This sums up how we felt cruising down the Mighty Mississippi at "lightning" speed (12-13 mph instead of our usual 7-8 mph). Except for the barge tugs we passed all the time, we had the river to ourselves and it was calm and pretty and relaxing. Made us think of being Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn meandering down America's greatest waterway.
Going back to Wednesday morning up in Alton, above St. Louis, here is a picture of the marina with the bridge in the background (it sure looked pretty all lit up at night). Look at the height of the posts. They are floating docks and they rise and fall on those posts. Look how much the river can rise from what it was when we were there! The staff there said it had risen to the top of those posts in past years, and to think our level was 18 feet higher than normal for this time of year.
This was the first of only two locks we faced on the Mississippi, and you can see the bridge over our marina in the background. What was "special" about this lock was the amount of debris inside it, which I had no choice but to drive right over. You can see some of it if you look closely. If this had been in a river I would have avoided it at all costs, but I had to pass right into it here. I increased my speed to build up momentum, then put the engine in neutral and glided over it so that my propeller would not be turning and help to prevent any of the wood from fouling the prop. The lock operator shrugged off our comment about the debris, saying it was a lot better than it had been at an earlier time.
Down river a few miles we came to our final lock, Lock 27, which also is the final lock on all of the Mississippi River. Number 1 is in Minneapolis, I think, and after 27 there are no more. When I rode my bike across the country in 2007, we crossed the Miss River on a ferry at Lock 20, just 20 miles south of the Iowa border. When we got to Lock 27, we had our longest wait yet for a lock - two hours, while tug/barges locked through ahead of us. I had a chance to ride the bike on the trainer and to do some maintenance in the bilge.
The Gateway Arch! I'd been there a couple times in the past, and imagined passing down the river on my Great Loop adventure, and now here we were! What a thrill! We tried to slow down to savor the moment, but with the river current pushing us along and tug activity everywhere, we had to pay attention at the helm.
There is no way for recreational boaters to stop and see St Louis, as there are no marinas or docks between Alton 20 miles north, and where we were headed 23 miles south.
The river was completely jammed with industrial plants and tug and barge activity until we got about 15 miles south of the Arch. We did get to see the huge Budweiser factory, so we toasted a Bud to honor it. Eventually the river got more scenic and we reached Hoppie's Marina, a set of barges lining the bank that served as a marina, the last one until Kentucky, 240 miles farther.
Hoppie's Marina was at the historic Missouri town of Kimmswick. You should Google it because it was a charming river town, established in 1859 to serve river and rail traffic. They have preserved many of the old original buildings, such as this one.
Here's another old Kimmswick structure, the all-important winery.
Fern Hopkins, who owns the marina, is very helpful to all boaters who stay with her. Each afternoon she gathers the transients to go over what we will be facing as we cruise the river south, and gives us the few places we can safely anchor all the way to Kentucky. There were only four places she could recommend!!!! We have stayed in two of them, and will stay tonight at the third. The fourth was only 45 miles from Hoppie's, so that's why we didn't stay at all four.
The barges on the Mississippi below St. Louis are much larger than the already-large ones we've faced on the Illinois River and above the two locks north of St Louis. Why? Because there are no locks below St Louis, so they can be as large as a tug has the power to move it upriver against the current. Here's a picture of a tug passing Hoopie's Marina pushing 42 barges! It was 6 wide by 7 long. The tug has about 10,000 horsepower.
Each barge carries the equivalent of 50 18-wheeler trucks. So, a tug pushing 42 barges is transporting the same as 2100 trucks! The tug pushing that against the current kicks up a HUGE wake, and as we've passed such tugs we have to slow way down to cross the wakes because they are as tall as the worst of the Lake Michigan or Lake Huron swells/waves we faced. On the other hand, if the tug is going downriver, it uses hardly any horsepower and they leave virtually no wake at all. Such is the power of the current in this mighty river.
The scenery along the river can be stunning, as were these cliffs. There were occasional power plants and quarries and other industry, and barges stored along the banks or anchored right out in the middle of river, but most times it was just natural and pretty.
After leaving Hoppie's Marina on Thursday morning, we traveled 112 miles to Cape Girardeau, MO. That distance easily broke our old record of 81 miles in a day. It was a long day, but we still arrived at Fern's recommended diversion canal off to the side of the river at 4:30 pm. The other two boats from Hoppie's the night before were already there anchored up and relaxing.
It was early enough for Rick and me to take the dinghy about four miles back up the river to the downtown section of Cape Girardeau, where there was a cemented "landing". In this picture you can see our dinghy tied up in the background. We had a wonderful time walking around this town. Its distinctive character to us was their painted walls everywhere.
This painted wall is the flood wall facing the river, right above where we landed the dinghy. The paintings went across the entire wall to the right of this picture, depicting the history and river culture of this area.
Inside of the flood wall they had about 400 yards of paintings showing the entire history of Missouri and the city. Rick and I walked the entire wall to view the paintings and read the tablets describing each of them.
Here's the City Hall and an old clock sitting in the center of the intersection of the old town where we walked. We were so glad we took the time to scoot up to this city. We had dinner at a tavern called Breakaway, since its name was close to my boat. Pints of Sam Adams beer were only $2. What a deal; "I'll have another please."
Here's just one more image of how pleasant our cruise down the Mississip has been. Calm and scenic and relaxing.
I hoped this picture could demonstrate how strong the current is. This is a green can marking the right side of our navigable channel as we go downriver. Red bouys mark the left side.
Our anchorage here is off to the side of the river behind a wing dam (underwater wall extending a short distance into the river to keep the water centered in the channel). We are only 8 miles from the confluence of the Mississippi with the Ohio River. Last night we decided to go visit the local town of Cairo (they pronounce it "kayro"). That meant a dinghy ride of about 11 miles one way -- down the remaining 8 miles of the Miss and then up the Ohio 3 miles. Luckily our dinghy is fast and stable for such a long trip on these mighty rivers.
Once we got to the Ohio River, we faced schools of Asian Carp! They were jumping everywhere, scared up by our speeding dinghy. One jumped and brushed across my shoulder! We were lucky we didn't get hit by any, because they can really do damage. They did get us wet though!
When we landed and tied to some rocks on the banks, we found ourselves in an old decrepit waterfront that was well past its heyday as a bustling part of town. This picture shows how run-down this area was, and it was deserted except for a single bar, where we of course had to stop for a beer and talk to the locals about the Asian Carp that jump everywhere and about the rivers, since one guy was a Corp of Engineers guy who works on the buoys and dredging.
They had this big fancy sign welcoming people to the old historic downtown, but it sure seemed out of place given what the area looked like.
We returned in the dinghy for the long ride upriver back to the Breaking Away. Here's what it looked like when we arrived, just as the sun was setting in a beautiful scene.
We were again lucky the Asian Carp did not hit us as we zoomed down the Ohio River (they were only in the Ohio, not the fast-moving Mississippi). They got us wet with all their splashing and jumping, but they missed us.
Once we got back here last night, we feasted on grilled chicken, saffron arborio rice, fresh green beans we had been given free back in Havana, and a fine Merlot wine. Now today we are about to head up the Ohio 62 miles to anchor just below a lock and dam. See ya then!
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