Cumberland to GTB

We didn't get up real early today, we only had 30 miles to go to Barkley lock and Dam, then an additional mile or so to Green Turtle Bay (GTB).  We had called ahead for reservations for two nights so we could put our feet on solid ground, do some laundry, and take long hot showers with an unlimited water supply.

It was a little foggy on the Ohio, so we waited a little until it started to burn off.

Cindy's Observations:  We pulled up our anchor in spotty light fog which made a picturesque sunrise with water so calm it looked like glass.  Our wake carried completely across to both sides of the chute undisturbed. 

 

 

We finally started engines and left at 8:20.  We again decided to let Sno Daz set the pace and we would follow.  The current was not bad and we made about 8 mph over the ground (SOG)  while traveling about 8.5 mph through the water (STW).

 

The Cumberland is a fairly narrow river with a lot of bends.  The AIS came in real handy to identify any traffic that may be coming around the corners.  Luckily,  I only identified 2 tow boats on the whole trip up to the Dam.  Both of those were setting idle up against the banks when we got to them.  Earlier I could see one of them running up and down a short section of the river.  When we got there she was a small tug that had been shuttling empty barges back and forth.

 

Cindy's Observations:  Cumberland river was a welcome pace after the hustle and bustle of the heavy commercial river routes.  There were several waterfowl and birds along the marsh type banks.  This grassy edge gives this river a clean look opposed to the Mississippi.

 

Traversing one section of the river, three Eagles swooped across ahead of us.  One was older and had the white head and tail, but the other two were younger and were still all one color.  Pat took a picture of them in a tree, but they are very difficult to make out especially the young one, because of his lack of coloring.  If you click on the pictures and blow them up you can make out the adult eating something while the young one looks down from above.

 

Cindy's Observations: With Grafton as our primary eagle watching site, seeing our nations iconic bird feeding in unfamiliar territory was quite exilerating.  It was truly a "Sony A 65" moment.

 

 

 

 

 

Immediately before the lock, we went under the I-24 bridge (again)  we had gone under it on the Ohio once before.

 

 

 

 

 Pat has a new camera that can take panoramic photos,  She took one of the river and one of the Dam at Lake Barkley as we arrived.

 

Barkley Lock and Dam

 

 

The Lock doors were massive and they were not even close to one of the locks that we will go through later in our trip. 

 

 

 

 

Cindy's Observations:  Comming up to the lock doors I was in awe.  They were the biggest I had been through.  The height of the doors dwarfed the inside chamber.  A bollard lock that had elevator speed.  We rose 40 ft in minutes.  On the up river side of the chamber above the doors were steel pipes running lengthwise like bleacher seats.  Pearched on these pipes were gulls.  I had a feeling these guys made  sport of watching the boaters abilities to control their craft during the water level changes.  I was watching for the score cards to appear.

 

Next stop, Green Turtle Bay.  We arrived at 1:30!!  Plenty of time to get the boat tied up and relax.

 

 

 

Entrance to Green Turtle Bay


 

 

Green Turtle Bay

 

Cindy's Observations: Green Turtle Bay is pampered campers type of Marina. Pat and I checked out all the facilities. The bath suites and laundry room are clean and close to the transient slips. Has an indoor heated pool with dry/wet sauna. A day spa for massages and salon for nails. In town, Grand Rivers, has a restaurant (Patties) that will send a shuttle for their guests. We took advantage and had a good dinner there with Sno Daz. Back at the boat we caught up to Gemini Dream and Loopi Kiwi.

Olmstead to Cumberland Towhead

 

Our first anchorage on our loop trip! Last night when we got to the anchorage it was a little after sunset, so our surroundings looked different when we woke up. The anchor held very well and I had also put a stern anchor to keep us from spinning around into Sno Daz in case the wind changed. There wasn't much current where we anchored and I thought it better to be safe that sorry.  I could see the flashes of welders working through the night when I went to the helm to see if the anchor was holding.

In the morning there were parts all around us that will make up the new Dam.  They were  all in various stages of completion.  I couldn't even identify what most of the sections will be used for but there sure was a lot of activity.

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

We raised anchor and headed toward Lock 53.  Along the way we passed by Metropolis, home of Superman.  All I saw was a Casino, no birds, planes or speeding locomotives.

