9/29/2019

This morning we left the anchorage in the industrial canal in Paducah, moved up the Ohio River to the mouth of the Cumberland, and transited up the Cumberland through Barkley Lock and into Barkley Lake.

The Ohio had a fairly slow current and the transit was easy enough.  We passed a number of tows on this stretch but with the wide river these were easy enough.

At the mouth of the Cumberland we turned and started up the river.  This river is much smaller than the Illinois, Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, and it seemed like an easier transit because of the smaller size.  The photos below show a typical river view and a small tow that we passed as we approached the first quarry on the river.  There were several quarries on this stretch and since it was a weekend there were limited activities in these spots.

We continued up the river until we arrived at Barkley Lock and Dam.  Another view of the river is shown below along with the lower side of the lock and dam.  The lock has a set of barges coming out in this photo, and we waited until the rest of the tow came down and was reconnected.  When the tow exited the lock he sounded a danger signal several times because the small fishing boats would not give him a clear channel to navigate.  That behavior gives all pleasure boaters a bad reputation that most don’t deserve.

After the tow cleared out of the lock we were allowed to enter.  This lock rises about 50 feet at the present river levels, and the photos below show the view both forward and aft from the boat both before and after the lock’s rise.  This is a pretty impressive lift, but it is small compared to some we will be in over the next few weeks.

After exiting the lock we moved out into Barkley Lake.  This is still the Cumberland River, but the lake is really the impoundment behind the dam.  The lake level has been drawn down to winter pool, which means the lake level is lower than normal to allow winter rain and snow runoff to cause the level to rise without flooding.  The first photo below shows the shore at this lake level, and shows the shore more exposed than normal.  We intended to anchor for the night tonight, but as we went into an anchorage we ran hard aground.  We were able to back off under our own power, and no damage resulted.  Thankful for that, we were able to find enough water in another bay to spend the night.

We will move to a marina at Green Turtle Bay Resort tomorrow where we will stay for a week.

9/27/2019

This morning we departed the anchorage and moved down the last 8 miles of the Upper Mississippi River to Cairo, Illinois.  In those few miles we passed three tows headed upriver, all struggling against the 5 knot current.  The turbulence in the riverbends seemed as bad or worse than we have experienced.

Finally we arrived at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.  The photo below shows the mouth of the Ohio.  This photo shows the line between the brown, muddy water of the Mississippi and the clear water of the Ohio.  It was a remarkable difference.  The fishermen in the photo are working that interface where the fish like to hang out.  After we turned onto the Ohio we discovered it was running less that 1/2 knot, a tremendous difference from the raging current on the Mississippi.

Shortly after turning onto the Ohio we passed through the Olmsted Lock, shown in the photo below.  The lock has two chambers, each 1200 feet long by 110 feet wide plus a wicket dam that extends almost a mile across the Ohio River.  The wickets can be raised by hydraulic rams, avoiding the need to send a crane and barge into the river to hook and pull up the wickets as used to be the case.  The lock was opened last year after costing $3B and taking 30 years of construction.  We drove directly into the lock, and ten minutes later after rising about 15 feet we drove out the upper chamber doors.  A really efficient operation.

The Olmsted lock replaced the old Locks 52 and 53.  The Ohio has the greatest amount of shipping traffic in the country, and these two locks were a constant delay to that traffic.  Tows often waited several days to transit each lock, leading to significant shipping costs to move the commodities along this river.  The new lock has no delay, and is highly efficient as we experienced.  The construction effort to remove the old locks is still ongoing as shown in the photos below.

We planned to stay along the south bank of the Ohio tonight, but we were making better time than we expected.  We arrived at Paducah hours earlier than we expected.  We are anchored tonight in a spot called Cuba Towhead, an island just where the Tennessee River enters the Ohio.  Tomorrow we will start up the Cumberland River to enter Barkley Lock and Barkley Lake.

9/26/2019

Late this morning we departed the canal just south of Cape Girardeau and continued south on the Mississippi.  We only went 40 miles today as we were tired from the long (110 mile) day yesterday.  The anchorages in this area are few and far between, so we want an early start tomorrow morning.

