OHIO RIVER TO THE CUMBERLAND RIVER TO BARKLEY LAKE AND GREEN TURTLE BAY

My last post described our run down the Mississippi River.  At the end of the middle Mississippi, there is yet another confluence; that being with the Ohio River.  The Ohio River is another one of America's premier western waterways known for its commercial importance and its recreational opportunities.  The Ohio River goes all the way from its mouth in Illinois to Pittsburgh, PA!  While it sure would be interesting to do that run, it will have to wait.

We left our very protected anchorage at Mile Marker 7 on the middle Mississippi, and headed out early.  Our goal was to make it all the way to Cumberland Towhead to anchor for the night.  We did.  The trip was long.  We travelled the final 7 miles on the Mississippi in an interesting low lying fog.  The sunrise was quite beautiful and it was quite cool out.  The colors were wonderful.  Things cleared up nicely, however, as we approached the confluence of the two rivers. 

The confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio.  The Ohio goes to the upper left.

As we got closer, we knew a lot was going on nearby, or rather all around us.  The AIS screen was quite busy.  The barge companies like to use the mouth of the Ohio River as a "fleeting area".  This is where they line up and connect barge loads.  So, you have the middle of the river all congested with loads being stacked.  You have all these smaller pushers moving barges in all directions to be stacked.  Then you have the big towboats getting ready to connect to these huge loads.  Then sometimes, the big tows are turning their loads around.  This takes up a lot of river.  There are simply too many moving boats all around to try to keep track of them all.  I can only imagine how an overloaded Air Traffic Controller must feel with way too many planes moving around to possibly get them all on the ground safely.  So what you have to do is pick the ones that can or will affect you in the immediate future, and keep moving, dodging and weaving, and try to stay out of everybody's way.  Clearly, little fibreglass tugs like ours wouldn't survive any kind of a scuffle with a barge loaded with 1500 tons of river gravel.

Lookouts?

After the first couple miles on the Ohio, you get past the fleeting area and things really mellow out.  Unfortunately, we were travelling UP stream now, so the going was pretty slow.  I generally don't concern myself with speed.  Rather, I focus on fuel consumption which is a function of RPM's of the main engine.  If it gets ridiculous, I will make adjustments, but generally, I know what setting is most efficient, and I stick with it regardless of the speed.  On the Ohio River, however, there were sections where we were making barely 4 knots, so I goosed it up a little and settled for 5.5;  still pretty slow, but at least it feels like you are making some headway.

The Ohlmstead lock and Dam Construction Site

There were a couple other instances where we actually had to communicate with other traffic, but generally, it was a quiet run.  There are locks on the lower section of the Ohio.  The Ohlmstead Lock and Dam complex is under construction.  It's a massive project.  There's a lot more steel and concrete than you can certainly shake a stick at, that's for sure.  I think the engineers who design such projects are impressive.  But, I think the guys who make it happen are even more so.  Ok.  So, where do we start?  Well, boys, we've basically got to stop the flow of the Ohio River, or at least change its natural course, so we can get these here wickets in place.  Then, we have to pour about a billion yards of concrete to hold all this junk together.  Then, once that's done, we have to install a lock.  All of this before coffee, right?  Wrong.  It takes years to build these things.  I'm pretty sure the Ohlmstead project has been going on since the early part of 2007.  It looks like it's getting pretty close to done.  It is supposed to replace locks and dams 52 and 53.  We expected to lock up twice on the Ohio at 52 and 53, but alas, the water level was high enough in the river that the ACOE could lower the wickets and we could simply stay on the sailing/buoy line and go right on by. 

The confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio.

By the end of the day, we were nearing the confluence of the Ohio and the Tennessee Rivers.  At this point, Kentucky was on the right and Illinois was on the left.  There was a huge amount of traffic in this area as, once again, barges are fleeting here depending on where they are going.  They may be coming off the Tennessee River and heading up or down the Ohio, or they may be downsizing for a planned run to Nashville on the Cumberland River, the mouth of which is only a couple miles up the Ohio from here.  So, once again, the stressed out Air Traffic Controller record was playing and the AIS screen was flashing like a traffic barricade, and we just kept on a rollin', trying hard not to get ourselves in a place we shouldn't be. 

Fleeting.

ahold of someone on the dredge.  I asked him what side he wanted me to slide by on.  He told me to just go around the anchor buoys.  Ok.  There are 4 of those.  Finally I clarified it for him by making reference to either the Kentucky side or the Illinois side.  Kentucky side it is. 

Once we passed the dredge it was clear sailing until we got close to the Cumberland Towhead.  There was this really big barge coming down the Ohio and heading right in our direction.  I got this guy on the radio and asked what side he wanted me to pass him on.  He says, "where are you?"  I said I was right off his starboard bow, about 3/4 of a mile out.  He said, he couldn't see anything because he had the sun in his eyes, but thought passing on the one whistle would be fine (pronounced "fan").  Ok, so here we go.  I get myself sliding over to the red side (reds on the right when going up river), and, for the love of god, this guy was not moving over.  So, I was really hugging the red side, before he finally flanked over a touch, and we passed with plenty of distance between us.  It wasn't until he had just about passed us when he finally came on the radio and said, "Ok, now I can see you."  Great!

Jumping Asian Carp.

Shortly thereafter, we made the Cumberland Towhead.  This is an easy anchorage that is plenty wide and plenty deep if you don't go too far to the left, or too deep into it.  It's basically a space between an island and the river bank.  You also have to watch out for trees that stick up from just under the surface.  Now that's not something you see every day back home.  Hey, just get it, OK?  Deadheads and stumps are simply a way of life if you drive a boat on a river.  What was really cool however was what happened as soon as we started letting out anchor chain.  All of a sudden, hundreds of fish (Asian Carp) started jumping all around the boat. I mean thousands of them.  It was like the water was boiling with all these big silver fish jumping and thrashing on the surface.  Then, as soon as the chain was deployed, they all disappeared.  It would appear they are susceptible to certain frequencies.  I'm pretty sure it was not the deep throaty thumping sound of the diesel engine, but rather the rattle of the chain as it made its way out and over the roller.  In any event, we had a very quiet night.  It was good, too, because it had been a very long day.



