GPS and the Pursuit of the Belle Nori, I just got back from chasing the Belle of Cincinnati from Tell City to Chattanooga. I know she isn't a steamboat but I couldn't stand the withdrawal having not chased a boat for over twenty months. My son bought me a new GPS last Christmas & I found it very useful in driving from point to point along the river where I had never chased before. I took over six hundred photos & pared that list down to 217 for a slideshow of the chase. When I went through those photos & eliminated all with the stacks down or the skiff (that the towed alongside) showing my number of potential pictures to blow up to 8 x 10s dropped to 45. Of those 45 I will be printing 18 for inclusion in my photo album (more portable than my computer), If you are interested I can send you some files for your website. John Editor's Note: Being a fan of John's steamboat photography, steamboats.com of course jumped at the chance to post John's photos. Here they are: 002N Tell City 023N Departing Tell City 059N Ellis Island 088N Evansville 115N Cave In Rock 164N Cave in Rock 214N Smithland 234N Vicksburg 249N Grand Rivers 307N US 79 Bridge 374N Pickwick Landing 384N Waterloo Grounding 476N Departing Wheeler Lock 488N Decatur Lift Bridge 515N Bluff City 523N Sunnyside Landing 617N Above Pot Light 632N Below Cuck Light A few words from John: I know you noticed the little skiff that the BOC took with her on the trip (tied alongside her). It came in very handy when she got stuck on the sandbar between Eastport & Waterloo. In that photo you can see the passengers being ferried off the Belle with the use of that skiff (as far as I know it was the only time they used it on the trip). It took about six hours to get her off the sandbar with the assistance of a towboat. That sandbar clearly showed on the river charts & for some unknown reason she was out of the channel resulting in the grounding but they rescheduled the next day for departure from Florence, AL instead of Decatur, AL so the passengers wouldn't miss the thrill of locking through Wilson Lock and her 94 ft. lift. Sadly there was a local Marathon race being held that morning which was apparently routed across the bridge over the dam & I wasn't able to get any pictures of her locking through but did manage to get a few that I took of her departing the lock which I took from a part just upstream from the lock. John |