More Rivers and Total Eclipse

As we headed up the Ohio we said goodbye to the Mississippi and our average 10 mph.  Going up the Ohio was slow going compared to the Mississippi but we pushed 56 miles to Paducah, which was as long a day as going 110 miles on the Mississippi.  We only had one lock to transit, Lock #53, the new Olmsted and Lock #52 were open but you must wait for an escort as it is considered a safety zone.  I was a little nervous at Lock # 53 because I knew we had a considerable rise and thought there might be a possibility of having to throw our line to the attendant.  Now you have to understand I can’t throw worth a darn so the thought of throwing a line that far was chilling!  But, no problems they did have a line to drop to us but I had already gotten creative with my trusty Boat Loop, I extended the hook and was able to lift the line to the attendant, and I have to say he was just a little impressed.  Love my new Boat Loop.  Locks 52 and 53 were built in 1928 and 1929 and will be closed when the new Olmsted Lock opens.  Paducah Marina was sort of open when we stayed there.  No showers or other amenities but we were able to stay there by going through Dockwa and self service fuel was available.  Reflexions came in after we left and had issues with electric and we heard they closed again to take care of that problem.  So last I heard they were again closed until September.  Chuck and Diane from the Bear were also at Paducah so I got to reunite with their Golden Doodle, Max. 

We have always had golden retrievers and I think I am drawn to Max because he reminds me of our dogs. 

The next day we traveled to Green Turtle Bay Marina.  But we were almost done with the Ohio and although the Cumberland is more cruising upriver the current isn’t as strong, at least that’s what we thought.  We were wrong, it was slower going than the Ohio, not sure why but we slowed down even more.  We were able to pick up our speed a little by playing the bends but it was slow going.  We had only Barkley Lock to get through and then about a mile to Green Turtle Bay.  We made it to Green Turtle Bay with a half tank of gas and had used 5/5 gallon Gerry cans to get there from Hoppies.  We have a fuel range of about 100 miles and a 14 gallon fuel tank, this stretch was mostly against the current.  We are now on Lake Barkley which is surprising deep, with a summer pool depth of 359 feet. 

Green Turtle Bay is a great marina and has over 400 slips.  We didn’t know until we arrived that we would be near the epicenter for the eclipse.  Very interesting, it was dark for a little over 2 minutes and looked like the sun has just set but instead of a little light peeking over the western horizon you could see that light on the horizon in a 360 degree circle.

Our cameras didn't do justice to the dark, as they brightened the pictured and it took us too long to figure out how to overcome this.  

I know you are all dying to know, did we go to Patty’s?  Well the answer is yes we went to Patty’s but no, for all you pork chop lovers, we passed on the pork chops as we don’t eat meat.  I love to smell cooking/grilling meat but we don’t eat it. 

We also rented a car and did the tourist thing and visited a few civil war sites.  We really enjoyed Fort Donelson the site of a Civil War battle which took place February 12-16, 1862.  It was a strategic battle for control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers and the first major victory for the union and the little known Brigadier General Grant. 

We stayed a week at Green Turtle Bay and got to meet up with a lot of new friends we met on the river.  Lady Di, Neverland, Gypsy III, Bear, and Reflections and met quite a new friends.  We have had a wonderful time here but look forward to hitting the road again, or is that water? 

Song of the Day:  It's 5:00 Somewhere by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet

Why?  Because you can't always wait for Docktails

Just a Blur The Mississippi River and Hoppies

August 17-19

After spending a night at Alton Marina we set off down the Mississippi River to Hoppies.  By the way, Alton Marina was another great marina, just as nice as Grafton but quieter.  Hoppies is one of those iconic places I have been reading about since Day 1 of planning the Great Loop and Beyond.  While here, you are expected (most willingly) to attend Fern’s afternoon chat on the river.  Fern, with her deeply wrinkled face and piercing blue eyes that twinkle when she flashes you a smile, is a Wikipedia of river knowledge and her information is up to date.  

Fern

(Once again I forgot to take pictures.  This was taken from google images and was probably taken some years ago.)

Some of the anchorages we were considering had to be deleted because of her current knowledge.  I wanted to take her with us but she does have her afternoon chats which she takes quite seriously and all she wants for river boaters is to be `safe’.  Don’t miss this opportunity because Fern definitely fits the definition of `icon’.  Oh by the way, for those of you who don’t have enclosed showers on your boat, don’t expect a nice cool shower after a hot day, haha. 

