Little River Diversion to Olmstead Lock and Dam 7-30-2014

Tuesday, September 30

Little River Diversion Channel to below Olmstead Lock and Dam

Little River Diversion Channel is a peaceful and beautiful anchorage. The narrow tree-lined channel is quiet, the water calm, and a gentle current trickles by the six anchored boats. Overnight, fog settled in and our departure was delayed until the sun burned it off.

No one minded the delay really. The anchorage was calming and fog was among the evils Fern had warned us about in her litany of river-horrors.  “If it’s foggy”, she told us, “don’t leave until you can see at least a mile”. No one wanted to tempt fate or Fern, so we waited the half hour it took for the fog to lift and pulled up our anchors and headed out for a “late” start at 7:30.

Today’s challenge is to travel 63 miles to an anchorage just below Olmstead lock and dam on the Ohio River. Yup, the Ohio. We will be leaving the Mississippi behind today. Mile 0 of the Upper Mississippi is only 48 miles away. Then we head upstream 15 miles on the Ohio River.



Diversion Channel, mile marker 48 on the Upper Mississippi

As we left the Diversion Channel, each boat was grabbed by the current and propelled sideways until it got enough speed to overcome the river’s push. The Mississippi had us in its grip once again racing along, wide, muddy, turbulent, filled with debris and towboats and barges. And, of course, us.

The Mississippi has been a difficult river to cruise, particularly since we passed St. Louis. The increased speed, amount of debris and turbulence required constant vigilance and concentration. We are always steering around debris that ranges from twigs to trees.

The Army Corps of Engineers has added to the problem by building underwater structures that disrupt the water’s flow to keep the channel from silting. The eddies, whirlpools and waves this creates on the surface tends to trap debris and prevent it from being flushed down river.  Almost every turn in the river below St. Louis is like a rollercoaster ride.

The turbulence also makes it difficult to see smaller objects until they are quite close to the boat. So the person manning the tiller can’t look away from the river for more than a few seconds. After our 110-mile run, Tim’s right shoulder was very sore from constantly steering the boat around debris.

Hitting a branch or 2x4 would likely not damage Sea Fever’s hull since we travel so slowly. The propeller is another matter. It is whirling around like crazy to keep us moving slowly.  Lots of props get seriously damaged on the river. We met one couple in a power boat who were running with 2 damaged props and had already gone through 4 others.

We hit a couple objects during our trip. The loud ‘ping’ from the prop is frightening. No serious damage resulted however. I guess our constant vigilance and astounding lack of speed paid off.

As we approached Mile 0 of the Mississippi, we weren’t all that sad to end this portion of the journey. Everyone in our group was happy to have the Big Muddy behind them. It was an interesting and difficult 772 mile journey from Lake City. We are glad we did it and glad it’s done.

At 12:40, we left the Mississippi to head up the Ohio River and through Cairo, IL Mile marker 0.0. The start of a new and different adventure.

The beginning of this new journey up the Ohio looked a lot like we had motored into a huge barge parking lot. It was barge-o-rama.  Barges were moored everywhere in the Ohio River by Cairo. There was even a set of barges anchored under a railroad bridge in the middle of the bridge span.

The way through this mess was unclear at best. Fortunately, one of our fellow travelers was about a mile ahead of us and we followed his lead.  Once past Cairo, the barge congestion eased and the Ohio looked more like a river.

On the Ohio, we cruised upstream, meaning against the current, but we didn’t experience the troubled waters found on the Mississippi.  The water was amazingly calm and clear. We were only going about 5-6 mph and not the 10 mph we enjoyed on the Mississippi. We are finally seeing some fall colors.

We reached our anchorage just below the Olmsted dam construction site where our now “old buddies” were settled in. There we were promptly invited to a potluck dinner. Kathy panicked, wondering what she could add.  It was now almost a week since we had run our madcap resupply excursion to Walmart outside of Grafton. So supplies were low. But we cobbled together the left over wild rice, cut up our remaining salami and cheese, and trundled over to the party with the help of another water-taxi ride.

Dinner was a delight.  As folks boarded Perfect Balance, we were amazed by the food that came with them! A salad with fresh raspberries, homemade California rolls with salmon, roasted potatoes and carrots, and the hostess presented chicken-and-vegetable kabobs accompanied by freshly made bread. Clearly these powerboats are far better equipped and provisioned than Sea Fever.  We ate like royalty. 

