O God, thy Sea is so great and my boat so small

 

October 9, Paducah KY. Well, we are now on the Ohio River and traveling Up Bound, against a 2-knot current. We completed the Illinois River a week ago last Sunday and spent Sunday night at Grafton Il, where the Illinois and Mississippi River meet. Monday morning, we began our journey on the Mighty Mississippi River and yesterday we turned north onto the Ohio River and are about halfway thru our time on the Ohio. So here is a review of our week.

Oh, before we get into the cruising this week, I wanted to mention two big wins this week: first we found some excellent stuff to clean spider poop with, it works great! I know I am beating this topic like a drum, but we spent our first night in covered dockage this week and it was crazy thick with the little critters. But best was that I found a publication “Skipper Bob’s” that has all the bridge heights listed by the mile, that allows me to know well in advance when I need to have the bridge tenders open their bridges. Two sweet victories.

 

 

Sunday October 2,2022 Travel Day #65, Harden IL to Grafton Harbor Il: Total Distance Traveled: 21 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 3.0 Hours: 0 Lock. We started our last day on the Illinois River around 9 AM as we only had a short distance to go to Grafton Harbor Marina which is a Loopers favorite. Grafton is a cool town, full of bars and restaurants and is a very tourist village. Lots of shops and great people watching. The river was very still Sunday morning, and we had a pleasant cruise with extraordinarily little industry, lots of nice countryside. We traveled alone that morning and made our way into Grafton before lunch and quickly settled in. They had an excellent restaurant, an Oyster bar with excellent seafood. It was located on the second level of the marina, and it was fun. The place was hopping with many locals on their boats and folks coming and going. We had a wonderful lunch and even decided to go back for dinner. We walked around town later that afternoon and checked out the local flavor. Fun day and dinner that night was outstanding, glad we made that call. This was the first time we ever stayed in covered slips. I thought it was cool, but Meredith thought they were creepy and more spiders. I will show some pictures of their nest, crazy thick with them.

 

No Nebo Track today

Alton IL

Meredith and Miles Davis

Found a really cool shop that sells all kinds of rough cut lumber

 

 

 

Covered Storage 

 

Spider Nest next to the boat

Meredith is not a happy lady 

Tinn behind us in the Lock

Tieng off to the floating Bollards 

Exiting The Lock

Monday October 3,2022 Travel Day #66, Grafton IL to Alton IL: Total Distance Traveled: 18 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 2 Hours: 0 Locks. Once again, we had a short cruise to go to Alton Harbor only eighteen miles and we were planning to send two days in Alton, so we took our time departing and had a big breakfast before shoving off. The river again remained very rural and peaceful. Not many houses on this section of the river and the tows were exceptionally light, we only passed four that morning. Once again, we traveled alone, and it was an easy morning. When we got to Alton, we filled our diesel tanks as the next three hundred miles has extremely limited services and in fact only one gas stop between here and Kentucky. I did not want to risk filling or pumping out at the last stop, so we got everything done in Grafton.

Once we got done at the Fuel dock, we found our slip and it was an extremely easy in and out, end of the finger pier. Meredith befriended the Harbormaster when we were fueling and asked for uncovered dockage and she accommodated us. That afternoon we walked all around Alton which did not take long. Unfortunately, most stores were closed on Monday which seems typical these days. We went back to the boat and had a nice dinner and hung out. There were several loopers at the Marina, so we caught up with several old travel mates that we had been separated from when we went back to Maine. Always nice to catch up with old Buddy Boats!

Tuesday, we went shopping for food, the local grocery store will pick you up at the marina and drop you off which was excellent. The store was two miles away, so we walked to the store and one of the owners drove us back with all our goods. Great deal for both of us.

Our Lady of The Rivers

Mississippi River

 

Wednesday October 5,2022, Travel Day #67, Alton IL to Kimmswick MO, Total Distance Traveled: 44 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 6 Hours 2 Lock. We Left Alton with two buddy boats who we have traveled with in the past, Rival and Tinn. A genuinely nice couple owns Rival, both retired military, early fifty’s, he was a helicopter pilot, (I will follow his lead any day!). Tinn owners are a nice Norwegian couple our age. They had their boat shipped over and began the Loop this Spring. We had the only two locks that we have on the Mississippi on Wednesday and forty-three miles to complete. We had originally planned on an 8 AM departure, and I had agreed to contact the lock at 6:30 to see what the commercial traffic looked like. When I called the Lock at 6:30 AM the lockmaster said we had to be there by 7:30 or it would be a two-hour delay. Two quick phone calls and we were underway at 7:15 and cruised right into the lock, which was two miles from the marina.

