On October 11, 2016, we left our home in Port Townsend, WA, trailered Andiamo over 2500 miles to Grand Rivers, KY and launched her at Green Turtle Bay on Lake Barkley, October 25, 2016. Today, October 25, 2017, we crossed our wake, meaning that we are back to the body of water that we started from.
Since leaving home, we have been in two countries, the US and Canada. We have traveled in twenty-six states, nineteen by boat. We cruised rivers, lakes, the Intracostal Waterway, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and man-made channels/canals. We also locked through at least eighty locks from river levels to lake levels down to sea level and back up to rivers and the Great Lakes. Along the way, we visited family and friends and forged new friendships. The amount of history we learned was worthy of a degree. What an adventure!
We have traveled over 10,000 miles and still have over 3,000 to go as we travel to visit family and friends in Missouri and Arizona before returning to our home. To all that have made our journey an extraordinary adventure, we thank you and look forward to seeing you again. Special thanks to our lifetime friends, Karen and Henry Heflin, for joining us at Green Turtle Bay to celebrate “Crossing our Wake!”
Join us as we lock through our last lock and cruise into Green Turtle Bay Marina. The three attached videos, from the last mile of our loop, are 6x the actual rate, except where the lock is filling with water, which is 32x the actual rate. If you watch the left side of the lock you can see the increase of the water level.
Preparing to Leave Paducah Dock
Paducah Sunrise
Paducah Riverfront
Paducah Riverfront
Paducah Riverfront
Brookport Bridge
Tow Anchorage Area
Dredging the River
Dredged River Dirt
Entering the Cumberland River: Last River of the Trip
Paducah is a fascinating town that was originally claimed by the famous American Revolutionary War hero, George Rogers Clark. When he died his claim went to his younger brother William, of Lewis and Clark fame. William, in 1827, platted a town at this northernmost point of what is now the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway, an important part of the American Great Loop.
After being on the boat for three days it was a real treat to just walk around the town and experience the riverfront. Paducah is home to the National Quilt Museum, The Lloyd Tilghman House & Civil War Museum, Paducah Railroad Museum, an Art District, “Wall to Wall” Murals, and so much more. The weather was a bit cool and windy so we opted to wait for the warm weather next week to thoroughly explore the town. We can do that because, if all goes well we will “Cross our Wake” at Green Turtle Bay tomorrow and will remain in the area until we have the truck and boat ready to go west.
At 7:00 am we weighed anchor and continued up the Ohio River to make our way through the notorious, outdated, and often closed Ohio River Lock 52. A relic of the 1920s river control system, Lock and Dam 52 is the last of the old wicket dams. When completed, the Olmsted Project will replace Lock and Dam 52 as well as the now-defunct Lock and Dam 53. Scheduled to go online in 2018, the Olmsted Project is both the largest and the most expensive inland waterway project undertaken in the United States.
Although not yet operational, the Olmsted Lock is in place and we were required to request permission to cruise through. Lockmasters are the gods of the rivers, you don’t want to get them angry with you, they are the ones that can make or break your day. When I called to request permission to transit the area the lockmaster, in a very stern voice, informed me that he had 15 tows & barges in front of me and that it would take a while. When I meekly, with all the cheer in my voice that I could muster, asked what time he thought we could go through, he gave a great big belly laugh and said, “Awe, I’m just joking you, come on down and I’ll talk you and your buddy right on through.”
He talked us through the Olmsted Project and the remains of Lock and Dam 53 without incident and we were on our way to Lock 52 just 24 miles away. We had been in contact with a couple of our friends that transited the lock last week; one vessel had to wait four hours before being locked through and the other had to wait three hours, we were not looking forward to the wait. We were lucky, we only waited about forty-five minutes. However, as you will be able to tell from the video of Courageous, it was a bouncy 45 minute as we waited for the Captain Anthony to complete his lock through. In the pictures, you will also be able to tell why the lock needs to be replaced.
By 12:30 pm we were safely tied to the newly opened Paducah Transient Dock, where we reconnected with several of the loopers that we had met at the marina in Alton, IL. This dock has no bathroom or shower facilities but has electricity, water, pump-out, and fuel. We need a pump-out, water, and electricity to charge all of our devices after being without for three days.
Our time on the America Great Loop is coming to an end, the plan is to spend tomorrow in Paducah and on Wednesday cruise to Green Turtle Bay Marina where we put the boat in the water on October 25, 2016. We expect to be greeted by friends Karen and Henry who are driving from the Kansas City area to help us celebrate us ‘crossing our wake’.
As we were leaving our snug, calm anchorage in the Castor River Diversion Channel a northbound tow with 35 (5 by 7) barges passed the mouth of the channel leaving a 3 to 4 foot 2-mile long wake that made us want to turn around and stay in the protected waters of the channel. As we pulled into the Mississippi River another northbound tow with 30 (5 by 6) barges passed us, between the two we felt like we were riding the old mechanical bull at Billy Bob’s.
