Crossing Our Wake

For the past 7 years or so, we have been members of America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association, with the goal of traveling around the 5000+ miles of waterways circling the eastern part of America.  The boaters of AGLCA (the “Loopers”) show their membership by flying a pennant or burgee on the bow of their boat: a white one for doing a “loop in progress”, and a gold one for “loop completion”.  On October 22, we completed our circumnavigation and qualified for the Gold Burgee.

Look! There's our wake from 4 years ago!!

The phrase we use for completing the loop is to “cross our wake” which we created some time ago when we were last at this exact spot.  Almost 4 years ago, we moved the boat from Chattanooga back to New Orleans, and passed through the junction of the Tennessee River and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (at the common border of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama).  Wouldn’t you know it, but our wake from 4 years ago was still there (yeah, right) & we happily crossed it to complete our circle.

Our white burgee was so old, faded & torn that I told
Sue that we had to either buy a new white one
or just go ahead & earn a gold one!

Because we live full-time on the boat, we traveled some extra miles during our 4-year loop.  I’m guessing that we went over 6000 miles cruising north for the summer & south for the winter, and all of it at 10 miles per hour!  We traveled from the Tennessee River, down the Tenn-Tom Waterway to Mobile Bay, across Florida to the east coast, up the Atlantic ICW, through the Chesapeake Bay, past New York City up the Hudson River, across the Erie Canal and through the Great Lakes, south from Chicago into the Illinois River, the Mississippi River, the Ohio River, the Cumberland River, and finally back to the Tennessee River.

We feel we did something "above & beyond the call of duty"
to earn this gold burgee.

Probably the biggest thing I learned during these travels is how different are the geographic areas of cruising.  Cruising on the Tennessee River is totally different from the knowledge and skills needed to cruise on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, or on the Great Lakes.  And even though some areas were relatively easy to cruise, there were many situations which challenged our seamanship skills and endurance.  I feel that we’ve really accomplished something by reaching this milestone.

But it all doesn’t stop here.  When we finish being landlubbers for the next 2 weeks, we’ll take the boat south to New Orleans this winter, and then over to the Florida Keys and to the Bahamas in the spring.  There’s more sights to see & we aim to see them!

The Beautiful Tennessee River

The bridge to nowhere.  Guess they needed a couple
million more to finish it!

If there were a river that was the direct antithesis (pretty big words for a retired guy!) of the Mississippi River, that would be the Tennessee River.  What a joy it was to be on the scenic, calm, quiet river with minimal head current and very few towboats.  It was just as we remembered it from 4-6 years ago when we lived in this neck of the woods.

 


An abandoned dock along the Tennessee River

Hey, TowBoatUS, I think I grounded on a sandbar!



We're in either Kentucky or Tennessee

We only spent 3 days on the Tennessee before we arrived at the turn onto the next waterway.  The first night out, we stopped at a quaint marina that was adequate, but nothing special.  That is, until breakfast the next morning, when the marina served free coffee and fresh-baked cinnamon rolls.  Did I mention that it was all free?  I had read about this marina on the Looper website, and it was an enjoyable stop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typical scenery along the Tennessee River

 

Our second night out, we anchored where the river split around an island.  As the sun was setting against the cliffs at water’s edge, the scenery was drop-dead gorgeous.  The river was calm & quiet, the birds were squawking, and the goats on the island came down to the river’s edge.  Yup, there were wild goats on the island.  Just another day cruising through America!  We really enjoyed our last night on the Tennessee River at this special anchorage.

The view out our "back door" at the anchorage

 

The next morning at anchor with wisps of fog on the river

Our friendly goats at our anchorage

Our last lock upbound.  From here to Mobile AL, it's all downhill.

The third day, we made our marina at the junction of the Tennessee River and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.  This junction is right at the common boundary of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama.  Our next leg of our trip will be down the Tenn-Tom for 450 miles to Mobile AL.  But first, we’ll take about 2 weeks to rent a car, drive to Chattanooga for dentist appointments & to visit with Sue’s mother, and then drive back east to Southport NC, where we started our journey this year, to retrieve our personal car.  Then we’ll drive to Birmingham AL to our storage unit to pull out some winter clothes.  We’ve been pretty much freezing these past few weeks with only our summer clothes.



