We have never been more happy to get out of a waterway than we were when we turned from the murky, muddy, fast flowing Mississippi, into the calm green and wide Ohio River.
Our flight from Hoppies, at 6.40am the day after my sewing spree, dawned cold Really COLD. A gorgeous sunrise, as like many others we have encountered elsewhere, didn't mean that the sun was going to appear immediately. It sure took it's time this morning. It took until about 2pm for us to have shed our winter jackets, hats et al, and appear in shirtsleeves. Aieeee! We had to have all the windows open on the fly deck because we had to be super vigilant in the still high, still debris ridden Mississippi River.
As I think I have already said....Hoppies is a bit of an institution, on the Mississippi. We couldn't really see why, but that is unimportant. The 'dock' consists of four old barges welded and tied together. Hoppies Marina has been there since the 1930's being owned by the current Hoppy's Dad. Fern and Hoppy took it over in the 1970's and it looks like it needs totally redoing! Apparently Their grandson is interested in taking over the business. It needs new energy to do maintenance et al. It is a health risk! Too many sharp things to fall over or trip on and the furniture needs replacing etc. Charging $1.25 per foot per night was a bit rich, but then they told is this was the ONLY place on the Mississippi that we could dock. Later, as we passed several, we found that there were anchorages out of the main stream that we could have anchored at! Oh well.
The last photo before taking the lines off and motoring hard out into the Mississippi. 6.30am
Just behind Hoppies are a number of Wing Dams, or Rock Weirs sticking out into the River. You don't want to drift backwards at this point, and you want to go far enough out into the river to get past them or OUCH! rocks on props is not fun, as we have found out!
6.40am it is now light enough for us to shake off the lines and proceed ahead of the others, down the river. First you have to go Up, in order to get far enough out to avoid the Wing Dams. The next two boats followed shortly after. We haven't heard from any of the others, however. There were 10 boats parked here our second night.
We narrowly missed running into this log which was floating down river, just as we turned into the current which was still running around 4 knots. This is great for our fuel consumption. We are doing our normal 1600 RPM and our speed is around 11.3-12.2 knots! Love the speed! Normally 1600RPM gives us 7.9 - 8.3 knots.
Out and away. This is it...four barges tied to the river bank ON the Mississippi. We were told to put our engines in reverse, first thing, before we went forward, just in case debris had gotten caught under our props.
The sun took it's time coming up...so it seemed...so cold were we!
We aren't far outside of St Louis, on this stretch of the River, so we assumed this was the more Well To Do part of town, with huge and lovely homes along the top of the riverside cliffs.
Looking ahead of us, these hills soon made way for more flat and boring landscapes. We are amused by the number of power stations...make that COAL fired power stations, along the various rivers. In Canada, all the Dams had hydro power stations attached to them, and in Ontario, power is referred to as 'Hydro'. Fantastic!
I digress...
Industry is all along the river, of course...in fact, it is the least expensive way to carry goods, by barge. Their holding capacity is colossal. On this stretch of the River we passed one tow with 35 barges in its fleet. THAT is scary!:)
There are many valleys along the way, and we were a little afraid that fog might slow or stop our progress, but this is the only fog we encountered, fortunately! phew! You cannot see anything in the fog, when it is at river level, and it is important that we can see EVERYTHING as we go down river. There are so many Wing Dams on the sides to slow the Mississippi down, that it is folly to do anything but stay on the sailing line indicated on our charts.
This is what a Wing Dam looks like when it is ABOVE the water. It juts out into the river to keep the current in the middle of the river, and away from delicate river banks et al. Because the river has been in flood, many if not most of these wind dams have been submerged and therefore extremely dangerous.
Our friends Todd and Paula, following us about 10 miles behind, tell us that they should have waited on one of the large tows coming towards them, to pass, as advised by Fern at Hoppies, on a particularly narrow part of the river. Instead, they were told by the tow to pass on the one whistle (Right side of the tow) but as they went to pass, there was a log ahead which they then tried to avoid, and in the process strayed onto the end of a Wing Dam. They are being taken out of the water tomorrow (Monday) to see what the damage to their prop (s) is. It is a sickening feeling, and it truly puts you into a state of shock, when you hit anything. They are still recovering! I empathize, totally!
You think it is cold???:) The hat was necessary, as my ears where SO cold with the wind rushing past them. I have four layers on!
Morning light on the Mighty Miss.
Cliffs, trees turning color and caves in the cliffs. This was the prettiest part all day!
There was less debris overall, but this gives you an idea of some of what comes down the river, stuck on a bend. Now, imagine EVERY bend with this kind of debris...that is what we saw, today, yesterday and before that.
