! (As it turned out there was only one lone fisherman who passed us twice) Other than our own splashes, the only other sound was that of the occasional motor vehicle o

Tuesday, July 12, 2011
On the Move

When we arrived at Washington Marine for our splash, Refugio was already in the sling hanging over water. Honestly I didn’t mind not seeing her being moved over the roads just inches off the ground – boats just should not be that close to dirt (either wet or dry). One of my jobs as deck boss is to watch for water at the tail pipe when the engines fire up; there should be a big gush of water, then there after continual little spurts. This time however, giving a thumbs-up on the starboard and a ‘not-so-much’ thumb

The next morning the first thing I noticed as we quietly slipped through downtow



More times than not we’ve awoken to deteriorating weather & wind blowing us places we don’t want to be – namely into the rotting pier and boat parts along the island. Our anchors holding, but we’ve slid a wee bit closer to the junk pile than we liked, so as soon as it was light enough we weighed anchor(s) and calmly slipped away from Craig’s Creek. Back out under the 20’ bridge disturbing the thousands of mayflies who apparently want to come with us. Fortunately there is no activity at the lock this early (7:30am) and we’re able to lock though. So expertly we slid along the wall and I grabbed the bollard to hold us off as we lowered 35 feet. We were told come Monday the larger of the two locks will be down for a few months for repair, so we came through at a good time. (Thank the gods) Otherwise the wait could have been hours. Commercial vessels have priority, and being a smaller lock most will likely have to breakdown their tows to get them through. Believe it or not there appears to be much less water this side of the lock, they say pool is 14 feet. The remainder of our trip is pretty uneventful and we’ve noticed many familiar sights along the Ohio. Approaching the marina is always exciting; seeing it for the first time from this advantage rather than from shore. J
ust past the US 421 Harrison St. Bridge which connects Madison, Indiana & Milton, Kentucky tucked in behind a small land mass sits the Rivercrest Marina. Approach is good, a solid 7 feet under us – once in the marina we’re down to about 4 and when finally tucked into our slip we’ve got about 6” under our keel. Well we don’t have much water, but our slip is covered and it’s still only about 1.5 hours from home. The city of Madison is quite a lively little artsy town which seems to hop every weekend with one activity or another. This should be a good place for us to continue with our boat renovations and soul restorations.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
PROGRESS.....
Happy to report there has been much progress with the coming of warm(er) weather. The covers are off, the console is complete, the bottom has been sanded and repainted, zincs (actually aluminum for fresh water) replaced and the hull being prepped for fresh paint next week. The captain has been working VERY hard, and I'm also happy to report he's no longer blue.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
HAPPY SPRING
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Slowly & Surely
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