Our water-taxi brought us back to Sea Fever just after sunset and once again, we fell into bed, and slept hard.

 

Leaving Hoppie's, and a very long day, September 29, 2014

Monday, September 29

Hoppie’s to Little River Diversion Channel at mile 48

Hoppie's at dawn, just before departure
courtesy of Silvi Landreville

Last thoughts of Hoppie's
courtesy of Silvi Landreville

Everyone headed out from Hoppie’s this morning about 7:30.  One by one, the boats peeled off the dock.  Most of them were headed to an anchorage named Little River Diversion Channel, a 110 mile trek. Since our longest single-day voyage so far was 65 miles, we didn’t think that Sea Fever could make it that far before dark even with the help of the Mississippi’s increasingly strong current.
We planned to hole up at the Kaskaskia River dam after only a 40-mile journey and continue on to Little Diversion the next day.

We were very surprised to reach the Kaskaskia River by 10:45 AM, only 3 ¼ hours from our start.  Sea Fever averaged over 10 miles per hour!  That may not seem fast to a power boater or even a bicyclist, but for us it was an amazing speed. Some quick calculations determined we could likely make Little Diversion before sunset at 7:30 PM. Speed-crazed, we decided to power on.

Sure enough, 11.5 hours after we left Hoppie’s, and just before sunset, we arrived at Little Diversion. We spotted our pals tucked up in the anchorage as we sped downriver. Tim spun the boat around in the strong current.  As he executed the turn, and Sea Fever drifted sidewise a bit down river, we were hailed on the marine radio, assuring us that we had, indeed, found our group.  Tim quickly got us headed back upstream and turned the boat into the anchorage. We were greeted with cheers from the cocktail crowd on Perfect Balance.  Lots of kudos came from the group for swinging the boat around so quickly in the river current and making it so far in one day.

Once anchored, we were again hailed to join the crowd on Perfect Balance.  They even sent over a water taxi (dingy) to pick us up and ferry us to the party. After celebrating our record run and comparing notes with our friends, we were “taxied” back to Sea Fever.

We ate left-over chicken and wild rice, and fell soundly asleep.  It was a good day on the Big Muddy.

(Pictures courtesy of Silvi Landreville, one of our new found friends)

First day of Week 4, September 28th, 2014

Sunday, September 28^th, 2014
Last week we traveled only 96 miles, and went through 2 dams, no swing bridges, and 16.9 hours of travel. We had to wait for our turn at Hoppie's Marine Services.

Alton to St. Louis to Hoppie’s
We prepared to head to the next marina, Hoppie's Marine Services, about 40 miles downriver and 2 lock and dams away.  As we made ready to leave the marina at first light, 7 AM, we headed under the US Highway 67 bridge The following picture shows why we get nervous under bridges.



US Highway 67 bridge outside of Alton

Looks, close, doesn’t it?  We passed under it with at least 15 feet to spare. We (i.e. Kathy) are kind of getting used to the fact that we are not going to hit. Probably, maybe, most likely…

Next challenge was the Melvin Price Lock and Damn #26, and auxiliary dam.  It was a deep one with a 24’ lift, and rather than tie to bollards on the lock walls, the lock guy just suggested that we float in the middle of the lock. A long way down!

Lock and Dam #26

Wierdams started to appear on the sides of the river.  At current water levels, they are visible above the surface of the water.  They are mountains of rock and, like wing dams, direct the water to keep the channel from silting.

Fishing boat at a wierdam

About 5 miles downriver, we encountered the Chain of Rocks Canal.  Here boaters are directed by a huge sign to proceed left into a canal dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers. The canal bypasses a rock damn and rapids across the old main channel.



Sign at Chain of Rocks Canal

We took the warning seriously!  The Chain of Rocks Canal is long, straight calm, and tedious.  It is about 10 miles long, with nothing but a rock-lined shore and water to see.



Ten miles of rock-lined shore

At the end of the canal, is the Chain of Rocks Lock and Dam 27. It is the last lock of the day and, more significantly, the last lock on the Mississippi River.  From here on down to New Orleans, the river flow is unencumbered by these structural constraints.

And we headed to St. Louis.