As advised by the marina when we called ahead, you should bypass the marina, approaching it upstream against the current and they were there to expertly guide us to our slip and take our lines.  Thank you Hoppies Marina!

The current on the Mississippi was 3-4 mph and makes cruising fast even in `go slow’ boats.  Our average speed without current is 6 mph at about 1400 rpms and a hull speed of 7 nm, on the Mississippi our top speed was 12.5 mph.  We were seeing speeds we have never seen on our sailboat.  The fastest speed we have ever seen was 10 mph and that was coming around an island with way too much sail up!  For most people you will probably be okay with this, especially the great fuel economy.  After leaving Hoppies we traveled 110 miles in 11 hours!  We have never traveled that far in that time frame.  The upper Mississippi wasn’t our favorite part of the river, there is a lot of debris, eddies and whirlpools ( MM 131-129 was the worse), and BIG tugs to watch out for and few anchorages and marinas. 

Bucket List item checked.  See St. Louis from the river.

Our last anchorage on the Mississippi was MM 7 between a bridge abutment and an island, a nice place to spend the night and the current was only about 1 nm, we used a 5:1 scope.  We have been traveling with the 'Bear'.  Chuck and Diane are a couple we first met at Springbrook Marina in Seneca, IL.  

We are always last to the party, here is Bear already at anchor at MM7.  Thanks, Chuck and Diane for scoping out the anchorage for us, haha.  
Unfortunately it was a payback day for us because after setting anchor (thankfully) and turning off the engine Bruce did his routine check of the engine and found he had a bad coil and electronic ignition.  As he troubleshooted the issue he found he could not restart the engine.  Soooo after an 11 hour day he spent another 3 hours doing his diesel mechanic thing, while I teared down the boat to get tools and then cleaned up the boat again.  Bruce is anal about having enough tools and replacement parts on board so we had everything we needed. Afterwards we were exhausted and it was so hot that we went right to bed and woke up early to do it all over again.  But payback was over and the next day was much better, although I think it will take a few days before we are fully rested. 

Song of the Day:  Otto Titsling by Bette Midler
Why?  Because who couldn't use a little frivolous information?

On to the Ohio River~~~~~~~→

Cruising Thoughts on the River and Mile Marker 0

Yep,  mile marker 0 on the Illinois River, we are here folks at Grafton Harbor Marina.  So it seems a good time to contemplate  the last 330 miles.

One thing I really like about the rivers is the predictability of the water, no wondering if the forecast is correct for 1-3 foot waves or if we will find ourselves in considerably heavier seas, it is always pretty flat!   So it is surprising that I actually feel safer on the Great Lakes.  Probably my comfort zone.  It is certainly a different type of boating than we are used to with all the barges going by and watching for the flotsam.  We don’t want to be caught unaware again and have trouble with the intake and an overheating engine.  We also have to be at the wheel constantly, no autopilot on the river.  I suppose a really determined person might spend hours putting in waypoints, or maybe not!  Another thing I have noticed it's not as busy as I thought it would be, at least not the Illinois River, there have been plenty of stretches where we have been the only boat for miles.  We have also found these barges manageable using common sense and calling the tow captains if we have any doubts about passing.  Sometimes we are not going much faster than the tows.  One tow captain told us to go ahead and pass on his two (his port) which we did.  We were just about  to the end when it became evident we couldn't go fast enough to complete the passing before the bend.  Bruce called the captain to tell him and thank him, the captain responded,  `Go ahead cap, you are almost there' and he slowed down.  The tow captains are great!  We always respect their presence on the river and they have been unfailingly helpful and pleasant.

Now, a few words about Grafton.  The Grafton Marina is great, with full services, including a pool.  

They are within walking distance of town and also offer a courtesy car for further excursions.  We used the car to go into Jersey to provision.  This is a very busy touristy town with lots of eatery choices.  The restaurant and bar at the marina are great.  We had Blackened Shrimp Tacos at the the Oyster Bar on site and they were the best we have ever had.  

Grafton Lighthouse

                                     On to the Mississippi ~~~~~~~→

New Chapter: Rivers

Mastless

August 1

Happy Birthday Hailey!  Our granddaughter turned 14 years today and I have loved every year of her life. 

Sunrise over Lake Michigan crossing from St. Joseph to Chicago.  

