Sunday, July 26, 2020

DAY 9



The first photo is of the Evansville, Indiana skyline this morning as I left the marina at 6:50. The marina I stayed at is where the LST World War 2 Landing Craft was located when I last visited. The LST is now located downtown


I knew Henderson, Kentucky has a large Methodist church so I stopped to attend service. From the sign on the door I found out all of their services are now online due to covid.

This is a red buoy. They mark the shipping channel in the river. When going downstream you stay to the right of the red buoys.


This is a green buoy. They mark the shipping channel in the river. When going downstream you stay to the left of the green buoys.

Staying between the buoys sounds pretty simple. Yet I wasn’t paying attention and grounded my boat in the middle of the river. So I got out of the boat and had to push and pull it over a pretty good distance until I could get back in and use the outboard to get in the main channel. This same thing happened on my kayak trip. You would think I’d have learned my lesson.


Mount Vernon is last city in Indiana I’ll pass on the river. I stopped here, as well as Henderson, Kentucky to get ice and drinks.

My plan was to stay near Uniontown, Indiana tonight, but I still had plenty of daylight left so decided to move on. A few miles downstream I came to the John T. Meyers Lock and Dam. I identified myself and requested permission to lock down. The lock master said there was a four hour wait. Apparently the 1200 foot chamber broke down. So they have to lock the large tows by breaking them down and passing sections through the recreational lock. I decided to tie up on the Kentucky side for the night and will try to lock down in the morning.

I travelled 55 miles today.

I thought I’d share some modifications I’ve added to the Wandering Wisp to make the trip a little more efficient.

I’ve seen other Potter owners make accessory racks that fit in the slots left when the companion way door is removed. My modification on that idea is the make a rack that fits in the door itself. That way the companionway door can remain closed. My rack holds my marine radio, camera, aerosol horn, the Lev -O-gage and a digital clock are mounted to the top rail, as well as a gimbaled cup holder.

I also made a removable leg that can hold the companionway door open so it can be used as a table.



I have a Goal Zero Nomad 7 with a solar battery inserted in the pocket on the back bungeef to the sliding panel above the companionway door. I also have a Goal Zero Nomad 14 mounted on a bracket I made that hangs off the back of the boat. The14 one get full sun since it isn’t shaded by the sail. These solar panel/batteries are used to charge my phone, iPad, camera and operate a USB fan.

This little light ring does a great job of lighting the cabin at night.


 This is a shelf I added to get my clothes off the floor. The accessory rack fits on the front of the shelf at night,

This is a telescoping pusher/grabber that has been invaluable. It’s mounted in homemade PVC pipe clips using the screws that hold the cabin roof grab bars.


Someone requested a photo of my oarlocks. As you can see, I’m using them to hold my homemade bimini.



3 comments:

  1. Good morning Dennis, thank you for this excellent post. It answered many questions I had. Regarding your two paragraphs on buoys: Take a second and reread them. Are they both accurate? The way I read it, both cannot be true at the same time but I am not a mariner by any stretch.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks fior catching my mistake on the buoys. I got it fixed now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No need to call it a mistake Dennis, it was a good way to see if people were paying attention :-)

    ReplyDelete