how long?

how long will it take to get from cincinnatti to the gulf of mexico,,,,on the ohio and mississippi,,,thanks,longliner

 

my best calculationis 24 days,,,at 5 knots = 100 miles per day and allows me to sleep about 5 hrs per day ,,,was hoping to hear from some tug captons,,thanks longliner

 

longliner45,

Are the 5 knots over the ground?

Speed: At the headwaters of the Mississippi, the average surface speed of the water is near 1.2 miles per hour - roughly one-third as fast as people walk. At New Orleans, on 2/24/2003, the speed of the river was 3 miles per hour.

Your enquiry prompted me to have a look at Wikipedia and also navigation on the Mississippi http://www.boat-ed.com/ms/handbook/toc.htm

If anyone knows the answer to your question i recon it'll be these guys. http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/gis/navbook/main.html

Regards,

Pericles

 

Are you thinking of paddling, longliner? Google Verlin Kruger (I think that's his name). He may have a website, dunno. Canoed the whole of the Mississippi, I believe, among other noteworthy voyages.

Alan

 

Have you considered the alternate route to the gulf? Down the Ohio, turn left before you get to Paducah, head for Kentucky Lake, then the Tennessee, the Tom Bigbee, the Black warrior and out at Mobile. That route has commercial traffic but far less than the Mississippi. Wonderful scenery, sufficient landing sites, etc.

There is a wonderful book devoted entirely to this route. I think the title is; The Tennessee River and the Tom bigbee waterway. The book includes information about locks, mile markers, traffic, facilities, and about anything you'd need to know such as seasonal information about currents, flood, slack, and other stuff to make pleasant survival more probable. I'll root the book out of my library and provide ISBN numbers if you are interested.

 

I've made both trips, the lower Mississippi and the Ten-Tom. I don't think one is faster than the other, however, if you were planning on heading east toward Florida, the Ten-Tom would be quite a bit faster. There are almost no marinas on the lower Mississippi, one at Memphis and one in Greenville, Mississippi. It is about 500 miles from Greenville to New Orleans. Quite a lot of the marinas between New Orleans and Mobile are still closed. I'd give it at least 1 to 1 1/2 months, unless you like running from sun up to sun down and not stop and visit any towns along the way. Running after dark is very dangerous on the river, you can't see the floating logs and other things you wouldn't want to hit.

 

You won't make anything close to 5 knots over the ground over a 24-hour period. There are 54 locks and dams on the Ohio between Pittsburgh and Cairo, Illinois; and when I was working as a deckhand for Ingram Barge in paducah, KY, we used to see towboats stacked up like pancakes waiting for their turn through L&D 52 at metropolis, Il. Waits of 2 and 3 days are nowhere near uncommon. And no, it's pretty unlikely you'll be able to lock through with a towboat and its barges. There just isn't the room (with the first cut) and there's too much turbulence (with the second) unless you really cotton to the idea of being sucked through a Kort nozzle.

 

On the upper Mississippi, they let pleasure boats lock through between tows. I think it is the same on the Ohio. Most of the locks on the upper Mississippi are only 600 feet long, so the tows have to split in half to lock through, which takes about 1 1/2 hours. The longest I have had to wait for a lock on the Mississippi is two hours. The Ohio locks are bigger, and there is usually two of them. I doublt the wait will be much longer. The longest wait was the Kentucky dam lock on the Tennessee River, which was 6 hours.

 

thanks guys I like the tenn tom idea ,I was considering kentucky lake ,I probably wont have my boat in the water untill winter,I wanted to put in at lake erie but a trip like this could suit me ,,,,I would end up in my old stomping grounds ,,,the gulf,if I knew any big boat captons..maybe I could throw a rope and get dragged down ,,?????..longliner