While underway, we monitor our marine radio at all times.  It is good to know if Sea Fever will need to pass barges either going up or down river.  As we head to St. Louis, the barges are bigger and faster. The protocol is to hail the tow pushing the barges, and ask the captain on which side he wants us to pass. 

Because of the size of the barges (some upward of 1000 feet long), the tow captain has limited view, especially of smaller boats. In addition, when the river bends, we may see the front of an oncoming barge long before we see the tow.   It is best to keep as far away from the barges as possible, since they cause a lot of turbulence, huge wakes, and kick up a lot of debris from the river.

At any rate, we try to ask how the tow wants us to pass them.  Sometimes they respond with a one or two, which in the olden days corresponded to the number of whistles they would blow.  Way to arcane to describe here!!!

St. Louis

There are 7 bridges over the Mississippi in St. Louis. We managed to squeak under every one of them (most had a 90’ clearance)!

The industry that is on the west river bank is astonishing.  On the east river bank, there is almost nothing, except for a lot of parked barges.  Lots and lots of barges but fortunately not many were moving. Perhaps they get Sundays off.

The current and turbulence kicked up quite a bit through this stretch, as did the debris.  There were 6’ long logs, snags of sticks and logs bunched together and lots of branches floating about.  So we not only had to watch for other watercraft, but we needed to steer around the debris.  Tim did an excellent job of both!

Kathy was on photo detail, and she couldn’t resist taking a few pix of the St. Louis Arch as we sped past at over 10 knots with the help of the current (doesn’t sound so fast but we usually only do 6).

St Louis Arch

Leaving St. Louis in our wake, we motored on toward Hoppie’s Marine Service, some 20 miles further down river

Hoppie’s

Hoppie’s is famous among Loopers and considered a mandatory stop.

From a practical standpoint, Hoppie’s is the last place to get fuel, fresh water and supplies until Kentucky Lake some 228 miles away.

Equally and perhaps more important, Hoppie’s is only place where the ‘nightly briefing’ is held. At the ‘nightly briefing’ knowledge about what lies ahead on the river, the dangers, the places to anchor or avoid, and what conditions currently exist on the ever-changing waterway is revealed.

Hoppie’s is run by 82-year-old Charles Hopkins (Hoppie himself) and his wife Fern who presides over the ‘nightly briefing’.  Their daughter works the fuel dock, ties up incoming boats and takes the fuel and docking fees. A few other folks work and/or help-out (it wasn’t real clear) to keep the operation moving along.

Hoppie’s Marine Services is a marina smaller than its name implies. The marina consists of 3 steel barges moored on the bank of the river. It used to be 6 barges, but the Army Corps of Engineers put in some new wing dams and the current silted in three of the barges. Now Hoppie’s can accommodate only 6 transients on their barge marina. 

The reduced capacity created a holding pattern for boats upriver waiting to get in. We stayed in Grafton for 3 days, and in Alton for 1 day because we couldn’t get a reservation at Hoppie’s until then.

Hoppie’s has its own bit of charm.



Hoppie's Marine Services



Hoppie's marina

We were the first of the Loopers to land here today.  We arrived about 12:50 PM, quickly followed in by other boats and their folks whom we met in Grafton.  We filled our fuel tank, as did the others, and we were jockeyed into our final docking position for the night.  The docking plan was to put the large cruisers on the north end pointed upriver.  Fine by us!  That meant  that any debris from the river would need to get by them first! And there was lots of debris floating by.


Tim waiting to tie up Sea Fever

Several times we were reminded by Fern that the Sunday Night Potluck would be after the 4:30 briefing.

We went down below to prepare our special Minnesota ]wild rice as our contribution, and headed to the briefing.

So 8 of us gathered by the fuel dock for Fern’s briefing.  She went through the following:

>   Where the heavy turbulence is between Hoppie’s and the Ohio River

     The fact that barges sometime break away from the tows, and float on their own to cause disaster to any boat “what come across them”

>    Size of tows: HUGE because no locks restrict their size.

>   Where the good protected anchorages are (and why Fern disagrees with the anchorages listed in the guide books).

>    The important phone number of Gordon from Green Turtle Bay Marina.  Gordon is the guy to call if your vessel is in trouble.  He will find you, get you, and tow you to safety anywhere between Hoppie’s and Green Turtle Bay.