The next morning we woke up and leisurely made our way into the mouth of the Cumberland River.  We only had 32 miles to go, and only one lock.  Once you turn onto the Cumberland, you now have Kentucky on both sides of the boat and the environs change quite a bit.  You may recall me making mention of the fact that every time we cross a state line, things change so much.  Here is another example.  All of a sudden, the banks of the river, which is much more narrow than the Ohio River, were covered with the changing colors of fall.  It is strikingly beautiful.  It was an overcast morning, but every now and then, the sun would peak through and hit the trees on the bank and you would see an explosion of colors.  Then, there are the Kentucky "Dirt Farms" as we called them.  There is a lot of rock quarry work going on, at least on these banks of the Cumberland.  It's lime stone their digging here.  This lime stone is used in all things concrete construction.  We called them "dirt farms", because they look just like grain operations, but its rock and gravel coming down the conveyors and being dumped onto waiting barges.  We call those "produce barges."  We got stuck behind one of these almost all the way to the Barkley Lock.  He was making 6 knots and I was making 6.4.  There are no straights long enough to allow me to pass him given our speed differentials, so we just decided to "live there."  Unfortunately, it cost us an hour delay waiting at the lock as the lock master took him first.  I can understand that.  Waiting sucks where there is no place to tie up and they won't let you anchor in front of the dam.

 We finally made it through the lock, and by mid afternoon, we were making our turn into the channel that leads to the Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina (GTB).  The best part of it, however, was the reception awaiting us at the dock.  For the first time in months, we got to see our friends Barry and Jodie again.  They were here, as well as the crew on two other boats we had met in the prior couple days.  They all were waiting for us at our assigned slip.  I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to pull into a port and have a bunch of smiling, waving, and happy friends waiting for you.  It's the best feeling in the world.  It so feels like coming home after being gone for a long time.





We didn't need long to settle in.  We did, however, need the courtesy car to get to Paducah so we could replenish our booze supply.  We were bone dry......just like the county in which GTB sits.  While you have these great restaurants here in Grand Rivers, you have to BYOB.  So, we got into town and stocked up on our own B's.

Here's Barry and I driving the barge simulator at the River Heritage Museum.

Later that afternoon, a bunch of cruisers met at the gazebo and had a 4:30 happy hour complete with munchies and cocktails.  We met some fine folks from Minnesota, we reunited with the crew of Paradise that we met at Hoppies.  We met a very nice retired police lieutenant from Minnesota who plays the bag pipes and runs about all over the place on a little key lime colored scooter, and we met a couple from Canada heading south for the winter on their Hunter sailboat.  Their mast was awaiting them in Gulf Shores, Alabama.......they hope.



So, the next day, we had a chance to get the courtesy car again, and headed for Paducah.  What a cool place.  Really, we only hung out in the downtown historic area where there are fun restaurants, antique stores, museums, and a really great bakery.  The folks here are very friendly and accommodating in every way they can be. Then for dinner, we went to Patty's for their famous 2 Inch Pork Chops.  Let me tell you, that was the finest pork chop I have ever had.  The food was very good.  The next night, however, was even more special.

There are mural walls all over Paducha.  They are not publicly funded.  If you have an idea, you can have it approved and you can put your mural on the walls.  They are all very beautiful and tell the story of Paducha and it's central life on the River.

We went with Barry and Jodie to a place called Sugar and Spice.  There is a lady there named Marylin who cooks for only 10-12 people per night.  You have to call and make a reservation.  We were able to get in, and, as it turned out, we were all by ourselves.  As it is October, Marylin was preparing Oktoberfest specialties and the menu included the following:  Wienerschnitzel, Yaegerschnitzel, Rouladen, and Saurbratten.  Each dish came with these really good potatoes, sour kraut, and spitzel.  The food was amazing.  Between courses, Marylin would come to the table and regale us with stories about the history of this place called Grand Rivers, and the people who lived and did business here.  She told us stories about the early days of the marina and resort as well as the Commonwealth Yacht Club here on the premises.  Again, we BYOB'd and they provided the glasses.  This was an outstanding experience.

That's me and Marylin.  She puts on cooking classes for passing cruisers and teaches the kids how to make cookies.

 Over the last couple days, we have also been accomplishing some boat projects.  Brenda had had a lingering cold and is now feeling a little better, but I was able to get that nasty moustache off the hull that we had been accumulating in the tanic waters of the ICW and dirty harbors over the last almost 7000 miles.  I walked up to the chandlery and asked for some advice.  The guy there turned me on to this stuff called "On and Off".  This stuff is caustic!  Well, it should be since it is basically pure acid.  This stuff smokes when it hits water!  Anyways, it's as easy as spray on and hose off, and the moustache disappears.  Finally, Abreojos looks almost human again.

I never imagined that quilting involved such amazing works of art.

Last night, we went to the Halloween Party at the Commonwealth YC.  We were able to put together some costumes at the last minute with a little help from the WalMart in Paducah.  It was a nice crowd.  The food was pretty good and the music was excellent.  We dined and danced and BYOB'd again.  It was a nice evening.
 
 






Today, we will be leaving here and starting what will be a 5 day journey to Nashville, Tennessee.  My mom is flying out and we will have her aboard for a few days in Nashville.  We are going to take our time getting there as we have only 160 miles and 5 days to get there.  So, who knows what we will discover.

 
In the mean time, bye for now.

OUR RUN DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI

This part of the cruise is quite a challenge.  Open water, even on the Great Lakes, is comparatively easy to negotiate.  There, the weather is the biggest factor.  On the rivers, however, there are several additional factors that have to be taken into consideration including, but not limited to, the stage of the river (meaning the amount of water flowing and it's depth levels in various "pools"), the speed of the flow, the width of the river, the depth of the water, the curves (meandering and hairpin), commercial traffic, the weather, and turbulence.  Each of these factors engage you in different ways every mile of the way.  Then there is the scenery. 

Our Lady of the River - On the Mississippi just past the confluence of the Illinois.

In the last couple of weeks, we have travelled from the Great Lakes, through Chicago on the Chicago River and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, to the Illinois River for a few hundred miles, and finally, we are, once again, on the Mighty Mississippi.  We have been on the Mississippi River before, when we visited New Orleans.  This time is quite different, however.

Inside one of the two locks we went through on the Upper Mississippi.  We're in there
with a larger trawler called Paradise, and a smaller "vessel" called Caught You Lookin.