This section of the river was running 4.5 to 5 knots current (5.2-5.8 MPH).  Because of that the weir dams in the river bends created more turbulence than we have seen in the past.  The two photos below were a couple of the smaller eddies we saw, and I was too busy in the bigger eddies to grab the camera.  The worst one turned our 62,000 pound boat almost 45 degrees before we could correct the heading change.

As we move along the river we need to communicate with the tow captains to coordinate passing instructions.  They use their own language to describe the desired maneuver, and we have to know that.  The terms descend from the days before radios when sound signals (steam whistles) were the only means of communication.  Those terms, ‘one whistle’ and ‘two whistle’ are the most common, are used over the radio today.

A one whistle pass when meeting another vessel on the river means both boats will pass port to port (left sides of the boat when facing the bow), and two whistle means starboard to starboard.  So when we are approaching a tow heading upriver I call on the radio and say ‘<tug name>, pleasure craft Inshallah, on your bow, propose a two whistle pass’ (though it is usually more informal than that).  The tow captain responds ‘two whistle will be just fine’, and so we keep them on our starboard side.  Overtaking is similar, and a one whistle means the overtaking vessel will keep the other on their port side and two whistle will keep them to starboard.  Thus if we are planning to overtake a tow we’ll call ‘<tug name>, pleasure craft Inshallah on your stern, how about a one whistle pass’, and the tow captain responds accordingly.  If they agree we then overtake the tow keeping them to our port side.  You can still legally make the horn signal instead of a radio call, but the radio is the preferred method nowadays.

You might also wonder how we know the tug name.  There is a modern navigation system called Automated Information System or AIS that continually transmits information about your own vessel so others can receive and better communicate with you.  The data transmitted includes ship name, position, heading, speed, and other navigation information.  AIS is required for almost all commercial vessels, but is optional for pleasure craft.  We have one, and use the data from that to find tug names so we can communicate with them.

We are anchored tonight behind an island called Boston Bar.  We are about 200 yards upriver from the I-57 bridge over the Mississippi, and 8 river miles above the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi.  You can see photos of the anchorage below.  The current is reduced in here, but it still runs over 2 knots.  We had a log come downriver that hung up momentarily on our anchor chain, and then got stuck around our bow.  We were able to get a line around it and pull it free before it did any damage, but that probably won’t be the last one we will see tonight.

9/25/2019

This morning we departed the anchorage at Meramec River and continued south on the Mississippi River.  This area is more remote than we expected.

Shortly after departing the anchorage we passed the only marina between St Louis and Memphis, Hoppies, which is shown below.  Fern Hoppie has run this marina for many years.  Earlier in 2019 the marina was partially wrecked by the floods and Fern subsequently became ill and could not get the marina back in full operation.  It used to consist of two barges that you tied to, but it is now down to a single barge, and the fuel pump is out of service.  This is an important stop for loopers like us who need fuel, but Hoppies no longer sells it.  We don’t need any, so it is no impact to us.

We went over 110 miles along the river and passed two towns, Chester IL and Cape Girardeau, MO.  Otherwise there were a handful of houses on the bluff tops and several mining operations and industrial plants along with a coal loading dock, but otherwise there was no apparent development.  The photos below show views of this section of the river and it’s remoteness.

This section of the river has current running at about 4 knots (almost 5 MPH).  That gave us a push along, but the channel is maintained by wing and weir dams.  The wing dams are high rock walls that extend from the shore and channel the river current out into the main channel.  The weir dams are low rock walls under the water, commonly along river bends, and again they channel the river water to prevent shoaling.  You can’t run over wing dams without damage, but running over weir dams is commonplace.  Both cause swirling river eddies that are challenging to pilot through.  I included a couple photos of the turbulence below, but the helmsman (me) got a workout keeping on track.

We are anchored tonight in a spot called Little River Diversion Channel, about 10 miles south of Cape Girardeau.  We intended to stop earlier, but weren’t happy with the anchorage.  We will move near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers tomorrow.

9/24/2019

Today we departed Grafton and started down the Mississippi River.  The current became much faster, the water much muddier, and the tows much bigger.  The photos below shows the navigation buoy at the point where the two rivers converge and the view down the Mississippi towards New Orleans.

