Getting Started & Inland Waterway Trip

I have always been fascinated with boats, as most of my family and friends know. At age 18, I built my first boat – a 19-foot, jet-drive ski boat powered by a 400 Chevy engine. My friends and I used this boat for a number of years. Around the same time I purchased a wrecked drag racing boat and refurbished it. Worked at a shipyard for eight years building and operating towboats on the Ohio River before starting my current position with the Ports of Indiana in 1989.

It has always been my dream to retire and spend a few months a year sailing and visiting places I might otherwise not get to see. My wife Mary and I both grew up on the shores of the Ohio River and we’ve always shared a deep love of the water. We started considering converting a shrimp boat into a long range live-aboard a few years ago.

We had already started refurbishing a 36-foot fiberglass cruiser and soon discovered the boat just wasn’t large enough for what we wanted to use it for. Mary and I both enjoy scuba diving and we’d love to take trips around Florida and the Caribbean someday. In December of 2009, Mary and I spent 11 days traveling around the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida looking at boats and, in the first week of January 2010, we purchased our shrimp boat in Biloxi, Miss. In mid-January, my son Will and I spent a few days in Biloxi preparing the boat for a 45-mile trip to a shipyard in Bayou La Batre, Ala., where we had planned to have work done. For the next five months I traveled to Bayou La Batre about every other weekend, working and checking on the boat. While at the shipyard, the shrimping gear was removed, the hull checked, some new plate was added, sandblasted and repainted, we had enlarged the rudder, removed the kort nozzle, fuel tanks were cleaned, we added a swim deck, and the potable water tanks were sandblasted and repainted as well.

Some of the characteristics of a shrimp boat that helped us decide to make one into a live-aboard included: a steel hull designed for stability in rough seas, large fuel tanks with over a 10,000-mile range, large potable water tanks, potential for a large amount of living space, a large back deck for storage, a superstructure that would allow us to possibly make the boat into a motorsailer at some point and, lastly, the price.

Several people told me we should hire a pilot to bring the boat back to Indiana. They said, “You and Mary can’t handle it by yourselves.” Well, my response was, “hey, If we can’t handle it then we need to sell it!” So, in the spring of 2010, Mary and I prepared to set out on an 11-day, 1,000 mile journey up the Inland Waterways System.

In May- June of 2010, Mary and I moved the boat north, a 11-day, 1,000 mile trip up the Inland Waterway System to Marine Builders, a shipyard and marina in Utica Indiana where we have now started converting our old workboat into a live-aboard.

Our trip back to Southern Indiana

2010

May 27th Friday Night

It’s after work and Mary and I are getting the van loaded to leave for Bayou La Batre when the phone rings; it’s the shipyard.  When they put the boat back in the water today they found a leak in the rudder tube and they don’t know if they can fix it in time for us to leave Sunday morning, it might be next week (it’s a holiday weekend).

Mary and I have to decide if we want to take a chance and drive 10-hours or put the trip off one more week.  We are already one week behind schedule. We decide to take a chance they can fix it Saturday and we leave.  Besides, the van is already loaded anyway.

May 28th Saturday Morning

Jemison Marine Bayou La Batre

We drove all night and we got to the shipyard at 7:00 am local time.  The guys are already working on the boat jack-hammering 10-inches of concrete out from around the rudder tube. It’s common when they build shrimp boats to use concrete, but it can be corrosive and this leak was where the concrete was poured against and around the rudder tube.  Once the concrete was removed we could see where the leak was.  We decided on a fix, split a new piece of pipe and sandwich it around the old rudder tube.

So while the guys worked on the rudder tube, Mary started cleaning and getting the provisions on board and I started plumbing the new sanitary tank and installing the potable water pump plus checking out the engines.

When my son Will and I picked the boat up in Biloxi in January and dropped it off at the shipyard, we had the boat all cleaned up. But now, after sand blasting the hull and two water tanks for paint, there’s a ¼-inch of sand dust over everything inside and out.