The last time we were on the Mississippi, we had left a bulkhead at Boomtown Casino near Lafitte, Louisiana, and travelled several miles through the heavily industrial Harvey Canal, through the Harvey Locks, and out onto the Mississippi for a total of 6 miles, down and around New Orleans, and then into the Industrial Lock and the Industrial Canal, all the way to Seabrook Marina, just off Lake Pontchartrain.  The total run on the Mississippi River lasted less than an hour.  This time, we will travel over 210 miles on the Mississippi and spend approximately 3 days doing it.



There are, of course, several major differences between this trip and the last, without even mentioning the duration.  And, what also makes this trip down this river different from other river trips, is the absolute lack of services or marinas for so many miles.  Certainly help is available if you need it.  But, it will be a long wait in a rather inhospitable environment.



You really begin to notice that you are not in Kansas anymore, so to speak, when you sizzle past the confluence of the Mississippi and the Illinois Rivers.  You actually pick up quite a bit of speed depending, of course, on the water level and the river stage.  We are experiencing somewhat of a lower stage and lower water than has been the norm this year.  While we still have plenty of water under the boat, you can see that the water levels have been much higher.  One clue is the bollards at any dock you see along the river banks.  The bollards tower 30+ feet high over the surface of the water.  In other words, the docks attached on floats to the bollards can be as much as 30+ feet higher.  This would mean that the river would seem much wider and certainly, much deeper.  I would expect that in some cases, the trees you see on the banks now might very well be completely submerged at a higher stage.  Also, the fact that many of the houses that bank the river are on stilts and set back quite a way from today's river bank.



With higher water, comes higher speed of flow.  Now, we are experiencing a down-bound current speed boost of 3-4 knots.  This means that, at the rpm setting I would normally use and achieve 6.8 knots, we are travelling at 9.8 to 10 knots, and sometimes a little more.  What this means, among other things, is a huge savings in fuel.  I can travel many more miles and not consume any more fuel.  Nevertheless, as many of you land lubbers might not understand, things happen faster at higher speeds.  So, you are probably thinking to yourself, how much excitement can you really generate at 11.2 mph?  Remember, that you are not in a 6000 lb car moving 65 on a flat, paved road with lanes.  We are moving down a curvy river in a 52,000 lb boat with a single propeller, a full keel, and no brakes.  Trust me, things happen faster.  Also, just because you turn around, doesn't mean you are not still moving down river.  Unless you really power up, you might as well be a dead log floating down in the current.  Speaking of dead logs, now, unlike cruising on the Mississippi, there's something you don't see coming at you on too many of America's highways and byways. 

Standing waves.....surfable.

For example, yesterday, we passed an anchorage on our way to another.  Our friends on Paradise, radioed and said they had actually poked their nose into this anchorage and said it was very good.  So, in stead of going to our planned anchor spot, we decided to follow their lead.  They have a lot more experience running on rivers than we do, so I was not about to look that gift horse in the mouth.  Thus, we turned around.  Before we turned, we were rocketing down river at nearly 11 knots.  When we turned up river, our speed dropped to 2.3 knots.  It finally got back up to 5 knots, but it took a while and it took a lot more energy to be sure.

 The Army Corps of Engineers saw fit to help the Mighty Mississippi on her course by installing what are known as wing dikes in the bends.  The idea was to help divert the flow into the center of the river thus keeping the center channel clear and deep and to preserve the banks from erosion.  Well, from what we have heard, this has not worked out as planned.  The result has been the development of massive sand bars in the river, so big, you could land a plane on on some of them.  Then, the ACOE, in their inimitable wisdom, saw fit to try to counter act this situation by installing these surface dikes, on the opposite bank of the curves and in some of the straights.  These, too, were intended to help preserve the banks, and divert flow.  Well, preserve the banks, they do.  In fact, behind each of these dams, there is shoal water.  It is important to know this as these would appear to make a good place to stay to get out of the extreme current.



So, the idea is that you can generally poke your nose in behind one of these wing dams and drop a hook.  Thus, you would be anchored out of the channel, and in an area where the river current might not be so dramatic.  Unfortunately, the area behind these wing dams can get very shallow very fast.  It is important to keep in mind that the water level on the Mississippi can fluctuate up to 3 or more feet per day.  This is important to keep in mind if you anchor in 6 feet of water.  Moreover, you might go over a sand hump that is 5 feet deep into a deep spot with 10+ feet of water.  If the water level drops 3 feet over night, you better have a shovel as you are not going to get out of the pool.  It's a lot to keep in mind.

The other thing these bank and submerged wing dams create is turbulence in the bends.  The water can go from quite flat to quite violent in a very short period of time and then back to flat again.  We have seen whirlpools that were 20 feet across and 3 feet deep in water that is close to 50 feet deep.  Think of these as really big pot holes.  It's almost a good thing they are that big so they are easy to see.  My practice is to take the boat out of auto pilot and rest my hand on the throttle.  When you cross these, certainly the momentum of a boat this size and its ultimate inertia through the water helps.  Generally, there is a sensation like the back of the boat is spinning out.  It's like losing traction with your back wheels when on an icy road and the back end of the car goes forward of the front end.  As I said, given the boat's size, weight and inertia, we merely sense these whirlpools as a minor spin out and keep going.  Nevertheless, it gets your heart a beatin' when you encounter these for the first time.

Nice little whirlpool.

 So, you've got current and turbulence and all the things that seemingly go hand in hand with these, and then you've got the commercial traffic.  I thought I had seen a large barge when we were on the Gulf.  Nothing, however, can compare to the traffic we have seen on the Mississippi.  Yesterday, for example, we saw a tow boat (actually, these push as opposed to pull, so they are called "pushers" or "shovers" or just plain "tow boats") barge called the Mary Ellen pushing 34, that's right, 34 fully loaded regulation barges.  The load was stacked five across and seven deep.  OK.  Let's do the math.  The barges are 125 feet long and around 40 feet wide.  The tow boats are around 125 feet long.  So, that's about 1000 feet long, and 200 feet wide.  If you assume each loaded barge carrying coal weighs in at 50,000 tons (and I think that's light), that's about 1,750,000 tons.  Now consider that these 1500 ton barges are pushing almost 2 million tons of material UP RIVER.  You can only begin to imagine the power of the tow boats and their 6 engines.  I could be off on my load numbers, but it's a whole lot of load.  Frankly, I have less concern meeting one coming up river than having one come up behind me going down river.  I can't even begin to imagine how you would stop such a load going down river.  Again, the power of the tow boats is beyond extraordinary. 

