Mississippi & Ohio Rivers

Our chartplotter shows our path waiting
at one of the locks

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, there’s the Mississippi River.

We’ve had terribly bad luck getting through all the locks (if it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all), having waited 2 hours on average for the tows & barges to go through, and as much as 5 hours wait time.  When we left Alton IL the first time, we were delayed at the marina to take fuel and get a pumpout, and then delayed at the nearby lock for 2 hours, at which time we cancelled our plans for the day & returned to Alton Marina to stay another night.

Some of these towboat captains need big signs to
see which way to go

The Arch at St Louis, from a view rarely seen

The leaves, they are a'changing

The next day, we made it through the two locks in a reasonable amount of time (timing is everything in arriving at the lock between the tows).  As we approached St. Louis, the turbulence in the river, the debris in the river, and the amount of towboat traffic increased dramatically.  From this point all the way south to New Orleans, there are no locks on the Mississippi to control water flow or flooding, so the river runs where it wants to.  Luckily, we came through in relatively low water, so turbulence and current were reduced, but we saw high water marks on the shore where the water had been 25 feet higher.  Even so, this river is not for the faint-of-heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the many many wing dams along the MS River

Our omnificent US Army Corps of Engineers built hundreds of stone wing dams along the river in order to control all the mud & silt from settling at the wrong place.  In doing so, these dams create considerable turbulence in the water, which is constantly present along our route, sometimes causing us to almost lose control of the boat.  And this is at low water with minimal current!

Our boat at Hoppie's Marina along the MS River

Our other bit of excitement was dealing with towboats with barges as much as 6 across by 7 deep.  It was like trying to pass an island that was moving.  And the upbound tows had to overcome a 4 mph river current, so they were pushing massive amounts of water as we passed.

We ended our first day at the famous (or infamous) Hoppie’s Marina in Kimmswick MO, the only “marina” along the rivers for 200+ miles.  And I use the word “marina” rather loosely, since Hoppie’s consists of 4 river barges tied together, anchored at the river’s edge.  But it is a common stopping point for all the Loopers, and we met two other boats which we traveled with during the next couple days.



Close quarters to anchor in the Diversion Canal.
Looking out the narrow entrance towards the MS River

The highlight of our 2^nd day on the Mississippi was finding and entering our night-time anchorage at Little River Diversion Canal.  This narrow canal, about 85 feet wide at low water (remember that our boat is 48 feet long), had to be entered from down river, since the river current was about 4 mph.  We set the throttles to slowly overcome the current, and then carefully angled the bow towards the canal entrance.  As soon as we got out of the current, we had to quickly cut throttles & turn hard to port to keep us from running aground on the canal banks.   And then we needed a stern anchor to keep us from swinging at anchor & sticking our rudders in the mud in the narrow canal.

Sunset on the Ohio River, still steaming to our anchorage

The next day we got underway before sunrise, made it through more turbulence on the Mississippi, and finally made the turn east onto the Ohio River.  After dodging numerous tows we became stalled at Lock 53 and the construction area for the new Olmsted Lock & Dam, as we entered their “security zone”.  After a 5-hour delay, we came out the other end of the zone & ran hard to make our anchorage for the night.  It was after dark when we dropped the hook on the side of the Ohio River, hopefully out of the way of the omnipresent towboats.  Quite a long & tiring day.

Tows stacked along the Ohio River waiting for the locks

And then we came to the really long delay on the Ohio – Lock 52.  Because of construction, maintenance of the lock chambers, and downriver construction, the tows are taking 3-4 DAYS to get through Lock 52.  They were stacked all along the river bank, having run their lead barge aground in the mud to wait their turn.  We ended up anchoring next to the lock to wait the 4 hours before our turn to lock through.  But the delay meant that we’d have to spend one more night at anchor on the river before getting to our marina on the Cumberland River.

Anchorage at the junction of the Ohio & Cumberland Rivers

Steaming up the calm, quiet, clear Cumberland River

But on Saturday 10/17, the moon & the stars all came into alignment, the moon was in the seventh hour, and Jupiter aligned with Mars, when we departed our anchorage before sunrise to travel the 30 miles up the Cumberland River, and the lock at the end had its lower gates wide open for us to steam right in!  Just above the lock we found our marina, where we stayed for a couple days to recuperate & make some minor repairs.  We also found a fantastic restaurant named Patti’s, which featured 2” thick pork chops, cooked slowly & tender as can be.  We made 2 meals out of the leftovers.

 

Inside the Barkley Lock on the Cumberland River

When we gotta dress like this, it's time to head south!

 

 

We are so glad to be off of the Mississippi, which was probably the nadir of our travels so far.  Tomorrow we head out on the beautiful Tennessee River for the 3-day trip to the beginning of the Tenn-Tom Waterway.  We feel that we’re back in our ol’ stomping grounds on the TN, having lived on the boat in Chattanooga for 2 years.  We’ll reach a significant milestone 3 days from now, and have a special celebration.  To be continued…