After passing through a lock we next went past the mouth of the Missouri River.  A photo of the mouth of the river is shown below.  It was striking to me that Lewis and Clark saw a similar view as they began their westward trek more than 200 years ago.

The Missouri added more muddy current, with many water eddies as the two rivers mixed.  The historical riverbed is through an area known as Chain of Rocks, but the modern manmade navigation channel bypasses these rapids.  We went this route instead of through the rapids.  Immediately below the canal we passed St Louis.  The iconic Gateway Arch is shown in the photo below as we dodged logs in the river.  Lots of debris through this section.

Just after passing downtown St Louis we observed another landmark known to beer drinkers all over the country.  It was fun to see that.

We are anchored tonight in a river off of the Mississippi, the Meramec.  This is a quiet spot with little current and only some small boat traffic.

9/21-23/2019

We were still tired after the long days going down the Illinois River, so we decided to sit for a couple days.  I had some maintenance projects to do, including changing a water pump on one of the generators.  Thus it worked out to be four nights in Grafton.

We did go for a bike ride one day.  The bike trail runs along the river with a little hill climbing involved, but it was a pleasant ride on a nice day.  We ran across a memorial to the arrival of Father Marquette in Illinois almost 350 years ago as shown below.  Not a long time by European or Asian standards, but still long for the US.

Grafton, the town we are staying at, is prone to floods.  The significant floods were 1973, 1993 and 2019, with 2008 a lesser problem.  We stopped at an old loading dock that has been converted into a watering hole where they had signs with the water levels during those floods.  The first photo below shows a view of the river and gives some perspective on the water level.  The second photo shows the signs inside the building with the flood levels.  That was pretty impressive, more so when sitting at the bar and thinking we would have been several feet under water during the flood.

We will start out tomorrow to continue our trip onto the Mississippi River.

9/20/2019

This morning we left the anchorage at 7:00 to move to the Lagrange Lock.  We had contacted the lockmaster who estimated a locking to be available at 7:30.  We had 9 boats in our group, and when we got there the lock told us they might have one locking available at 8:30, and then would close at 9:00 for the day.  As we waited another 9 boats came along thinking they would get a second locking at 8:30 or so, so we had 18 boats total waiting for the lock.  Luckily the lockmaster got us in at 8:30, and all 18 boats were in the lock as shown in the photos below.

To get this many boats into a lock at once is a coordination nightmare.  The larger boats have to go in first and tie to the lock wall.  Then progressively smaller boats enter and tie to the bigger boats already in position, called rafting.  The process repeats until everyone is in the lock.  We had some boats that were four across, with only the rightmost boat in the photo tied to the wall.  Once all were tied the lock chamber doors close, the water level goes down (in this case), and the doors open and everyone goes out.  Only the boats tied to the wall have to manage their lines as the water level changes—the others are already securely tied to the bigger boats.  Since we are bigger than most we had one of the spots on the wall.

After exiting the Lagrange lock we continued on down the river.  There were few delays for bridges or locks on this stretch, and we made good time.  We began to move through bluff country, with some of the improved scenery shown below.

We are at a marina in Grafton tonight, and will stay here for three nights.  We have maintenance projects and need to get groceries, plus we need to rest a bit.  Grafton is at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers as shown in the photo below.  The far shore in this photo is Missouri.  We are only a few miles north of St Louis, which we will pass when we start moving again.

9/19/2019

This morning we departed Peoria around 8:00 to continue moving south.  We first passed the Peoria Lock and Dam.  This is a wicket dam, with the wickets being steel plates that are raised to dam up the water when needed, and lowered when dictated by higher water and flow rates.  I think this is done with hydraulic rams, but in the past it was done with a crane that hooked the wickets and pulled them up to latch.  I think the last of the latching mechanical wickets was taken out of service on the Ohio last year at Locks 52 and 53.  Nonetheless the wickets were down this day at Peoria, so we cruised past the unused lock chamber.  The first photo below shows the lock structure from the upstream side as we came towards it, and we cruised to the right over the lowered dam.  The second photo looks back at the lock chamber from the downstream side.

This cruising is through levees along at least one bank of the river.  This limits sightseeing since you can’t see over it with the present water levels.  We did see several eagles in the trees, one of which I managed to photograph in flight as shown below.