Around 3:00 pm the shipyard puts the boat back in the water and we all crossed our fingers.  Fixed, no more leak!  Mary and I cleaned and worked until dark then checked in to a hotel.

Sunday, May 29^th

Jemison Marine Bayou La Batre

Daybreak Mary and I are back at the yard.  I had more work to do plumbing than planned.  When the yard removed the old waste tank, some of the supply lines were damaged and I accidently broke one as well.  Now I’ve got to find some parts and the nearest hardware store that’s open is 20 miles away. The plan was to leave the yard around noon today but by 10:00 am it was already clear the boat wouldn’t be ready before 3:00 and that wouldn’t give us enough time to cross the Gulf of Mexico to Mobile, AL before dark.  So one more night in Bayou La Batre.  After all the noise from partiers at the hotel last night, we decide the boat was clean enough to stay the night on.

Monday, May 30^th, trip day 1

Gulf to the Black Warrior River

It was very quiet docked at the shipyard last night, and at 7:00 am we started out cross the Gulf for Mobile, AL.

The boat’s making better time than I expected, nearly 8-kts at 1100 RPM (I was expecting 7-kts).  It was interesting while we were in the Gulf on the Intercoastel Waterway seeing towboat and barges so far off shore.

We have found one problem, well actually two. The first is the propeller shaft stuffing box is leaking badly and the second, we discovered we went off and left two weeks worth of lunch meats and hamburgers in the freezer back home.

First the stuffing box.  I had asked the shipyard to install new packing because on the trip from Biloxi in January, I wasn’t getting enough water dripping from it to keep the stuffing box from over heating.  They put fresh packing in but not enough.  I tightened it as much as I could but water still poured in.  Fortunately the bilge pump was able to keep up with it. Thank goodness the shipyard had left the old packing on the boat so when we stopped for the night, I put the old packing back in and stopped the leak.

Now for the food. My parents had brought us down to pickup the boat and were still in Alabama antiqueing.  I called them and we decided they would pick up more food and meet us in downtown Mobile.  We were only about 2-hours from Mobile so the timing worked out great. 

When we got to Mobile there were no public dock facilities to be found, only those owned by private companies.  Fortunately there was a nice dock in front of the Mobile convention center and I asked Dad to meet us there. We pulled the boat into the dock nice and easy and tied her off with a crowd of people looking on and a little help from someone working there.  Dad is already parked in front of the convention center 500 feet away with our supplies and I was getting ready to get off the boat when the a security guard shows up.  Although there’s no signs that say “No Docking” the guard tells us we can’t dock there.  I apologized and explained to him why we had stopped and he agreed to let us stay there long enough to grab the bags and go.  I was getting ready to get off the boat again when another man with 6 police officers show up.  He’s the convention center manager and he told us we had to leave immediately.  He said a client had reserved the dock for later that night and we had to leave.  Again, I apologized and explained that our intentions were to just grab the groceries and leave – it wouldn’t take 10 minutes but he again told us no, we had to leave now, the space was reserved.  I asked him if there were any places close by we could dock and he and a few of the police officers pointed to the right and said we could dock just behind a Carnival Cruise ship only a couple of blocks down river from the convention center.  We left there (the whole episode taking longer than the time we would have needed had I been unable to have just leapt off the boat and gotten the supplies) and we tied up behind the very large cruise ship with passengers watching from deck.  A police cruiser was parked there and the officer got out, walked over and told us we couldn’t dock there and had to leave.  Dad had already moved the van closer and we could actually see it from where we were docked but the police officer said no, this wasn’t a public dock and we had to leave immediately.  What happened to southern hospitality? 