 

Cindy's Observations: Woke to a sunny morning with no fog so off we go.  The Ohio river is very wide.  There are fewer day/mile markers.  Used in addition to these marks are: power lines ,power plants, boat launches, bridges, railroad trestles, state parks you get the idea.  I must say Superman had quite a  casino to R and R at Metropolis.  If one checked the sky closely, you could see contrails at about 30,000 feet.  I'm guessing they're his guarding his turf.

 

 

 

 

 

Lock 53 is a dam that can be lowered if there is a lot of water flowing, and it was.  Which meant we could just go straight over the Dam without slowing down.  We thought this was great and should get us to our anchorage earlier than the day before.

 

Wrong!! We called ahead to Lock 52 and he told us to proceed to the dam and wait just below the Locks, that we would be next to go up.  Well, there was a short tow (9 barges, 3X3) trying to lock down in the chamber that we were going to use.  He managed to get the tow almost sideways to the lock and the dam.  He struggled with it for an hour or more.  At times it almost looked like he was coming over the dam right at us.  Finally he managed to get it straightened out and into the lock. 

Cindy's Observations:  See Bob?  Bobs not happy.  Hands on hips just waiting.  Same as us.  We played "Ring around the Rosy" way too long.  If that tow was going to loose it and go over the spillway, YouTube was getting an exclusive.

Sno Daz waiting at Lock 52

 

 

Sideways Tow coming to Lock

Hey!! This is a Dam, not a lock!!

 

Spillway at Lock 52

 

 

 Great!  That should make us next to go up, right?  Wrong again.  The lockmaster turned the lock around and WENT BACK UP EMPTY!!!  After I composed myself, I politely called the lock and asked him if he forgot us.  He said that he had not and that we would be next (again).  This time the tow coming down was a lot more adept at entering a lock and he went through quite quickly.

 

Finally it was our turn.  We had waited a total of 3 hours motoring or drifting around below the Dam.  I don't know about Sno Daz, but I burned a few gallons of fuel waiting.

 

 

 

 

 

The lock doors made quite a racket when they were closing. Later that evening I found out that Bob on Sno Daz and I were thinking the same thing; "One more time, Just one more time".  we finally got through the lock at around 4:00 which was going to make it another long day to get to our anchorage at Cumberland Towhead.

 

Cindy's Observations:  The doors sounded like that of an ancient castle dungeon.  Maybe this is my reason for disliking them so.  The roar of the spillway increased as we raised to the top of the chamber.  Niagara Falls on a miniature scale.  Passing Paducah a riverfront festival was taking place.  Similar to Cape Giradeau they both have murals painted on their flood walls.  Just passed the walls floating in the river oddly enough was a storm door.  I am familiar with a welcome mat. But I guess things are done a little different in the south.  They have an open "floating" door policy.

 

We sped on (8.5 mph) and finally got to our anchorage at around 5:30.  After getting both boats anchored, we let them drift close and tied them together (rafted) so we could visit.  We got a tour of their boat, and they got a tour of ours.  We fixed something to eat, had  "doctails" and visited until it got too cold and the mosquitoes got too bad. 

 

Cindy's Observations:  Once again we were glad to "drop the hook" and relax.  On this voyage we will have many "firsts."  This nite would be one.  Rafting was new to us.  Once set we had a show of little silver fish jumping out of the water, a sort of welcoming committee.  Taco salad was for dinner after that another first,"doctails".  It's a combination of cocktails and story telling of adventures on the loop. 

 

Cumberland Towhead

Sunset at Cumberland Towhead looking at the Ohio River

 

 

 

Tomorrow we would make the run up the Cumberland to Barkley Lock and then into Lake Barkley to arrive at Green Turtle Bay or GTB as it is known.

 

Cindy's Observations:  As the evening turned from dusk to dark, the nocturnal creatures' cries, calls and whoos were abundant.  They too were sharing their days stories.

 

 

 



Kaskaskia to Olmstead

Today was going to be a long one.  Because the Mississippi is unusually low, the normal anchorages between here and the Ohio River are too shallow to anchor.  The only barely acceptable one is in the Mississippi just above the junction with the Ohio river, Angelo Towhead.  It is approximately 116 miles away and like I said, barely acceptable.  It would also require us to travel almost 60 miles the following day up the Ohio, AGAINST THE CURRENT, as well as having to go through 2 lock and dams that are there primarily for barge traffic.  We (Sno Daz and us) decided that we would travel at a faster speed plus the speed of the Mississippi (3-4 mph) and see what time it was when we reached Angelo Towhead.  If it was still early, we would proceed up the Ohio an additional 17 miles and anchor at Olmsted, Il, which is the site of a new lock and dam being built to replace the older dams 52 and 53.  That would put us 17 miles closer to our anchorage at the mouth of the Cumberland river the following day.

