Brown Eyed Girl: The Upper Mississippi River

We left Grafton and the Illinois River on Thursday morning after a nice two day stop. Both of the other boats we have been traveling with have been in the lead, so it was our turn. I won't say I was nervous but I will say I was scared to death. We left the marina in bright sun light heading East and I couldn't see the color of the cans so instead of throwing up we did the best we could. The first buoy we came to was actually a red and a green because it was at the confluence of two rivers. The next 60 miles to our first stop were horrible but we made it and frankly we learned a lot that will help us down the road.

Number one is that there are no other pleasure boaters on the river. Number two is that the tows on the Mississippi put out a much larger wake than the ones on the Illinois and while most of the tow operators are nice some are not so nice. Number three is that if you follow the sailing line or the magenta line then you will be just fine. We had heard about a 3-4 MPH current that would be pushing us but for the first 20 miles there was really no current. After we went through lock 27 that all changed and we picked up speed. All of the locks until 27 were relatively easy but this one was a B____. The wind was up the turbulence was high and lock operator was none existent.

We finally got to Hoppie's around 3:00. Hoppie's is a marina in Kimmswick, MO that is a series of about 6 barges tied together on the river. Hoppie's is the last place to get fuel for 250 miles so it was important to stop. There really is a Hoppie and he is the owner and his wife is Fern. Fern is very particular about how the boats are tied because she is an expert on the river. Fern has a "sit down" every day with boaters and goes over the charts telling them where to go and what to watch out for. One of her biggest cautions is to call on the radio when you are approaching big bends to make sure there are no tows coming at you. This is where the AIS comes in very handy. All commercial ships have a transponder similar to airplanes that broadcast their position, speed, name and other information. I have a receiver on my boat that reads the broadcasts and displays the information on my laptop. What this means is that I can see tows over 10 miles away and can prepare much better and I can then call the tow by name and ask for passing instructions.

We left Fern at 9:00 today and headed for a lock wall at Kaskaskia Lock and Dam. The lock is on a side river that is out of the current and was only 42 miles away. We got here about 1:00 and I was able to get the dingy down and cruise around a little.

We are not allowed to walk around the lock due to security so we are spending the day catching up on email and the blog and I am watching "Armageddon". We have not anchored yet but I think tomorrow will be the day. We probably won't have Internet but I will post when I get the chance.