We Are Off

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Friday, May 23, 2008
Since we had a relatively short day planned for today we had our breakfast got cleaned up (still connected to shore power) and got underway at 8:20. The planned called for two locks and 63.5 miles to a place called Hoppies.


This eagle stands guard over the entrance to Polestar Marina where we have been for the last two weeks.


Shortly after leaving we passed the Grafton Ferry. It had been not operating for several weeks because of high water and had just gone back into service the day before. While out of service it had been docked close to us at Polestar.










Portage Des Sioux was nearly flooded in 1951 but the water didn't reach the town. In thanksgiving for this they erected a large shrine along the river.


















The locks are the last two on the Mississippi all the way to the Gulf. They are very busy. The Illinois River joins the Mississippi before the first one and the Missouri joins just after the first lock. They each have two chambers, the main is 110 by 1200 feet, and the auxiliary is 110 by 600. By comparison the Hastings and Red Wing are both 110 by 600. In the larger locks a tow of 3 wide by 5 long will fit in a single locking while on the smaller lock it must be broken in half and locks thru in two lockages.

The weather was not bad but still cool and windy enough that we choose to drive from the lower helm all day. The boat cruises at 8 mph at 1800 rpm and 9 at 1900. At these setting we get 4 and 3.5 mpg. We got out into the main channel and set the engines and away we went at 10.2 to 10.8 because of the aid of the current.


This is just a sample of the beautiful river bluffs along the way. Most are rather remote but there also many lovely home that I am sure have great views.

With the current we made the 21 miles to the Mel Price Lock in two hours. When we had it in site I called the lock on the VHF radio requesting lockage. He replied that the main chamber was busy but he would have the auxiliary ready by the time we got there. The gate was open and we drove right in. Because of the high water the drop at this lock was only one foot instead of the normal seven of eight. Because of this we were told to just float in the chamber rather than tying to the wall, this sounded good but turned out to provide some problems. There was a large tree trunk floating in the chamber right where the rear gates needed to close. It took about ten minutes before he was able to start closing the gates. There was about a ten mile and hour wind blowing with gusts to twenty and it was swirling in the lock chamber. The Captain worked hard to keep the boat of the wall of the lock only to find himself being blown into the wall on the other side. A couple of time he was not successful with the first dings to the new boat. Fortunately only to the rub rail that is designed to take this specific abuse.

By 10:40 we were on our way. It is then just a few miles to the Missouri joining and increasing the current. This is followed by a stretch of bad water known as chain of rocks. Since this is not passable a canal has been dug to bypass it. It is nine miles long with lock 27 at the south end. We obeyed the sign and entered the canal, no current, back to eight mph. By 11:45 we had two tows and the lock in sight. With the permission of the tow captain we went around him and I called the lock requesting passage. A very pleasant lady replied “Both chambers were closed she would record are request. There was no estimate of reopen.” I began to try and find an alternative. There are no marinas without going back up thru the previous lock and recommended anchorages. We pulled over to the side of the canal and dropped a short anchor to hold position while we waited. We listened to the radio traffic as the lock communicated with the work the divers where working out of and to a third tow behind us and three tow upbound request passage. After about half an hour the lock announced that the auxiliary lock was going back into service. Two upbound tows were advised they would be locked up first. One had only five barges and the other none so they both fit in a single lockage. She then began polling the down bound tows waiting with us. (Pleasure craft are last on the priority list.) All three agreed that they would have to break there tow and do a double lockage, all three chose to wait for the main chamber. The call then went out that the pleasure craft would be next, (Hey that’s us). We waited for the chamber to empty and by 1:30 we were on our way. Although we were delayed about an hour we thought ourselves very lucky, had we had to wait for 3 doubles it would have been over six hours.

Just after the lock the canal rejoins the main river and a very narrow river channel thru St Louis carries the combined flow of three rivers. At 1800 rpm we were doing 12.5 to 13 mph. We quickly saw the St. Louis skyline including the arch (in picture behind center of bridge span). Unfortunately there is no place for a pleasure craft to stop. Just south of St Louis the river is very commercial with huge barge fleeting areas.












