Saturday, September 8, 2012

Our inverter has been acting up lately.  When we were anchored out, it would only last about 4 hours and then it would beep to tell us it was out of juice.  So, today Mike and John got down in the engine room and tested the batteries to see if maybe one of them had a bad cell.  They really couldn't tell what was going on with them, but decided to replace the batteries anyway.  Mike drove us to a golf cart store and they had the golf cart batteries that John was looking for.  John bought four batteries and Mike and John replaced the old batteries with the new ones.  Once the old ones were out, they noticed that two of the four were split open.  The inverter is working like new.

Mike and Linda had made a reservation at Patty's for dinner tonight to celebrate our finishing the loop.  The food, the company, and the atmosphere were all perfect.  Thank you, Mike and Linda.  You are the best!  They are kind enough to let John ride home with them so that he can bring our car back here.  Our plan is to take our boat to Aqua Yacht Harbor in northern Mississippi.  When we get there, the car will be at Kentucky Dam Marina and we won't have as far to go to pick it up.  I will continue to blog until we get to Aqua Yacht Harbor.  At that point I will stop blogging.  What will I do with my late evenings? 



Linda, Carol, John, and Mike at Patty's.

Friday, September 7,2012

Yesterday, just before we left to go out to dinner with Mike and Linda, a dandy storm blew in.  We were drenched just walking to the car with an umbrella.  Today was another hot one.  We paid a visit to Shop-o-rama, went to a boat show at Green Turtle Bay, had lunch at Docker's, hung around the dock, went to Willow Pond for dinner, and walked the long dock where the really big boats are moored.  It felt good to spend a day on solid ground. 

Another big storm is threatening tonight.  It's supposed to cool things off and be a high of 76 tomorrow.  That would be nice. 

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Neither of us slept very well last night.  We weren't worried about out anchor holding because we had tried to lift it to move to deeper water and it wouldn't budge.  But, we were worried that we were out of the way of all of the barges waiting to lock through Lock 53.  We must have been out of the way because none of the tow captains said anything about where we were on the radio.  And those guys aren't shy.  At any rate, we were up at 5:00 again.  John called Lock 53 and the Lockmaster told him it would be about 3 hours.  He told us to tie up to the lock wall and wait.  So, when we tried to lift the anchor this morning, it lifted up to a point, but it was hooked on a cable.  John tied a rope to the cable and pulled it over, lowered the anchor a bit and the anchor was free.  One problem solved.

We ended up having to wait four and a half hours at the lock.  We locked through with a boat named "Chillin'".  When we were four or so miles away from Lock 52, Richard on "Chillin'" called the lock on the phone and the Lockmaster told him that if we could catch up to the work boat, we could lock through with him.  So, we poured it on.  The Lockmaster told us to just float in the lock and not tie up.  We really appreciated that they waited for us.

When we got to Kentucky Lock, there were two tows waiting, and one coming out of the chamber.  John called the Lockmaster on the phone and he said that we could lock through when the one in the chamber was out of the way.  The other two tows were changing crews and we were finished locking  by the time they were ready to lock.  After having to wait for awhile at the first lock, we went right in at the other two.  Lucky us!

WE CROSSED OUR WAKE AND COMPLETED THE LOOP AT KENTUCKY DAM MARINA TODAY!!!!!!  And guess what.  We were surprised to find our friends Mike and Linda standing on the dock when we arrived.  They are staying for the weekend.  What a great ending to a great trip.

 This is the construction at the Olmsted Lock.  This Lock was originally supposed to be open in 1999.  Our guidebook says it is supposed to be open in 2013.  The Lockmaster told us it is now supposed to open 2026.

 The lock wall inside of Lock 52.

The entrance to Kentucky Dam Marina.  What a welcomed sight.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