We will be traveling with Sno Daz leading the way.  Sno Daz is a single engine Diesel Trawler whose top speed is much less than ours, but they go longer on a gallon of fuel.  So we decided to let them pick a speed that they could travel comfortably.  I knew that we could always keep up and after all, it's only fuel and we have plenty for this leg.

We got up early and ready to go by 6:00, but it was still dark, and there was a light layer of fog over the Kaskaskia river.  We waited until closer to 6:30 when it was a little lighter but some of the fog still remained.  Sno Daz made a couple of calls on 16 to passing tows on the Mississippi to check the conditions there.  None of them returned his call.  I could see tows on the AIS, which identifies the tows by name, speed and direction, so I called one directly (by name) on 16 and they answered and confirmed that there was no fog on the Mississippi.  We finally pulled out onto the big river at 6:30.

 

Cindy's observations:  As Sno Daz lead the way it seemed as though we had a personal river guide.  They in turn were comforted that we were equipped with our AIS to help locate and identify the vessels.  We would forward the info to Sno Daz and developed a good working team.

 

There was not much to see or photograph on this leg of the trip,  plus our camera person had not quite recovered from the memory card fiasco.  Wing dams, Weir dams, and bridges were about all there was to look at.  Many wing dams coming out from the bank into the river, too many to count.  Weir dams are under water but far enough under that you can go over them without hitting them, but they make a terrible turbulence and twist you from side to side.  They are always in sharp bends which really makes it interesting especially since you can't see what is coming around the corner.  Unless you have AIS that is, and we do.  It has been terrific, I would recommend it for everyone travelling around barge traffic.

Ciny's Observations:  It seemed as though we were on a theme park ride just waiting for the screams and splash at the end. Yes, we did keep our arms and legs inside the boat while moving at all times.  The softer side of the turbulence was the way the sunlight sparkled on all the ripples at the turns.  It mimicked the flash bulbs of cameras snapping pictures in a stadium for an evening game of your favorite team.  Sand bars along this stretch would be the envy of the Alton Pool recreational boaters.  Our new sport has become a twist on bird watching. With binoculars in hand it's a challenge to find and then read all the day/mile markers. Remote areas are difficult for signs to be kept clear of growing vines and vegetation.  The Mississippi river banks have a lot of rip rap and debris.  We did over hear a tow pilot assuring another pilot the  tow company life jacket he saw floating was EMPTY. Thank you lord, or we would have a terrible tale to tell.

Bridge between Chester,Il and Perryville, Mo

As we passed by Cape Giradeau, Mo, it appeared that they had something going on down by the riverfront.  There was all types of Jon boats running around full of people.  It looked like they were giving rides or something.



Cindy's Observations:  Chester, IL is home to "Popeye" the Sailor man. I did not see him but I could catch a faint aroma of spinach.  The passengers in the Jon boats were wearing their life jackets.  Practicing boat safety is the greatest way to boat!

Cape Giradeau riverfront

 

Bridge at Cape Giradeau Mo.

We arrived at the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi early enough that we decided to go the additional miles to the anchorage at Olmstead.  The minute we hit the Ohio, I wondered if we had made the right choice.  The AIS was continually giving me the "Dangerous Target" warning for new targets.  Every time I would acknowledge one, it would find another.  The setting sun was also at our back, making it difficult to see the plotter screen and locate just where the threat was coming from.  Luckily, the majority of the tows had stopped for the night because of the backlog of traffic waiting for the locks. 

Cindy's Observations:  Finally we reach mile 0,  the intersection up into the Ohio river separating the upper and lower Mississippi.  Time for a new chart, Ohio river.  This intersection required us to put on our big boy underoos  to navigate past the hustling multitude of traffic.  Dangerous Target was an understatement.  These tows were on a "get-r-done" mission, parked or otherwise.

Ohio river bridge

We managed to weave in and out of the tows and finally reached the Olmstead Lock a little after sunset.  There was just enough light to find a place to anchor out of the channel.  I'm glad we decided to proceed because tomorrow would have been a real long day if we had stopped at Angelo towhead. 

Cindy's Observations:  As we went up river the traffic subsided.  Plus the Ohio is very wide.  The dialogue has changed on the new river.  It has gone from port/starboard side for passing tows to one whistle two whistle side. But they don't give it much thought due to how wide the river is.  Dropping the hook was a welcome relief.  We were mentally and physically exhausted.  We tried our luck at grilling with success.  Sno Daz had also survived the day anchoring in front of us, all was well.

