Sailing teacher reaches Mississippi River
Dennis Simpson, the Ohio teacher who left Pittsburgh on July 14 in a 15foot sailboat to sail the length of the Ohio River, made it to the Mississippi River. But he didn’t complete the entire journey — not yet.
On the second day of what was to be a 981-mile trip, the outboard motor he was relying on gave out in Chester, W.Va., and forced him to call his son to come rescue him. With the motor fixed, he restarted his odyssey July 20 near his home in Elizabethtown, Ohio, and he and the Wandering Wisp reached Cairo, Ill., on July 29.
He’d planned to drive back to Chester to cover the first leg of the trip, but decided he didn’t have time. He has to report to the middle school where he teaches robotics on Aug. 10. So he’ll do the rest next summer.
“Thank you to all who have contacted me or followed my progress!” he posted on his blog, sailingpointtopoint.blogspot.com. “I will send you an email when I resume in 2021.”
Lots of people began following his progress after the Pittsburgh PostGazette wrote about him and the journey as he departed from the Point in Pittsburgh, where the Ohio River begins. The story was picked up by the Associated Press and published in places along the route, as well as on a Facebook page for owners and friends of West Wight Potter sailboats. Mr. Simpson chronicled his adventure in words and photos on his blog.
This actually was his fourth attempt. He failed twice to cover the length of the Ohio in a kayak before success over the summers of 2012 and 2013. He dedicated that trip to Bonnie, his first wife whom he’d just lost to cancer. His current wife, Denise, indulges the 66-year-old’s annual tests of endurance.
This trip had its share of tribulations, ranging from summer heat, humidity and thunderstorms to
avoiding passing barges and other bigger craft. But the biggest turned out to be the lack of wind to push the sail.
“I was able to raise sail only five times on the entire trip,” Mr. Simpson reports. “I’m thinking it might have been better to travel up river with the wind, rather than down river against the wind.”
COVID-19 meant that one church he wanted to visit along the way wasn’t open to worshippers, but he still was able to find stores to replenish food, drinks and ice.
Yuck moments included sinking into mud nearly up to his knees trying to land his boat and dodging livestock guts chummed onto the water by commercial catfish fishermen. But he also much enjoyed a very fresh catfish dinner at a floating restaurant in Elizabethtown, Ill., “the culinary highlight of my trip,” as well as a giant pretzel while hanging out with young partiers in Evansville, Ind.
Despite the challenges, he did have a lot of fun and many “moments of absolute tranquility,” as he puts it.
“There are things worth seeing that cannot be seen except from the river, like the cliffs of Hanging Rock or the rugged beauty of Cave-inRock” — natural wonders he photographed in Kentucky and Illinois, respectively.
“The Ohio River is absolutely beautiful and underutilized in most areas,” he says. “I saw many more bald eagles this time than during my kayak trip seven years ago. There are still areas where waste is allowed to flow into the river, but for the most part the river continues to improve.
“The series of locks and dams create a very navigable but very different river than our forefathers would recognize. However, below the last lock and dam, the river is said to look much as it would have when explored by Lewis and Clark over 200 years ago.”
It didn’t go exactly as he planned, but Mr. Simpson still thinks of this journey as a success. He learned a lot, as he always does, even from his mistakes.
“When I resume my trip next summer, things will go much smoother and be much more enjoyable because of what I learned this summer.”