Today began with taking on 125 gallons of water and 90 gallons of diesel fuel. We topped off the tanks with 170 gallons of diesel just prior to our departure from Louisville. Thirsty bastards those Cummins engines!  It is now 11:15am and we pulled away from the dock at 9:30. Started the day with a light drizzle, stopped raining after a few minutes so we cleared the water off the isinglass and rolled up the windows. No sooner had we got the water off the windows that it began to rain again. All part of boating.

My alert and able bodied crew…

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The following information might read like a Tom Clancy novel as it is a little technical. Whisky Business has 2 HUGE batteries that start the engines and a bank of 5 Group 31 batteries used by the inverter. These batteries are about 50% larger than your auto battery. The inverter batteries power the lights, electronics and all other manner of small electrical draws as we cruise since we don’t run the generator unless we want to run the air conditioning. Kentuckiana’s Keith Sheffel installed a couple of really neat devices called ACR’s when we replaced all of the navigation equipment. These gizmos channel electricity from the alternators to the inverter bank of batteries after they charge the start batteries. This gives us a fully loaded battery bank when we shut down at the end of the day in case we anchor for the night. While we are running during the day we are generating more electricity than we use. So today we performed a grand experiment that, unfortunately failed. My friend Dave Shaw had a portable 12,000 BTU portable air conditioner that he wasn’t using so he donated it to the “cause”.  With all of this electrical power being produced by the engine alternators the thought was we could run this portable AC unit on the flybridge on hot days while underway. Shout out to Dave Hobbs who made a plate that fit in a window which vented the hot air produced by the AC unit out of the flybridge. Worked fabulously, thanks Dave! Darn thing pulled 95 amps and was too much for the alternators to keep up with. However, it will work splendidly when we are on shore power or running the genset.

Got to send out another shout out to one of my mentors, RJ at Kentuckiana Yacht Services. We pulled the screen off the windshield today and noticed the trim was coming off. After re-installing the windows on that big ass Sea Ray in KYS’ shop RJ taught me how to replace the trim on the windows. Mine now look great, thanks RJ!

Found this great anchorage on Active Captain behind Hurricane Island near Cave In Rock, Illinois. Got the grill out and Dave and I prepared some beautiful filet’s and a gorgeous New York Strip. Been saving a 2008 Premiere Napa Valley Ardente Cab for such an occasion. Beautiful evening to sleep with the windows open tonight. Preparations for fabulous Manhattans to begin immediately.

OK, so we are now anchored out, had a splendid dinner with a great bottle of wine. Now ingesting Manhattans as big as our heads.  These Manhattans were prepared with Old Forester Single Barrel selected by the bestest, most knowledgeable bourbon afficianados that I have ever met, Susan Reigler, Mike Veach and Carla Carlton. These fine folks selected ALL of the single barrel bourbons I bought at Party Mart. YUM!

Day 4

Woke up to an overcast day. Good day for cruising. Might have gotten over served last night as I am moving a little slow this morning. Got the anchor up with no issues and headed back down the Ohio. Boat is performing flawlessly, knock on wood. So, for 3 days we have been cruising down the Ohio River, no left turns, no right turns, just follow the river, right? Just never occurred to me to make that150 degree turn to enter the Cumberland River. So, Dave says, “Didja miss your turn on the Cumberland?” My reply: well sort of… Only missed it by a mile or so. Entered the Cumberland River and traversed the lock by which we entered Lake Barkley. This was the first lock that we were raised in rather than being lowered. There was a great deal of turbulence in the lock chamber that really moved us around even though we were tied to the bollard (the device in the lock wall that rises and falls with the water). Since Sunday we had been cruising down the Ohio with the current giving us an extra push so at a low engine RPM setting we were making 11 mph. When we started up the Cumberland River we were going against the current which dropped our speed (speed?) to around 7 mph.

Made it to Green Turtle Bay on Lake Barkley around 6:30 today. Cleaned up the boat had dinner and ready to crash and burn. Uploading photos is a royal pain as I am sure there is an issue of operator error. Will work on that.