Mighty Mississippi (Days 125-128)

-

As we left Grafton we noticed a lot of color change.
There were beautiful cliffs and although the day’s cruise was short it was Gorgeous.
We filled with fuel and water as we staged for a long stretch with no marina services at Alton Marina. I was able to take a long walk on the levee and Mike changed the oil.
In the morning, the lock-master at the Mel-Price Lock and Dam had us wait for the fog to lift. 
 But after we got the word everyone was quick to respond and we still made it through before 8:30.
Our next and final Lock on the Mississippi River was the Chain of Rocks Lock and Dam.  We’ve heard of many boaters who miss this turn even with the big sign.  If they go the other way there are strong currents at…Rocks.  Fortunately I do NOT have pictures.
The big event of the day was passing in front of the Gateway Arches in St. Louis.  
We were traveling with our mini flotilla from flotilla 4 and traded photos.
The Mississippi River is a busy super highway for barges.  These folks work hard!
No services in this stretch of the river so we were fortunate to be able to tie up at the Kaskaskia Lock and Dam.  Sometimes this is not available but we were fortunate.  As you can see it is the only stop in tow and there were 16 of us there by nightfall.
Everyone was off the wall bright and early per request of the lock-master.
Because of the remoteness of this stretch there was a lot of beautiful scenery. But since we are moving south the color change has not advanced as much as when we first started the river.
Because of the low water we are seeing very interesting rock formations.
The photo on the left is a wing dam completely out of the water.  The wreck on the right is actually on our navigation charts under water!
We had a very protected anchorage up the Little Diversion Channel. This is also a popular spot and there were 11 boats there in rafts of 3. Tony from Puffin joined us for a dinghy exploration ride.
This beach exists because of the low water.  Yet, someone left us chairs.
One of our Looper buddies got this great shot of us at sunset.
Again, we were up bright and early for our final day on the Mississippi.
Still traveling as a group and seeing lots of barges,, BIG ones!
As we turned off the Mississippi River and up into the Ohio River we noticed a distinct color change from the muddy Mississippi into what we perceived as the blue waters of the Ohio.  We also noticed that we were no longer running with the current but up against a strong current.
We only went a short way up the Ohio to the Olmstead Dam.  We all got permission from the lockmaster to anchor below the dam.
We had 5 boats in our raft and we had a great docktails on our boat that evening.





 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Down the Rivers We Go (Finally)Days 115-121

-
Image
  After leaving Chicago we went to fill up our diesel tanks at Hammond Marina before heading into the Calumet- Saganashkee Channel a.k.a Cal-Sag.  Unfortunately the starboard engine would not start after filling up and we limped up the Channel with just one engine to our first stop at Marine Services.  We thought we might end up staying for a few days unless Mike could work his magic on the engine.  Turns out after we ordered a new starter, Mike decided to use a hammer on it and it worked.  In fact it has worked ever since.  We left without the new starter but the “Looper Express” has it just a few days behind us. We left Marine Services on the Calumet River before the sun was up with a small flotilla that Mike was leading to the Joliet wall. Although this was in the middle of Chicagoland, we did manage to find some beauty.  Most surprising were the three deer swimming across the river. There were several of these surprisingly pretty parks with waterfalls that turned out to be the Chic
Read more

Sandestin Resort Florida (Days 162-210)

-
Image
  Here we are at the Marina Grill at the Baytowne Marina for what we believe will be a 6 week rest. Along the way we were accompanied by numerous dolphins as we are discovering, they love to surf in our wake. I did not get the best video because the Blue Angles surprised us coming out of formation right above the boat.  I grabbed my camera and caught them making their final approach.  They had been out of town and were just returning to Pensacola Naval Air Station. As soon as we arrived at the marina, Mike rinsed the boat with fresh water given several days with it in the salt air. To our delight, the marina had our golf cart waiting for us at the dock. Unfortunately, it was much colder there than we thought it would be. Some Looper friends, Jaleen and Hunter, from Catniss joined us for one night, but left early for an unexpected weather window to cross the Gulf. For Thanksgiving we took the golf cart to the beach and walked along the gulf to the Surf Hut.  It was cold and I thought it
Read more