34 Loads.  That's a big one.

Moreover, the skill of the captains is tremendous.  One of the things I have noticed consistently having spoken to hundreds of tow captains on the radio over the last year is how laid back these guys seem.  It's as if they are in a constant state of mellowness.  OK, two things.  First of all, if they are pushing a load up 1000 miles of river, they are moving at an average speed of 3-4 knots for days at a time.  I guess, there is no point getting excited because it's certainly not going to change anything.  Second, nothing happens quickly.  It's as if your world moves in constant slow motion.  Nothing is going to change that.  So, there really is no point in getting excited.  In many cases, Sir Issac Newton is in the driver's seat and you, as the skipper of a tow boat, are giving him suggestions by tweaking the stick on one of the six mighty engines 4 stories below your seat.    It's not really fair to compare these guys with fighter pilots.  Such a pilot has to make decisions in less than a split second when hurtling through the sky at Mach 2.  Tow boat pilots, on the other hand, have to start thinking about a turn a week in advance.  Then, while fighter pilots don't have to usually concern themselves with the presence of "trawler like" pleasure craft airplanes in their lanes, the barge captains do.  For us, it's simple - AIS.

I have spoken of AIS before so I will not repeat myself, but if you do not have it, then you are taking a lot of risk running the Western River System.  Also, you are missing out on the nice conversations you have with the tow captains.  You see, they are much more likely to talk to you when you call them by name, as opposed to, "Calling that northbound tow at mile marker 145, this is".......and thus and so.  I had one guy the other day engaged in a conversation about our boat and our cruise.  He asked us where we were heading and I told him the Gulf.  He asked if we were going to take the Tennessee River.  I told him, of course we were.  He then made some funny crack about the bull skull on the front of the boat and then offered us the name of his aunt who has a fuel dock on the Tennessee River;  he told us to mention his name and she'd give us a discount on our fuel.  No shit!

Well, the scenery thus far has been nothing short of spectacular.  We are seeing the changing colors of fall, bald eagles, golden eagles, heron, gulls, and even white pelican.  Population centers are rather sparse south of St. Louis, and there are no places to stop once you pass Hoppies until you get much further down the line.  Speaking of Hoppies......



We stopped at Hoppies Marine Services at mile marker 158.5, not because we needed fuel, not because we needed water, not because we needed anything.  We stopped there because we wanted to meet Fern and "Hoppy".  For generations, Mr. Hopper's family were lamp lighters on the Mississippi.  They tended the lighthouses and the lighted aids to navigation.  Mr. Hopper is the last one left.  He and his wife, Fern, have had Hoppies Marine Services there at mile marker 58.5 since 1934.  The facility consists of little more than several barges tied together and secured to the river bank.  There is a fuel dock and a place to get water or other marine services.  It is right under the riverside town of Kimmswick, Missouri.  We didn't take the opportunity to visit the town, but we understand that the majority of the homes there have been designated historic landmarks on the National Registry of Historic Places.  Again, the real reason we came to Hoppies was to meet Fern.



Fern is in her mid 80's but you wouldn't know it by watching how she drives her golf cart up and down the docks and handles the lines of boats coming in for fuel or for the night.  She has been running boats up and down the river all her life and few people have more knowledge of what's going on between St. Louis and Mobile, Alabama than her.  Each afternoon, at between 4:00 and 4:30, Fern "holds court" so to speak, and puts on a short seminar for the boaters who want to attend.  There is a party shed at the end of the dock where we all went for Fern's seminar.  Actually, there were only 4 of us there, but it did not matter.  We learned about the stages of the Mississippi River, the currents, the anchorages, recognition of physical signs on the river that meant trouble or safety, as well as the status of lock operations on the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Tombigsby.  She also answered any questions anyone had.  Fern has a delightful smile and a wonderful warmth.  She let's you know you can call her any time you have a question.  I might just do that.  I might also give her a call at some point just to say hello and to let her know we made it safely.  I'm sure she'd appreciate that.  She give so much and asks nothing in return.

Pastoral anchorage at Rockwell Island.

We stayed only the one night at Hoppies and then continued down the Mississippi and anchored for the night at a place called Rockwell Island.  It's at mile marker 102.4.  This means that there are 102.4 miles left on the Upper Mississippi.  Then, the mile markers will start over for the middle and then lower Mississippi.  We, however, will be turning off the Mississippi at MM 0 and will be then heading up the Ohio River for several miles before merging onto the Cumberland on our way to Nashville.  We have a few more days to get there, however, so stay tuned.

Sunset at Rockwell Island

 More later.

Today was a most frustrating day.  It seems like every time we met with a barge, we happened to be going into a narrow area that was very turbulent.  It seemed like every time we were going into a turbulent area, it got narrow and there was a barge coming.  It seemed like every time there was a narrow area, it was turbulent and there was a barge coming.  Finally, it seemed like every time we went into a narrow and turbulent area with a barge coming, there was a dead tree floating nearby on the surface.  This went on and on all day long.  It's just the way it is.  It was exhausting.

I have said before that most, if not all of the guys driving the pushers are pretty personable and generally quite helpful and easy to deal with on the radio.  Today, we cam across the first exception to this generally understood rule. 

We were coming into an area which Fern had outlined for us as one of the most turbulent.  It is near mile marker 84 and involves a pretty narrow area, a deep turn to the right, and lots of weir dams under the surface.  We were warned.  So, of course, as we were approaching this turn, I noticed on the AIS screen that there was a barge coming.  I called him on the radio.  Here I am thinking to myself, OK, I'll be a nice guy and ask him if he wants me to hold up before the bend.  He was pushing a really big load.  Had to be close to 30.  His response was, (emphasize in your heaviest heavy southern drawl) "Just a  keep on a comin', unless you don't know how to draaav.  Wun whistle."  Suffice it to say, his response was not what I was expecting.  Perhaps it was just his tone. I was tempted to make some kind of wise crack about seeing whether or not this backwoods redneck thought he could "dravv" the traffic on the 710 between the 405 and PCH in Los Angeles at rush hour.  Then it occurred to me that it would not be a good idea.  So, I held up anyways, let him come out of the turn, and then passed him on the one.  OK, so we didn't wave at him as he went by.  That'll show him!  Ha!  Oh never mind.