When we arrived at this marina, we reached a major milestone in our cruising adventures by completing the “Great Loop” of the waterways around the eastern part of America.  More about that on my next post, after we’re presented our “gold burgee”.

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…

The Long, Tiring Illinois River

South of Chicago, we pass bridge after bridge
after bridge

We pushed hard to get all the way down the 330 miles of the Illinois River in 6 days, which was one day longer than most boaters take.  We had really bad luck at 6 of the 8 locks, waiting an average of 2 hours at each of the six.  That amounted to taking a day longer.  Most days, we traveled for 10 hours to try to make up for the delays at the locks, and it still took us 6 days.

 

The pathetically narrow Chicago Ship & Sanitary Canal

Each day was long and tiring, especially waiting for the locks to finish with their upbound or downbound tows (a tug boat with anywhere from 1 to 15 barges), which have priority over pleasure craft.  Another frustrating aspect of this trip was not knowing how long we had to wait (the lock operators would just say “I’ll get to you when I can”), and not knowing where we’ll spend the night until we finally make it through the lock.  Each day, we had to come up with 2 or 3 options for spending the night, including some questionable marinas and some really dicey anchorages. 

Some highlights:

The elevation of Lake Michigan is 579 feet above sea level.  Eventually, we’ll end up in New Orleans, at sea level (or maybe even below sea level).  All the locks along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers will lower us down.  Then on the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, the locks will take us up.  Finally, on the Tenn-Tom Waterway, we’ll be locking back down.  Kinda like a roller coaster!

At some locks, we waited so long that we could
watch the leaves changing on the trees!

The first day leaving Chicago was busy and stressful.  Numerous bridges to keep track of, calling for an opening when we didn’t think we could get under them.  On at least 2 bridges, I stood on our dinghy deck sighting under the bridge to determine whether we would clear or not, and as we passed under the bridge, I reached up to touch the bridge steel.  We cleared by mere inches.

And there were so many tows you couldn’t count them all.  The Chicago Ship & Sanitary Canal was so narrow that at one point when we met a wide oncoming tow, we had to turn around & go back ½ mile to a side harbor to wait until he passed us.

"Winds of Change" a 30' Lyman from Sandusky

As we waited at the first lock that day, another Looper boat joined us, a wonderfully restored 30’ wooden boat built in 1967 by Lyman from Sandusky Ohio.  I was on Lake Erie during that time and saw many Lymans, with their distinctive bow rake.  Turns out that the owners home-ported their boat in Sandusky, which is only 15 miles from Middle Bass Island, where we home-ported our boat.   Small world!  We ended up traveling with “Winds of Change” for several days on the river, since they too had been held up in Chicago for over a week due to bad weather on Lake Michigan.

At the Caterpillar Visitor's Center, in Peoria IL, I learn how to
operate a front-end loader (I know, don't give up my day job!)

 

A replica of the largest truck that CAT makes, for the mining industry

 

The "City of Peoria" has a river boat, in case we want
to take a ride on the river!

The bridges are more fun to cruise under, if they
have a train going across!

Tending to the navigation aids along the river

The one day I DON’T want to re-live is the day we had to travel on the river after dark.  We had been held up at the lock for 3-1/2 hours, and were trying to make a marina (and a poor excuse for a marina, at that) for the night, because there were no acceptable anchorages along the route.  We knew we were going to be out after dark, so I’m re-installing our topmost navigation light, caulking and splicing wires, as Sue is driving the boat.  We had taken down that light to reduce our height, so we could fit under the low bridges in Chicago.  Meanwhile, our friends on “Winds of Change” went on ahead of us into the destination marina.  Night falls when we’re about 5 miles from the marina (remember that we only travel at 10 mph), so we’re struggling with the chartplotter and radar to pick out the red and green buoys to mark the channel.  That’s when our friends call us to report that a tow just passed the marina & is heading our way!  As we round the bend, we are blinded by the towboat’s searchlight, which he uses to find his buoys.  Then we go way outside the channel into shallow water to avoid the tow’s propwash.  Then we can’t see the entrance to the marina, even with our searchlight, and need our friends to talk us in using their cell phone.  Yes, we had some special elixirs that night to calm our nerves.

 
 

We were surprised to see so many white pelicans
this far north.

It's getting cold in Illinois!