Hoppie's to Kaskaskia

We did not make an early departure from Hoppies on Friday because of the short distance that we were to travel.  Our destination was to be the Lock on the Kaskaskia river, a short distance from it's junction with the Mississippi.  We only needed to travel around 40 miles today and we had a 3-4 mile current to help us along.  We left around 9:30 in the morning and had an uneventful (good) trip.  We arrived at 2:00 in the afternoon, called the lock and requested permission to tie-up along the outer lock wall.  We positioned ourselves at one end of the wall to make room for the other boats that were leaving Hoppie's  later that day. 

As a result of a slight technical error on the part of our "photo documentarian" (SD chip not seated) we do not have any photos of the days travel.  Not that we missed much, other than pictures of the lock wall.  The Mississippi river looked the same as it had the day before, and as it was going to look the next day.

Later, we heard Bob and Sharon on Sno Daz calling the lock to get permission to tie up.  Since 911 people are not allowed on the lock walls but are permitted to be there while tying up, so we got off the boat and helped them arrive. Shortly after that, Matt and Coleen on Gemini  Dream arrived and we also helped them tie up.  We probably spent way more time on the lock wall visiting than we should have, but no one challenged us about it.

We went to bed early, knowing that tomorrow was going to be a very very long day!  The night was quiet except for occassional waves from a Corp of Engineers work boat that was making round trips to the Dredge Potter.  According to the AIS (Automatic Identification System) the Potter was working the Mississippi below the Kaskaskia, which meant that tomorrow we would need to be carefull passing them on our way down river.

Cindy's Observations:  Fern had briefed us on the "bad" turn that would be turbulent before getting to the lock.  We did meet and greet it without difficulties.  This section of the river had several sand banks heavily piled with drift wood. Wing dams increased with the twists and turns of the river.  Many quarries are along this stretch as well.  As a result of not being able to keep the wind from blowing out the flame on the grill on the bow, hamburgers were pan fried for dinner at the lock wall.  The evenings are cooling off and the animal cries fill the nite air.  The moon is waxing and reflects on the still water, a lovely sight.  A campers delight done on a boat.

Grafton in our rear view mirror

Finally scheduled to start our big adventure.  Cindy's friend Pat had recently retired and will accompany us as far as She can.  Our departure was scheduled for early Monday morning on the 17th of September 2012.

 

The Marina at Grafton had arranged a "Bon Voyage" party for us and John and Pat Pitney, who will be leaving on their Loop voyage next month.  As the party was starting, someone came up to us and asked if we had heard the news that Lock 27 had been damaged and was shut down until further notice!  So much for our planned departure!!  We enjoyed the party and those that showed up to wish us goodbye.  We saw some old friends and met some new ones.

 

Cindy's Observations: Jan, our harbor hostess, had out done herself once again with a wonderful pot luck party. Tables were festively decorated to set the mood.  We were touched with all our harbor friends wishes along with our hometown friends and family wishes as well. "Bucket List" looked glorious. All of our hard work and time invested had paid off.  As far as the news about lock 27, I felt we might catch our breath before heading out on our long voyage. Our three years at Grafton marina have truly been enjoyable. We hope they will "leave a light on" for our return.

 

 

 

 

 

Cindy's Bowling team was to leave with us on Monday morning and travel to Kimswick.  Sharon's daughter Mel, was going to drive down and pick them up late Monday night after we got there.  Since that trip wasn't going to happen, we invited them to come a little bit later on Monday, and they would at least get a short boat ride around the islands.

 

Cindy's observations:  It was disappointing for my friends missing the opportunity to lock through and pass by the arch down to our planned stop Hoppie's marina.  However, we did make the most of  the day and enjoyed a delicious homemade dinner on board with a toast for good luck.  It was a bitter sweet good bye to "my girls" who I will miss for sure.

 

 

 

Monday afternoon I phoned Lock 27 to inquire about when it would open.  All they would say is "the lock is closed indefinitely until further notice".  I also called the Coast Guard Upper Mississippi River Sector and got the same answer.  Tuesday morning I called the Coast Guard again, same answer.  When I called Lock 27, the Lockmaster was not in the office, evidently he was out inspecting or supervising the repairs, because his secretary answered the phone.  I asked her about locking pleasure craft down through the lock and she said that she had heard them discussing opening the lock on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, but that it was not official and that I would need to call back and talk to the Lockmaster.   I talked to the Lockmaster later that afternoon and he said "the lock is closed indefinitely until further notice".   So I prepared for a Thursday morning departure anyway.

