Long Days

On Thursday, October 8, we left Port Charles Harbor in a light fog. Three miles or so downriver we "crossed our wake" (from last fall) at the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers and rejoined the Great Loop route.

Pretty early morning scenery north of St. Louis

Lon takes Zipper outside in the Chain of Rocks Lock

The day's cruise took us by the city of St. Louis and its famous Arch. It wasn't quite as exciting as passing by the Statue of Liberty last year, but it wasn't bad. It's a good thing we visited the Arch last fall on our drive south, because St. Louis has no place along their waterfront for pleasure craft to dock and visit the downtown attractions. It's a shame for a city that size.

The St. Louis Arch and downtown St. Louis

The riverfront is quite industrialized for a number of miles south of St. Louis, and the water noticeably dirtier than it was north of the city.

"Leg art" in the yard of a riverfront home

After 63 miles and 2 locks, our home for the night was Hoppies Marine Services in Kimmswick, MO (about 20 miles south of St. Louis). It's a stretch to call it a marina, because its "docks" consist of a series of 100-foot barges lashed together and secured to the shore with cables. Electric power is the only service offered. Most Loopers stop there because it's the only marina between St. Louis and the start of the Kentucky Lakes 200+ miles further on. It's a critical fuel stop for those whose traveling range will be challenged by the 228 miles before the next fuel stop.

A view down the "docks" at Hoppies
Marina. We later found out that we were
on the "Executive Dock"

October 9 and 10 were very long cruising days for us. With no marinas and few good anchorages on the 158 miles of Mississippi River south of Hoppies and 60 miles of Ohio River, we put a lot of miles under our keel. October 9 was a 9.5-hour, 110-mile, gray and drizzly cruising day before we finally anchored at the Little River Diversion Canal. The anchorage was quiet and deep enough, and, most importantly, out of the Mississippi River with its tow wakes and potential dangers from runaway barges.

Because there wasn't much to see besides trees and water in this part of the world, we tried to add a little excitement to the days by creating a travel game--"Count the Barges".  Just north of St. Louis we had traveled through the last locks on the Mississippi heading south: after Lock 27 the river is lock-free all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. This meant that the 15-barge-per-tow size limitation in place elsewhere on the Mississippi no longer applied. Therefore, in our remaining 180 miles on the Mississippi, part of the "excitement" was seeing just how many barges one tow could push.

A 4x6, 24-barge tow . . . 

A 6x6, 36-barge tow . . . 

The winner! A 6x7, 42-barge tow

Meeting or passing tows of this size had its challenges. We had to be in contact with the tow captains by radio to ensure that we were meeting or passing them on their preferred side, especially when the channel was relatively narrow or curved. As well, the tows pushing the largest numbers of barges used an incredible amount of power, and the waves they were throwing out behind them were huge.

Signals on our chart plotter from the
Automated Identification System (AIS) as we
approach the Ohio River. We are the black triangle-
the red triangles are commercial traffic.

On October 10 we left the Mississippi River at Cairo, IL and turned up the Ohio River. In doing so we entered a much wider, cleaner body of water, but lost a great deal of speed because we were now heading upriver against current.

First look at the Ohio River

The Ohio River's biggest challenges to boaters are possible delays at Locks 53 and 52. Both locks are old and are scheduled to be replaced by a new lock and dam under construction at Olmsted. Unfortunately, that particular project is a bit of a boondoggle--it was originally authorized by Congress in the late 1980's and has been under construction since President Clinton was in office in the 1990's. Many years and cost over-runs later, the current projected completion date isn't until at least 2020. In the meantime, boat traffic transiting the construction site and the essentially-defunct Lock 53 must wait to be led by an Army Corps of Engineers "helper boat".

Following a tow and barges through the
Olmsted L&D construction site

25 miles upstream of Lock 53 is the notorious Lock 52. Old and subject to breakdowns, the delays to river traffic at this lock are incredible. The main and auxiliary lock chambers have been under repair intermittently this fall, and we have seen lock queue reports where tows have waited several days to be locked through. After a 92-mile, 10-hour cruising day we arrived at the lock around 5 p.m., narrowly missing the day's last upstream lockage of recreational boats. The lockmaster gave us permission to anchor downstream of the dam so that we would be positioned to be locked through first thing the morning of the 11th. We had a 2-hour delay in the morning due to fog, but were through the lock by just after 9 a.m. Relief!

I-24 bridge at sunset, just south of our Lock 52
anchorage

Our view of Kentucky on a foggy morning

Unusual lock walls in old and decrepit Lock 52

Our destination for October 11 would be somewhere on the north end of the Kentucky Lakes. A shorter route via the Tennessee River would take us to Kentucky Lake at the top of the Kentucky Dam. Taking the Cumberland River to Lake Barkley via the Barkley Lock would be 20-miles longer, but less subject to delays at the lock. It was essentially a mental coin toss for us, but the conventional wisdom and telephone advice from a very friendly lockmaster at the Kentucky Dam steered us to the Cumberland River route. After 7+ hours of cruising we went through the Barkley Lock and its 57-foot lift into Lake Barkley and the resort marina of Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, Kentucky.

CARIB II and one other boat in the
deep Barkley Lock

Pat stabilizes the boat amidship with a floating
bollard as we rise in the lock

We are spending Columbus Day at Green Turtle Bay to rest and run some needed errands. More on the "Kentucky Lakes National Recreational Area" when we continue our way south.