 If you counted all the time we spent looking for someplace to dock, add the times spent maneuvering the boat to dock her and maneuvering again to leave, we had wasted an hour in Mobile.  Fortunately, while all this was going on my Dad spoke to someone who was watching all this and he told him there was a public dock 20 miles up river. So off we went to find this dock.  We headed north out of the Mobile ship channel onto the Black Warrior River and 2 ½ hours later we were at the dock and could see my parents already parked there waiting.  The boat is drafting 7 to 8 foot of water and I knew there was no way we would be able to get close enough to the dock for us to get the groceries.  A man with his son in a small fishing boat pulled up to the dock ready to take their boat out of the water and Dad asked him if they would mind bringing the items out to us and he said no problem.  He and Dad loaded up his fishing boat (Mom and Dad had gone a little ‘overboard’ and bought way more than we needed) and he brought the things over to us and helped unload them.  I tried to give him $20 for his trouble but he wouldn’t take it.  There it was; southern hospitality. So after all that, we had about 4 hours of daylight remaining and we headed up river.

The plan is to only run during daylight, about 6:00 am to 9:00 pm.  Around 8:00 pm we passed an abandoned barge dock, a perfect place to tie up a deep draft boat but it’s our first day on the trip and we decided to pass it up to get more miles behind us after all the delays with the groceries.  Big mistake.  At 9:00 pm the sun was going down and we started seriously looking for anywhere to tie up for the night. By 10:00 pm it was pitch black and without a search light or radar and no anchor to drop and secure the boat close to shore we were running blind.  I pointed the bow to shore, we crossed our fingers, and luckily, the boat found deep water and a tree hanging out over the river we could tie up to for the night.  This is a ten day trip, not sure how many days like this first one we can take.

Tuesday, June 1st, day two of our trip

 Black Warrior River

Mary told me if I’m going to write about our trip, I have to use the boat’s name ‘Jezebelle’ although she said ‘Jeze’ is ok too because ‘she’ doesn’t like being referred to as the boat.

Our first night on the river was hot.  I wasn’t planning to run the gen-set on our trip because it burns nearly as much fuel as the main engine but if we’re going to get any sleep at night, we were going to have to run the gen-set to have air conditioning.

Mary ran the boat for about 8 hours today while I cleaned sand and other junks off the deck trying to make the old girl look a little better for our first lockage.  Mary really picked up piloting quick!

                       

Today we also had the first lock of the trip.  We have a total of 18 to go through and I had really been dreading this part of the trip.  In the past I’ve locked towboats with 600 feet of fuel barges in front and not thought anything about it. The towboats were twin engine with flanking rudder.  Jeze is a single screw boat with only one rudder and she doesn’t like to back her stern around and I got to find out how she’s going to handle locking for the first time.

It wasn’t a smooth lockage.  We got in the lock and tied off pretty quickly. Mary did a great job securing the boat but when we untied and started out, that’s when the trouble happened. I didn’t get Jeze’s stern backed around far enough so when I came ahead to pull out the lock, I dragged the fenders down the rough concrete lock wall. I was moving too fast as well.  The stern fender couldn’t take anymore its rope snapped and it disappeared behind the boat. We couldn’t see it floating in the lock and I was too embarrassed to ask the lock master if we could look for it so we left without it. Great, 17 more locks and only 3 remaining fenders.  I’ve got to do better than this or I’ll be stopping along the shore looking for some old tires to use for fenders.

After the trouble last night, we started looking a little earlier for a spot to tie up. We found a tree hanging over the river in deep water which worked well.  After we tied up, sometime around 8:45 pm I walked back to the swim deck to check on things. Amazingly, there was the fender I had lost at the lock laying on the swim deck, undamaged and as if someone had set it there. We again had four fenders.  I bet the Lock Master had a good laugh.

June 2nd, day 3

Black Warrior River & Tombigbee Waterway

It’s a very nice calm morning as we departed on schedule.  Mary steered most the day while I tinkered around on the boat.  I see a pattern emerging here…

We went through two locks today and both went very well.  Mary’s a great deck hand.  I recalled what "Busy", a shrimp boat captain at the shipyard had told me about using a bowline to back the stern around and it worked perfect.  Locking is now a piece of cake.

