Tom Sawyering down the Mississippi!

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!

Deer, Carp, Fog, Mississippi River!

Rick and I returned to Breaking Away in Havana, IL as planned! I brought with me my new Great Loop burgee (the triangular yachtsman flag). Now I'm official. Well, at least now others will know we're doing the Great Loop. I've been a member of the Am Great Loop Cruisers Assoc for over a year now, but I didn't buy the burgee til recently. Others on the Loop fly it, and everyone wondered why I didn't. It helps you meet fellow Loopers and also get discounts at marinas and for fuel.

Last Saturday Rick flew to Peoria from Providence, and I took the bus from Dayton. We met Gary right on time, who had driven us last Sept 7 from Havana to the Peoria Airport. We made such good friends on that trip that we called him and he was anxious to take us back again. He is a local Havana real estate assessor, and Rick had found him via the barber in town when he inquired whether anyone wanted to drive us to Peoria for what it would be to take a cab. Well, not only did Gary drive us there and back, but treated us to dinner at the nicest restaurant in Havana last Saturday. Then, he generously drove us to the grocery market and waited while we shopped to restock our galley. Finally, he delivered us to the marina. The folks along this trip have been so friendly and helpful.

Everything on the boat was fine. We washed it first thing Sunday morning, after using the heater to warm up after the 35-degree night. It mysteriously got colder during our 3 1/2 weeks away. haha We did other necessary chores and then departed back out onto the Illinois River. For the first time on this river it was not horrendously windy. It wasn't windy at all. It was glassy and serene, and we meandered 31 miles down the scenic (no factories or barges lining the banks) to the little village of Beardstown.

We had read in our guide books that the only place to tie up a boat in Beardstown was on a barge tied to the river wall. When we got there, we could not tell which one it was (turns out it changes since it's a working area). We yelled to some guys on a tug and they motioned us to a barge and also walked over to help us land. Then he said it was $1 per foot for the night ($37 for my 37-ft boat). Really? That's what marinas charge, and they have electrical hookup, water, bathrooms, showers, coffee, laundromats, etc. This barge had nothing, and you even had to walk precariously across the other barge with logs to get to the gang plank over the river wall. Why didn't we just anchor and save the money? The charts for the Illinois River do not give depths, so I never knew how deep the water was near the banks. Oh well, the beer at the local tavern was only $1.25.

Oh, let me not forget this: Since this was a working site for tugs and barges, and they can come and go at any time, we endured a 15-minute noisy bouncing in the middle of the night as tugs were moving in and out and all about.

Yesterday, Monday, was just as placid on the river and we again had it to ourselves. And then we saw these four deer swimming across the river!!!!!!

We stopped the boat to let them pass in front of us. Here's a close-up of two of them.

And here they are running off once they reached the right bank. It was SOOO cool to see this "nature moment"!

This shows me passing a tug with 15 barges (the most we saw was 18, three wide by six long). If you want to pass a tug/barge, you must call them on the marine radio and ask whether you should pass on the right ("one whistle") or the left ("two whistle"). You can see he told me two whistle, so I'm puttering by him. But I was barely going faster than he was, so it was taking me forever to pass him. We were approaching a turn, so I had to really give it some gas to get in front so he wouldn't run into me when he had to turn.

Earlier we had to wait 90 minutes for this tug at a lock, as he dis-attached his load to get it all into the lock. We finally decided to anchor while we waited, so I rode my bike on the trainer to pass the time. Another trawler doing the Great Loop arrived and locked down with us, but they motored on ahead when we were done.

This bridge, in Meredosia, is one I pedaled my bike over when I rode across the country in May, 2007. I recall stopping with Dave Thompson in the middle of the bridge and telling him that someday I would be cruising right down this river on my own boat. Well, that day had finally come. As I approached the bridge, I called Dave and told him where I was and he remembered, and we had a nice little chat! This photo is after we passed under it and a tug/barge went by us.

Shortly after this bridge, we reached the westernmost point on the Great Loop as we headed south. Only now, we were going slightly easterly, paralleling the Mississippi.

So there we were, minding our own business in the serene quiet of the river, when we were startled by a loud thumping. Both Rick and I thought we'd run over a log. But then the thumping continued as I put the boat into neutral. Rick went down the stairs and saw this! We couldn't believe that an Asian Carp had leaped over the three-foot boat side into Breaking Away.

It was about two feet long and weighed at least 20 lbs. We'd heard about Asian Carp jumping into boats, but not trawlers with high sides like mine. He continued to flop around while I took pictures, and then Rick, wearing gloves, tossed him back over the side. Amazing! We didn't think we'd fish on this trip, and I guess we didn't need to. They were coming to us!