We were in and out of the lock in 45 minutes and on our way to the second lock eight miles downriver, the Mel Price Dam which according to The Waterway Guide handles 30% of all the worlds grain, and Her Idea! When we arrived, they were expecting us, and we were able to glide right in no waiting. One reason to be nice to the lockmasters is they do all chat and if you upset them or insult them, they will just make you wait. It is not unheard of if you are disrespectful to them, they will hold you up for hours, which is not fun. To me its just like talking to a police officer, yes sir, not sir, thank you sir! We had the same pleasant response from the lockmaster, and I am not sure it even took 45 minutes. We then had an easy thirty-two miles  left dodging barges.

The highlight of the day is around 10:30 AM we went through St. Louis and right by The Arch. Rival was kind enough to slow down and we passed, and he took the picture below. We returned the favor and go their picture and Tinn’s. The rest of the morning was very pleasant once we got out a very industrial sections of St Louis.

We spent the night at a looper favorite Hoppies, which are just three barges tied together on the side of the Mississippi River and it is the last fuel stop from many miles. We walked into town which was a short mile away and were surprised with how nice the town of Kimmswick MO (we are now in Missouri by the way) Tons of shops, and it was remarkably busy. So, we spent some time walking around and then headed back to the boat for Docktails. At 5 PM the owner gave a nice presentation on the next two sections of the river which was highly informative. We cooked dinner on the boat and watch a bit of TV then off to bed.

 

Track

 Her Idea cruising under The Arch

St Louis Skyline

Mississippi River

Nice Pad

 

Thursday October 6, 2022, Travel Day #68, Kimmswick MO, to Kaskaskia Wall: Total Distance Traveled: 41 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 6.5 Hours 0 locks. We only had a 5-hour trip this morning and all six boats at Hoppies were going to the same location tonight. There are very few marines in this area, so we are all staying on a wall at a lock on the Kaskaskia River. The next two nights we must find an anchorage and with the water being so exceptionally low, it is overly concerning. We will find something, but I am sure we will have to break up. The water is fifteen feet below normal, which is more than usual. In the fall it is normally 8-10 feet lower after the summer. However, that extra five feet has made many of the safe anchorages unusable. I have three places picked out and hope that two of them work. I do not really have a plan B for tomorrow, so I plan to depart early. We must go sixty-nine miles in one day which is more than our normal 40-50 miles.

We had planned to leave at 9 that morning being a short day but I got bored hanging around and so we took off just after 8 and one boat followed us. The rest of the gang was 15 minutes behind us so we were spread out over three miles and still could talk on the radio about what tows were coming and going. We got to the Lock (which we will not pass through we will go back out to the Mississippi in the morning) around 12:30 and helped each other land. We had lunch and just did boat projects. One problem with this lock is you cannot get off, so we are stuck on the concrete wall all afternoon. I am writing this blog and Meredith is walking back and forth which several others have been doing. So, I think I will put the laptop away and go for a stroll, so I will not feel guilty at Docktails. We will be eating on the boat, and an early evening so we can get underway first thing in the morning.

I will include some pictures of the Lock and wall we are on; I wish I had done so last night at Hoppies.

Track

Pictures

 Cool Spot under construction 

 The Kaskaskia Lock Wall 

Docktails

Friday October 7,2022, Travel Day #69, Kaskaskia MO to Little Diversion anchorage: Total Distance Traveled Miles 69, Total Time Traveled 9 Hours. We had a great night on the lock wall with eight boats. We had two non-loopers tie up while we were chatting, and the four individuals joined us. It was a fun night and we ended up staying through sunset and did not get back on the boat until almost 8 PM…. enough said. We had talked about departing at 8 but we were up at 6:30 so Her Idea took off at 7:30 and the rest of the Loopers left around 7:45. We all traveled at 12 knots all day and so we stayed about five miles ahead of the pack. The two knots of favorable current enabling us to travel at 12 knots and we only consume fuel at our 10-knot consumption rate, win win.

This part of the Mississippi once again was very rural and pretty. It also seemed remote, overall, a wonderful day cruising. We did not have that many tugs to deal with and the river is so wide that unless you must pass them on a corner, you see them coming. The captains do an excellent job of responding, which is what we had heard they did but we did not have that when we started on the Illinois River. It is nice to have so much room in the channel that you see them coming on the long straight ways and ask them what side they want you to pass them on.

 

So, the question you ask is “do you want me on your One or your Two”. The One side is passing the approaching or overtaking ship Port to Port, The Two is Starboard to Starboard. We use our VHF radio to hail them, and they respond, “see you on my One” or “see you on my two.” This originally was done with bells one ring, or two rings. You can also use a horn and they can give you one blast Port to Port or two Blasts Starboard to starboard. Here is a little reminder we have on the helm, if it is the 1 go right, Port to Port: if it is the 2-steer left.

One other aid in this picture is the painted piece of wood green and red. The rule of thumb is “red right returning” meaning all red makes are on your right when returning to port. On the great lakes and the rivers, they vary from one to the other. Now, it is the same rule, one just needs understand, are you returning to port? or the ocean? Here on the Mississippi, we are downbound headed to New Orleans or Mobile and so all green marks on starboard. Tomorrow when we enter the Ohio River, we will be upbound so all red marks will be on starboard. We just flip the stick to provide us a quick reminder what side we leave the red and green marks.