With only 48.8 miles remaining of the Upper Mississippi River, we continued to stay vigilant as we watched for navigational markers, debris, and landmarks. Our first landmark was the Thebes Railroad Bridge which opened on May 25, 1905, and is still the only railroad bridge between St. Louis and Memphis. According to local folklore, the history of railroad bridge disasters in the 1800s caused people to be fearful of the new iron and steel bridges. In order to instill confidence in the strength of the bridge a long line of steam locomotives crossed the bridge at once. If the bridge could handle the weight of the massive locomotives, it could handle anything.
The river remained wild until we met calmer waters in the oxbows north of Cairo. At the end of the Upper Mississippi, we turned to our port and entered the mouth of the Ohio River. The Ohio River begins at the junction of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers at Pittsburgh, PA and continues for 981 miles, we will travel just eighty-nine miles of the Ohio River and then take the Cumberland River back to Lake Barkley.
We were running at about 10.5 knots at 1200 RPM (11 miles per gallon) on the Mississippi River when we turned into the Ohio River, we immediately fell to 5 knots. We increased RPM to 1600 and got another knot to 6 but fuel mileage fell to 2.7 MPG.
At one time Abe Lincoln also cruised the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, however, his trips were much different from ours. In 1828 and again in 1831 he was a bow-hand on Allen Gentry’s two-man flatboat that was loaded with furs for the New Orleans market. It was through his firsthand experiences with the slave-markets in New Orleans that he developed his lifelong hatred of slavery.
Tonight we are anchored on the Kentucky side of the Ohio near La Center, KY in 18 to 20 feet. The rain is pouring and we are kicking-back enjoying what might be our last anchorage of the trip.
Courageous at Anchor
Thebes Railroad Bridge
Thebes Railroad Bridge
Mississippi River
I-57 Mississippi River Crossing At Cairo
M/V Dan MacMillian
M/V Dan MacMillian’s Wake
Mississippi Wing Dams
Mississippi River: Cairo Highway Bridge
Mississippi River
Mississippi Meets the Ohio: Note the color difference of the two rivers.
The Mississippi River begins its winding journey to the Gulf of Mexico at Itasca State Park in Minnesota as a minor 18-foot wide knee-deep river with an average flow rate of 6 cubic feet per second. From Itasca, the Mississippi River flows north to Bemidji, Minnesota where it turns east, and then south near Grand Rapids. A hundred miles downstream from New Orleans it empties into the Gulf of Mexico with an average flow rate of over 600,000 cubic feet per second. According to the US Geological Survey, the length of the river is 2320 miles, we are traveling only 217.9 of those miles. We entered the river at the junction of the Illinois and Upper Mississippi Rivers, mile marker 217.9, and will end the Mississippi portion of our journey at mile marker 0.0 of the Lower Mississippi, at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, a small portion of the river and our overall journey, but still challenging with its array of barges, fast current, and never-ending mass of debris.
We were up before sunrise and left the Kaskaskia Lock wall at first light. At Fern’s briefing one of her tips was; “Anchor in a protected area, away from runaway barges, we haven’t had any for several years but you can never be too careful.” As we turned to port leaving the Kaskaskia River to reenter the Mississippi we heard a U.S. Coast Guard announcement that there were several runaway barges reported at mile marker ninety-four. Fortunately, that was downstream of us and if we came across them they would either be floating ahead of us or stuck on the bank. By the end of the day, we saw two on the bank, one on a sand-bar, and three that had settled against another set of barges.
Our normal cursing speed is 6.5-7 knots.
But on the Mississippi, we are running 9.5-11 knots.
Today’s sun shimmered on the water and the sky was a dazzling blue, great for picture taking but very difficult for spotting the multitude of logs floating towards Andiamo.
Just south of Cape Girardeau, MO we crabbed our way into the Castor River Channel Division and anchorage in 20-feet of water. The reviews of this anchorage indicated mosquitoes would be quite abundant so we prepared the evening evasion. However, even with both the temperature and the humidity in the eighties they never arrived, which made us very happy.
We spent the evening decompressing, watching Arizona State devastate Utah 30 to 10, visiting with friends and family via text and phone, and preparing for tomorrow. Tonight we are at mile marker 48.8 on the Mississippi River and, if all goes well, we will leave the Mississippi River tomorrow and start up the Ohio River.
Four Looper boats spent Thursday evening at Hoppie’s, the crews on s/v Seaductress and m/v Grayling were up at the crack of dawn preparing for a 110-mile day while the crews on Courageous and Andiamo opted for a less stressful 42 miles, which will mean a 68-mile day on Saturday.