>   Take the Cumberland River route through the Barkley Lock and Dam to Green Turtle Bay Marina in Kentucky Lakes.  Avoid Kentucky Lake Lock and Dam. Even though Barley Lock is some 25 miles further, there is less commercial traffic. The Tennessee Lock is known for delays of over 5 hours waiting for commercial traffic to go through.

 By now, Kathy’s eyes are wide open and she asked how far the St. Louis airport was.  She was about to abandon ship, freaked out by all the potential disasters we were about to encounter.


The briefing

 

Fern

Fortunately, the potluck intervened before she could make reservations. And what a potluck it was.

We hooked up with the folks that we had met in Grafton, as well as the other Loopers, and had a great time.  Turns out several of them became ‘buddies” much earlier in their journey, and traveled together. We were accepted into the fraternity, and planned to meet up at the next anchorage. Sea Fever couldn’t keep up with the big power boats but our new friends promised to save us a spot at the anchorage.

All the folks at dinner calmed Kathy down and she agreed to continue.
 

The pot luck spread



Chowing down

It was a rock and rolling night for sleeping.  Because Hoppie’s is on the river, not protected inside a harbor, each time a tow went by, there was a large wake. Sea fever went up and down and side to side bouncing off the barge to which she was tied. I guess we are getting somewhat used to it, though. 

Both of us slept well.

 

September 27, a short day

Saturday, September 27, 2010

Grafton Marina to Alton Marina

After showering, and doing the normal getting up in the morning stuff, we got ready to head from Grafton to Alton Marina, just 14 miles and no locks away. The most stunning part of the day was the pictures Tim took, just after daylight, of a great blue heron not 50 feet from our boat.




Great Blue Heron at Grafton Harbor

 Shortly after seeing this grace of nature, a pirate ship came in. We had seen a similar ship when we were in Fort Meyer’s Beach this past March.  They are party boats, with wenches and pirates, and I strongly suspect, dubious alcoholic concoctions! When a pirate ship appears, we leave!



Pirate ship at Grafton Harbor



As we headed down river, the bluffs appear to be carved by a master artist.  They are beautiful, and are in sharp contrast to the trees that are starting to display their autumn colors.

River bluffs

In Portage des Sioux, MO, about 9 miles from our destination of Alton, IL, is a statue of the Virgin Mary.  In 1951, flood waters threatened this town, as well as other towns along the Mississippi.  A local priest called on his parishioners to pray to the Virgin Mary to save the town.  The river crested and then went down.  Little damage was done to the town of Portage des Sioux.  In gratitude to the Virgin Mary, the parish decided to erect a fiberglass statue on the banks of the Mississippi.  It was dedicated to “Our Lady of the Rivers”.  Word spread, contributions came in from across the country.  When dedicated, in 1957, over ten thousand people from all over the country, attended the ceremony.  It is 25’ tall, views the river, and prays for mariners.




Our Lady of the Rivers, Portage des Sioux, MO.


The American Queen passed us again, this time, on its trip up river to St. Louis.

The Alton Marina is nice and, like Grafton, is a floating marina. Its bathroom and shower facilities are great, with liquid soap, shampoo and conditioner is each one.  Clean bath rugs were available for each user, and hairdryers in every “bathroom suite”.

The boats in the marina were HUGE!  They made Sea Fever seem very small, indeed. 

We had a late lunch at the deli in the marina, and headed back to the boat.  It was Saturday night, and the dock over from us had a disco party, complete with a disco ball, lights and the Bee Gees!  We were tired, so we closed up the boat, turned on the fans for white noise, and slept hard with memories of disco balls past.

Possibly out of communication for 4-5 days

September 27, 2014

We are working on our blogs, but we just wanted you all to know that we may be out of communication for 4-5 days.  We are leaving Hoppie's Marine Service in Kimmswic, MO., this morning, and will be anchoring out until we reach Green Turtle Bay near Kentucky Lake, some 250 miles from here, some of it up the Ohio River.

The next blog may well be from the Great Turtle Bay Resort and Marina, from the Spa.

We may have phone service.  It is up to Verizon.

Thanks for reading.

Grafton Harbor, 9-23 through 9-26

Grafton Marina is a pretty marina.  More than that, it floats. All of it. The docks, the two-story store/restaurant, the pool, and even the bathroom/shower building all float up and down with the water level.