Tonight, we are anchored in Little Diversion Channel outside of Cape Girardeau MO. Since we got here first, we were able to anchor in the front and the others slipped in behind us and was able to get on the hook by the time the others came. We are in eight feet of water and tucked inside maybe one hundred yards off the Mississippi River. I dropped a stern anchor so I would not be in their way as they approached and will leave it out tonight, so I do not swing. It is tight in here and normally there is a lot more water. I will post some pictures. Hoping it will not get any windier, as it is blowing a bit now. We are hoping when the sun goes down it also goes down. Parts of the state are predicting a frost tonight so it should be a chilly start to the morning.

 

Pictures

They sure are planning on the river to flood sometime

At anchor looking out of the Channel toward the Mississippi

 Little Diversion Channel  Anchorage for the night 

 Pretty skinny channel. You can see how low the water is and how muddy the botom was 

 The Lineup for the night 

Saturday October 8,2022 Travel Day #70 Little Division to Paducah KY: Total Distance Traveled 96 Miles, Total Time Traveled 9.5 Hours. We had reservation for Paducah for Sunday night and were on the wait list for Saturday. Since we had not cleared the list, we were planning to go forty-eight miles Saturday to the junction of the Mississippi and The Ohio rivers in Cairo IL. However, we did clear on Friday afternoon and decided we would make Paducah which was almost 100-mile day and one lock our A plan, and if we did not make good time to the Ohio or had a foggy morning which would delay our departure, we could still anchor out at rivers junction.

 We had a good night on the anchor and got up at 5:30 so we could be underway by 6:30 if it was clear. Unfortunately, it was foggy / misty, and we were unable to leave until 7 AM which worked out fine. The anchor was a mess. We had dropped a stern anchor so we would not swing in the tight channel, and I had to retrieve that first. When I pulled the main anchor up, it was covered in thick mud. Of course I was a mess when I got everything put away. It also was 36 degrees, but I was working too hard with my headlamp on I was not cold until we settled in and got underway. I am sure I was sight of sore eyes! The sunrise was 7:15 so the delay was a good thing.

Going down the Mississippi we had a favorable two knot current however when we hit the Ohio River, we would be upbound and have a 2-3 knot current against us. We ran the engines at 1700 RPM all day and on the Mississippi, we were traveling at 13 MPH and when we turned on to the Ohio, we were only doing 8.5 MPH. The other unknown variable was the lock . Sometimes it takes an hour sometimes two, you never know. We lucked out and when we got to the Olmstead Lock, the lockmaster had us come right in and we went through in 15 minutes, extremely fortunate, and allowed us to get to Paducah by 5 PM.

There were eight other loopers on the dock, so they helped us in and there was just enough room for Her Idea. You know how it goes “first up best dressed,” the last person to arrive usually has the worst spot. We were so happy to get here so it did not matter, grateful to arrive in the light with willing hands to help. We moved the boat this morning to a favorable spot on the riverside of the dock after several loopers took off, so we are good to go. It all about not being penned in and having the ability to leave when you want in the morning which we are poised to do tomorrow.

We were extremely impressed with the Mississippi River, very rural and pretty. It was extremely wide, so it made going by barges much easier. The tow captains were helpful, and we did not encounter any close calls traveling down the 218 miles that we cruised. The Ohio is also very wide most a mile wide. The danger of course is the river might be that wide however, the channel is only 300-500 yards, and you must stay in the channel. When we turned onto the river it was amazing how much we slowed down After spending 4 hours going thirteen, then to go the next forty-six miles at 9 felt like we were crawling. You can see the river side in the pictures. We will travel only one hundred miles on the Ohio river half yesterday and the other half tomorrow and turn off at the Cumberland River.

No Nebo log today and it was our longest travel day, bummed.

Chilly Start to the day

This has been here a while

Nice homes on the hillside overlooking the River

 Ohio River

Only Lock on The Ohio The Olmstead Lock

I wont miss these barges

This week the Great Loop association is conducting their Fall Rendezvous in Paris Tennessee and there are about sixty boats at that marina. We have attended two of these Rendezvous in the past and they are excellent. Our strategy has been to slip by everyone and get ahead of the fleet so it will be easier to get marinas and anchorages in the coming weeks. The event goes Sunday through Thursday so most Loopers will start to depart Friday and we cruise by Paris TN on Wednesday so we will have a two-day head start. We are planning to get to Mobile AL. the last week of October and then fly to Denver for Halloween. We sure are missing all our family and fortunately they are all in the great state of Colorado.  

Bode Michael Bosson almost 3

 Crosby Jack Bosson 6 3/4

Fair Winds