Cumberland Towhead to Green Turtle Bay, Barkley Lake (33 miles) 10-14-08

We left the anchorage at 8am today as we have only 33 miles and 1 Lock to do today before we get to Green Turtle Bay. Also, Bob checked AIS before we left the anchorage and saw a barge coming southbound through the narrow channel on the Cumberland River we have to turn northbound.
Each of the rivers we have travelled has a different look and personality. The Cumberland River is much narrower, has low rolling hills with trees on the shoreline and has a few houses with huge levees protecting them. It reminds me more of the Mohawk River in upstate NY. We noticed about .5 to 1mph current against us but we were still able to maintain a speed of 7.4.
We were able to let the autohelm steer so the morning seemed easier. We were surprised once going around a curve and “dab smack in front of us” was the “Larry Tilley”, a pusher and barge southbound. They did not have an AIS transponder so we had no warning. They quarry a lot of limestone in the area, have grinders on the riverbank and then it is loaded on the barges so this area can be busy.
We entered the Barkley Lock by noon and were raised 57 feet. Each lock is different and this one had high and low bollards that were spaced comfortably so that we did not have to worry about moving backwards or forwards and hitting another boat. The definition of a good boating day always starts with ‘no one got hurt and nobody’s boat got damaged.” We have had all good days so far.
Barkley Lock opens up to Barkley Lake which is one of the most popular stops on the Loop. It has hiking trails in the Land Between the Lakes, the picturesque town of Grand Rivers, protected anchorages, post office, a grocery store and access to a marina courtesy car.
Patti’s Settlement Restaurant even sends a van to pick up boaters for their nightly feast. The restaurant is decked out in Christmas glitter throughout the year, and offers their specialty pork dishes and over-the-top pecan desserts. We were not disappointed!

Milepost 953 (O.R.) to Cumberland Island Towhead, Milepost 923.5 (O.R.) (30 miles) 10-13-08

We had a very peaceful night’s sleep for our first time anchoring with direct river current. This morning was partly sunny and 69 degrees as we raised the anchor at 8am.
We checked AIS which indicated that Lock #2, 14 miles away, already had a lot of barge traffic waiting to lock through. We meandered up the river and anchored at 10am waiting for our turn to go through. By 11am, 3 other boats had joined our little flotilla and we received permission to load up the lock with one pusher leading. This lock goes up only 12 feet, but from the time all the lock lines are tied and the water comes in and out, it was 12:30. We worked hard and earned chips with lunch today.
We decided to anchor in the Cumberland Island Towhead which is at the confluence with the Cumberland River which we will take tomorrow. “Joy@Sea” ducked in first to test depth and found it low on the NE section of the towhead. There were also some deadheads in the anchorage area so he reanchored towards the entrance to the towhead and we followed suit.
By 4pm, there were 6 Looper boats all tucked in nicely for the evening. Madison on “Joy@Sea” took out his dinghy and went to each boat offering to take pictures of each couple. Thank you Madison. It was humid and 85 degrees which explains our attire. We hope to even out our “tans’ by the time we get to FL.
We had a full moon off our bow and our stern was illuminated for about 2 hours with a barge spotlight as they waited to lock through the next lock. It created a different type of ambience and enough light to read.

Little Diversion Channel (M.R.) to Milepost 953 on Ohio River (79 miles) 10-12-08

