Barge traffic is a 24 hour a day opperation and when they go by at night, you can only barely make out the barges in front of the well lit up tow.
The weather continued to be cool and when we left Beardstown I was again in all my layers, but as the day wore on the sun came out and I thought it was pretty nice.
As they say, "opposites attract", so of course, Denise didn't think it was warm enough to take off her jacket, let alone her shirt.
The lower portion of the Illinois is not all that scenic and even if you would be satisfied to see the farm fields, you couldn't, because the river, on both sides, is enclosed behind a levee. There continued to be some interesting industrial sites and barge loading facilities, but the bridges were few and far between.
There were two places where there was a ferry and both appeared to be pretty busy.
This one even included a combine.
We were headed to Grafton, IL where the Illinois meets the Mississippi.
They get their share of flooding in the spring and some times its really bad.
The boaters that had helped us tie up in Beardstown were already here and we spent a little more time talking to them, Ed and Willy from Evansville, IN. They told us about a famous old hotel in town with a restaurant and an historic bar.
There is a story about a time when the hotel was on fire and townspeople carried the bar from the burning building in order to save it.
Housing on the river front changed dramatically from the lower Illinois River.
The next morning we awoke to millions of May Flies (at least thats what someone else said they were) all over the dock, our boat and the other boats that were there.
Leaving the marina, it was less than a mile to the actual junction of the Illinois and the Mississippi and we immediately picked up more speed. I had figured I was getting about a half to three quarters a mile an hour boost on the Illinois and now it was about a mile and a half. You can get a sense of the current when you see it rushing by a bouy.
Just into the Mississippi we came upon the small town of Portage des Sioux, MO. When flood waters stopped just short of inundating the town in 1951 a shrine, called Our Lady of the Rivers was built. In mid July every year the town holds the Blessing of the Fleet ceremony.
As we approached Alton, IL it was time to consider fuel again. I didn't deparately need it, but after Alton there is only one more spot where fuel is available until you get all the way to Kentucky. I called ahead to the famed Hoppies Marina, 60 miles downriver from Alton, but surprisingly, Alton was several cents cheaper so we made a quick stop and filled up. We had two locks to get through between Alton and St Louis.
At the first one we encountered a different style from what I'd seen prior. Since we were going down in elevation, the gate at the up river end came up just a foot or two from the bottom to stop the water from flowing in. Then the water in the lock was let out and down we went.
Five miles down river from the Mel Price Lock and Dam the Missouri river joined the Mississippi and the current jumped up again, soon we were topping 13 miles and hour, about 4 MPH higher than from what we had been doing. We were only able to enjoy this ride for a short distance because the turbulence is so great that a 10 mile canal was built to keep boats, including the commercial traffic from the dangerous currents.
At the end of the canal is the Chain of Rocks Lock and Dam. This is the last lock and dam on the Mississippi. Consequently, the barge tows become increasingly larger, since they don't have to fit in locks anymore. We were told of tows as large as 48 barges in a 6 by 8 configuration. The largest we actually saw though was "only" 30.
When one of these goes by heading up stream they are working extra hard and the water they churn up and the amount of water displaced creates very turbulent conditions for more than a mile down stream.
When we exited this last lock we were now in the downtown St Louis area. Another place, among many on this trip, that Denise had never been to. I was able to snap a few pictures while dodging the many commercial vessels moving up and down the river.
There could have been more and better pictures of the arch, but it was right after this picture that the camera battery went dead. I had neglected to check the level and recharge it, so from here to about 20 miles further south, there are no pictures.
We continued on to Hoppies and with the river pushing us along at 12 and 13 MPH, we arrived at 3PM. We had read about the historic town of Kimswick, MO, where Hoppies is located and even had a restaurant recommendation from one of the lock masters, but we found out when we arrived that this restaurant, the only one in town, was only open from 10 AM til 3 PM. Our new friends, Ed and Willy were already here on their boat, "Wilhelmina", a beautiful 52' Krogen Express.
Also here was the boat "Harem", from Holland, MI with Al, Julie and son in law Brad aboard. We had first met them at Starved Rock a few days ago, but hadn't seen them for a day or so.
In case you're wondering, Al and Julie have 6 daughters, hence the name Harem. Poor Al.
Besides being the last stop for fuel for the next 250 miles, Hoppies is famous for providing a wealth of current river information and each afternoon Fern Hoppie holds a gathering of all the boaters who are in. She updates things that may have changed since the books last came out and also shares general knowledge that is especially helpful to rookies like us.