Still plenty to avoid and we cant wait to get to the Ohio River at this stage. We have another night to spend before we get there though.
We had a hitchhiker for a long while, today. It looks like a Katydid, but also like a Leafhopper. Not sure which?
For the longest time, a rail line ran along the river banks, and some of the scenes it created were quite photogenic:) especially with the Fall color!
It is early yet. When we leave so early in the morning, by 10am we feel as if we have done a hard days work! This is what the chart looks like on the plotter. We are doing 11.4 knots at this bend. It is a skinnier piece of river and we felt fortunate not to have met any tows here.
At Chester, the Mississippi Queen was docked here. It is a nothing kind of town, and no discernable reason to stop here. What do we know??? This is a Hotel Steamer, by all accounts. I advise saving your pennies and doing the River Cruise on the Rhine, instead of one on the muddy Mississippi!
Yes, that is the town!
At the town of Girardeau, this lovely bridge was for going under.
Late in the afternoon...3.13pm, to be exact, we came into the Little Diversion Channel. It took us a while to see it, on the bend of the river, and the passage into the channel was complicated by the many Wing Dams on the bend, as you can see...those lines out into the river ! Approaching the channel on the bend, against a 4 knot current, and without going over the wing dams, or the rocks at the entry to the channel, was challenging. First you have to go downstream far enough so that your can turn around and into the channel at an angle. We have slowed to 5.2 knots now that we are in the calm of the channel. There are two boats ahead of us. You can see our path as the one with the black dots along it. The other line is the safe sailing line which it is advisable to follow!
All is calm! The yacht (demasted) and the little Camano Troll are there before us. Neither of them had stayed at Hoppies. They obviously knew there were other places to anchor!
We anchored and looked back, waiting for our two following boats to come in behind us. We had heard all the drama about the crunch on the Wing Dam, on the radio, but there was already another boat with them, and they didn't need our assistance. They came and joined us a good hour and a half later. We all spent a very quiet and comfy night here, off the main river. This was Thursday Night.
Friday:
We were again first out of the anchorage, before our two buddy boats. The Camano Troll with Canadians aboard preceded us out the channel into the Miss.
The boat in front of us has pulled anchor and will follow us out the channel.
6.40am start, again! Two tows going up the river that we will have to negotiate with, first thing.
Vapor trails in the early morning sky, as we turn the corner into the Mississippi.
Looking back at the channel where we spent the night.
It was less cold, this morning, but we still rugged up.
Fog, fog, fog~ but not on the water..yaya!
This little tug is called 'The Mule'. We have met it before somewhere and today it was delivering all this equipment to Paducah.
Much turbulence is generated by their wake!
1600 RPM
12 knots!
WOW! Lots of debris looking like it was just tossed on a heap. It was, basically. This is on an inside bend of the Miss.
It is fascinating how the Mississippi turns, almost back onto itself as we go towards the confluence with the Ohio River. All those yellow triangles are actually ON the Ohio River. The joint is out of the picture.
A Wing Dam we avoided!
A Whirlpool we also avoided. You can see all the little ones too. The big whirlpools are Very turbulent in the middle and some even have waves at the surface. We avoid those at all costs. You never know what is causing such a pull.
And here we are just turned into the Ohio River, headed for our first overtake of the barge ahead and under the bridge, on our way to Paducah, Kentucky. Illinois is still on our Left, as we go up the river. Kentucky is on the right.
The paper chart shows the confluence of the Mississippi on the bottom of the photo, and the Ohio on the top.
This shows our turn (black line with dots) as we go into the Ohio.
Building a new Lock and Dam on the Ohio River to replace the old one which we sailed right past, with the wickets down.
This equipment is for bringing heavy body parts down the rail line to the water.
The new lock.
From the back side of the new lock.
Coal. Coal fired Power plants all up and down the rivers.
The HARAHS Casino Ship berthed at Metropolis.
This facility was a scrap yard for old barges. We see so many scuttled on the sides of rivers and canals, and it is good to see that there are facilities where they are properly dealt with.
The scrap is loaded onto barges and shipped to other facilities for recycling, as we understand it.
I am always fascinated by these large tows and how they all stay together. Well, they don't ALWAYS stay together, apparently:( Some times they come apart (the barges ) and run away.
I normally take photos from the height of the fly bridge, but this time I went down to the Cockpit to take these pics, at 'ground' level. I hope this shows how large they are.
They are tied together with wire ropes.
We were to anchor out for another night just outside the town of Paducah, Kentucky. The little Towhead seemed the perfect place. We hoped! It had an open end, and we didn't know how much water was available at the end of it, but the guide book told us we should have plenty, even at low water.
