Grafton, IL to Green Turtle Bay - Part 2

Most loopers run the Mississippi River portion of the trip (221.5 miles) in just a few days.  We traveled on the Mississippi River for three days and we've heard of some loopers taking only two days.  Upon leaving Hoppie's marina in Kimmswick, MO a week ago we knew that anchoring overnight was going to be required which is why the inverter and generator were both fixed before we started on the Mississippi River.  We had planned to anchor out for practice while still at home, but we never did it so Hilary had never anchored out overnight prior to starting on this journey.

We delayed Hilary's dreaded anchoring situation for one more night due to the kindness of the lockmaster and the Kaskaskia Lock, which is currently under construction.  Kaskaskia Lock was 41 miles away from Hoppie's which makes for a very short day, but it was a safe place to tie up for the night and not anchor.  We got especially lucky when we arrived because there were 110 electric outlets available on the lock wall for those that don't have generators or inverters on their boats.  That night there were three motor yachts and two sail boats tied there and we had a nice evening visiting on the lock wall.  You'll notice the railing laying all along the wall, making a great trip hazard. Kaskaskia Lock wall has since become unavailable for loopers passing through because they started welding the railing.  One motor yacht, Seabatical, has a cat on board (Lil' Bits) that gets off the boat and walks around on land and doesn't run away.  Lil' Bits was very interested in all the different construction items on the wall that evening.

Kaskaskia Lock Wall - safe tie for the night

The next two days (Tues/Wed) were the longest travel days we've had so far but we were motivated to anchor as little as possible and to get to Green Turtle Bay Marina on Lake Barkley in KY.  Weather conditions were absolutely perfect both mornings and we started at first light both days.  Tuesday we traveled over 130 miles in 14 hours with the help of the current on the Mississippi River.  Wednesday was a little shorter at 12 hours - arriving in the marina at dusk and about 15 minutes before a terrible thunderstorm rolled through the area.

On Tuesday, we finished the upper portion of Mississippi River and started on the 46 mile upstream journey on the Ohio River where the two rivers meet in Cairo, IL.  Below is a picture of the navigation screen on the bridge.  Notice how twisty the Mississippi River is.  We followed the line that comes in on the right hand side of the screen, which is the Mississippi and then where the rivers split on the left hand side is the joining of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.  All the black triangles are tows on the river we navigated around.  The dotted black lines show which way the tow is headed.  We are the solid black boat shaped solid shape on the far right had side of the screen.  In the Cairo area, there is a lot of commercial traffic because it is where the two rivers meet.  We experienced wind, whitecaps, whirlpools and oxbows all on the Mississippi River on Tuesday.

Navigation Screen - twisty Mississippi River

Mississippi River on the Left
Cairo Highway Fixed Bridge crossing Mississippi River

Ohio River on the Right
Cairo Highway Fixed Bridge crossing Ohio River

On the Ohio River, there are two locks (#52 and #53) which are both wicket dams, extremely old and in need of replacement.  The new $2 billion dollar Olmstead lock is being constructed to replace both of these old locks about 5 miles south of lock #52.  The locks that we've seen so far on the river have a traditional dam with a lock.  A wicket dam can be raised or lowered and in periods of high water they are down and can drive over the top without having to go through the lock which was the case when we arrived at #52 but we had heard that they planned to raise the wicket in the morning and so we wanted to anchor after that point so as not to get stuck having to lock through in the morning.

We arrived at Olmstead lock area just at dark and two fellow looper boats, Seabatical and Jet Stream choose to stop there and anchor.  We had been told there were mooring cells you could tie to just past the lock so we continued the additional 5 miles and passed over the wicket dam at lock #52, but when we arrived (well after dark) the water is so low, the anchoring cells were on land, not in the water!!!!  We debated and debated about what to do and finally decided to play it safe and drove the 5 miles back to Olmstead lock and anchored near Seabatical.  It was 8:45 pm before we got anchor set and had been dark for nearly two hours at that point. We had been advised to always seek protected anchorage in case a barge breaks free from a tow.  This was not protected anchorage.  Bert was confident in his anchoring ability and went to bed in the aft stateroom as usual after dinner.  Hilary was confident in Bert's anchoring ability, but not comfortable with the idea of anchoring in general so decided to sleep on the bridge floor.  About every 20 minutes all night Hilary checked the electronics to make sure the anchor was holding and that Took the Plunge wasn't drifting into Seabatical, the shore, or out into the shipping channel.  Remember the tows run 24 hours a day so drifting into the traffic lane at night would not have a good ending.  After a very long night, including lots of lightning and wind, morning finally came and we were still in exactly the same spot.  The anchor held perfectly.

It was another beautiful morning on Wednesday and we could leave a first light again.  We also saw the migration of birds.  A picture didn't do justice but imagine something that looks like black smoke floating across the river at sunrise but at a high speed, twisting and turning up and down.  It was thousands and thousands of birds and it went on for several minutes.  Amazing site to see God's creatures migrating at sunrise.
  
As an aside, the Olmstead Lock project is quite a project (our tax dollars at work) and has two mega cranes on site: one of the largest in North America and also the largest floating crane in the world.  Check out the link to learn more about this massive project and the extreme machines:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/extreme-machines/olmstead-dam-crane-extreme-machines

Olmstead Lock Construction Crane

Sunrise at Olmstead Lock

I had mentioned in an earlier blog post that we would have to decide if we would take the 20 mile longer Cumberland river route to Lake Barkley or the shorter Tennessee river route to Kentucky Lake.  We chose the Cumberland river route as most of the commercial traffic takes the shorter Tennessee river route causing long lock delays at the Kentucky Lock.  We saw lots of new wildlife on the Cumberland River: turtles, a cow at the rivers edge, horses and wild turkeys.  We also got to see two massive limestone quarries.  Below is a video of limestone being transferred to a river barge for transport.  The dump truck could be the largest size built, really big.

The landscape has changed considerably now that we are in Kentucky and is beautiful.  Both the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers had us traveling upstream and locking "up".  The Barkley lock is a 57' raise, the biggest one we've done so far.  We have been traveling about 8 mph but stepped it up to 18.6 mph, for the last half hour before the lock because there we six other looper boats locking through and we didn't want to miss the lock.  It was nearly dark, again, and Green Turtle Bay is just 1 mile past the lock so Bert's kicked it up several notches and got us in before dark and before the storm!

A view along the Cumberland River

A picture of what our afternoon commute
looks like on the Cumberland River.

Barkley Lock with six other looper boats
57' up in this lock to Lake Barkley

A view from inside Barkley Lock

We love it here at Green Turtle Bay Marina.  The marina has both an indoor and outdoor pool, fitness center, two on-site restaurants, a ship's store, movie rentals, a spa, etc.  A dock hand even delivered the daily newspaper to the boat in the morning!  The town of Grand River, KY is less than a mile away with nice restaurants and shopping.  We originally were going to stay one week, but now we think we'll stay two weeks!!  They offer a special to loopers: buy 5 nights, get 2 nights free.

Best of all, our friends Phil and Carolyn, from Loopy Kiwi were still here when we arrived.  We had several nice visits with them over the past few days.  Nearly every looper boat we've met since we started the trip is here.  It is sort of like a mini reunion with about 15-20 looper boats.  Lots of visiting and catching up and story telling going on over docktails.