We had a lot of discussion about where we might stop between Hoppies and the Ohio river, a distance of 158 miles. There are not a lot of good anchorages and no marinas, so a good plan was needed and it seemed no matter how you split it up, there was going to be a long day involved. Harem and us decided to make the next day a long one and shoot for an anchorage 110 miles down river and we were up and moving at 7 AM. A few hours into the trip, Wilhelmina caught up and over the radio we learned they had changed from their original plan and were now also shooting for the same anchorage. Since both of these boats cruise a little faster than me, I boosted the RPMs a little and with the help of the strong current we started cruising at a fairly consistent 14 MPH.
I had already seen alot of quarry operations along the Illinois, but they were getting bigger along the Mississippi and I was staying entertained watching all of the action.
We made the 110 miles by 4PM and even though I was going fast enough for Denise to water ski if she wanted, both Harem and Wilhelmina were already in the anchorage when we got there. They had rafted bow to stern and were waiting for us to tie up to Harem, also bow to stern. Since they each had an anchor down already we didn't see a need for a third.
There were three other boats already there and they too were all rafted together.
Denise especially wanted this next picture posted in memory of her, our, friend Marilyn.
Of course, being rafted, we all got together for cocktail hour.
Since we had such success going the 110 miles this day, we decided to shoot for 107 the next day, which would take us all the way to the mouth of the Cumberland River where it meets the Ohio. There was a bit of unknown in this plan, however, as only the first 48 miles were with the Mississippi current, then there were 59 more against the current of the Ohio. I had read online that it was running in the 2 to 2.5 knot range, plus there were two locks on the Ohio.
Again we were up early and headed back into the channel.
Still running at 2200 RPMs, we found spots in the last stretch of the Mississippi where we were running near 16 MPH and consistently over 15. That may not sound exciting to many, but the average for the entire trip to this point is 8.5, so its really. really fast to me.
We were pleasantly surprised on the Ohio and only dropped to around 9 MPH, but it wasn't long and the forecasted thunderstorms arrived. The first squall went by behind us, but soon enough we were in a deluge. Visibility was at a minimum and there was plenty of commercial traffic to deal with, but the brunt of the storm soon disipated and we only had to deal with a steady drizzle.
There is a new lock and dam that is under construction that will replace the two current locks in this part of the river when it opens in 2014. Its amazing at the amount of infrastructure that is put in place to build these locks and dam.
The first lock that we would normally go through was not operating because the river was high enough that they can lower the "wickets" in the dam and we can cruise over the top, which we did. The second lock, though, was operating and it was still raining a little when we were ready to go through. While I had been cruising at 9 MPH, Harem was a little faster and Wilhelmina had kicked it up, but arrived at the lock and had to wait an hour and a half for commerical traffic. We caught up in that time and only waited about 20 minutes.
The rain had let up at this point, but Denise was prepared in case it started again.
We entered the lock just as a tow entered going the other way in the bigger chamber.
I doubt Denise was enjoying this as much as the pictures might indicate, but she has been the ultimate good sport ever since we left Florida.
It was two more hours to the mouth of the Cumberland and again Harem and Wilhelmina were in the process of anchoring when we got there. Again there were three other boats already there, but a different three than the night before. This time we only needed one anchor. It was Sunday night and after coctail hour everyone went back to their own boat and had dinner. After dinner we got together again on Tranquility and watched Sunday Night Football.
From here it was only 30 miles to the Barkley Lock and Dam, but again it was raining and this time it didn't let up for our locking. Fortunately, we had a floating bollard and Denise didn't need to go outside.
She had informed me that morning that her 4 to 6 time a year bronchitis attack was starting. Its become such a routine for her that she automatically gets shots, usually for 3 to 4 days in a row to kill it.
We only had another couple of miles to the Green Turtle Bay Marina at Grand Rivers, KY and in that time I was able to switch Denise's car rental to that afternoon. Soon after our arrival at Green Turtle Bay we were on our way to Paducah, KY where Denise was picking up a rental car to drive back to Peoria. She made it, after a couple of hours delay dealing with road construction and has already had a shot.
My friends Mike and Patricia from Roscoe arrived and we made preparations for our departure. I'll pick up again in a couple of days as we are taking a side trip up the Cumberland to Nashville, TN.
No comments:
Post a Comment