We arrived late at Mel's Riverfront Restaurant dock, where we tied up for the night. there to help us land were the crew from Lady Royal, the boat we had locked through with earlier in the day. We joined Rob and Deb for dinner and enjoyed comparing stories about our Great Loop adventures. They left from Cleveland, so our paths were different except for the Illinois River. It was a great evening with charming folks.

This morning, this is what it looked like on the river - pea-soup fog. We were not going anywhere until that would lift. This was the first time on the trip when fog was interfering with my travel. After a leisurely pancake breakfast, and it still was foggy, Rick and I walked around the small town of Hardin. By the time we got back, the fog was lifting and we took off for the final 21 miles to the Mississippi River.

For the 3rd day in a row, it was totally calm and glassy and beautiful. We eventually saw homes lining the banks, but look how they must be built. That shows you how the river levels can fluctuate around here. It was the same way once we got to the Mississippi, of course.

The Mighty Mississippi River!! This picture shows the swirling of the water at the confluence with the Illinois. Rick was driving at the time, and he had a heck of a time controlling the boat. We also picked up speed with the stronger current of the Mississip.

But almost immediately we turned upriver and went against the current, heading just two miles upstream to a marina where the fuel price was significantly less than others. We had not gotten fuel since upper Wisconsin on August 26, and there would not be any opportunities on the Mississippi since it is not meant for pleasure craft. So the boat slowed down from 8 mph to 4.5 mph, and we now had to dodge floating logs and branches everywhere.

Here is Breaking Away at the fuel dock, and they have a sense of humor here, don't they? Jaws was just completed a few days earlier.

Once we reentered the Mighty Mississip and went downstream, our speed increased to 11 mph. In other words, the current was about 3.5 to 4 mph to push us along at lightning speed. Dodging all the logs was now easier since they were floating in the same direction as we were traveling. And we got to view the rocky cliffs and stately homes above them along the way. Our destination was the Illinois town of Alton, 15 miles down from the confluence and 202 miles from the Ohio River.

It was pretty cool cruising down the Mississip!

The mass of white in this picture are white pelicans. We had seen huge flocks of them in certain places along the Illinois River too. Now here they were again, and they were also flying overhead in large V formations headed south. It was pretty amazing to see so many of them all over, and they are so regal as they fly by, just as brown pelicans are in Southern California.

After we arrived at the marina in Alton, cousin Carole Prietto drove up to spend the evening with us! Carole has lived in St. Louis for 21 years. She is an archivist, and also a singer with Sweet Adalines. She has composed/arranged about 25 "barber shop quartet" style songs which are sung now as part of the four-part-harmony repertoire.

We walked to a nice Italian restaurant and enjoyed our visit!

Tomorrow we will go through our only two locks on the Mississippi, then pass the Gateway Arch in St Louis, and end the day at Hoppie's Marina 23 miles south of St Louis. The adventure never ends!

Vacation from my vacation to end Oct 2

Rick and I will return to Havana, IL on Saturday to resume the adventure. In a few days from then we will be on the Mississippi River. I get my stitches removed today from my hand. The healing has been fine, with no pain or problems.

In the meantime, Rick has been enjoying his new granddaughter Bonnie and his other family there in Providence, RI. I have had a fabulous time with Janet here in Monroe, OH. This picture is at a county park where we took a hike a couple weeks ago. I remember how windy it was and thinking I was glad I wasn't out on the Great Lakes on a day like that. I've learned that in 1826 they built a north-south canal from Cincinnati on the Ohio River to Toledo on Lake Erie. It was called the Miami-Erie Canal since much of the course followed the Miami River. There are still locks to see, which I have. It takes on an increased interest for me given all the canals and locks I've been through on this boat trip.

On four occasions I have helped out with Janet's 5th grade class. The first time was on an all-day field trip, when we walked a mile to a regional park. The kids learned about animals, bugs, conservation, science, plants, and other fun stuff at six stations taught by local experts. The live black rat snakes were a favorite, as you can see in this picture. We also petted a red fox, watched a possum (they don't "play dead", they faint!), a barn owl (they have 14 cervical vertebrae vs. the 7 in mammals and the 2 I have left that aren't fused), and got to see numerous other critters, dead or alive.

I also have been in the classroom helping to maintain order while Janet evaluates individual reading abilities one at a time out in the hallway. I have a new appreciation for teachers, seeing how challenging it is to motivate, convey ideas, stimulate thinking, discipline using positive feedback, and in general handling 30 10-yr-olds for 7 hours a day.

This past Saturday we attended a fabulous concert at her church, in which her granddaughter, Morgan, was a member of her school choir. They had on stage 260 performers, from two high schools and two colleges. The full orchestra sounded professional. We also made fresh bread and two pumpkin pies over the weekend as the weather has cooled off to fall temperatures.

