9/22/18 Saturday: We slept well last night in our secure spot on the lock wall. At about 8:45am, we cast off our lines and led the parade of boats back out onto the Mississippi River. Gemini II joined us, as we all had the same destination in mind for today. It rained off and on all night. Just a light rain, so the hatch over our bed was open a bit most of the night and we didn’t even get wet. But when you add the speed of traveling 13-14mph to that, the rain comes in and gets you wet when you drive from the flybridge. We started out driving up there for awhile. We didn’t see much debris in the water today – YAY! And no disappearing marker buoys that we know of. And we didn’t see any tows. We were cold and getting wet. COLD?! Yep, believe it or not. We went from sweat buckets to wearing fuzzies – just like that! So we moved downstairs. The visibility isn’t as good down there, so it isn’t Captain’s preference. But I love it when we drive from inside, because I can do all sorts of stuff in comfort without climbing up and down the ladder – and still keep Captain company. 😁 I caught up on some computer stuff. I cleaned the shower. Did you know that white vinegar takes hard water spots off of glass like a super hero? And I swatted flies. For hours that was my past-time. I don’t know where they came from, but they just kept appearing! It was like a video game. You finish one level, and then there’s more! It kept me entertained.
It drizzled all day. It was like a day in the Pacific Northwest. Not a hard rain… just wet enough to keep everything soggy. I think if we had a boat in the PNW, it would need to be a pilot house, like a Bayliner 4788 (like SeaJamm). We have a friend in the Anacortes area that has one too. We’ve always thought that it’s a perfect boat for rain. You can drive inside comfortably, have lots of room, they say it stays comfortable even on hot days with the side doors open. Our Island Girl does not have a comfortable helm downstairs. It works, but it is not at all that comfy for the skipper of the ship.
It was not a very photogenic day. This is where we started the day. Other than the Captain’s windshield on the fly bridge, I had all the windows zipped closed including my windshild window. But we were both still getting wet. Notice the completely custom extra fancy iPad protector? It’s a storage box that I had on board. It works as a raincoat when rain is flying through the window. Gladys freaks out when she gets wet! Then when the sun is out, I put a towel in it, around Gladys, and around the outside, and that keeps her from overheating. Genius. Inexpensive. Multipurpose.
When we moved downstairs I didn’t get a pic of Captain driving from down there. The downstairs Garmin doesn’t have charts for the inland rivers, uh-oh! so we only had Gladys. And then Captain’s iphone was blue-toothed to the upper helm Garmin, so that he could still see the AIS – on the ittybitty iphone screen. That was important though, because we eventually did encounter several tows that we had to maneuver around. He could still call them by name on the VHF and get passing instructions, which was good. We even had one of them call us back and chat awhile about where we were from, and where we were going. He had never heard of the Great Loop and found it quite interesting. He was quite a nice fella.
We saw more cliffs, with a variety of stone colors. They were really interesting and unusual. Although, I suppose with all of the cement quarries we’ve seen, and all of the dirt and earth goods that we’ve seen going up and down this river, these cliffs probably have a variety of useful stuff in them.
We considered ourselves fortunate that we only had drizzly rain, and not fog. The fog was right on the edge of settling in. I texted a friend that was going up the Ohio river today, (Exhale) and they had fog. Ugh! I hope we don’t have that problem tomorrow. In any case, this was kind of a cool picture. It looks like there are campfires in the woods, but it’s just clouds wanting to be fog.
Now – I told you about the big Mississippi tows, and how they churn the river up into a crazy turbulent ocean-like, full of swells, rock and roll, pitch and dive experience? Take a gander at this. This big dude is going up the river at about 5 mph, against a 5mph current. Check out the breakers he’s creating! I’m sure they’re big enough to surf on!! This isn’t a wake that is coming out from his side. These are rollers being created behind him! And then the under-swell continues and spreads out, and is quite violent. You don’t want to be anywhere close to this!
And it just goes on and on as they go by! We feel the effects for at least 2 miles. It’s crazy how it churns up the entire river into a boiling, swelling heck of a mess!
After almost 70 miles, we arrived at our destination – Little Diversion channel. What an ice skating rink getting into this place! It was like trying to maneuver after a tow goes by! It isn’t easy to turn a corner on a fast river at a junction with another body of water! We had to power up, and we crabbed sideways for quite some time as we tried to get off the Mississippi. All the while we were dodging logs and other debris that was caught in swirls and eddies, and we couldn’t determine which way everything was going. We watched the boats behind us in amazement as they did the same thing – fighting sideways forces. This is not something a little boat with a little power putter would want to try!
I think this is a man made channel that meets the river. It is maybe 200 feet wide, as straight as can be, with consistent depth. We got here first, so we went all the way in to a railroad bridge, and dropped our anchor. The water was 30 feet deep, which creates a bit of a challenge, because the channel is so narrow. You can’t really put out enough line for a good angle for the scope from the anchor to the boat at that depth, because if the boat actually swings around, you don’t want to end up on the shore. We first thought we should point our bow up the creek toward the bridge. But then we started to swing around and go the other way so that our stern was going upriver?! Apparently there is more breeze than current here. If that changes in the night, we could end up going the other way.
The other boats came in behind us, and in a single file line they each put out their anchors. We had trouble getting ours to grab the first time, and we ended up a little close to the bridge. Second try worked better and it set, but we didn’t pull on it very hard due to the angle. We don’t expect much wind tonight, so we’re thinking (& praying) that we’ll be ok. Here’s our gaggle of boats. There are a couple on the right that look pretty close to shore! I hope the water doesn’t drop over night and leave them in the bushes!
It was only about 3:00, so we had a nice afternoon relaxing. Kenny searched the TV channels with our air antenna and found the St Louis Cardinals playing baseball in their home stadium. It was blazing sunshine there! Really?! The weather report that we watched last night said that there would be a ‘line’ south of St Louis where the rain would fall. They were right.
By evening, we had another boat join the Little Diversion party. We had a little chat on the VHF, and it sounds like we are all headed to Paducah Kentucky tomorrow. It will be a very long day. We have another 49 miles to travel down the Mississippi. Then we will turn left, and go UP the Ohio River for 44 miles to get to Paducah. We know that we’re gaining about 4mph going down the Mississippi. Exhale said that along with fog on the Ohio, they were fighting about a 3mph current. So all in all for the 93 or so miles, we should just figure an average of our normal cruising speed of 9mph for the day. It’ll probably take us 10-11 hours to get there. The good news? The Ohio river used to have two locks (#52 & 53) that were an absolute pain in the boater butt. They caused delays that made the Marseilles on the Illinois look like a cake walk. But just last month, a 30 year – yes 30 YEAR – project completed a new lock called the Ohlmsted Lock that replaces both 52 & 53. Add to that, for the last couple of weeks, the new lock has been open due to the water levels. So if this all still holds true tomorrow, we won’t have any lock issues to delay us. THAT is something that nobody has been able to say about this stretch of the Ohio River – ever.
We need to get moving at daybreak for a long day. Here is our little gaggle with their anchor lights on, ready for a nice night in Little Diversion channel. Funny how everybody is going different directions, huh?