Really the only excitement today was when it was time to tie up for the night. Couldn’t get in close enough to shore to catch a line on a tree from the boat, so I had to swim about 30-feet to shore with a rope to tie Jeze off to a tree.  After the heat of the day the water felt good.

June 3rd, day 4

Tombigbee Waterway

At 6:30 the morning started out clear but by 7:30 we were in moderate to heavy fog but at least I was able to see the banks on both sides.  Monitoring the radio and using the GPS, we were able to continue up the river. It took 2 hours (16 miles) for the fog to lift.

We went through three locks today.  The second was the slowest yet around 45 minutes. We called ahead and the Lock Master had the chamber open when we got there and we went right in and tied off.  We waited and waited, it seemed like it took forever to close the gates and start filling the chamber. I got the binoculars out and watched the Lock Master. This guy did not appear to like his job. It was like watching someone move in slow motion.

We tied up for the night in the mouth of a large creek that flows into the Tombigbee Waterway just six miles below the next lock.

For dinner we grilled steaks over hickory wood in a small camping grill we had brought with us.  It’s finally starting to feel like a vacation a little more every day.

June 4th, day 5

Tombigbee Waterway

Last night was the best spot yet and the best sleep I have had for a week.

The day is starting out great, rainy but not bad.  Made coffee, had breakfast and at 6:30 am were off, 7:00 am in the lock chamber and by 7:30 am we’re out heading for the second lock. We have a total of six locks to go through today.

Something happened today for the first time. The trip became fun.  For the last few days I was beginning to wonder why I was doing this, and then it all came back.  We’ll see how long that feeling last.

Mary and her dog Jack are spending more time on the deck now that the weather’s cooling down a little.  It’s funny; Jack must have felt much the same way Mary and I did.  The first few day’s he looked at me like ”what the hell are you doing” now he looks like he’s enjoying himself (as much as a dog can) as he looks out the wheel house door and barks at people on shore, passing boats and critters.

The Black Warrior River & Tombigbee Waterway were much deeper than I was expecting.  The Black Warrior River averaged around 30-feet deep and the Tombigbee around 25-feet deep.  Both were also wider than I had anticipated and very curvy.  It was interesting seeing where the Corp of Engineers curved the Tombigbee through the hills much like interstates highway are cut through the side of hills.

We entered Pickwick Lake where it connects to the Tennessee River around 7:30 pm.  We’re just 7 miles above the next lock and the water is deep here so we decide to find a place for the night. That’s now the most challenging thing about the trip, finding a place to stop for the night.

As we were slowly going along the banks looking for a good spot, a large yacht came by and asked if we needed some help and I asked him if he knew of a place we could tie up for the night.  It turned out he was the owner of the nearby ‘Grand Harbor Marina’ and he told us we could tie off next to his fuel dock for the night.  When we got to the marina it looked like the Hilton Inn with many large expensive yachts and people relaxing on decks. Mary and I looked at each other and said that’s not a place for our old rusty workboat.  We thanked him for the offer and told him we were afraid Jeze’s noisy gen-set would be too much for everyone else to listen to all night. 

So we moved out into the Tennessee River, found an island, and nosed up to the shore. I was about to go for another swim because we were still 20 feet from shore when some folks in a pontoon boat pulled up to talk and they volunteered to take our line to shore for us.  It took them a little while (we thought they had probably had a bit too much to drink that day) but they were able to get the rope around a tree and return it to me.  I offered them $20 for their help but they also refused it and said to “pass it on” if we saw someone who needed a little help sometime.