What a day!  It began at 4:45.  We were up and dressed and waiting for the sun to come up enough to see the buoys.  Lightning made such a gorgeous light show for us, but made us unsure whether we should stay or leave.  One forecast was a 30% chance of rain.  The other forecast was for a stray severe thunderstorm.  We decided to go ahead and leave because there are no places to get fuel until you get to Kentucky Dam and we were using fuel to run the generator.  We pulled away from the lock wall at 6:15 with 135 miles to go to the first safe place to spend the night.  We were cruising along the Mississippi at 13 mph.  That's really good for us.  The current helped, but John pushed a little harder than usual.  There were so many barges, both moving and moored.  The eddies in the Mississippi are legendary.  They push you around and you have to be paying attention or you end up where you don't want to be.  Finally, we made the turn into the Ohio River.  That sounds so wonderful, like we're almost home.  However, when we reached the Olmsted Lock that is under construction, the cells and the shore were full of barges and tows waiting to lock through Lock 53 which is a couple of miles farther up river.  At that point, we didn't know what to do.  The Lockmaster would not answer us on the radio and he would not answer the phone.  The only safe place listed in our books is on the other side of Lock 53.  The Lockmaster at Lock 52 told us that they are having problems and the barge traffic is backed up 24 hours.  We had no choice but to pull outside of the channel and drop anchor.  It isn't the place we wanted to be, but there was no place else to go.  In the morning, the plan is to try to reach the Lockmaster at Lock 53 again and see when we will be allowed to lock through.  If he doesn't answer, I guess we'll pull up close to the lock and let ourselves be seen.   We knew today would be a long day.  We cruised for more than 11 hours and then spent another hour fiddling around trying to decide our best course of action.  Tomorrow may turn out to be equally as long (or longer), depending on how long it takes to get through the three locks (Lock 53, Lock 52, and Kentucky Dam Lock).  We are so close to crossing our wake and being finished with the Great Loop.

This morning's sunrise.

 

The beginning of the Ohio River.

 

 

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

We had a short cruising day today.  We are tied to the lock wall at the Kaskaskia Lock.  When we asked Fern at Hoppies where would be good places to stay the rest of the way down the Mississippi River, she told us to stay here tonight and then there is no good place to even anchor until we get to Olmstead Lock (which isn't built yet).  The problem is that it is 135 miles from here and even at 10 mph, that's 13 hours at least, not counting all the times we will have to slow down.  We are afraid we will run out of sunlight.  Time will tell.

Yesterday we passed St. Louis, MO.  We have been in 18 states and 3 countries since leaving home in October, 2009.  The Mississippi is snaky and narrow and shallow, especially this year.  We were told that the tows push 35 barges at a time, 5 x 7.  Since the water level is down due to the drought, the barges are not as full and the tows are pushing fewer barges.

These pictures are from yesterday and today. 

 St. Louis Arch.  Beautiful day, eh?

 This tow was pushing 24 barges.  That's big enough as far as I'm concerned.

Our boat docked at Hoppies.  Isn't that a cute boat boy?

 

 



Monday, Sepember 3, 2012

 

We left bright and early this morning, and cruised the Mississippi River from where it meets the Illinois River to Hoppies.  We passed through two locks to get here and there are no more locks until we reach the Ohio River.  This is quite the place.  Fern and Hoppy are very interesting.  They are so smart about the Mississippi River.  They tell you where the river is too low to anchor and where to be extra careful of the barges and tows.  They are having some serious issues with the Corps of Engineers.  The wing dams the Corps installed has caused a lot of silting around their marina.  It seems like it is possible that it will put them out of business.  That would be a real shame for several reasons.  First, they are nice, hard working people.  Second, there is no other marina for a lot of miles.  In fact, this is the last place to get fuel until Kentucky Lake.  Third, it just isn't fair to ruin a long standing business. 

These pictures are the ones from last Friday.

This is John's contraption to be able to drive the boat from the bridge in the all day rain.

 

Red sky at morn (Friday morning)

 

This is the baby deer we saw swimming across the river.

 

 

 This video is of two Asian Carp (Flying Fish).

 

 

Sunday. September 2, 2012

We have very poor Internet service here.  Last night I was not able to get online at all.  So, I am trying again tonight.  Yesterday we spent the day working.  John washed the boat,  There was a lot of fish slime on the sides of the boat from the Asian carp fish hitting the sides.  It was gross.  I did household chores and then we both went to the grocery / liquor store.  This marina has a courtesy car.  John was out of Maker's Mark, so this was an emergency run.  We had Happy Hour out on the dock with the resident boaters.  The people are really nice.

This morning, there was an H-Dock community breakfast.  It was SO good.  Why does everything taste better when eaten outdoors?  Later, we had cocktails  with several couples on the dock.  Then, we were invited out to dinner with five other people.  We went to "River Dock" restaurant.  The food was delicious and ate way too much food.  I don't think anyone belonged to the clean plate club tonight.  We are hoping to move on in the morning.  As always, it depends on the weather.  John called ahead to Hoppies to make sure there would be room for us tomorrow.  Apparently, Hoppies is the only place around for a lot of miles.