Up at 6:15 to turn off the anchor light and put the generator on for an hour before we leave. Not much fog this morning but it was very damp. We had a great night’s sleep in this peaceful anchorage. We weighed anchor at 7:30 and we now understand the expression “Mississippi Mud”—I would rather have it as an ice cream flavor than the real stuff on the anchor. We have a washdown pump now and it really earned its keep this morning.
AIS showed a barge coming close to our outlet as we departed and it was “up close and personal” time for the 4th boat (“Cynthia Faye”) leaving. Nothing like a jolt of adrenaline with your coffee to get you started in the morning.
Question of the Day? We have had a running discussion amongst us about what catfish nets look like on the surface of the water. Often we encounter areas on the river with foamy softball-size bubbles and some in the group believe there are nets underneath; others think that it is congealed foam from all the boat traffic; or a third option, discharge from the Weir dams underneath us. If anyone knows the real answer, let me know so I can look super smart and impress all the “Captains.”
Today was “Shootin’ the Chutes” day as we entered the narrow, horseshoe bends section of the Mississippi filled with Weir dams on the way to the Ohio River. We checked AIS to make sure that there were no upbound barges coming our way through the narrows and also hailed them on Channel 13. We proceeded down through Daniels, Moore and Price Landing areas with a speed of 13.6 mph. We gave the autohelm a rest as we took turns steering through the swirls and trying to keep the boat pointed down river. Definitely a rush! We timed it well as we thankfully did not meet any barges except on the wider sections.
The terrain today is flatter and sandier and the shoreline is reinforced with Wing dams to further direct the river into the channel. Our speed would decrease to 12.2mph and back up to 13.5 as we went through the Scutter Chute and Greenfield Bend.
We have noticed less debris in this section of the Mississippi but every once in awhile, we encounter a deadhead just waiting to grab us.
At 12 noon, we neared the confluence with the Ohio River and that’s where it really gets interesting. A huge container ship was also making the turn northbound to the Ohio and Bob picked up 5 AIS targets in the confluence area alone. Dodgeball anyone? We also noticed a visible color line as the brown Mississippi met the green Ohio River.
As we proceeded northbound up the Ohio River, we lost our river current speed thrust but were pleased to be able to do 8.2 mph so we are not fighting a lot of current.
We checked with Loopers who are ahead of us by a few days to get an idea of where to anchor. “Catrina” pushed through in an 8am to 12 midnight push to get to Kentucky Lake and “Barbara” anchored before the 1st lock on the Ohio. Since there can be a lot of delays on the Ohio locks, we decided to go through Lock #1 where we waited for an hour and then look for an anchorage along the KY side of the Ohio River.
The sky became cloudy and the SE wind was up as we began looking for an anchorage at about 4pm. Since our boat has the least draft, we offered to duck into shore and test out the depths for anchoring at Milepost 953. This offered wind protection and we were pleased to find depths of 12-14 feet.
“Joy@Sea”, “Rita’s Pick” and “Cynthia Faye” followed and dropped anchor in the river channel with us across from the cement plant. We visited a bit on Channel 17 as we did not want to deploy the dinghies tonight with the river current.
It proved to be a good choice and we even had some digital TV signal and cell phone reception to talk to many of you by phone.

More Photos - Oct 11th

Kaskaskia Lock to Little Diversion Channel (69 miles) 10-11-08

We definitely had the promised quiet night’s sleep last night and woke up refreshed to a sunny 60 degree morning with just a hint of low water fog. We pulled back into the Mississippi river channel and “Rose’s Pick” took the lead today. It takes us little boats a long time to warm up to full throttle and “Rose’s Pick” had the opposite problem and needed to go faster to warm up her engines.
There are no big river towns on our trek today. Instead, we are treated to a hillier shoreline on the west shore with a touch of Fall color. We talk to our fellow Loopers on Channel 17 and monitor commercial traffic information on Channel 13 and are often doing both channels. When we came upon the “Potter” pipeline barge, we were advised to pass on the “Ones” and then had an upcoming pusher and barge which we passed on the “Twos” and we coordinated with our fellow boaters to go down through the slot.
River current today is about 4mph and we had a number of turbulent areas around Milepost 92 and 81 complete with eddies, swirls and even a vortex.
The Fountain Bluff area is narrower and we took an AIS reading and did not see any upbound barges approaching but also announced our intention on Channel 13 so the “big boys” know where we are. This area reminds me of the Hudson River with its hilly shoreline and curves and it even has a camping area.
We hit a top speed of 13.4 mph today which is almost 2x our hull speed. It took us a while to throttle back so that we could make a sharp turn to starboard to enter the Little Diversion Channel where we planned to anchor. We entered first as we only draw about 4’ and slowly but surely anchored in 15’ of water in a narrow channel. The other Looper boats entered and dropped anchor and even the newbies got a gold star.
I spoke with a fisherman who told me that the channel cut back about at least 3 miles and Bob and I went for a dinghy ride. He also said that the largest catfish on record, 130 pounds, was caught in this area. We did hear gunfire in the distance and thought maybe we were on the set of ‘Deliverance.”
Rose and Gary on “Rose’s Pick” invited all the Loopers over to their beautiful 50’ Carver for the Captains’ Meeting. We had a great time and on the way back to our boat, I noticed the beautiful moon.

