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.