One narrow, turbulent, barge ridden, debris laden turn after another.  All day long.  I'm glad we only have 49 miles left on the Mississippi.  The current is quite swift in some of these turns.  We have seen speeds of up to 12 knots in some of them.  Combined with the turbulence, it makes for an exciting ride. Then, lay in a 1000 footer also making the turn, sharing the narrow space, with flanking engines on full, pushing a 4 foot wave out the side,  and putting you in the more turbulent water off the sailing line and you have excitement.   You might think I am complaining.  I'm not......really.  It's just that running through these turns in a 30 year old boat, with a single, rather low horsepower engine can get your blood pumping; not because of anything that happened, but knowing what could happen.  It probably doesn't occur to most folks that driving a slow trawler on the Mississippi River could be characterized as an "adrenaline sport" not unlike, perhaps.......... bungee jumping or base wreck diving.  I suppose that, not unlike the aforementioned, it's only a real rush the first time.  If I ever come down the Mississippi again, I'm certain it won't be nearly as exciting.  But who knows?   



We are anchored for the night in a what is called a "river discharge canal."  What are they discharging?  I have no idea.  I'm not planning on swimming in any event.  It's narrow and tree lined.  In some places and under some circumstances, this would be a pretty good place to weather a storm.  It is about 8 feet deep and less than 200 feet wide.  There are tall trees on either side.  I have no idea where it goes, but it is identified as one of about 3 anchorages on the Mississippi between St.Louis and the Cairo/Ohio River confluence.  So, here we are.  Two hooks out, and all's well.

There is one other boat also in here.  Funny.  This guy passed me early in the morning and was running at around 20 knots.  We show up at around 3:30 in the afternoon and there he is.  Well, I'm all but certain he used a hell of a lot more fuel getting to the same place.  It's kind of like the story of the turtle and the hare.  However, when we anchored, he and his partner were well into the football games.  Their boat has satellite TV and they were watching the Packers game on the plasma screen while sitting outside on the enclosed back deck.

There is also a tow boat (a pusher) sharing the anchorage with us.  They don't use anchors.  They simply drive the front of the boat up into the bank and keep the appropriate engines engaged in forward gear.  They don't move.  They sure do make a lot of noise, however.  It's quite a bit more loud than your average commercial fishing boat sharing an anchorage with its generator running all night. 



It's really cool watching the river flow by outside the mouth of this canal.  You get the impression it is moving very swiftly.  Barges going by downriver have their engines in full reverse while making this bend.  Barges going up river move very slowly at full power heading into the current and into the turn. We saw a small open fishing boat with an outboard motor go skipping by.  I thought to myself, "this guy's crazy."  Then he starts making a turn and pulls right into this canal.  He sure made that look easy.  I suspect he does it all the time.

Well, that's all for now.  One more day and one more night on the Mississippi and then onto the Ohio.



More later.

Our last day on the Mississippi was great.  There was plenty of sunshine and it was nice and warm.  The river sections we ran down this day were somewhat wider and less turbulent.  There was plenty of barge traffic, but under the circumstances, it was quite manageable. 

 We have now seen perhaps the biggest barge load we have ever seen.  I counted 42 loads.  Seven long and 6 wide.  That is ridiculous!  There are certainly places where two similarly configured loads could not pass each other on the river.  Not even close.  This is why AIS is so important.  It is also why it is important, when in doubt to announce your presence going into a curve.























On the water, we have rules concerning priority of movement.  And where it stands to reason that these big boats and barge loads always have priority, I am hearkened to my days involved in an admiralty case when I learned of a US Supreme Court Case that held, in any collision case, liability is always apportionable.  I bring this up because of a story I heard recently of a 43 foot DeFever which got into a little scuffle with the wake of a barge and ended up rolled and sunk.  5 hands went into the water.  Nobody got killed, fortunately.  Anyways, there is nothing but speculation going on out there concerning the cause of this mishap. 

Photographs do not adequately depict the violence behind the towboat. 

The towboat will leave a standing wave in the river you could surf on a long board.

Some "experts" suggest the DeFever was top heavy and thus not "seaworthy".  This would be a defense for the barge.  Some suggest that the DeFever was in a place he shouldn't have been (on the one whistle side of the barge in a sharp turn to the left (for the DeFever) and to the right for the barge, and got himself in too close to the river bank and then as soon as he passed, gassed it for the center of the river thus turning himself broadside to the turbulence caused by the no flanking towboat.  I know it's hard to describe, and probably even harder to understand if you have never seen these things up close.
 


It just goes to emphasize how important it is to be completely aware of your surroundings, completely prepared for what may be coming at you around a corner and, to have a seaworthy vessel.  There is speculation that the  barge could have (but didn't) placed a man up on the nose of the furthest out container to enable the skipper to see around the corner, so to speak.  Most recreational vessels do not have the broadcasting type of AIS.  This would have enabled the captain of the tow boat to, perhaps, call the DeFever on the radio and suggest he hold up.  Well, that would be a strike against the tow boat, wouldn't it........the need for a proper look out, and all. 

In any event, it's all rampant speculation and everyone seems to have an opinion.  There will be an outcome someday.  If and when it happens, and if and when we hear of it, perhaps I'll post it so we can all learn from it. 

So, today, we will be heading up the Ohio River towards its intersection with the Cumberland River and then points beyond.



Take care y'all and we'll see you on that one whistle.

MISSOURI....ON A BOAT?

Even assuming for the sake of discussion that this voyage we are on was something I had dreamed of and planned for many years, it really didn't occur to me that we could visit Missouri by boat.  It did not occur to me until recently that St. Louis and much of Missouri is on the Mississippi River.  I have certainly heard of the Missouri River, but I guess coming here by boat was not forefront in my mind.  Call it poor planning?  I call it, figuring out what's going on from day to day and not sweating the long term details.  The truth be told, we decide each day where we will end up in the evening.  We certainly have plans to visit certain places, and make the decisions as to how to get there when the time comes.  But, on a day to day basis, each day is new.