So now, we’re spending 2 nights at a marina in Alton, Illinois, on the Mississippi River.  As we passed the junction of the Illinois and MS Rivers, the river was very wide, calm and pretty.  Much better than I had expected.  We depart tomorrow for hopefully a 5-day trip down the Mississippi 200 miles, up the Ohio River for 50 miles, and onto the Cumberland River about 40 miles.  At that point, we can breathe a sigh of relief.  The Cumberland and Tennessee River should be a lot less stressful.  We’ll let you know.

Erosion from the flooding earlier this year

I hear the tune to "Deliverance"

The junction of Illinois and Mississippi Rivers

When we anchor for the night, we're not far off the channel.
These tows sound really great in the middle of the night!

Sunrise at the anchorage.
We get up at zero-dark thirty

Entering the fog bank on the river.
Time to fire up the ol' radar!

In Alton IL, the American Queen riverboat made a stop
right next to our marina.  As it got underway, they
played the steam-driven calliope.

One Miserable Week in Hammond

Not just because Hammond is the armpit of the nation, but because of this ungodly wind that just won’t quit!

We came into this marina last Monday, knowing that a cold front was coming the next day.  What we didn’t know was that a giant high pressure was to follow, and that high pressure, with gale-force winds, just sat down on top of us for almost a week.  This marina is at the most southern tip of Lake Michigan, so the incessant northeast winds have created 8-10’ waves just outside the marina breakwall.

The winds have not gone below 20 mph since Monday night, have mostly been 25-30 mph, and sometimes gusting as high as 40 mph.  Our boat has been dancing in the dock slip just because of the gusty winds.  But the worst of it is that the waves are crashing at the marina entrance, and large swells are entering the marina exactly on our beam, causing so much rolling that both of us are getting seasick AT THE DOCK!  We’re rolling continually about 20 degrees in our slip, and the dock lines are snapping back and forth, causing jerky motions back and forth, which are totally nauseating.  I have 17 dock lines on the boat, spread out like a horizontal spider web.  With the gusty winds, the nylon lines will severely stretch and then quickly recoil just as a swell rocks the boat from the other side.  I have already punctured another dock fender, but as of yet, haven’t parted any dock lines.

We’ve gotten little sleep at night because of the snap rolls.  It was so bad yesterday that we went to Walmart just to get off the boat.  And going to Walmart was the highlight of our day!  We thought of moving the boat to another slip, but trying to maneuver the boat in 25-30 mph winds is suicide.  Talk about a helpless feeling.


The NOAA report says that this mess is caused by a super high pressure system of 30.8" Hg sitting to the north of us.  To put this 30.8" in perspective, "standard" barometric pressure is 29.92" Hg.  During most of the year, a high pressure system causing real pretty days is around 30.2" Hg.  A strong high pressure is 30.4", causing lots of wind.  A super-duper high is 30.5".  This thing is a monster at 30.8".

And the real frustration is that we’re so near to getting into the river system & getting protection from these winds and waves.  We have a mere 3 miles to go from this marina into Calumet Harbor & into the river.  So near, yet so far.

The weather prognosticators think the winds will start to die tomorrow.  It will take at least a day for the waves to die down, so it’s looking like Monday before we get out of here.  This week delay, coupled with the 2 week delay in northern Wisconsin, is causing us to be way too close to the cold weather.  We had originally hoped to be on the Tennessee River by October, enjoying some beautiful cruising with our friends.  Instead, we’ll just have another sea story to tell over a good stiff drink.

Stuck in Hammond IN

At Racine, we saw another boat just like ours -
48' CHB Seamaster. I estimate that there are only about
a dozen Seamasters and this is the 5th one we've seen

Weathered in at the absolute southern end of Lake Michigan, while the lake gets the last laugh.

We spent 2 nights in Racine WI and were too tired to even leave the marina.  But going through the Racine visitors guide, it seems to be a well-rounded city.  First, I note that it is the headquarters of SC Johnson (a family company), and its HQ building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Wright was a Wisconsin native & had close ties to the SC Johnson family, so there are several buildings/homes designed by Wright in the area.  Racine is also the HQ of Twin Disc power transmissions, so my boat transmissions must have felt all warm & fuzzy being so close to where they were born.

We had a one-day weather window on Monday, so we left Racine at sunrise for the 72 mile trip past Chicago to Hammond IN.  The lake was nice and calm, the best conditions we’ve had in the 5 days on the lake.  It was a blissfully uneventful travel day, so calm that we let “Otto the Pilot” drive most of the day.