A small tug motored full throttle towards us. It only slowed down when I appeared on the cockpit deck and peered over the side at it. His wake rock and rolled us. I guess we were in HIS space, somewhat. There was sufficient room for him to pass us, and as the river has a current, we didn't swing much, fortunately. Not enough room for us to swing much:( We were actually in 21 feet of water.
Our turn off the Ohio River behind the little island to the right, past industrial filling stations .
It was another long day and we had come over 100 miles since our previous nights anchorage.
It was a pretty place to anchor:) The Tennessee River is the water across the end of the island.
Love the sunset!:)
Small tugs came and retrieved the barges. One came by at around sunset and we asked him how much water was at the end of the island. He said around 9ft! We could leave via the end of the island, but I think we wont. After sun down the barges went and new ones were in their place by morning:)
Yet another early morning. 6.25am. The cloud front was gorgeous:)
The sky was electric!
See what I mean about the cloud!
6.540am. We are off again as soon as we can see where we are going. We are tired! It has been a loooong journey with difficult circumstances, down the Mississippi. A river in flood is not to be trifled with!
A short way on our morning journey we had to turn off to the Cumberland River, on the left side of the Mooring Cells (the round things on the right). The tow ahead of us is not moving forward, while waiting for an oncoming tow to clear the Dam on the Ohio River, ahead. We passed them on the one whistle (right) and turned right into the Cumberland River.
The Cumberland River.
And here we are making the turn! Our knots are down because we are now motoring against the current.
The Dam on the Ohio River.
We are enjoying the clarity (relative) and the green color of the Cumberland River, so far. It is such a pleasure to be on calm waters for a change. Our 200+ mile journey on the Mississippi was hard work, driving the boat the whole way. At least on these calm waters we can allow our attention to wander a little bit...just a little! and enjoy the scenery.
This Bald Eagle flew down to feed on one of the many dead Asian Carp that was floating in the river. They are big birds!
Some cliffs ahead, and we are delighted by the changing colors in the trees. Something we have definitely been looking forward to.:)
The HUGE inventory in the quarries we pass, is astounding. Pile upon pile of sand, and rock of every grade. This quarry was enormous. Look at the infrastructure, here.
And here!
We couldn't see what all the Vultures were looking for, along the river, but there were enough of them!
Lovely clouds, lovely blue sky, Trees in change....life is good!
A slimmer, windy river, the Cumberland.
We are on our way to Barkley Lock and Dam, the last before entering the Lakes and The Land Between The Lakes. Today is a short day. Thank goodness!
Coming to the Lock and Dam, from the bottom, and under the last bridge for a while.
This is a biggy! We were supposed to go up 50+ feet, but we estimate we only went up 40 ft. Our passage through the lock is on the right. You can see the two concrete pillars with chevron designs on them, and further in, the lock gates, which are closed as we approach.
The fast boat in the foreground is also due to lock through with us.
As we approached, they opened the gates. We didn't see the operator of this lock, which is unusual. Normally there is someone on the top giving instructions. This time it was all done by radio. He couldn't see if we had tied the lines off, at this lock.
This lock is huge, as you can see. We had to go a long way in to find the floating bollards. Fortunately there was a choice of two to tie off on.
The gates are closing behind us.
This is the chute the floating bollard rises and falls up and down. Looking up, here.
We are nearly at the top, with the gates ready to open into Barkley Lake.
The two tiered floating bollard.
Coming out the other side of the Lock. The Dam is on the right hand side. It is over 10,000 ft long! Lake Barkley is a man made lake.
Lock (left) and Dam (right)
Just around the corner is the Marina we had booked into. They are FULL of Loopers waiting to go down the rest of the Rivers.
We were surprised by the huge size of the House Boats in the Marina. You can see them there under cover.
This is on a corner as we go towards the Marina. It looks like a club house, but we didn't see what for.
These House Boats are 100ft in length.
Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina The boats at the end are all Loopers. There must be about 30 Looper boats here right now.
This is the first time we have been placed under cover. This is the only large space they had for us, so full of transient, are they. Waz backed our baby in very neatly. Not much room on either side!
I do love the Crepe Myrtle in Bloom. It reminds me of the South. I guess we are considered to be In The South, here in Kentucky.
And here we are!
Looking back out to Lake Barkley.
We arrived just after noon, and went up to the Dockers Restaurant for a late lunch. We were tired and hungry and needing naps.
A dinner of leftover meat mixed with salad was in order. We finished it with carrot cake and cream:) of course.
Time for me to close this for the night. All the new TV series have begun, and for once I am going to watch The Good Wife.:) Ciao.
