Day One

Thursday afternoon

We finished all the chores for the day; laundry, dinghy engine out of winter storage, dinghy test run to make sure all was ok, Dinghy covered and back on davits, trip to town for internet access, other miscellaneous little things. We also went out for a short boat ride to practice with the thrusters, John Bloch, the owner of the service that installed them was along.

Friday, June 05

We were both awake early, so it was up for a quick breakfast, then Diana tided up the cabin while I got dock lines off, the power off and cords disconnected and put away. By 6:45 we were out of the slip and headed out of the harbor.

It was a gorgeous a morning, a little chilly but a crystal clear sky and no wind. The low 50’s was pleasant knowing it was headed for near 80 in the afternoon. We quickly covered the distance to the Mississippi main channel (down current), crossed it to duck behind Mason Island and Island 525 which put us in the Illinois main channel. This saved us running down the Mississippi two miles then back up the Illinois another two. We immediately slowed done even with more power. The power setting for our normal cruise of 8 mph was getting us only 5.5 to 5.7 mph. It looks like it’s going to be a long couple of days.

It was hard to believe but the long planned and awaited journey was finally underway and the morning was perfect weather wise. Life is again good.

We enjoyed watching a beautiful rural (wilderness) setting passing us by. In many areas there is no shore line, the still flood level waters just extend back into the trees. In the areas where there is human presence it was mostly small homes, cabins, on stilts. The current water level extends in under many of them.

In the first 30 miles or so we crossed paths with two ferries plying the waters from one shore to the other and back again. As quick as the nose of the ferry touches shore 4 or 6 vehicles (whatever the load) drive off and those waiting on shore drive on, within a couple of minutes they back away from the shore and are off. The tow is alongside the barge and it swings around to face the other way while the barge does not change direction. They motor quickly across the river and repeat the process.
At Hardin, about mile 21, we come to the Hardin Highway Bridge; it is a lift bridge the chart says 25.9 feet clearance a flat pool. I radio the bridge master for what the current clearance is with the high water. He responds that it is about 19 feet. We need just over 13 feet with the bimini completely down and 17 with it up. Diana had gotten the screw driver to lower it while I was waiting for the reply, I tell her it was a wasted trip we are fine, we approach the bridge slowly (what else into the current) and I carefully watch the leading edge, it looks fine. Clunk, clunk, oops, the radio antenna is three feet above the bimini. Fortunately it is flexible and bends back and makes it thru without breaking. Reminder to self, “Lower the antenna in low clearance situations”.

Later in the afternoon as we approach the Florence Highway Bridge I am waiting to get a little closer to radio for his clearance when a down bound tow calls for an opening. I radio that I will pull out of the channel and wait just below the bridge and that I would like to then sneak thru before he closes.

There is basically no good way for a boat of our speed to do this stretch of the river, there is a good marina at mile 120 but that mean two long days with a night at anchor halfway. Since I would like to get to the marina before evening we decided to do more than half today. This meant that for about three hours total (in a several sections) we ran about 90% of power instead of normal cruise. This gets us an extra 2.5 to 3 mph but destroys fuel mileage. The guide books are no help on anchorages, the charts show islands that it might be possible to tuck up into, however none of them looked usable as we get to them. Finally at the head of Wilson Island, mile 73 there is a nice wide spot outside the channel just above the entrance to the backside of the island.

At 6:30 we slow checked the area carefully and dropped the anchor in about 18 feet of water. With light winds and a current of 1.5 mph even in close to shore we are hanging nice and steady on the anchor. The engine meters show 11.9 hours for the day, a much longer day then I would like but now tomorrow will be a much easier day. This will be one of, if not the longest days of the trip. The picture is of the bouy attached to our anchor.