As you can see, the colors are changing.  This is running down the
last part of the Illinois River.


My parents met a guy named Don over fifty years ago when dad was stationed in Alaska during his short stint as an Air Force Officer.  Well, Don lives in the St. Louis area.  I guess I had mentioned to my mom that our course would take us onto the Mississippi River (again) and she suggested a stop in St. Louis and a visit with Don.  At first, we were hesitant because the cruising guides said there is no place in St. Louis to stop.  Not really, anyway.  However, we later learned that there are a few places (4), two above St. Louis, and two below St. Louis, from which we could visit St. Louis.  In both cases, however, we would have to take a place in a marina and rent a car, both of which take money. 

Here we are approaching the confluence of the Mississippi and the Illinois Rivers.

Much to our pleasant surprise, however, we found this place, Port Charles Harbor, just a couple miles UP the Mississippi from the confluence of the Mississippi and the Illinois rivers.  When I called, I asked whether or not it was easy to get to St. Louis from there.  The nice gal on the phone told me that they have a courtesy van we could take.  She told us that the only caveat was that, if there were other transient boaters who also wanted to use it, we would have to share it, but that, at present, we were the only ones coming, so the car was ours. So, we would have what we needed to go to St. Louis and visit Don and do some other sightseeing things while there.  Of course we would like to see the Gateway Arch, and maybe even visit something related to Budweiser.

Our discovery of Port St. Charles Harbor was totally by luck.  When we left Havana, we really had no destination in mind, other than to get down the Illinois River and continue moving south.  It is one of those things that just happened. 



In the interim, we stopped for a night at an anchorage near the town of Valley City, Illinois where there is absolutely nothing.  We anchored off the main channel near a bridge.  This location was strategically selected insofar as it would protect us from the movement of 1000 foot barges that ply the rivers all day and all night.  You truly have to pick your anchor spots carefully.  If you are anchoring in a bend, for instance, you best be on the correct side so that when the barges go into or come out of a turn, you are not where they need to go.  Anchoring in a straight away is a good idea if the river is wide enough.  The key is to light up the boat like an oil platform at night so you can be easily seen.  Certainly the towboats have radar.  They also have these enormous spotlights (generally at least 2) that they have turned on when running at night that light up the river ahead of them like day.  So, when they come down the line, you know it because, when the spot lights hit you, the inside of the boat is lit up like you cannot believe.  Then, when they pass you, it sounds like a 747 taxiing by on a runway.  I never feel comfortable anchoring out in the open like that. 



The small town of Grafton which lies right at the confluence.

 So, we get anchored up and we're in this great spot; the anchor dug in and grabbed like a pit bull.  We were strategically located between a grouping of reds and the shore, and only a hundred or so yards from a bridge.  We were clearly protected on 3 of 4 sides.  We were also out in the open and thus clearly visible on radar or under spotlight, and we had all the lights on.  So, there was no way, at least it was highly unlikely that, unless a barge captain was drunk and out of control, that we were even likely to get in the way.  Then it started raining.  It rained pretty much nonstop until the wee hours of the morning.  As it was getting dark, I flipped on the anchor light.  Later, in the evening, well after it had become dark out, I did not see the tell tale light reflections on the outriggers or antenna I normally see when the anchor light is on.  So, I went out in the rain to take a look.  Well, I discovered that the anchor light was NOT on.  So, I'm thinking to myself, "Great!  We're anchored on the freeway, and the anchor light is not working, and it's raining, and I have to go out on the roof to see what's up, and it's cold and windy out, and I really don't want to do this, and, well,...... where is my raincoat? 



The confluence.  To the far side of the sand bar is the Mississippi River.

 It didn't take long before I was wet and cold and I still had not figured out the problem.  At a minimum, I determined it was not something I could fix at night, in the dark, lying on my back on the roof of the salon, with a hot chimney between my legs (we had the fire place burning), in the rain.  So, Brenda had the bright idea to use the dinghy's white light for the night.  It's very bright and it's a 360 degree white light, which is visible for miles, so that would work.  So, after putting some fresh batteries in it, out I went again, in the wind, the rain, the dark, up onto the roof, did I mention in the wind and the rain, to place the light up as high as I could get it to go.  We also decided to leave the pilot house lights on all night as well.  As you might have guessed, since I am writing this, we obviously didn't get run down and crushed like a bag of bad potato chips by a million ton barge in the middle of the night.  All's well that ends well, I like to say.



Since we were able to stretch it a few extra miles the day before, and since we were able to get through the last of the Illinois River locks without any delay whatsoever, we didn't have quite as far to travel to our next stop which was at least tentatively planned to be at the end of the Illinois River or the beginning of the middle of the Mississippi (technically, the upper Mississippi for the next 218 miles).  We'd thought about Grafton and we'd thought about Alton.  But, we discovered St. Charles.  And, after talking with the nice folks there on the phone, we decided to go there.


Now we are headed up the Mississippi - towards St. Charles

 Now, if you know me, you know I always get a little keyed up as we are making our landfall.  I suppose you could say it has all to do with going into a strange harbor for the first time .  It probably stems from my concern over untoward groundings and not knowing exactly what the water depth is, what the bottom contour looks like, whether the bottom is rocky or silty, or ultimately, where the hell the dock is, not to mention my despise of running aground in my "house" so to speak.   So, yes, I am always on high alert as we get close to shore whether it's going into a marina, or going into an anchorage that some cruising guide recommends, but which is not charted.  I think any waterman would.  We all know that shore is not a friend to a boat.  In fact, most sailors agree that the further away from shore we are, the safer we are.  Well, when you are doing the Great Circle Route, you have to make landfall every day.  When it's all said and done, except for the times we stayed more than one night in a harbor or at anchor in some cove off the designated route, I think we will have made close to 300 landfalls with many more to go.  That's definitely more than most recreational mariners make in 3 lifetimes.  You would think it gets easier, but it doesn't.  .

Add to this that before we got to make landfall at Port St. Charles, we had to merge from the Illinois River to the Mississippi River.  You read all this "muckety muck" about the currents and the turbulence at the confluence of major rivers.  And, they're not kidding.  Then, my AIS is telling me there is quite a bit of barge traffic that will be hitting the intersection at about the same time we will be.  Then, there are aids to navigation all over the place and they are of all different shapes, colors and sizes.  Then, we are starting to pick up speed.  Then, we are not only merging onto the Mississippi, but we are supposed to turn right and actually head up river!  Here's where it gets interesting.