June 5th, trip day 6^th

Tennessee River

We were at Pickwick lock this morning waiting for an Ingram Barge Co. towboat to pull his tow from the lock chamber when what appeared to be a father and small son dressed in matching NASCAR shirts and hats in a fishing boat came trolling from behind the lock’s approach wall right into the path of the Ingram tow. The father wasn’t paying any attention because he was too busy messing with a fishing pole when the towboat captain blew his horn and managed to bring his twenty loaded barges to a stop. Did the father start the boat’s motor to get out of the way?  No.  His small son finally used the electric trolling motor instead of the outboard motor to slowly move the boat out of the way while everyone around them and the lock master waited for them to pick another fishing spot.  All the while the father just stood there seemingly oblivious to everything and still messing with his fishing pole.

Mary thinks I’m silly and she’s probably right, this morning I hung the shrimp nets up for that authentic shrimp boat look.  Then Mary does some laundry and hangs two lines of clothes out to dry on the back deck.  Wow, now we really look like hillbillies on water.

It’s Saturday afternoon and the Tennessee River is full of pleasure craft and many want to get in close and take a look at a shrimp boat.  Closer than I like, especially those pulling kids on floats behind them and the jet skiers.  These people just don’t stop and think what could happen if their boat suddenly stopped or someone fell overboard or off the tube in front of us.

We have had a lot of Lock Masters and towboat captains want to know why a shrimp boat was going north.  Most asked if we were getting away from the BP oil spill. Today people are coming out their homes and campers along the riverbank to watch us go by. It feels very strange. And Jeze has had her picture taken by a lot of boaters and picnickers on shore.  One guy even stopped his car on a highway bridge to get out in traffic and take a picture.

The Tennessee River is wide and shallow along the bank.  It took an hour to find a place to tie up for the night.  We tied up in an old harbor near New Johnsonville Tennessee on an abandoned barge dock.  There was also an abandoned factory of some kind hanging out over the water.  It was all kind of spooky like some horror movie set but it’s now dark and I’m not moving.  Sorry Mary.

June 6^th, trip day 7

Tennessee River, Lake Cumberland

Well we survived the night at the abandoned factory.  I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture.  I was too busy when we landed last night and it was too dark this morning when we left.

This morning was the first time I almost went aground.  The river around New Johnsonville is wide like a large lake and the channel curves all over the place.  In low light I missed a buoy and all at once there’s only 2 foot of water under the keel.  Thank goodness Jeze can come to full stop fast.  I back the stern out into deep water again and we’re on our way.  That was too close; I should have really been paying closer attention.

We’re now on the Kentucky Lake and the wind is howling straight out of the north down the 40-plus mile long lake building remarkable waves, some swells reaching 3-plus feet in height.  Only saw a couple of small pleasure craft out trying to navigate the waves and they were getting a beating.  The waves are about the same size we encountered crossing the Gulf.  The biggest problem for me is the gentle rocking is about to put me asleep.  I can’t get Mary to steer because she’s already napping after her shift.

Unbelievable!  It took us 5-hours to lock down at Kentucky Lock & Dam this afternoon.  Not because of traffic; there was only one boat ahead of us. They never told us why we had to wait but I think they were having trouble with the lock.  We nearly lost haft a day, or 40-miles travel.  We were going to stay the night in Paducah Ky. but it’s so late in the day now, I don’t 

know if we can make it before dark now.

Well we barely made it to Paducah before dark at around 9:30 pm.  We made good time below the locks going nearly 9kts at 1100 rpm.  There were hundreds of industry owned docks around Paducah but no place we could tie off to so I had to swim a line to shore again.  The two things I miss most not having on this trip are a working anchor and a dingy to take to shore.

June 7^th, trip day 8

Ohio River

Well it happened the first thing this morning, I ran the bow up on a sandbar and I was paying attention this time.  We were leaving Paducah going out onto the Ohio River, my river chart showed we were in the channel and in deep water but apparently the recent flooding on the Tennessee River enlarged a sandbar. Fortunately the bow backed off with no trouble as I wasn’t moving very fast when it happened.  About the time I already backed off the sandbar, a harbor boat working barges down river from us radios and tells me to be careful and watch out for that sandbar.  Thanks!

