The trip so far down the Mississippi through the Ohio and TN to KY Lake

Hi

Sorry about the delay in posting more info but we have been out of internet access for 2 weeks.

I am writing to you from Grand Rivers, KY, the head of Kentucky Lake. We reached here yesterday afternoon. The crusing guide was fairly accurate about most things so far, including that getting through the lock into Kentucky Lake would require a wait. In our case about 3 hours for commercial barge traffic. This would not have been so bad except that the wind was blowing about 20 towards the dam, and the current was running about 3 knots in the other direction, nowhere to hide and our anchor dragged for the first time on the trip.

The upper Miss. from Prescott to Alton IL was mostly pretty good. The barge traffic was reasonable and the current was only about 1/2 to 1 knot. From Liz: The scenery and wildlife were enjoyable to watch -- almost the entire stretch is considered a wild life refuge and bird sanctuary. We saw many eagles as well as thousands of migrating pelicans and cormorants all along this stretch of the river. Most of the Marinas along the way don't see or cater to sail boats so we had trouble finding places to get fuel and pumpouts especially because the water level was low. We ran aground in Dubuque IA and our BOAT/US towing policy was no help since they did not have a contract with anyone in town. Luckily, some local powerboat owners saw our problem and came out with their 200 plus hp jetski's and pulled us off after about 10 mins of effort. We went back up the river to the lock and anchored below the dam, this worked fairly well so we did this at a couple of other locks.

We stayed at Alma, LaCrosse, WI ;Macgregor, Dubuque, Clinton, Leclaire and Keokuk, IA; Passing through Quincy IL we had a very scary incident with a bridge but I will let Liz tell that part of the story (from Liz: it was just very annoying. I was steering the boat and going under a 63 ft. bridge. I saw that there was some construction on the boat but what I didn't see was a cable hanging down on the opposite side of the bridge. The cable grazed the mast head and knocked off the lense cap for the anchor light. Fortunately the light itself was undamaged). We stayed in Alton, IL, just north of St Louis. Immediately upon leaving Alton everything on the river changes. The river is no longer controlled by locks and dams, and currents jumped to 2 to 3 1/2 knots, since there were no locks and dams the river level dropped and there were lots of exposed wing dams and the river becomes purely a commercial enterprise. Barge traffic increase by a factor of 3; still we did not have big problems with barges but with so much current and some tight spots at turns it created some tension.

Speed over the ground increased from 6.5 knots to an average of 8.5 knots, and a few times we saw speeds above 10, which is pretty fast for you non sailors. We stayed at Hoppies Marine in Kimswick MO south of St Louis, This is a legendary stop with barges tied into the river side used as docks, and the crusty old Fern Hopwood running the place. The Marina(I guess you can call it that) was started by Fern's father in Law in 1934 and she runs it now, and her husband plays a distant second fiddle. She is famously informed and opinionated about where to stop and not stop on the way down the river and gives a lecture/cocktail party each evening to let everyone know whats what. She smokes non-stop!! From Liz: While there, I went into the town of Kimmswick 1/4 mile away. It was one of the earliest white settlements. I saw several log house dating back to the 1830s. These were followed by one and two-story house built of locall brick in the early 1850's. Now the whole town is a tourist stop with lots of touristy knic knac shops but at least the architecture has been preserved well.

South of Hoppies, with intense current and not much in the way of anchorages, we stayed in a diversion ditch north of Cairo, IL. This was a narrow creek that when there isn't a thunderstorm is safe but Liz thought it was too swampy and smelly for her liking (from Liz: it was completely vile). Also there were 6 other boats most of which we had met at Hoppies or Alton staying in the narrow channel. This necessitated bow and stern anchors. Unfortunately, we are not well rigged for this and had to wrestle the second bow anchor around the deck to the stern and back. This resulted in a lot of swearing and twisting and mucky decks which was definitely less than optimal. From Liz: when we finally left the next morning at 7:30 the air was clear. But about 1 hr. later fog rose up. It became so dense we could no see either shore nor even the bow of the boat. We had to drop anchor so that we would not run aground. All of the other boats we had anchored with the previous night also had to drop anchor so we had to immediatley radio tows in the area where we were -- fortunately the nearest one was still 1 hr. down river so we were not in danger of getting run down.

From here we dashed down the last stretch of the Upper Miss. to Cairo around the corner into the Ohio River and up the Ohio. The Ohio is very high and running fast 2 1/2 to 3 knots against us, so this time we were struggling to make 4 knots up the river. We stopped below the first Lock and anchored close to shore still in 2 1/2 knots of current. This was the first time that we did not feel comfortable lowering the dinghy into the water for max to go to shore, and he was very confused and unhappy that the shore was so close and he did not get a chance to play or do his business. He finally figured out that there was no other way and took care of it on deck and felt better. Unfortunately, he will need to use this method when we our of shore or unable to make land so its good that he got it, although he still wasn't real comfortable with the situation.

That night we noticed some bilge water that did not look quite right and I did some poking around. Probably because I did not tighten the engine water intake strainer properly, the water pump impeller ate itself the next moring. This was upsetting since we had to shut down the engine and here we were in the Ohio R with big current pushing us. We were able to drift back in close to shore, anchor and begin repairs. First we announced on the radio that we were disabled and anchored near the channel, we got assurances from tugboats and the lock that we would be OK. Then we pulled out the parts box and at first only found the replacement for the water pump on the outboard, after searching some more we found the part we needed, replaced it and started the engine...no cooling water. This began about 20 mins of futzing and fussing until I finally got the strainer to stop leaking suction, then everything was back to normal. We lost an hour and a half all told and raised the tension levels a bit but it worked out.

From here we jumped to Paducah, KY. We were able to motor sail for part of the way which raised our speed from 4 knots, to 5.5 knots. This saved a couple of hours and we stopped at the town dock in Paducah. Had several coversations with the locals and went into town to have dinner. The downtown was renovated and quite nicely, but this was Sunday and for some reason almost all the restaurant owners in town decided to close on Sundays. We did find one place and had a pleasant if somewhat overpriced dinner out. From Liz: I was entralled with Paducah's river front! There is a levee wall that runs for three or four blocks along the river front. The wall contains about 20-30 large murals depicting the history of the town from original Indian settlements up through the "Atomic age" (Paducah produced yellow cake during WWII and throughout the 50's). Murals were very well done and each had a bronze plaque with some historical detail. Also there were three or four blocks of the "old" section of town - great old building and lots of historical descriptions.

From here we turned up the Tenness'see R which is also quite swollen with rain from the North Georgia and TN areas and so we were motoring against a strong current and this time the winds weren't right for moter sailing and we stuggled to maintain 4 knots. Up to KY dam.

The KY Lake is 180 miles long and not much current in either direction. There are Marinas and spots to Sail and Anchor. Since we are ahead of the insurance company's demand that we not reach the Gulf of Mexico before Nov 1, we will stop here and do some sailing and relaxing for a while. Then we will have to lower the mast and strap it to the boat since the section from here to Mobile AL has 16 bridges that are too low for us to get through otherwise.