We didn't much notice it when we first arrived. Looks like a regular marina with really tall pilings that hold the docks in place. They are well over 20 feet tall.  That's when we noticed that the buildings are at the same level as the docks and not up the hill on the parking level like Lake City. Convenient, but odd that they aren't inundated when it floods. Duh!... they must float too. And sure enough, they do.




Grafton Harbor from the fuel dock



There's good reason to float the marina. The Mississippi fluctuates greatly, for example, a few weeks ago, travel beyond Alton, IL (mile marker 202.9) was dangerous due to flooding on the Ohio and Missouri rivers which enter the Mississippi below St. Louis .  The floods increased river levels by 10 feet in places carrying trees and other debris along with the swift current.

Even last week, the high water covered much of the shore line in Grafton.  The brown grass that you see below was covered with river water.

Water covered this piece of land, no less than a week ago

The floods delayed many cruising boats heading down the river and the marinas were now filled with boats waiting for better conditions. Grafton was no exception. There were many cruisers here prepping their boat and passing time. Turns out, we were among them. 

One of the MUST stops on the rivers is Hoppie's Marina south of St Louis. Its' the last place to fuel up before a 225 mile stretch of rivers with no services.  Hoppe's is small, just some barges tied together so reservations are required. A phone call secured our reservation for Sunday.  So we will be hanging around Grafton Harbor for more than a few days.



Sea Fever nestled among some of the"looper" boats at Grafton Harbor... Sea Fever is the smallest one in the crowd.

 

Among the looper boats are some sailboats without masts. These boats came down the Illinois River from Chicago and had to take down their masts to clear bridges. So, a bunch of them got together and shipped their masts to Mobile, AL where they will put them back up again. As a result, they did not need to worry about bridge heights, nor did they have to travel with a mast on their deck.  The group-rate saved them quite a bit of money. Sure looks weird though.

We found out, the next day, that there is no Verizon phone service here.  No phone calls.  We can receive emails, mostly.    It is an isolating experience, to be sure.  Grafton Harbor does have a pretty good WiFi, so we can access websites, and our blog.

Wednesday was a pretty morning.  Kathy got off the boat to head up take a shower (when possible, we use the marina showers (with flip flops on) to conserve the water in the on the boat.) And low and behold, a boat was, at 7 AM struggling to come into the gas dock.  John, the boat captain, asked Kathy to help dock the boat... and she did!

The interesting thing about his boat, named Beluga, is that it had anchored in the Mississippi outside our St. Paul home for about 3 weeks this past spring.  Apparently, Lock and Dam #1 was closed because of flooding, and Beluga had no options.

John lives on the boat full time, and just plies the rivers. What a solitary existence.  But he seemed to be a happy person. We chatted for a while and he was off, heading up the Illinois.

There is a courtesy van here at Grafton.  You sign up to take it from Grafton to the Walmart about 16 miles away.  We signed up for a 3:30 time slot.  Kathy was hoping that she could touch friends with a telephone call, thinking that, perhaps, Walmart would have better Verizon service and a new vacuum cleaner. 

About 11 AM, we got the first knock on the cabin top. "Hello, are you heading to Walmart with the courtesy van?  If so, can we tag along?"

Sure.

The second knock came on the cabin top.

"Hey, are you heading to Walmart with the courtesy van?'

Several knocks later, we had amassed 10 folks on our grocery sojourn to Walmart.  We also stopped at Napa auto store for supplies.  And by the way, we did pick up  a hand vac, brandy and Lay's kettle potato chips! And actually, Walmart had pretty good selection of meats and fresh vegetables too.

Kathy hardly had time to put away the groceries, before someone again knocked on our cabin top.  The loopers were having an impromptu Dock-tail party up on the ship's store deck.  There were about 30 folks there with stories to tell, and cards to exchange.  We are sure that we will meet up with many of them somewhere down the river.

Thursday we went on an walk to "downtown" Grafton.  Ice Cream was the highlight.

Friday was just chores.  Oil changes, laundry.  Pretty mundane stuff. Walmart pork chops and broccoli for supper, here on the boat.  Yum.  And then, we heard the music.
Up on the deck, there was a trio playing country songs featuring an outstanding fiddle player and singing to the audience that wandered up.  It was pleasant. Turned out that the three were traveling on their boat and brought their instruments.

