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After another Marietta
Regatta and another flood, even bigger and better than last year, the E. L.
Thumper and Jenny B had tentative plans to attend the Wheeling Regatta the
following weekend. Our Marietta departure date was changed from Sunday to
Wednesday to allow additional floodwater to recede. Early Wednesday, the good ship Juanita, under the very
capable hands of ASA president Tom Cook, backed the northbound fleet into the
Ohio River. The river was still
high and had ample drift to make the ride interesting. The Jenny B and E.L.
Thumper were joined by the Bobby C and Betty Lou, all going to Wheeling.
The Gambler had second thoughts, and started home.
The Juanita tied to Nelson’s fleet with plans to return to Charleston
the following weekend. The Katie H
and Donna Rae had plans to travel with the Lauren Elizabeth to East Liverpool. At the Willow Island Lock,
the Bobby C got a line hooked to her water pick-up. Red got the rope off, but in so doing broke the pipe.
Rick Burden to the rescue with pipe, hose and a check valve from the
“mother ship”, the Jenny B. The
Bobby C was repaired and we were off again! Things went smooth the
rest of Wednesday, getting to the old lock wall in Duffy, Ohio.
The other travelers passed us as we relaxed and enjoyed our vacation,
doing more repairs to the Bobby C. We
left early Thursday in the dark and fog. All
went well until the Thumper crew, Kathy, Bill Doyle and Jack, were watching the
trees on the bank, drift, and ducks in the river, but not the radar.
Soon we were literally going up a creek. The river was still up a few feet, and Jack noticed it was
now only 20 feet wide and getting narrower. He turned the boat hard left.
The front half of the Thumper made it, but the back half stuck hard.
We looked back and here came the Bobby C, following us closely in the
fog. A little screaming and
everyone was OK. Rick again to the
rescue, with Red (Bobby C) staying very close so as not to get lost in the fog. Once freed, we discovered that the E.L. Thumper did not go
exactly where you steer. After much
confusion, we again locate Rick and Red in the fog and proceed to Wheeling. The closer we got to
Wheeling, the more radio chatter we heard about the impending high, very high,
water. We stopped next to the Betty
Lou in Wheeling only long enough to make some rudder adjustments, and to give
our regards and flood information to Bubby and the Wheeling regatta organizers.
It’s a bright, sunny day and some doubt our information, but we are off
again. We
spent Thursday night with the Katie H at Bill Price’s landing in East
Liverpool. Leaving at daybreak in a
light fog, we are headed for Pittsburgh and home.
The water is not supposed to start rising until tonight, and it looks
like we will make it to Millvale safely. Going
past the Beaver River, we see the remains of last week’s high water –
pleasure boats and docks either stuck high on the bank or sunk. Heavy rains had started well before we reached the Emsworth
Lock, our last lock before Millvale. We
left the Bobby C at his landing in Glenwillard and hear that the Betty Lou is
tied at her landing, leaving only the 3 boats from Millvale still underway.
The closer we got to Emsworth, the worse conditions are.
Lots of rain and drift, and the river is starting to rise with every
creek out of its banks. Emsworth’s small chamber
is down, so we find a good spot to tie and wait.
During this time, a towboat reports finding a body and another reports a
mud slide covering the railroad tracks. Seems
that every time a tow calls the locks, they report the dam opening is
increasing, until finally they are on the hooks and started to talk about
closing the locks. Finally we
are told to lock through with a tow. It
may have been only a 4 hour wait, but it seemed a lot longer. Above the locks, things are
looking worse. We are making only 2
to 3 mph and slowing. It’s dark
when we tie all 3 boats together for safety, so no one gets left behind.
One half mile below the Point, the Katie H overheats.
Lucky for us we were close to some barges and manage to land.
We made some quick repairs and are underway once again. All the talk on the marine
radio is tows looking for a place to tie with little or no success.
We were hoping the water was coming from the Monongahela River as
reported earlier, but a tow from the Allegheny River reports Lock 2 is going
out, and there is lots of water on both the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. We make it to the
Point – it’s under water. Every
time we come to a bridge, and there are 9 within the 3.3 miles to 'Millvale, we
have to speed up to make any progress through the piers.
It’s getting worse, if that’s possible.
We are 1.5 miles from home when the GPS says 0.00 mph with us all now
running full ahead. It’s now
about midnight. Jack had enough!
Everyone agrees. We land at an
observation walkway between the 16th street bridge and the I-579
bridge. Lucky find! We tie ropes to
everything and anything. Vince
recognizes this as an old barge unloading area put in by Charley Zubik. This landing is normally 10 feet off the water, there’s now
about a foot showing. Not much
sleep tonight. At 5 AM, it’s
decided that the ladies should leave. The
water is rising over the area and will put us about 200 ft. from dry land, which
is the H. J. Heinz employee parking lot. Rick
and Vince put out hand lines to the street for use in any “abandon ship
drills”. The ladies, Kathy,
Debbie and Jan (Hon) decide to wait it out in the parking lot. Our son John is called at 5:00 am Saturday to fetch the
ladies, to check out the upper landing in Millvale, and round up anything we
might need to ride out the high water. The
ladies return to the parking lot via car and watch and wait. They now have two vans in the lot, one for sleeping and one
gold “porto john”. Daughters
Laura and Mary Beth show up with hot coffee and food for the women and we keep
in touch via cell phones. By 6:30 am the water is over
the ramp to our landing and John had to swim out to the landing boat to procure
Vince’s john boat and start a ferry to the Tarbaby to get 4X4 timbers and a
railroad jack. We are trapped.
Our only way off was through the flooded bike path, park and road. All day the water rose.
That afternoon, the pleasure boats started to pass, some sunk, some
covered and some still tied to their docks.
The largest group was about 28 boats tied together. All totaled, well
over 100 boats floated past. As the
water rose, we had an eddy that pushed drift around us.
Because of this, we were only hit by 1 boat, about 19 foot long with no
damage to Rick. We are still tied 3
wide, which is putting a strain on our lines.
But everything seems to be holding.
John has stayed at our landing and reports that the Tarbaby spuds are a
little short and are about one foot from resting
(hanging) off the deck, not on the river bottom.
He has rounded up help and is keeping things secure. Saturday afternoon we
hear an old, 180 foot long towboat is loose above us.
It came over the dam and is now wedged under a bridge just below our
upper landing. Saturday evening the
river peaks and starts down. It
took till about 11 PM for it to drop enough to release the towboat.
Talk about a scary sight. It
hit the bridge pier just above us, knocking off its pilothouse and stacks. It
missed the Jenny B by 100 feet. You
could hear Rick’s heart beat. We
were prepared to abandon ship. Doyle,
Vince and I had our wallets in plastic bags ready to evacuate.
Rick had two canvas shopping bags full of stuff to carry.
Don’t know how he was going to carry them through 42 inches of running
water. Vince’s only request was
that we not run him over getting off. Early Sunday morning
at 1:45 AM we could get off the boat without swimming.
Rick decided to go to shore and scare the ladies, who are trying to sleep
in Debbie’s van. Rick said “boy
were they surprised”. At daylight
the ladies returned to the boats and the meals got a lot better.
Also, beer was again on the schedule.
The water was still too fast to leave, so we waited till Monday around
noon to leave. But now all the
drift is hitting us, and getting the rudders to work was a chore.
The
trip to Millvale took about 1 hour and was uneventful.
It was a great feeling to be done with regattas and home again to await
next year’s activities. written by Capt. Jack Bedeck
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