We are in Chicago and so starts a new chapter in our journey, the river journey.  We pulled into Hammond Marina, which is actually just over the state line into Indiana.  Evidently Indiana owns a small part of Lake Michigan.  This is the largest marina I have ever seen.  They must have 24 piers (not finger docks), they were lettered A-X. 

We met a fun guy, Kevin from a Blue Water boat, (didn’t catch the name of the boat).  Glad we did because he gave us a great tip.  There is a casino next to the marina, called the Horseshoe and if you sign up for their free membership you get a free buffet dinner.  We had the best dinner for the money at Horseshoe Casino. 

Next morning we traveled about 4 miles down the river to Crowleys Boat Yard.  Crowleys is a full service boat yard and we had our mast stepped there.  Great service and they packed our mast for shipment to Pensacola, FL, thanks Tim and Mark - great guys who know their rigging business.  Mike and Lupa helped us sort through old sails for shipment home to Minnesota. We will pick the mast up in Pensacola where we are already scheduled for some boat work (bottom job, new standing rigging, new sails and half tower to carrier our solar panels). 

The Sea Hawk minus her mast.

Is it a tow?  No, it's a freighter!  We thought we would be seeing tows on the river, but no, the first big boat on the river is a laker!

Lesson Learned

August 2  

Left Crowleys, mast free, I guess we are now a motor vessel, haha.  Went through our first two river locks, the first was a 5 foot drop, the second which was Lockport was 41 feet.  Lockport was full of floating debris and after we left the lock noticed our engine was overheating.  Bruce troubleshooted the problem on the way but was unable to totally resolve the issue so we limped into Joliete and stayed at the city dock.  We knew it was the intake somewhere so Bruce went through the intake looking for the blockage which he finally found in the through hull fitting near the strainer by the engine which was blocked.  This happened one more time when we went through a thick patch of floating weeds.  We are learning to be more watchful of floating debris and to turn off the engine off in locks that have a lot of debris. 

41 foot drop at Lockport Lock.

New Friends

August 4   

In Seneca, Illinois we stayed at the Springbrook Marina.  Met some great people.  Of them we were impressed with a couple, Chuck and Diane on a trawler called `Bear’.  They had somewhat recently completed a 5 year circumnavigation on their 53 foot steel hulled sailing ketch.  They shared some interesting and valuable information with us and we had a pleasant dinner with them at Harper’s Hideaway.  Harper’s Hideaway is located at the marina site and I highly recommend this restaurant, the food was absolutely great and very reasonably priced.  This marina also let us use their courtesy vehicle to go into Seneca to provision and do laundry. 

August 8

Stayed at the Illinois Valley Yacht and Canoe Club, near Peoria.  I tried calling several times during the day to find out where their fuel dock was located but no one was answering the phone.  After navigating another close quarters marina we tied up to the fuel dock to find out they were closed on Mondays and that was why no one answered the phone.  We decided to stay overnight and fuel up in the morning when they opened.  Being a keeled boat and as we tend to back to starboard it gets a little dicey in small spaces.  Things improved quickly from that point.  Sarah and Pam, longtime members of the club welcomed us and showed us around and how to access the laundry and showers.  We spent a pleasant afternoon having docktails with them and several other members.  I also had a nice swim in their beautiful pool.  That night the club held their annual party for the employees.  We met the harbor master and his wife, the office manager, and had a nice chat with them.  He offered to move us to a slip or provide electric at the fuel dock and also made us feel very welcome.  We had a great experience at the club and can highly recommend this marina.  They also have a bar and restaurant onsite which, unfortunately were also closed on Mondays. 

Just rolling down the river.

LaGrange Lock

August 9, 2017

Spent the night at Tall Timbers Marina in Havana, Il.  Very nice marina, not a lot of slips and only gas, no diesel.  We met up with Loopers, Buddy and Di from Lady Di again, we first met them in St. Joseph, MI.  Also Loopers, Chuck and Cindy of Neverland, and Gary and Kelly of Caribbean Soul.  Had a great afternoon having docktails and chatting.  Gary and Kelly just recently purchased their catamaran and were traveling in the opposite direction, upstream to go to their homeport in Lorain, OH. 

Darn, I really need to start getting pictures of some of our gatherings.  

Work on the Lagrange Lock. 

We passed over the wickets of the Lagrange Lock on  Wednesday.  The word at that time was the wickets were going back up on Thursday, August 10.