Sunrise leaving Paducah

We entered the John T Meyer Lock & Dam early this morning.  We went right in and tied off I think better than any lock so far.  I’m drinking my morning coffee waiting for the Lock Master to fill the chamber when all at once the stern whips around hard to port and the bow bangs into the concrete lock wall bending the anchor stay.  I’m like what just happened?  We tied off the same as the 14 locks before.  Then I noticed this lock was only filling up form the right side of the chamber, the side we’re tied to.  All the other locks filled from both sides.  So with only a bowline tied, the water rushing in the chamber shoved the stern hard over sending the bow into the wall.  I don’t really care all that much about the bent anchor stay, I was planning to replace it anyway, but it was embarrassing because I had just told the Lock Master we were all secure and when it hit, a heavy steel door that was opened and unsecure tried to swing closed and hit Mary hard in the back.  Fortunately it didn’t hurt her.  What a morning this has been, plus my electronic navigation software doesn’t include anymore Ohio River charts past the John T Meyer Lock & Dam, so I now having to rely only on my paper charts.  We’re not making very good time today either, only around 6-kts because of a 2-kt plus current.

There were lots of interesting towns along the rivers we would have liked to have stop and explored during our trip.

Well, I’m really embarrassed now.  I just spoke with Phil Wilzbacher, the Port Director of the Port of Indiana Mount Vernon.  Phil informed me that it wasn’t the John T Meyer Lock & Dam we went through early this morning; it was the Smithland Lock & Dam.  Wow, I had written the wrong name down on the trip itinerary. I wonder what the Lock Master must have thought when I was haling the wrong lock.  Maybe that’s why he only filled the lock from one side.

           

At 9:00 pm we made it to the Port of Indiana – Mount Vernon. I had to run the engine a little harder than we have been, 1200 rpm, so we could make it to the port before dark.  When I checked the fuel tanks I could tell we sucked down twice as much fuel as the previous days running at 1000 rpm.  What a difference.  Anyway, Phil Wilzbacher let us tie up at the port’s general cargo dock for the night.  The best spot we have had on the trip and I didn’t have to go swimming.

June 8^th, trip day 9

Ohio River

Besides being the best spot yet we’ve tied up for the night, it even got better. Phil and his staff left a car for us to use. I was able to go in town and pick up a few supplies we were running low on and best of all I picked up a pepperoni pizza.  After 8 days and 9 nights on the boat, that pizza was like Christmas morning as a kid.  Well, almost.  A big thanks to Phil, Randy, Bruce and Sally.

Another slow day on the Ohio River, we’re only making 6-kts (7 mph) against a strong current and dodging debris. We locked through Newburgh Lock this afternoon, straight in and out in less than a half an hour.  Because of the 5-hour lock delay at the Kentucky Lock & Dam and our slow pace against the Ohio River current, it’s going to be Thursday afternoon before we get in.  Since Mary needs to be back at work on Thursday, we’ve made arrangements today for a crew change Wednesday afternoon near the town of Leavenworth Indiana. Our son, Will, and Mary will trade places for the remaining 68 miles.

The good news today is the Tell City Port Authority is letting us tie to their mooring cell for the evening.

June 9^th, trip day 10

Ohio River

We had a strong wind last night and thunderstorms that kept Jeze rocking most of the night but the mooring was good.  We locked through Cannelton at 7:00 this morning with no troubles. 17 locks down and only one lock remaining, Mc Alpine in Louisville Ky.

When Mary and I were planning this trip, we thought the days would be very long and kind of boring.  But it was the opposite; the days flew by, almost too fast.

I also thought steering for nearly 15 hours a day was going to be a killer.  But it wasn’t bad at all.  With Mary and I taking turns steering and Jeze holding her course well with very few course connections needed, it worked out well.

We went days without cell phone service while we were on The Black Warrior River & Tombigbee Waterway.  The wireless network card we brought with us for internet access and emails only had service about 10% of the time which was very frustrating but both improved once we reached Tennessee and Kentucky.