We also saw many houses along the riverbanks.  These are built on pilings to keep them above the floodwaters.  The photo below shows a small community of these houses along one creek that joined the river.  In my own mind I called this a redneck subdivision.

Late in the day we passed through Beardstown, a common stopping point for loopers.  The photo below shows a number of looper boats tied to a barge at the Logsdon Tug and Barge company.  Nice people at this place, and they let boats tie to their barges for the night.  No power is available, and you can’t go ashore, but it is a good spot to sleep.

We are anchored tonight in a spot called Bar Island.  This is an anchorage behind an island off the main river channel.

9/18/2019

After our interminable delay at Marseille Lock yesterday we were interested in getting through the next lock, Starved Rock, as soon as practicable.  Starved Rock is on the same closure schedule as Marseille, so we needed to get through before the 20^th to avoid being stuck for three weeks.  We had called the night prior and the lockmaster told us we could get through at 6:00 this morning.  Thus we departed the anchorage at 5:30 in the dark.

This was the first time we had operated the boat in completely dark conditions.  It was unnerving, but we passed through to the lock without incident.  We have a large, powerful spotlight, and Marilou was scanning this back and forth to identify any logs or obstructions.

After passing the lock the sun began to rise, and we had a low stress morning.  Along the way we saw numerous mature and immature bald eagles as shown in the first two photos below.  We also saw several flocks of what seemed to be pelicans, though I didn’t know they resided this far north.

We also experienced many Asian Carp in this stretch of the river.  When excited by the sound of the propellers they jump several feet out of the water.  They haven’t landed on our boat, at least not yet, but we are very careful when using the dinghy as they could hit you in the face.  When they are around they sometimes jump ten or more at a time.

We also passed a tug, the Penny Eckstein.  This is the tow that caused the extra delay at Marseille yesterday.  I got a photo of the tug as we passed.  We also saw a beached tug showing the underwater structure of the ship.  It is mostly engine to push so many barges upstream against the current that can run 5 knots or more.

We finally arrived in Peoria where we intended to spend the night on a free dock.  The photos below show the downtown of the city and a paddlewheel steamer that has tours from the town.  Unfortunately the free docks were wrecked in a flood in the last couple years and only one boat can fit on the remnants of the dock.  We ended up anchoring across from downtown in a quiet spot off the main channel.  It was a restful night.

9/17/2019

Early in the morning this day we were awakened by one of the other boats on the wall at Joliet that the Brandon Road Lock, three miles below Joliet, could lock us through if we came immediately.  We quickly got underway and made the locking without incident.  This part of the Illinois River becomes rural as shown in the photos below.  The river is also marked in statute miles from the mouth of the river, with the second photo showing a mile marker that we are 266.4 miles from the confluence with the Mississippi.

Along the way we passed through the towns of Morris and Seneca.  This part of the river is prone to serious flooding.  The first photo below shows a height board on a bridge near Morris, with the numbers showing the clearance from the bridge.  As the water rises you read the water level to know the available clearance, and this is marked for substantial flooding.  This area also is where many barges are beached along the sides of the river, sometimes with the tug attached, as shown in the second photo.  This appears to be standard practice, and there are anchors for the barges all along river.

We finally came to the lock at Marseille (pronounced Mar-Sales).  This is a known problem lock with long delays, and which is undergoing a long term construction project.  It was closed earlier this year, and was opened from September 10-20, after which it will be closed again until October 5.  We were anxious to get through the lock before the closure.  This lock will be closed next year from July 1 to November 1, so it won’t be possible to go on this trip next year.

When we got to the lock we expected to wait about 2 hours, but upon arriving we discovered an unexpected tow was in front of us needing to lock down.  Thus we had to wait in position for 5-1/2 hours until we could get into the lock and go down.  The space where we could wait isn’t very big, so it was lots of work to hold the boat in position with the current and wind pushing us around.

After locking down we proceeded to a delightful anchorage at Buffalo Rock State Park.  The high cliff walls on the west shielded us from the wind, and the current held us in position with little movement.  The photos below show the cliffs and sunset.  We had coordinated with the next lock, Starved Rock, which is four miles below the anchorage that we could lock through at 6:00 the next morning, so we had an early night.