Finally the wind Gods have determined we are in the good books as the winds turn quiet. Up at the crack of dawn we stumble through the cabin getting all ready to take on this next leg of our journey. Yesterday we filled with the tanks with water, prepared meals for lunch and generally go ready for the next 250 miles of solitude and gumption.
Our first lock at at Mel Price Lock was easy. We contacted the lockmaster from the marina, all 3 boats headed down and we were joined by 1 more. We all head into our places with ease. We have met the folks on The Dark Side. A cute 36 ft American Tug. All I can think about is how PattiJo and Doug would love this cute vessel. With the name Dark Side it is a shoe in. Give up sailing and come to The Dark Side. The other vessel is a 48 ft Power Cat going by the name of Highwinds whose couple is enjoying their time between working and cruising with Mom and Dad. The other boat is being piloted by a professinal Captain.
We have 2 locks today. The first being The Mel Price Lock is 27 feet but we only lock about 12 feet to meet up with the Mississippi. This portion of our journey south on The Mississippi River is one where it can challenge you. Long travel days, massive tows with their barges, lots of debris and a current at anywhere from 2 -3 knots. At times the Miss can be wide and others she narrows where you should check for tows and barges as you don’t want to meet up on the curve in the narrow area. It can feel desolute out here. Not much around. No birds, no wildlife, just you and your wits.
The Mississippi River is one of the world’s major river systems in size, habitat diversity and biological productivity. It is also one of the world’s most important commercial waterways and one of North America’s great migration routes for both birds and fishes.
Native Americans lived along its banks and used the river for sustenance and transportation. Early European explorers used the Mississippi to explore the interior and the northern reaches of what was to become the United States. Fur traders plied their trade on the river and soldiers of several nations garrisoned troops at strategic points, at various times, along the river when the area was still on the frontier.
White settlers from Europe and the United States (and often their slaves) arrived on steamboats dispossessing the Native Americans of their lands and converting the landscape into farms and cities.
Today, the Mississippi River powers a significant segment of the economy in the upper Midwest. Barges and their tows move approximately 175 million tons of freight each year on the upper Mississippi through a system of 29 locks and dams. It is also a major recreational resource for boaters, canoeists, hunters, anglers, and birdwatchers and offers many outdoor opportunities. For our purposes the Mississippi is stated as the Upper Mississippi where we travel and only 2 locks and the Lower Mississippi that is less friendly to the recreational boater and commerce reigns.
The second lock, The Chain of Rocks Lock, has become notorious as a 44 ft sailboat took the wrong turn and ended up on the actual Chain of Rocks in rapids and had to be rescued. They too are Loopers. The river steers to the left to a manmade dugout canal to avoid the rapids and the rocks that traverse on the main part of the river. Unfortunately they went right instead of left. During our stay in Alton and the winds we experienced, the sailboat let loose and sunk at the base of the rapids. Very sad time for us Loopers when we hear of such tragedies.
We arrive at with our caravan of boats has us pull up to the side of the cement wall on the opposite side of the lock. Now we know it will be a long wait. The wait was about 2.5 hours until 2 tugs and their barges moved through heading north. Now all 4 of us quickly get into a moving pattern to move into the lock and find our spot on the bollard. We have also aquired a sailboat running south, which makes us a caravan of 5. Another easy ride down, our last on The Mississippi River. Now the challenge begins as we leave the lock into the vastness of mid America.
The river is filled with debris. Logs, trees, you name it is is swirling in the current and eddies. The push from the current is a steady 2 knots today making our long day to anchorage a shorter run. Traveling south on the Miss the brown, silty water with its chocolate chunks of debris make for a very boring run. At about 11 knots we pass many tows and barges in tight and open spaces along this deceivingly wide river. She is shallow on both sides. The weir dams are apparent in this low water. Weir dams are piles of stone about 6 feet high and several hundred feet long placed in a straight line out into the river, from both shorelines. These weirs divert water to the middle for the significant traffic of barges that travel here all year long. Some of these weirs are in a semi circle, some have shoaled up down river from the original weir dam. This is our first time seeing what they look like as the water was at least 6-8 feet higher when we came through in 2015. The entire Miss looks very different than we remember.
We are heading to the James F. Costello Lock (Kaskaskia Lock) for a free dock. The lock allows folks the opportunity to stay on the outside of the lock walls in a secure area. The anchorages are few and far between so this is a welcome opportunity. The water can reach extreme levels when the waters run. The entire cement wall is a floating dock that runs along 3 cement pilings to allow the entire wall of approximately 200 feet to float making this a great respite. The lock is located off the main Miss on a tributary so the current is almost none existent. It is a great spot to duck in for weather, quick fixes or a good night’s sleep before moving along the more challenging portion of the Miss. We stay here with Dark Side and enjoy sundowners and appies before the sun does go down and the cold kicks in. Tomorrow is a long day as we run 120 miles to the confluence of The Mississippi and the Ohio River. It will be an anchorage for us as we wait out a storm with some winds gusting to 15 mph.