Here is downtown thru the arch.

We were then two hours from Hoppies. At 4:00 we pulled up to the dock at Hoppies. “Hoppie Hopkins and his wife Fern run a very low key marina. They have a few locals that keep a boat there and provide the only place to stop and fuel for the next 230 miles. Their dock consists of four old deck barges lined up and securely anchored. You just tie alongside in five knots of current. Fern gives a briefing every afternoon on the barge, there is shelter and comfortable seating. She gives information of what to expect, dangerous parts of the river, choice of where you can anchor (they defer with water level) and other interesting information.















After our briefing we walked to the town of Kimmswick, less than half mile.

There are some interesting estates along the way and the town is a tourist town for day trippers from St Louis.







This one is not large but someone obviously loved stone work.








A grandson of the original Anheuser donate thiers to the city, the home is now a museum and the rest is used by Ride On St Louis for horse therpy for disabled children.





















Fortunately by the time we got there all the souvenir shops were closed for the day. Unfortunately so was an excellent restaurant. We found a lovely sidewalk shop that had soup, salads and sandwiches.









After pleasant walk back to the boat Diana watched the pilot episode of Stargate 1.

All and all a good day.


Saturday, May 24, 2008

We had a quick breakfast and we were of the dock at Hoppies at 7:00. It was 109 miles of fast travel down river to a place called Little Diversion River. We set the engines at 1800 and did 12 plus to 13.5 mph.

We tried to teach the deck hands to drive but they showed no aptidute and less interest in it.




















They huddled close together when we hit the big tow wakes.













The rest of the time they just sleeped on the job.
Notice they are sleeping in sync.












Laurie, notice how nice the new rug looks in the center of the cabin.



We saw a beautiful river with some lovely bluffs, both stone and tree covered, also several large quarry where stone bluffs become stone and main sizes of gravel and one producing cement.


We also saw the Coast Guard busy setting (resetting bouys).












Here is a sample of how fast the current was running.

















This is Grand Tower Rock. When the water is down it is not an island. It is mentioned in the journals of the early explores.













This is the muriel on the Cape Giradeu sea levie. Notice the gates at either end that allow access to the river bank in low water but can be closed when the water gets really high.










By 4:00 PM we were into the Diversion Channel and dropping anchor. The channel was originally dredged to drain a large area of southeast Missouri to create farm land. They are just now beginning to replant some of the swamp forests. At low water it makes a great anchorage in about 10 feet of water in a quiet channel 150 feet wide. Today we have over thirty feet of water with the same width. I tried a short anchor but a couple of wind gust convinced me to lengthen it. Ten minutes later we had swung so that our stern was in the brush on the shore, (depth finder still showed 20 feet in the middle of the boat). I decide we had to have a stern anchor so I got out the spare and the spare rode (rope and chain for the none sailors) and we let out all 220 feet of the main anchor dropped the stern anchor then pulled are self forward so the boat was between the two anchors. Nice and secure right down the middle of the channel.
Diana went up on the mid deck to sit in the sun and read and enjoy the rest of a beautiful afternoon. Sunny and low 70s. After a light dinner I worked on this blog and Diana is watching another Stargate.

Another very good day.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

It was up early and get underway as quickly as possible knowing it was going to be our longest day. The plan was 49 miles more down the Mississippi to Cario, IL where we turn at start up the Ohio. Then it is 56 miles up the Ohio to the mouth of the Cumberland River where there is a towhead (island) with a channel behind it to anchor behind. Because of the difference in going down current then up the 48 miles took four hours and the 56 took nine hours.
We started by having to pull two anchors, first by letting the main anchor way out so the boat could be pulled back to recover the stern anchor (by hand) then pulling forward to recover the main anchor (I really love my new windlass). All went without a problem and we were underway at 6:20.
The trip down the Mississippi was more pretty scenery and lots of northbound tows. There were six or seven in the four hours we were going down river. For those of you that are not river boater, they are pushing a huge mass against the current, they are not going that fast so that don’t create much of a normal wake. However, since they have 6000 to 8000 horses turn large propellers they create a huge prop wash. This a standing wave at their stern that is 6 to 8 feet high. These waves roll in place for a half mile behind them and combine with the current and to make very turbulent conditions for five to ten minutes after they go by.