Old Town St. Charles



A statue of Lewis and Clark, and their dog, Seaman, facing west.


Brenda wanted to drive the merge onto the Mississippi this time, since I drove it the last time when we shot out of the Harvey Lock onto the Mississippi down in New Orleans.  I said, OK, and was tasked with taking pictures.  So, I'm out on the bow and we are getting very close to turning right.  We have to clear a charted submerged wing dam before we can do so, and there is this damn sand island out there that is not on the Army Corps of Engineers Charts. (as an aside, the ACOE Charts haven't been updated in more years than I like to think about.....I think it's been since the 80's)  Then, as we are making the turn, Brenda calls me back to the wheelhouse and points to the chart plotter laptop and the screen is all black.  What happened to the damn charts?!!!!



So, now we are essentially blind heading up the mighty Mississippi!  Well, not completely blind.  We could see the aids to navigation which, by now, had settled into a steady red-green thing as we are now heading up the Mississippi.  You don't need to be a genius to know that the reds are on the right when you are going UP river.  You just have to remember it.  We did.  No problem there.  The channel was plenty wide and deep.  The current turned out to be almost a non issue as we did not even change our throttle settings from when we were going down river on the Illinois, and we only lost a knot of speed. (We obviously slowed significantly when our chart plotter went blank on us while we got oriented with the paper charts.  But shortly thereafter, we were right back up to the rpm level we started at.)  Moreover, we had our paper charts and many, many years of experience using charts.  The thing is that ACOE charts are not like NOAA charts.  They look quite different and do not have as much information.  They lack little things like..... WATER DEPTH!  (I'm sure you can hear me screaming). And the aids to navigation are not numbered, so it is very hard to identify where you are on the chart.  There are certain fixed marks that have the mile markers on them, but sometimes they are not immediately apparent as they are far away tacked to an overgrown tree on the river bank. Having identifiable aids to navigation at this point was mission critical since the way to this place we were going required us to pass between two islands in what one cruising guide described as a "Deep Channel" from the Mississippi River proper into the Dardene Slough.  Slough?  Well, yes.  So we shifted quickly into paper chart mode and started locating landmarks.



I'll tell you a little secret. Many smart phones such as the Android have a navigator application which will pinpoint your location on the globe and then show you where you are on a satellite photo basis.  I had done this previously so I could at least have a visual image in my mind of what the environs looked like before we got there.  Always a good thing to do, I think.  So, I had the Droid on Navigator Mode and we had the paper charts.  What a difference that makes to be able to see where you are from a bird's eye view while you are trying to pick out landmarks on the ACOE charts.  It helps bust the boulders in your gut down to manageable size river stones.



An old train depot - built during the great westward expansion, lots of folks
passed through here on their way west to find fame, fortune, and what have you.

 Well, once again, as you are reading this, you can probably surmise we made it to our destination, but it was not without some excitement there.  It's all good.  The problem stemmed from my transfer of chart files from a CD ROM to a thumb drive and then to the computer.  There were supposed to be 2588 files and I guess I only managed to copy 2535.  So a few were missing, but of course, I did not know that until it was way too late.  I try to manage this computer navigation stuff myself, but always seem to manage to screw it up.  I did learn a few important lessons about computers, however, which I can take with me to the next screw up.  Again, all's well that ends well.  With the help of Brenda and my friend Rob at Cruising Services, we were able to get the problem straightened out.  I now have all the river charts I need for our next several hundred miles on the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee Rivers as well as the Tenn-Tombigsbee Waterway, which will take us all the way down to Mobile Bay, Alabama.  Yep.  From the Great Lakes to the Gulf, right down the middle.  Very cool, eh?  We think so.



So, here we are, docked at the Port Charles Harbor.  Interesting and pleasant.  We had lots of water under the boat until we got through the outer jetties.  Once in the harbor, we have barely 4 feet of water under the boat.  It's probably deeper, but the silt in the water makes it seem shallower.  I believe I have discovered the trick to entering harbors.  TURN OFF THE DEPTH SOUNDER!  It will only make you crazy and sick.  If you cannot bring yourself to turning if off, try not to look at it.  So long as you are still moving forward, you are not stuck in the mud, and that is a good sign.  The cruising guide said there should be a lot more water than this, but another cruising guide also suggested that the water levels on Mississippi can change as much as 4-5 feet over night.  This is definitely something to think about if you are anchored in 6 feet of water......11 or 1.  What's it going to be?  He he he he he he.  Just another stomach boulder.   No big deal.



In any event, once we got tied up, we went up to the office to check in and were met by the most pleasant folks who handed us our "transient package" complete with maps, written directions, lists of things to do and see, and then, the piece de resistance - as we were walking out the front door, Linda pulls up in a mini van and says, "I just had it washed and it's all gassed up, so have fun!"  With that, she tossed me the keys and went back into her office.  Holy Cow!  I have once again been reminded that there is often no end to the lengths folks will go to extend hospitality to travelers.  I suppose folks do it for a lot of reasons.  However, there are places like this where it is obvious that they do it because it is just the kind of folks they are, deep down inside.  It makes me proud to be part of this race called "Human".

It's clearly not all bad out there.  Folks like these restore my hope.  We've experienced kindness and generosity almost everywhere we have been - from the smallest little villages like Presque Isle, Michigan and Havana, Illinois, to the largest cities, like New York, Miami, and Philadelphia.  And, even in the worst economic times our country has seen since the 1930's, folks are still generous with their kindness and with their willingness to be friendly and accommodating.  With all due respect to my friends who experienced the depression in the 1930's, I think it is a lot worse now.  I think that, unlike the 1930's, we live in a much more complex society where, among countless other social ills,  "approprietness" is all but lost, and solidarity is overshadowed by a sense of entitlement. Oh well.  All I'm saying is that there is still a lot of good in this place we call home.  America.  She's simply too big not to surprise you every time you turn around.


More later.