According to boat lore, each and every vessel is recorded by name in a great logbook on the bottom of the sea by Poseidon himself.  So when you change the name of a vessel as we did, you have to ask Poseidon to remove the old name from the log and add the new name.  But first you have to remove everything from the vessel with the old name, which we did.  Then you take a piece of the vessel and write the old name on it and chuck it overboard, which we did (we picked up a piece at Jemison’s Marine before we left).  Then you make your request to Poseidon for the name change and for him to watch over and protect the new vessel “Jezebelle”.  Lastly you seal the deal with a bottle of rum poured overboard for Poseidon, which we just happened to bring along.  Silly right?  Well laugh if you want but we have had a safe trip so far.

Our crew change went well today.  I now have a fresh deckhand and a dingy. It’s kind of strange, when we tied up for the night, I’m only 15 miles from home, 34 miles from the dock where the boat will be kept, and I’ll still have to spend one more night out.  All because of one lock delay.  Bummer. 

June 9^th, trip day 10

 Ohio River

Heavy fog this morning.  We made about 4 miles up river when heavy fog rolled in and we were forced to head to shore and tie up, 45 minutes later we were back under way. The current is still running strong and there’s a lot of debris in the river to dodge.  We just made the last lock, Mc Alpine, and all went well - no surprises. Just 6-miles to go now.

Were cruising in front of downtown Louisville Ky. on our final leg of the trip and my cell phone rings.  It’s Theresa Dooley, a close friend, calling.  In a somber voice she says “Brian, its Theresa”.  I don’t know why but the first thing that came to my mind was concern that something had happened to her husband, Jim, or their son, Dawson.  She asked if I was in my boat passing downtown Louisville and I said “Yes.  Why?”  She was at work in one of the tall downtown buildings watching us pass by.  Very funny; what’s the chance she would be looking out her office window at the same time we were going by?  Especially since I didn’t tell the Dooley’s when we would be passing Louisville.

Well at 1:00 pm we arrived at Marine Builders and docked.  Just like that, the 1,000 mile trip was over.

Jezzebelle is currently at Marine Builders where we’ll finish refurbishing her. I used to work there building towboats before I joined the Ports of Indiana. We hope to have Jezzebelle refitted in about three to four years. The plan is to start off slow, maybe with some scuba-diving trips around Florida and the Keys, then branch out to the Bahamas and the eastern Caribbean islands. We’d love to be able to share the boat with our sons, Brandon and Will, when they each have families of their own.

Since piloting towboats and worked at a port for over 20 years, this trip never sounded like a crazy idea to me – and Mary never questioned us making it. It was an amazing trip. It was a little like retracing the riverboat journeys of the old steamboats or Mark Twain, when he piloted boats up and down the river. There’s something truly inviting in our inland waterways as they flow lazily while acting as a natural stress reliever. After 28 years of marriage, Mary said she had never seen me so happy as the days we spent coming up the river, despite all the uncertainty that laid ahead of us. Looking back, the trip is like a blur. There are several locks I just don’t even remember going through.

I never meant for the voyage to be some kind of quest or a life altering journey. It was just something we needed to do to get the boat back home so I could work on it. We couldn’t afford to have someone

else do the renovation down in the Gulf. I could never travel down there often enough to finish it in a reasonable amount of time – and trucking a 120-ton, 85-foot long, 22-foot wide boat on just about

any highway is out of the question. The river was the only option. But when you think about it, that’s exactly what our river system does every day. It creates opportunities for businesses to make connections that would not otherwise be available. Cargoes can often be shipped from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico cheaper than they can be trucked a few hundred miles. Our rivers may be hidden treasures to some, but they create opportunities like no other transportation system in the world.

I am very thankful for the many opportunities our rivers have created for me throughout my life. This trip may have just been a step toward our final dream of sailing away into a tropical sunset, but like in life, there are some amazing journeys along the way.