Saturday, we head to Alton, Il and the Alton Marina. 



Thank you for reading.

Mud, Fog and Humor on the Upper Mississippi 9-23-2014

Tuesday September 23, 2014

We were out of bed at 6 AM, anticipating a 10 hour day to get to Grafton Harbor, IL.  Grafton has lots of services, walking distance to town, and a courtesy car to Walmart, where we can replace our hand vac that died the first day out, as well as buy groceries, brandy, and...LAYS KETTLE CHIPS!!!




Leaving Two Rivers Marina, in Louisiana, MO

It was 47 degrees, so we made coffee and tea, and bundled up.  Tim filled the diesel from the jerry cans that we keep on board. 



Diesel Cans on the boat.

The mist in the harbor was lovely.

Mist in the Harbor of Two Rivers Marina, and the Louisiana, MO Highway Bridge

Kathy emptied trash, and turned in the bathroom/shower key, and at 7:15 AM we headed across the harbor to continue our sojourn down the Mighty Mississippi. 

THUNK.

Sea Fever came to a complete stop as we ran in to mud and silt at the mouth of the harbor.  The depth dropped quickly from 4 feet to 2.5.  It was even too shallow for the depth sounder to work!  We had had no problems 2 days before getting into the marina!

Tim backed her up, and tried again, much slower.

No THUNK, but we came to a halt again.  Backed her up once more, and stayed closer to the downstream side of the harbor and made it out into the channel.  Crossed under the Louisiana Highway Bridge and headed toward the Louisiana Railroad Swing Bridge. 

When we hailed the bridge on the marine radio, the conversation was this:

Tim: Louisiana Railroad Swing Bridge, Louisiana Railroad Swing Bridge.

Swing Bridge: This is the Louisiana Railroad Swing Bridge.

Tim: South bound sailboat requesting passage through the Louisiana Railroad Swing Bridge.

Swing Bridge: Yes, Captain, do you have a chain saw on that there sailboat?

Tim:  No sir, it is not in my inventory.
 

Swing Bridge: Then I guess I will have to open it for ya since you can’t cut down your mast.

Tim:  We appreciate that, sir.

How droll. How early.

And so we waited and the swing bridge swung and we passed through it, mast intact. And it was only 8:00 in the morning!

Just past the swing bridge, we encountered fog ahead.  We could not see the channel markers. Worse, we could not see any oncoming barges that might be headed our way. Even worser (new word) there was a lock and dam just a mile ahead of us.



Fog just past the Louisiana Swing Bridge

So, we decided to hunker down close to shore and wait until the fog lifted so we could see the markers, the barges and the dam! Waiting took about 45 minutes. 

We could have slept in!

But that is how life goes on the river.  You never know the challenges that will meet you.  You don’t have traffic radio or TV to give you advice.  Tim uses a web site called Active Captain, which tracks weather, marinas and other circumstances.  But the truth is, the crew on the boat has to be aware.  Pay attention to obstacles in the water.  Note other boats, whether they be towboats, or pleasure craft, and how they will influence your boat. And if something seems wrong, pay attention to it.

A northbound barge emerged from the fog bank. We called on the radio to be sure we were out of the way, the captain said the fog was lifting.

We started up again and quickly made it to the Lock and Dam 24. We didn’t even need to wait for other boats to lock-through ahead of us. Once in the lock, we ''floated'' in the middle of the chamber, rather than holding lines next to the wall.  Midpoint in the process, Tim asked me to drive.  He told me to put the throttle into forward idle if I needed to steer.  I thought that meant  forward neutral.  

WRONG.

Neutral gives no steering power since the boat has no forward motion to cause water to flow past the rudder.  Forward idle engages the engine at low speed allowing the boat to change direction.  As we headed toward the lock wall, Tim rescued me from my mistake. Picture, if you will, sailor talk, and tears.  Yikes.

I thought I knew what he was saying…as did he.  An Aha moment.  Now I know.

Without any additional dramatic moments, we motored along to Grafton Harbor.  It was a long day, taking some 8 hours to go the 64.6 miles.

We are at "home" tonight in Grafton, IL harbor.  We had burgers for dinner at the marina restaurant, and, after a long hard day, will head to sleep soon.

Wednesday will be a clean up the boat day.  And perhaps I can use the courtesy van to go to Walmart. 