Hoppies to Kaskaskia Lock and Dam (41 miles) 10-10-08

This is the beginning of week 6 for us on our Great Loop adventure. Fern had advised us that if there is fog down the river, do not leave until later in the morning. We took her advice and had a leisurely morning exploring more of Kimmswick. We also talked with Hoppie himself who told us of the river crest of 40 feet in this area in 1993 which put the water up to the roof on the barn. This year a 5 foot section of shore bank that was washed out last year has been silted back in. That’s how the Mighty Mississippi earns her name.
We departed at 12 noon with “Baby Grand” in the lead as we have AIS to let us know where all the barges are. We were fooled a little bit when we had an AIS target named “Adventure” going 14 mph and it turned out to be a 70 foot Nordhaven which passed us as well as the upbound and downbound barges.
We hit areas of turbulence caused by Weir dams under the water which push the river water into the main channel.
We pulled into the Kaskaskia Lock and Dam to tie up for the night at about 4:30. The Kaskaskia River meets the Mississippi at this point but the lock and dam is also used for transient overnight use with the lockmaster’s permission. We radioed ahead on Channel 14 and graciously received permission not only to dock, but also to walk on the jetty which is rigged with pipelines and valves. We all gathered on the jetty to trade stories about our day and all looked forward to a calm and quiet night away from the current and barge traffic.

Alton to Hoppies Marina in Kimmswick, MO (44 miles) 10-9-08

We had so much fun with Tom and his wife, Delores that we asked them to join us today boating down the river to Kimmswick. We passed the Arch in St. Louis on this busy river day. Kimmswick is a charming, small town filled with quaint shops and a great restaurant, the Blue Owl. Our journey today entailed 2 locks which the new crew handled with great skill and definitely earned their “tots.” Fern, the dockmaster at Hoppies, Met with Loopers at 5pm and shared her extensive knowledge of the river system and gave us so many tips for navigating these new waters.

Day of Fun in St. Louis 10-8-08

We were met at the Alton dock by my cousin, Tom Doherty, who arranged a wonderful day of fun in St. Louis for us. We toured the 1904 World’s Fair park which has an Art Institute, Zoo, bike and walking trails, lake, restaurants and we saw it all toolin’ around in Tom’s 1938 Willie Jeep. Tom and Bob are both pilots and Tom even arranged for us to fly over the confluence of the rivers with his friend, Mel in his Beechcraft Bonanza plane. What a thrill especially when we noticed how the river and our boats look so small from above.

Grafton, IL to Alton, IL (20 miles) 10-7-08

We woke up to a rainy and foggy morning with the additional elements of wind, strong current, debris and waves on the Mississippi. In the 5 weeks of our trip, we have not had this combination. We decided to poke out into the river and try it as we have radar and were only going 20 miles to Alton which is the closest marina to St. Louis. We were joined by fellow Loopers, Tom and Debbie, aboard their catamaran, Catrina. We proceeded slowly but surely down the river using all our technology. It was challenging but it also supplied a sense of accomplishment when we arrived safely at Alton and tucked into their dock. So many times when we lived in St. Paul, I would look down the Mississippi and imagine that we would be here, and here we are even if we had to work hard today.

Beardstown to Grafton, IL (88 miles) Oct 6th

A number of you have asked, “Why do you get up so early? Aren’t you supposed to relax when you’re retired?” Now that daylight hours are decreasing, leaving the dock at first light allows us to get to our destination with some hours of light so we still have time to go for a walk and explore. I am happy to report that I am “sleeping in” more easily to 6:15.
Since this is Monday, more barge traffic is apparent on the river. We used AIS to tell us where they were and their speed. The “Donna Rushing” was downbound at 5.6 mph and our speed was 9.0 so Bob asked permission to pass. I expected that we would be told to wait but were directed to pass her on the curve with an oncoming upbound also approaching. These pushers really know their stuff. I think Bob felt a real adrenaline rush from this while I was “doing the beads.”
We passed a river raft of college students who recently left Peru IL on a homemade raft equipped with a motor, crates and tarps bound for the Gulf of Mexico. Are they having a real Huck Finn adventure!!!!
The afternoon produced more wind and waves which slowed our 2.5 to 3 mph bump from the current a bit. We were making really good time on this long mileage day but got stopped at the Hardin RR Bridge for 45 minutes. The clearance is 20 feet and now that we are fully rigged again with mast and antennas, we stack up at 21 feet so we judiciously waited for the lift.
We pulled into the Grafton Harbor Marina at 4:30. We are now at the confluence with the Mississippi and the topography even changes. Grafton has tall limestone cliffs and it is the winter home for bald eagles. It is a delightful town with a number of restaurants and shops. We were told that the area had 3 floods this past year but the resilient locals keep on cleaning up and rebuilding.