Pittsburgh to Morgantown to Pittsburgh RECAP - Part 1

[Grantz]

Last week we took off up the Mon for a week of carefree, relaxing boating! Ha! The carefree and relaxing thing lasted about a day!

Here's a little rundown of our adventure. I could write pages about the trip, but I'll try to stick to the highlights (and some lowlights!) Since this was a pretty long trip, I?m going to break up the posts into several parts. Keep checking back as I update them over the next week. Also, to see the pics from the trip, check out the following photo galleries...

http://www.boatlocal.com/photos/tags/Morgantown-2014

http://www.boatlocal.com/photos/2014/tags/River-Trips


Also, if you're thinking about doing a trip like this please don't hesitate to ask questions. I've done it several times and encourage other boaters to do some exploring of their own. I'd be happy to share my experiences and hopefully make your trip a little better.

Part 1

Backstory - Three boats went on the trip - Never Home, a Four Winns 358 Vista; Absoloot Fun II, a 370 Cruisers Inc.; and my boat, More Loans Than Grantz, a Chris Craft 381 Catalina. This was the first trip to Morgantown for Absoloot Fun, but the rest of us had experienced it before. It's 101 miles to Morgantown and 6 locks. After going to Marietta, OH last year (350 miles round trip) we thought this would be an easy ride as we would spend less travel time on the boat and more time at the destinations.


Friday, July 25 - PROC, 26 MM
We hit the Mon at about 3:30 in the afternoon and headed for the Pine Run Outboard Club. Friends there invited us to stay the night and to hit up a party next door at Castaway Keys Marina. Can't say enough about the PROC crew and how great they are and the same goes for the owners at Castaway Keys. They really know how to throw a party complete with 8 piece band, food and beverages.

CastawayKeysParty.jpg

Saturday, July 26 - Lagerheads, 51 MM
"Luckily" we got a spot at the courtesy docks at Lagerheads. We all had a really nice dinner there before stopping next door at the California Boat Club. A new friend we met through BoatLocal invited us over and was showing us his boat when we noticed something wasn't right with our docks next door at Lagerheads. At first it looked like the docks and our boats were floating away! After running over there we found that one of the piling hoops broke and we were only hanging on by the remaining piling hoop. The docks had twisted on that one piling leaving my boat out towards the middle of the channel and the other two pushed into shore against some rocks. Of course as we are running to the boats a storm opens up and dumps wind a rain on us. Some of us waded through the water to get to the docks while others climbed up on the bow of the boats against shore. After assessing the problem, we backed the docks back into place and we secured them with some docklines; we also ran ropes to shore and secured them to wood pilings for a little extra piece of mind. Fortunately none of the boats were damaged. A little lesson learned is to stay calm when things go awry. It could have been worse but everyone kept their head and we got the problem figured out.

Lagaerheads.jpg

That's enough for today. Look for Part 2 tomorrow!

[galleyslave]

Always wanted to do the Mon,and I'm highly anticipating the rest of this story...........

[gsent]

So why is Andy and Priscilla's boat on the travelift?

[Thalasso]

Grantz.
Where did you stay in Morgantown? Was looking for a place to tie up with water and electric and found nothing. Going to Green Cove Sun. from the Beaver

[Neverhome]

We can answer that, broke a prop shaft. Terry towed us into Greene Cove Yacht Club. The next day Tim Miller pulled the boat, put it on jack stands, plugged us in and gave us a ladder. We overnighted parts, Tim fixed the boat and put it back in the water. 26 hours out which has to be a record. We cannot say enough about Tim and Morgan and their hospitality and service. They made a bad situation much better. And of course everyone we were with and a special thanks to George who was waiting for us when we came in.

[Grantz]

Grantz.
Where did you stay in Morgantown? Was looking for a place to tie up with water and electric and found nothing. Going to Green Cove Sun. from the Beaver

Morgantown has transient docks just below (downriver) from the Morgantown lock. They have electric and water there. It $15/night on the honor system. Well worth it but they don't take reservations - it's first come first served. We've only been there during the week and we've never had any problem getting spots for three boats. If for some reason it is full, just down river is an amphitheater with docks and one power pedestal. I've never stayed there but heard its more than adequate.

Check out the map on the places page for more details.

[gsent]

Glad to hear that a few troubles did not ruin your vacation.