Perhaps Spring Is coming Early! I Hope!

SHIP'S LOG:

     Despite the fact that we had another nasty snow storm over the weekend and that the forecast for tomorrow is more snow, it is also true that the forecast for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday prophesy temperatures in the 40's going up to the 50's by Friday! Man, how great is that? It will be the cause of not only a lot of celebrating, but also a lot of melting, and that got me thinking. There is a lot of snow on the ground in New Hampshire and Vermont and Connecticut and that means a lot of run-off melt and that means that the Connecticut River will be running high. When it does, it drags all sorts of flotsam and jetsam from various locals down to the Sound. That is not really a cause for concern except for the fact that sometime this spring, I and the others here at Yankee will have to transit the river and  navigate the Sound and will have to do so dodging all sorts of objects which will be doing the damnedest to hole a hull or pop off a prop or rip-off a rudder.

     I have the trip down river only twice before and on those two trips the stuff in the river was truly amazing. I have seen whole trees, root-ball and all, gently cruising down river caring not a whit in whose way they might get. Of course, they don't have to worry as running into rocks, sandbars, boats, docks, buoys, other river characters and detritus, even the bottom, hampers them not at all on their way to the open ocean. Even if they should become trapped in some way, they wait patiently until such time as tide and time set them back on their way once more. It is not the stuff you see, of course, but the stuff you don't, like a water-soaked log just below the surface, that are the real cause for concern.

     Sadly, they no longer dredge the river, or at least, haven't for several years. At one time, they had to insure a clear channel all the way to Hartford, mostly for barges carrying fuel and heating oil. The Middletown electrical power generating station and the Pratt & Whitney plant used a lot of both and Hartford even more, but that has changed.  More underground pipelines, more natural gas, less need of barges and dredging is expensive. There is one particularly nasty and dangerous spot just south of the Pratt & Whitney plants where the channels makes a very sharp turn. while I haven't hit, the bottom once was just under 7 feet which when you draw 5.5 is cutting it a little thin. So I hope for good water depth come the spring. I also hope, but it is a rather faint hope I'm afraid, that the river is clear when the time comes to head downriver.