Blue View Sept 25-29, 2013 Alton Marina, Hoopies, Chain of Rocks Canal

Bob & Patty Mitchell of the power boat Orinoco gave us great advice

26 Sept 2013
We stayed in Alton Marina an extra day to catch up on the Blog and do the traveler's thing.  As always tourist bogs are a Pink View Job.  We had a great time and highly recommend the Alton marina.  It is clean, efficient and the people are very friendly. If you're a BoatUS member the price of fuel is .10 cheaper and your docking fee drops from $1.30 to a $1.00 per foot, great savings. We have found the BoatUs well worth the membership.  A couple more important things here. This is the most difficult leg of the river systems for the loopers, so the Loopers Association has a meeting here at the marina. Bob & Patty Mitchell of the power boat Orinoco gave us great advice on where to anchor for the night, how to anchor in high currents using Wing-dams, our next stops and where to make reservations.  Good things to know, as at  the next stop in about 50 miles we didn't have reservations and would have been forced to do over 80 miles maybe traveling at night. NOT RECOMMENDED. Another thing is making an early call to the Alton Lock as they are (at times) very busy.  This way you don't have to leave your dock until they can take you.  After the lock you travel downstream picking up one to three knots of speed and pass where the Mississippi and Missouri rivers joins.  We then took the Chain of Rocks Canal to our last Mississippi lock. The river has picked up some speed here and we had two to three knots of current with us.  We had the engine running at five to six knots and we were doing up to ten knots. Not bad for a sail boat.  We traveled 44 miles today and stopped at Hoppies Marina.  As they say it not much to look at but again the people are wonderful and this is the last fuel stop for 107 miles.  

Mel Price Lock 

Hoppies Marina

Chain of Rocks Canal

Largest Tow to Date 36 Barges

27 Sept 13

We left Hoppies around 7:30 am and traveled 75 statute miles due to lack of anchorages in this section of the Mississippi. Mile marker 158 to mile marker 75. We did this in a little less than 9 hours averaging 8.5 knots as the current ran with us at about 1.5 to 3 knots.  There is a lot of commercial traffic on the Mississippian river and so far and the biggest tow we saw had 36 barges.  When you meet them they are very professional and friendly.  You have to call them on the radio to find with out which side they want you on.  It could be one whistle  or two whistles. The history behind this is before radio time they would use their whistles to tell other boaters or barges where to go and to this day they are still using the same terms. So how does this works you ask! It's quite simple.  If you're going in the same direction and you want to overtake the barge, he will say one whistle (his Starboard,my Port) or two whistles (his Port my Starboard).  When you meet them, one whistles means( his Port, my Port) two whistles ( his Starboard, my Starboard). Confused yet?  I was!  So here is the best way to remember (see picture). Smile.  I'm not ashamed.  Our anchorage was behind a wing-dam at mile marker 75.  Good anchorage and lots of water (9 to 10 ft). We even went for a walk on shore and a swim.  Our first swim since we started in the river system.  We are very spoiled in the North Channel with pristine clear water.  The water is not the same in the river as its  bottom is muddy, the current is fast running and last but not least Linda's least favourite Asian Carps.  She loves to go for swims but needless to say, she was very leery to swim here.  She did and the water was not bad at all.  To tell you the truth I thing she keeps counting her toes to make sure nothing starts growing.

28th Sept 13

We have been traveling now for a month and time has flowed by (pun intended).  Again we have traveled over 70 statue miles or 60 nautical miles.  As a bit of information for anyone intending in traveling the rivers all mile markers are in statute miles.  This makes a differences as we started our log book in nautical miles did not want to change back and forth from the Great Lakes to the River System and back once in the Gulf of Mexico.  So we kept our logs in Nautical Miles.  Today we made it to Cairo where the Mississippi and the Ohio river meets.  It was still good speed with the current.  I got the chance to see and take the picture of a dredging device out of the water.  This device/hogger can dig and pump mud, sand and water at an amazing rate.  Another thing that was great today is that we saw these two young Canadians in a canoe today.  We stopped to talk to them for a few minutes. They told us they left from Manitoba in August  and are going all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.  Linda had just taken fresh hot bread out of the oven so she gave them one.  They were very nice and so thankful.  We made it to our anchorage by four pm had some supper when low and behold who came around the point but our two young Canucks.  They paddled over to thanks us for the bread. Bliss where still cooking and gave them each a plate and I provided them with the beverage Canadian Beer.  They left us with big smiles.  What an adventure these boys are having.  Last but not least I had to do my Blue Job meaning check the oil and engine etc. Well we have a little problem with the water pump that cools the engine.  One of the seals has a small leak.  It's not a big job but we don't have the part and still have 80 miles to go.  We will have to keep an eye on it hope to make it to Green Turtle Marina and order the part.

29th Sept 13

We left Cairo this morning and started in the Ohio river,  against the current.  In some places the current was about 1.5 to 2 knots. We won't be doing 70 miles today that's for sure.  We had two locks to do and because of the lower river levels, they have the wickets down at one of the dam, meaning we have one less lock to do.  Wickets are dam walls they lower 10 to 12 feet below to water surface letting the river run. Once you get to the lock you need to make a run against faster current.  As most of you know this is a sailing vessel not a power boat.  At 6.5 knot I'm pretty well max speed.  When Bliss called the lock master to let him know we were coming he inquired about our horse power and told us to stay close to the lock wall as the current was a little lighter.  Bliss's new engine and big 3 blade prop didn't have to much of a problem but I wasn't so sure about DevOcean.  So about 1/4 of a mile before the lock I gave her everything she had trying to get as much speed and momentum as possible. Remember I'm an old truck driver and I'm thinking "Swing the Hill".  As it was all I could get is 4.5 to 5 knots against the original current.  By the time DevOcean got to the wickets wall which it's literally like a water speed bump we were down to three knots of speed. As always DevOcean didn't let me down.  Today was Linda first try at the helm in the lock. She did great considering a big tow had just left the lock and had left a lot moving water swirling around the lock. Obviously we didn't do as many mile as the last couple of day but we still did 41 NM. We dropped anchor in Paducah behind the Cuba Towhead island which is the junction where the Ohio and Tennessee river meet.   If you're wondering the water pump is still leaking but doing fine so far.  

This is a Raised Wicket Wall

Wickets are dam walls that are lowered 10 to 12 feet below the water surface to allow the water to run and raised to hold levels