 



Cindy's observation:  Wednesday laundry was beginning to accumulate so with the news of a possible departure I took advantage of the facility at hand.  I had called the Lockmaster that evening receiving word priority barges would be going through that night and pleasure craft in the morning.  Our rest was soon over.  Anticipation was building quickly.

 

We finally left Grafton on Thursday morning, 20 September as I thought (and hoped) we would.  I got up early and looked on marinetraffic.com and it showed tows were going through Lock 27.  Just to be sure, I gave them a call on the phone and they confirmed that pleasure craft were indeed going through locks 26 and 27.  He informed me that there was a group of boats from Alton Marina that were all going to lock through together but wasn't sure how long of a wait there would be for another pleasure craft lockage after that.  So, we got underway around 9:00. 

Grafton Marina in the rear view mirror

We were doing a leisurely pace of about 7-8 mph by the power plant when I heard the group from Alton say they were gathering their "Flotilla" to lock through lock 26.  The Lockmaster said he would be ready, and that he had already contacted Lock 27 so it would also be ready.  We were still 10-12 miles away!!  I called lock 26 on the radio and told him our position and he said that if I didn't make it for this lockage that there would probably be another.  Probably??  I told him that I could step it up a little if it would help, he said do what I want, but be safe.  A fully loaded Cruisers Inc 3950 will run 25 mph (per GPS) when you need it to.  Of course was burning 25 GPH on each engine, which works out about .5 MPG, but it rode nice and the autopilot worked great at that speed too.  Answered my own question of "I wonder how fast this thing will go"?

Cindy's observations:  When  Bucket List was "Stepped Up" a little I noticed an uncommon engine sound in the salon.  I reported to Larry quickly with great concern.  With a snicker and gleam in his eyes he responded, those are the turbo chargers kicking in.  Everything was operating perfectly.

 We arrived in Alton (10 gallons later) just as the first boat came out of Alton Marina headed for the Lock.  We fell in line with 4 other boats and headed for Lock 26.  Smooth lock through 26 with 4 other boats.  We were to meet up later many times with "Sno Daz, and "Gemini Dream".

Sno Daz

Gemini Dream

The Locks were busy locking tows up river to alleviate the backlog of tows in the area below St. Louis.  They spent pretty much of the day locking empty back down to pick up other tows to bring up.  It also cut down on the amount of "two way" traffic.  The following day they only locked tows down river.  It would have been much more difficult to get a pleasure craft lockage going down that day.  They were going to alternate until they had the majority of the back log (67 at last count) gone.

We continued to lock 27 and through with no problems.  When on the other side of lock 27 we saw the protection cell that had been damaged which had caused all of the problems.  It appeared it was still being worked on.

Cindy's observations:  Locks are a little intimidating to me. But they do have personalities. If you have been to the symphony and listened to the musicians warm up, the same eerie pitches can be heard when the water level changes in the chamber.

The rest of the trip went without incident.  We passed the site of the new Mississippi river bridge that they are building in downtown St. Louis.

Under all of the old bridges.

As well as the Arch!!

Cindy's family met us at the arch and took pictures of us as we went by!  The people on the riverboat were taking pictures of us!!

Cindy's observations:  As our Looper procession passed the majestic steel Arch it was a humbling feeling and awesome sight.  My parents were experiencing the same emotions as us while waving our last goodbye.  Barges were abundant due to lock closure but we had no difficulty maneuvering past them.  Larry kept in contact with the pilots as to which side to pass.

Arrived at Hoppie's Marina in Kimswick with four other boats, Sno Daz, Gemini Dream, Snow Cat and M.V. Echo at 2:00 in the afternoon.  Just enough time to ride our bikes to the Blue Owl for Dessert.

 

 

Fern has a briefing for all boaters continuing down the river.  Pat's sister Pam had brought us a home grown watermelon before we left, and we shared it at the briefing.

Cindy's observations:  We have learned that fresh fruit on the Loop is a treat, and this melon was a blue ribbon winner!! 

 

 

During the meeting we had an unexpected visit.  They had actually been following our progress  and had brought Fern pictures of us coming through the locks on the way down.

A quiet night at Hoppie's aside from the all night rocking and rolling from the passing tugs.

Cindy's observations:  If our first day was an indication for the entire voyage, we could not be happier.