We will be here for several days.

Several of you have asked about who writes this blog.  Kathy writes, Tim uses his skills to edit, Kathy edits again and publishes.  So it is a joint effort. Hopefully using the best of both of our talents.  We recently got new phones, and one of the features is a voice recorder.  It makes it very easy to record events, and the time that they happen.  So when we get behind on our blog, we have some date stamped observations to help us recall times and occurrences.

Thank you for reading.

The Zen of Battery Maintenance, 9-22-2014

Monday, September 22, 2014

We arose to a beautiful day, but knowing that we would be marina bound.  Tim made some eggs for breakfast, and we settled to wait until 10 AM so that he could talk to the mechanic at the shop about the batteries, and Kathy could take the courtesy van from the marina to the grocery and drug stores across the river.

Kathy set out on her journey by crossing the river on a narrow 2 lane bridge.  She was told that if she tried to walk across the bridge, the local police would issue a ticket. This wouldn't be an issue for Ms. Acrophobia. There was no way she would be walking. Even driving across the bridge was terrifying for Kathy. But errands needed to be done. So she pressed on with her shopping mission.

On the way back, she headed over the bridge tailgating a semi, her eyes fixed on the back of the truck.  It helped her some.

Meanwhile, back at the marina, Tim consulted with the marina's mechanic.  Sure enough, the #1 battery was not holding a charge.  Luckily, the marina store had batteries in stock, but not the type currently installed in Sea Fever. Unluckily, the battery charger and alternator needed a matched set of batteries. So we had to buy two batteries and the boat's battery charger needed to be reprogrammed too.  So, Tim had his work cut out for him! 

A fellow mariner whose boat was also busted came by to chat.  He imparted a few words of wisdom: “On a boat, everything is broke, ya just don’t know it yet.” Ain't that the truth.

The engine and batteries are in a very small compartment underneath the cockpit that we sometimes call "The Well".  Those of you who have seen us work this summer know that Tim was usually in "The Well" installing the Kathy Anderson Memorial water heater, or new water filters, or, or, or…  Now he was back in the well wrestling with new batteries.




Tim changing batteries in "The Well" in Louisiana, MO

 

Tim and batteries

 

We finished up our chores, and tried to find a marina for Wednesday night.  We decided on Grafton, IL.  It is a long way off, and we estimate that it could take us 10 hours.  There are two locks between Two Rivers and Grafton.  Passage through each of them could be an hour, could be two.  It just depends.

We had Jiffy Pop for supper, and went to bed. Off to Grafton in the morning.

Backstory

There is a bit of history to the “Tim is in the well” saying.  We have friends that we met at our home marina, in Lake City.  Mom and Dad (the Fossums), daughter Liv (a proud age 10), and Trixie the wonder dog.

Trixie is an Australian Shepherd, and herds other dogs and her people (including us) whenever she can. At our home marina, when Tim is grinding  away to get things done on Sea Fever, and the Fossums, Kathy, and others are assembled on Stuart and Nancy’s boat, Grand Cru II, having  an end of sailing day happy hour, we would say to Trixie “Trixie, Tim is in the well.  Go get Tim”.  Trixie bounds off Grand Cru II, rushes three slips down to Sea Fever, heads down the finger dock, and barks until Tim gets out of the well and joins us.

We had the good fortune to take care of Trixie in our St. Paul home several times over the last couple years.   Sometimes it was for a couple of days.  Once it was for a week.  We weren’t certain that we were going to give Trixie back after the week of dog parks, walking, and having Trixie nap with Tim. But as soon as she heard the family Subaru pull up in front of the house, she was down in the foyer barking in excitement to see her “peeps”, and there was no choice but to give her back.

We were rewarded for our efforts with Trixie 2, heretofore called T2.  




Trixie waiting to leave on the Great Adventure

We took T2 on our car trip to Florida, in 2013, and she seemed to enjoy travel.  She is our mascot on Sea Fever for this Great Adventure, as well.  She reads charts...

Trixie reading a page in the upper Mississippi chart book

Listens to the marine radio...

Trixie hailing Lock and Dam #19

and sometimes lends encouragement in the steering department...



Trixie helping Tim keep Sea Fever in the channel

You will see more of T2 as we continue our adventure.

Thanks for reading.