This pictures is the junction, left of the point is the Mississippi and to the right is the Ohio.


The second picture shows barges all over the river if you look closely.
At 10:30 we turned the corner at Cario, IL and started up the Ohio. Cario is a very busy commercial river with barges everywhere. The Ohio is a much wider river with some pretty stretches though with high water there was a lot of debris in the water that made for a lot of maneuvering.




Above Cario the Corp of Army Engineers is building a new lock and dam, the Olmsted Lock was started in the early nineties and will not be complete until 2013. When it is done it will replace two older locks (lock 52 and 53). The problem is that during the season the water level here varies by 40 to 50 feet and constructing a lock to work at the different levels is an engineering challenge.


The photo shows some of what is done so far, note the size of the lock towers compared to the crane and tow.
Lock 52 and 53 are old and a real bottle neck to barge traffic when the water is low. When the water is high they take section of the dam out (called wickets) and the traffic just goes around the lock. We motored right past both and the water was so high that the entire lock structure was below water.
The weather was perfect, a haze sun with temperatures in the mid 80s. The wind was what my sailing friends call one with occasional gusts to two.
This picture shows the width of the Ohio also the winds.
We went on past Metropolis, IL but Clark Kent was apparently out of town we didn’t see him. There continued to be heavy tow traffic with almost no recreational boats other than an occasional small runabout.
Next up was Paducah, KY which is also the junction of the Tennessee River.


This picture shows the Tennessee on the right and the Ohio on the left.












We continued on and at 7:30 we were at the junction of the Cumberland River and pulled in behind the Cumberland Towhead. Again because of the high water we found ourselves anchor in water that was 27 feet instead of 8 to 10. However, unlike last night there was a current of 2 to 3 mph and room to swing. It quickly became apparent that we had a solid anchor and we watched a beautiful sunset.


Monday, May 26, 2008

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Today we need to run just 32 miles up the Cumberland to Green Turtle Bay Marina. There is one lock just before GTB. We had hoped to get a reasonable early start so that we could be in the marina by early afternoon.
We woke to a pretty sunrise but in the other direction it was very dark with lighting visible, you know which side won. We did a couple of chores around the boat and listen to the weather forecast say it should clear in a couple hours.
As I sit here in water 17 -18 feet higher than normal in a torrential downpour I am think that I need to get my nephew who is studying to be a minister to give me a full explanation of the biblical story of forty days and forty nights.

Finally about eight thirty it cleared. We (the windlass) hauled the anchor and headed up the river. The Cumberland is a very narrow mostly rural river in this stretch. It is easy driving, it is generally deep bank to bank, jus t keep it in the middle and follow the bends. We had the river to ourselves. In thirty miles we past one tow with no barges and then half a dozen fisherman, all in the last three miles.
The weather was not great, cloudy, near seventy with light winds and intermittent rain showers, but we had a nice last morning and Diana was very busy photographing the scenery and a great abundance of birds.

We saw several what we believe to be members of the volture family drying their wings (bird book is still in MN) maybe one of you can identify it for us.

The current was much less than the Ohio and we cruised along easily at about 8 mph. By 12:30 we had the lock in site and called him on the VHF. I told him we were about fifteen minutes out. He said the lock was up but he would empty it and be ready for us in about fifteen. We arrived throttled back and waited maybe two or three minutes and the gate opened and we got the green light. Diana went out in a light drizzle and caught the floating bollard without a problem. The gates closed and we were raised 42 feet (at normal water level it is 57). The gates opened and Admiral decides she would drive the boat out of the lock, so the Captain became the deck hand.


We radioed Green Turtle Bay Marina and (we called yesterday and reserved a slip) and they told us where the slip was and we motored in and two friendly dock hands helped us into the slip. After four fun but long days we are here and ready to relax. There is much to do, wash the boat, laundry, wash the other half of the boat, fuel up, fill the water tank, (empty the other tank) wash the third and fourth halves of the boat but it can all wait until tomorrow.