By the time I post here again, Rick and I should be heading down the Mighty Mississip. On Oct 10, Bob Brown and Bert Stock will be joining us for a week starting in Paducah, KY, which is about 60 miles up the Ohio River.

Stuck in Cuba?

Well, Havana anyway, but it's Havana, Illinois. Breaking Away will be sitting at the marina here for three weeks! Why? Because Bonnie Elizabeth Arrigo was born! This is Rick's first grandchild, and she was due October 5. Rick was planning to fly back to Providence, RI to be with Sarah and Anthony (and Beth) starting on Sept 28 and staying until Oct 17. At the same time, I was planning to go to Cinci for my hand surgery and to visit Janet, and to return Oct 10 to meet up with Bob Brown and Bert Stock for a week in Kentucky.

Well, babies don't care about our schedules, of course, and she wanted out early. We arrived in Havana for one night the day we left Peoria. The next morning, just as we were heading out for a bike ride before moving on, Sarah called Rick to say that her water had broken the night before. Within two hours, we had our plane reservations from Peoria and made arrangements to leave the boat there for a few weeks.

Beth from San Diego, and Rick from Peoria, arrived late at night, but importantly, just a couple hours before Bonnie was born. All turned out wonderfully with everything. I was able to move up my surgery date, so now the plan is to return to Havana on October 1 and continue the journey -- down the Illinois River 120 miles to the Mississippi.

Back in Peoria on Monday, Sept 6 - Labor Day, I started out with a 20-mile bike ride. Judging by this photo, I came to the town of Stepford. hahaha I thought this was such a funny statue for a tire dealer. I also passed the state courthouse with a statue of Abraham Lincoln in front. Judging from this boat trip and my bike trip across the country in 2007, as Virginia is a state where it's fashionable to claim that "George Washington Slept Here", Illinois has a similar attraction to anything Lincoln. He had given an anti-slavery speech here in 1854, so they needed their statue of him and their plaque explaining why.

Have I mentioned how nice everyone is on this boating adventure? Well, they are! We were docked at the Wharf Harbor Marina in Peoria (the one where I dragged bottom trying to get in), and they invited Rick and me over to the next dock for their weekly Sunday morning brunch - except in this case it was Labor Day so it was a Monday. It was fabulous meeting everyone and sharing boating adventure stories, and of course the food was yummy too. Meeting other people has been one of the treasures of this trip, and this was a highlight. We hated to leave, but we did at about 11 am.

After passing back through the 1/4 mile of sediment to leave the marina, we soon sailed past the Riverfront area where we'd visited the day before. There's the Spirit of Peoria paddlewheeler, and just to the left is the balcony bar where we drank our beers and watched all the weekenders having their fun.

Peoria trivia: (1) Between 1837 and 1919, they had 24 breweries and 73 distilleries and were known as the Whiskey Capital of the World. At peak production, their alcohol-tax revenues supplied half of the entire Federal government's revenue. (2) The Caterpillar Company is based there, having begun in 1909, and seems to employ about every second citizen! (3) The famous phrase "Will it play in Peoria?" began during the vaudeville days when new live acts were booked there, and the feelings truly were that if they succeeded there, they would make it anywhere. (4) The city was a hotbed for abolitionist activity and the Underground Railroad. (5) It's the 2nd largest metropolitan area in IL next to Chicago.

We descended a lock just past Peoria, and for the first time, we needed to wait for a tug and its barges to finish locking through. Luckily, it was only about a 30-minute hold. Interestingly, while we drifted-in-wait, our three boating friends with whom we traveled two days earlier caught up and actually locked through before we did since they travel faster.

As we sailed down the IL River, we continued to see either pristine shoreline, anchored barges by the dozens, or industrial factories. This picture shows an electricity producing plant and is unloading the barged coal to burn.

This photo shows more of the discards from the industrial nature of the river. Many times we saw beached barges filled with dirt and growing weeds and trees, like this one, or else pieces of rusted out and broken barges were lying there on the banks.

We called ahead to the only marina within many miles of a reasonable distance to cover for the day, 40 miles. It turned out, this Tall Timbers Marina in Havana originally had no slips available because there were five other Great Looper boats who had called ahead of me, including the three I let go in front of me. But the fellow called back later to say a slip had opened up. Little did he know I'd end up staying for four weeks!

Rick and I walked around the small town, dating to 1852, and this photo shows the old Havana National Bank that now serves as the city hall. Can you see the bricked street? The entire main street is brick! We ate at the only restaurant open on Labor Day evening, a gem of a Mexican place with an excellent pitcher of margaritas.

And here's a picture of Breaking Away in its little marina. They originally dredged out the entire cove in order to create a haven for boats off the wide river.

