The Mississippi & Ohio Rivers

On Sunday, October 11, we left Hoppie’s Marina in the company of a trawler (Ruby – from Minnesota, with a crew of one) and a sailboat (Bob – from St. Louis, all by himself). I was glad for the company ‘cause the Mississippi River was still swollen with water from the rains of last week. There was much debris to avoid as we floated down the river at 11 to 14 mph. We also passed many tows – one had 49 barges, the most we’ve seen! We tied up for the night at the Kaskaskia Lock wall (where we had also been a year ago); the next night we repeated our anchorage of last year at Brown’s Chute, where there was 5 boats anchored in deep water with 2.5 knot current (our anchor held just fine).

The next day we continued our journey down the Mississippi (still in dreary weather) to the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers at Fort Defiance. We turned left into the Ohio which was 2 feet below flood stage, so we still had to keep a vigilant eye out for garbage in the water. Our speed slowed down considerably – we were now going up river, still meeting tows & barges. Both the locks in the Ohio had lowered their wickets, so we just sailed right over the dams – cutting at least 2 hours off our trip. Our anchorage at Metropolis from last year was now too exposed to the strong currents, so we continued to Paducah where we anchored for the night behind Cuba Towhead (with 3 other looper boats behind us).

I had a beef stew going in the crockpot all day — we were glad to have a delicious dinner already made. Shortly after dark here comes a tow pushing a barge that he proceeds to park about 30 feet in front of us! It was amazing to watch his expertise & I think the tow captain was pleased when Hank complimented him on his excellent boat handling skills.

We had a heck of a time getting the anchor up Wednesday morning, but Hank finally managed to get rid of the long chain that was wrapped around it. However, he had to cut the anchor marker line. Then we were on our way to the Tennessee River!!!! We were so glad to leave the Mississippi & Ohio Rivers behind.

We had no wait at the Kentucky Lock where we were lifted 57” up to Kentucky Lake (surprising; it’s notorious for long waits to lock thru) and arrived at Green Turtle Bay at noon to be met by several other loopers! We had a good dinner last night at the marina restaurant with 12 others who are doing the loop and today we’ve done “boat work”. We have a mechanic coming tomorrow am to look at one of the engines that has a drip and then we’ll head “home” to Tennessee.