So we took the complimentary courtesy car out for a spin.  We visited St. Charles.  This is a very nice community.  The old part is very cool as it emphasizes the history of the area.  You have to pull out a map to see where we are to understand.  St. Louis has its Gateway Arch.  It is called the Gateway Arch because this area was considered the gateway of western expansion.  This area, and especially the town of St. Charles, celebrates the expedition of Louis and Clark.  Additionally, St. Charles served as the territorial capitol of Missouri and was the first state capitol from 1821 to 1826.  St. Charles grew over the years as a result of the western expansion as well as immigration.




The streets are made of brick and the buildings in the old part of St.Charles are made of brick, stone or wood.  They all seem to have the old style leaded glass windows and house a plethora of shops carrying all kinds of goods, mostly souvenirs and other "kitch" items such as kettle corn, scent stuff, christmas ornaments, and other things you might display on shelves or mantles.  The newer part of St. Charles is a very modern town with everything from Cabellas to West Marine.




We spent a couple days walking up and down the streets and it is there that we met Don and Sue for lunch.  Don and my folks met a long time ago when they were all Air Force Officers stationed in Alaska during the Korean War.  Don showed up with a couple old photographs of my parents at least several years before they were my parents.  I couldn't help but be amazed that, when these pictures were taken, my father was only 28 years old.  It's funny how you never think of your parents having once been younger than you are now.  It was great seeing Don.  He reminded me that it has probably been more than 25 years since I had last seen him.  I am glad my mom continues to keep in touch with Don.  As I told him when we parted company, I hope to keep in touch with him regularly as he is, in fact, practically family.



While in St. Charles, we also visited the Lewis and Clark exhibit.  This is a collection of all the artifacts used when the Discovery Channel sponsored a 200 year celebration by outfitting a team and sending them off to re-trace the footsteps of Lewis and Clark for a film crew.  There are replicas of the keel boat used to transport their gear.  There are replicas of the log canoes they made with hand axes.  Their clothing, equipment, writings, drawings, and other items of personal consumption are all on display.  You can certainly spend an entire day or more in this place reading all there is to read.  One thing it is very important to understand is that this adventure took place almost immediately after the completion of the Louisiana Purchase transaction put together by Thomas Jefferson.  There were folks in Congress at the time who thought Jefferson did nothing but purchase a vast desert.  This expedition proved all the detractors wrong.  Lewis and Clark wrote amazing digests filled with accounts of hundreds of new species of flora and fauna, as well as great new charts of the regions they passed through.  With the help of their indian friend Sagagewea, they managed to meet and greet thousands of other indians.  Notably, they only lost one man during the entire voyage.  Needless to say, it must have been quite a trip and its impact on the future of this country is still being felt.  The results were railroads going west, and settlers moving west, all towards that jewell called the Pacific Ocean.  The rest is, as they say, history.

.

We also had a chance to go to St. Louis and visit the famous Gateway Arch.  Not only did we visit it, we had a chance to go to the top.  It is a lot bigger than it looks in photos.  It's over 600 feet tall at the center and is surrounded by a beautiful park.  It sits near and overlooking the area where the first bridge went over the Mississippi. Designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, it is definitely symbolic of the role of St. Louis as the Gateway to the West.




When you go up, you ride in these "train cars" that resemble sections of a bicycle chain I suspect are referred to as capsules.  They stuff 5 people at a time into each capsule.  There are trains going up both the north and south arch sections.  The ride up takes about 4 minutes.  We rode up with these three young ladies who were part of a larger group of young people from a smaller town near McAllister, Oklahoma who were all in St. Louis visiting the arch on their way to Indianapolis to participate in a FFA Convention.  FFA stands for Future Farmers of America.  This is the extension of the 4H Group for kids who are in highschool.   One of these girls raises show pigs.  The other raises goats.  And the third raises various permutation of cattle (I can never get them all straight, though I understand a big part of the description depends on whether or not they have horns or balls.) 



This is the "capsule" you ride in to the top of the arch.

Nevertheless, the view from the top was quite impressive.  It's a great way to see St. Louis without actually having to be on the ground.

Then, we went over to the Anheiser-Bush plant hoping to get a tour.  Alas, we missed the last tour by less than a quarter hour.  We're not feeling too bad about it, though.  We have heard that, since the company was bought by a Belgian interest several years ago, the tour is not quite what it used to be.  I mean, they charge $25 per head for the tour and I saw nobody walking out with cases beer or anything.  In any event, we walked around the visitors center and learned what we could from the placards on the walls which basically described and showed pictures of everything we would have seen on the tour in any event.




Since we didn't get to sample any Budweiser at the factory, we decided to head back into the city and find a pub and do so on our own terms.  So we did.  We found a place to park in the old part of St. Louis and walked to this place called Big Daddy's, a short distance from the Busch Stadium where, it just so happens, the Cardinals were playing the Rangers in game 1 of the World Series.  I guess because so many folks were at or near the game, we had the place almost all to ourselves.  I am pretty certain that when the game was over, this place was packed.  However, while it was going on, we were pretty much on our own and the streets were pretty quiet.  

So, there we sat drinking Budweiser and eating some decent finger foods.  Brenda actually drank a beer.  Well, she drank half of one and then switched back to wine.  I got to finish hers.  Not a problem.  It was kind of funny seeing a "Coors Light" banner hanging from the balcony at another local pub.  I was thinking to myself that, in this city, flying such a banner would be almost like flying a Red Sox flag in New York.  basically, unless you are prepared to defend yourself this kind of thing simply is not done.




So, we added another crewman.  His name is Buddy.  Well, actually, it's Big Buddy.  He is an indoor propane heater.  This studd carries two propane tanks, one under each arm, and belches out heat quite efficiently.  He has all sorts of sensors so the maker says it's safe for indoor use.  We would only bust out the Budster if we are anchored out and it gets really cold.  In that regard, it's starting to get pretty cold from time to time.  We had it down to the high 30's last night.  We'll enjoy having Big Buddy aboard for sure.  He will be more expensive to feed than Hairy, Olga, Henna, or Steutel.  Nevertheless, I think he'll earn is keep this winter.



That's Brenda sippin' on a Bud.

 Today, we'll be leaving this place and heading down river.  In all probability we'll be stopping at a place called Hoppies which is a couple barges strapped together on the Mississippi where there is more affordable fuel and other interesting things I am sure.  So, we'll talk at you all later.  Thanks for following.