please help newbe with ohio river trip

[thewiles]

Re: please help newbe with ohio river trip

thanks everyone for the replies! I have been watching youtube vids on locking. I am also a very courtious boater, so I will be well out of the river traffics way. we are leaning more towards ramping in on the east side of cinci somewhere and boating to the newport aquarium. Looks like there is plenty to do with the kids there. Are there any hotels in that area that are on the water and reasonably priced?

 

[four winns 214]

Re: please help newbe with ohio river trip

Hopefully a Cincinnati area boater will pipe up here with better information, but you definitely want to get the river charts if you're boating in the Cincinnati area. There is fairly large no wake zone on the river at downtown Cincinnati. It's marked on the charts.

 

[maharg]

Re: please help newbe with ohio river trip

I am a cincy boater, with a boat of that size I would stay above the meldahl dam in new richmond. The traffic around cincy is bad and will toss smaller boats around. I dont typically run mine in that area due to the rough ride in the crowded water.

 

[Slide]

Re: please help newbe with ohio river trip

Resurrecting this old thread to throw in my bit. I've grown up on the river a few miles upstream of the Meldahl Dam. Very peaceful, calm, not busy at all except for holidays. I would recommend White Oak as a safe place to leave your stuff. It's a very active campground and a bunch of very nice people to boot.

All of downtown Cincy is no-wake and to be honest really not that entertaining unless you're planning on catching a Reds game or catching a bit of nightlife. There is a big dock at Hooters and a few other places you can tie up at.

If you make it all the way up to the Manchester Islands (~30mi upstream of White Oak as said above) it's a great place to spend the day. There are usually plenty of people there on the weekend, playing sand volleyball or just hanging out in the shallows.

As for the barges, just stay out of the way and be aware! They can sneak up on you very easily for being as big as they are. They also have their own lock at Meldahl so you don't have to worry about locking through with them. Just don't try to go in the big lock unless you want the lock master yelling at you.