My surgery has been moved up to Monday, Sept 13, so Rick and I will return to resume the trip on October 2. As much as I love the adventure, I also look forward to this break from Breaking Away. In fact last night Janet and I went to an incredible concert by the Dukes of September, a new threesome of Grammy Award winning singer/songwriters Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, and David Fagan. They rocked!

81 miles yesterday!

If you've already read my previous posting from Sept 3, you may want to scan it again because I added three more photos I thought I'd lost. I also supplemented more text throughout.

Yesterday we traveled 81 miles, from Joliet to Hennepin, IL. We descended through four locks. We cruised for 11 hours, but the four locks took an hour so it was 10 hours of actual moving. Now you know how fast we travel - yes, 8.1 mph!!

This picture shows the scenic Illinois River. The first 20 or so miles were the Des Plaines River, but it becomes the Illinois when the Kankakee River joins in. Most of the river was like in this picture, but in quite a few places there were barges anchored along the banks, or grain elevators loading the barges, or power plants unloading coal from barges, or gravel yards loading barges, and tugs maneuvering around all the barges.

And when we encountered tugs pushing barges, it could get pretty interesting! We saw one pushing 15 barges, three wide and five long. I read there can be 18, 3x6. As we approach, we must call on the marine radio, channel 13, and ask whether he wants us to pass him on the right or the left. In all cases, they have answered immediately with their choice, except once when he said he didn't care.

The word on tugs and barges is that they have first choice at the locks. Since they have to untie their loads and can need two lock-downs to get it all through, pleasure boats sometimes have to wait three hours to get their turn. Well, I must say, that is NOT what we found yesterday! Prior to our first lock, just a mile down from Joliet, one of the five boat captains tied to the wall with us called ahead as we watched a tug go by with six barges. He wondered whether we might go ahead of him if we hurried there right away. The lock operator called the tug, WHO SAID YES!!, and the lock master called him back with the good news, and a demand to honor our promise to hurry. Well, I was on the phone with Janet in my night shorts when the fellow came running up yelling that we all had to leave immediately. I hung up and Rick and I scurried and departed in a matter of minutes. All five of us did. Sure enough, there was the kind tug waiting in front of the lock as we five passed him by and into the chamber. We thanked him on channel 13.

We also saw limestone cliffs like the ones in this picture near Starved Rock. There was a lock near there too, and luckily, we got through all four locks yesterday without having to wait. It was very windy all day, so getting safely up to the lock walls were a challenge, but we did it.

Here we are at our final spot for the night in Hennepin. The book had said the public dock was the best on the entire Illinois River, so we searched and searched when we got there and decided this must be it. Look how I'm sticking out since I'm too long. Oh well, it worked, and it was free!

One reason we traveled 81 miles was I could not find anything in our books to entice us to land and look around, especially since any landing would be risky in the strong winds. Hennepin was a small community, with a river front that reminded Rick and me of the little hamlets in the California Delta. Just 100 yards from the boat there was a perfect restaurant -- the only restaurant -- filled with local color, good food, and low prices!

I took this picture this morning, and you can see the fog we had on the river. It gave it a mystical appearance!

Today's 40-mile cruise to Peoria included scenes like this one, with old tugs or barges left high and dry on the banks. Of course, there also were dozens of anchored barges, moving barges/tugs, rusted pieces of barges.

Actually, today was neat because of all the pleasure boats out and about, more than any other day on the entire trip. And in places, the banks were lined with fishermen and campers. Loved seeing the locals enjoying their river.

We arrived in Peoria and turned into the marked channel in the lake to enter our marina where I'd called ahead for a reservation. I told him my boat had a four-foot draft, and he said it would be okay. Well it wasn't. I idled in and my prop and rudder were dragging in the bottom silt the entire 400 yards. I was pretty upset, but I don't think it did any real harm. Still, I'm not looking forward to going back through it when we depart tomorrow.

Rick and I biked into the downtown and located the upscale riverfront, complete with restaurants that overlook the river. We of course had to get rehydrated after our strenuous two-mile ride, so here is Rick, and...

...here I am enjoying a tall cold one.

As we were watching all the boaters having fun, we got to see a tug pushing these two LONG barges right through everyone's parties. He honked his arrival and quickly the pleasure boats scurried out of his way.

Another thing we saw were the infamous Asian carp jumping out of the water...for long distances! They would be scared by passing boats, and would leap out for about 20 feet, wiggling the whole time. The ones we saw were 1.5 to 2 feet long, and apparently they can reach 4 feet/100 lbs. We came back to relax on the flybridge, and saw them leaping right here too, as boats exited or entered the marina.

Tomorrow is supposed to be very windy again, so it may be another long day when the risk/benefit of stopping to explore will lead us to putting in many miles toward the Mississippi River 165 miles away.