The Chicago skyline was covered in fog & haze.

The seagulls started following the boat, which we haven’t seen happen for a couple months.  Then I looked up at the canvas which covers our flybridge, and saw the shadows of two webbed feet.  A stupid gull had actually landed right on top of the canvas.  I tapped the bottom of its feet, and all it did was take a couple steps forward.  I finally had to pound its feet before he (or she) decided to fly away.

We made Hammond Marina with no problem & topped off our fuel tanks.  Fuel is expensive in Illinois since they charge road tax on marine fuel, so the legislature can pay for all its bad habits.  This marina is just across the border in Indiana, right next to the Calumet River, which we will take to begin the inland journey.  We must take this route because our boat is too tall to take the Chicago River with its fixed bridges.  Even so, the lowest fixed bridge on the Cal-Sag Canal will give us only about 12” clearance (if the locks are maintaining normal pool levels).

And then the strong cold front came through.  Yesterday, winds were north at 30 mph, gusting to 40, and waves on the lake were 8-10’ with occasional 13’.  And there’s just a small breakwall between the lake and our marina.  I have 12 dock lines on the boat now, and it’s still rockin’ & rollin’ in the slip.  We started getting seasick on the boat & had to go ashore just to get away from the jerky motion.  Forecast for the next 3 days is for the wind to die to only 20-25 mph and waves decrease to 5-8’.  Yes, we will be glad to get off Lake Michigan.

So we’ll take our Dramamine & try do get some boat chores done while we plan our escape, I mean our departure!

Mean Lake Michigan

If anyone tells you that this lake kicks up after Labor Day, you’d better believe them!

We departed Sister Bay on Thursday at zero-dark thirty in order to combine two days of travel into one.  We went through Sturgeon Bay Canal, which connects Green Bay to Lake Michigan, and cruised about 55 miles on the Lake.  And wouldn’t you know that the winds on the Lake were from the east, seas were 1-3’ on the beam, so we rolled like a puppy most of the day.  After a 9-1/2 hour trip, after 92 miles, we made our marina in Manitowac WI.  We had already acted like tourists in Manitowac, since this is where our new prop shaft was machined, so we just stayed on the boat to rest that night.

Another early start the next day took us due south on the lake, which had winds (wait for it…) out of the east and beam seas at 1-3’.  We rolled again for only 5 hours until we made our marina at Port Washington WI.  This time we had enough energy to take our tourist dollars into town, first at a great meat market we had read about, followed by Sir James Pub which had over 700 kinds of craft beers, and finally a great dinner at the Port Hotel.  Port Washington seems to be an interesting town to spend time in, but we had a weather window to take, if we wanted to get to Chicago by early next week.

By next morning, the weather window had partially closed, so we waited till noon to leave, hoping to get a bit better weather.  Out on the lake, the winds were down, but the sea swells were STILL from the east at a good 3’.  This time, we rolled a good 30-40 degrees the entire day & had one of our worst travel days in years.  I had to tape closed all the cabinet doors on the boat, and also the refrigerator doors.  We had to hang on to something all day to keep from sliding off the seats.  Going below was a challenge, and going to the bathroom was even more interesting.  It was so rough that we couldn’t fix any lunch during the day, and I couldn’t go into the engine room to check the engines & fuel.  But, as they say, the boat took the rough seas much better than the crew did.  I told the Admiral that she’s really gonna miss Lake Michigan when we get into the calm boring river system next week.

We rode the surges through the marina breakwalls at Racine WI.  Since this marina is offering a BOGO for transient LOOPERs heading south, we’ll take them up on the offer.  Of course, the craft beer pub right upstairs from the marina office, might have influenced our decision to stay an extra night.

Tomorrow is our last weather window for several days, so we’ll plan to make the 72 miles to Hammond IN marina, which is right next to the beginning of the Cal-Sag canal leading to the inland rivers.  The forecast is FINALLY for SW winds, which is the normal direction for this time of the year.  I had planned for SW winds for most of our travel on Lake Michigan by going to the west side of the lake in hopes of getting on the lee shore.  But for the 5 days we travel on the lake, 4 of them had the east winds & waves, which is the worst we could have had.  “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all!”

No photos this time.  Just trying to get off this lake before the water starts to get “stiff”.