While we were cruising to Hoppies, we heard an announcement that said the Mississippi River would be closed starting October 17 from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm, but the announcement didn’t say for how long and we do not travel on rivers at night. This closure was just 12 miles south of Hoppie’s and at her briefing Fern suggested that someone call the Coast Guard to check on the closure. We tried to call, no answer. On the web, it said the river would be closed but didn’t say for how long or for whom. What to do? We knew that m/v Wandering Star just went through that area so we contacted Pat and she said they had no problem. As far as we could determine it was closed to commercial traffic from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm but not to recreational vessels. Both s/v Seductress and m/v Grayling called to let us know they had no problem so forward we marched, make that cruised, on down the Mississippi. Turns out, they were stringing a cable across the river and commercial traffic was restricted to nighttime hours.
At the Kaskaskia Lock in Modoc, IL we were allowed to tie to the wall as long as we didn’t leave trash or go up the ladder to the dam. So, for our first “locktails” we joined m/v Courageous crew Terry & Joanne and m/v Blue Haven crew Allen & Lila on Courageous. It was a splendid evening with a beautiful sunset. The highlight of the evening was when Captain Terry sang his newly penned song of finishing the loop. This was especially meaningful to Rick and I since we expect to “Cross our Wake” in less than a week.
The lockmaster at the Mel Price Dam (mm 200.8-11 feet) likes for all recreational boats leaving Alton Marina to arrange a time to lock though together. This morning there were only two of us, m/v Courageous, crew Terry and Joanne, and Andiamo. We left the marina at 7:00 am and were entering the lock at sunrise, another lock that we were allowed to float through.
Our next lock, Chain of Rocks, was 15.8 miles away. By the beginning of the 1940’s the Mississippi River had been “tamed” by a system of locks and dams from Minneapolis to Alton, but seamen still faced the challenge of navigating a series of rock ledges and shelves that extended from the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to St. Louis. The solution, the US Army Corps of Engineers designed and built the Chain of Rocks canal to bypass the area.
At the end of the canal is the double chamber Chain of Rocks lock and dam (mm 185 – 7 feet). As Andiamo and Courageous entered the auxiliary chamber m/v Cherokee entered the main chamber. Again we were allowed to float but this will be our last time floating. We have three more locks, two on the Ohio and one on the Cumberland, both will be going up which is usually more turbulent than going down so we will use the bollards to transit those locks.
The Saint Louis Harbor was all it promised to be and more, many tows and barges moving on the river with even more anchored along the side. The current was swift and lots of logs peppered the river. A bit tense but all went well and we were at Hoppies Marine Services and tied to their barges by 12:30. Hoppies is legendary. Started in 1936, Hoppies father lit the kerosene navigational lanterns on this part of the Mississippi River and now Hoppies wife, Fern age 80, gives an evening briefing on the current stages of the river in terms of anchorages, locks, and other factors concerning the navigation of the river. The briefing was very beneficial, we learned about anchorages that are no longer viable, an anchorage that we were not aware of, and wing dams. Wing dams are barriers that extend partway into a river and force water into a fast-moving center channel. This slows the water flow near the river banks and reduces the rate of sediment accumulation in the channel.
Tonight we have a train track 1000 feet from our port side and the Mighty Mississippi on our starboard. Current is strong and wakes from tows/barges promise to keep us rocking all night. The next marina and the next chance to get fuel is in Paducah, KY, 205 miles away. Our decision for tonight is, do we go to the Little River Diversion Channel, 110 miles away, or to Kaskaskia Lock just 41 miles away. With the current Kaskaskia will be a short day but 110 miles on the Mighty Mississippi will be a long day. The portion of our trip from here to Green Turtle Bay promises to be quite interesting. Our friends that left Alton on Monday arrived at Green Turtle Bay tonight. I texted them to see how the trip was I got a two-word response, IT SUCKED!
Alton, just across the Mississippi River from the slave state of Missouri, became an important town for abolitionists and the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a scattered system of homes, barns, churches, and other structures where people were willing to risk their own lives to hide the runaway slaves. One such station was the Hanson Mansion in Alton. Built by Nathaniel Hanson in 1857 it was designed to serve as a hiding place for slaves pursuing their freedom. Hanson, who was closely involved with the abolitionist movement in Alton, had the foundation of his house dug to a depth of fifteen feet so that rooms and narrow passageways could be carved into the limestone to hide runaway slaves. The ornate cupola on the roof of the mansion was used to signal runaway slaves, two lights meant danger while one light indicated it was safe for them to cross the Mississippi River.
The abolitionist Reverend Elijah P. Lovejoy, an advocate of free speech and the abolition of slavery, was murdered by a pro-slavery mob as he tried to protect his printing press from being destroyed.
The Gentle Giant of Alton was Robert Pershing Wadlow, the tallest person in human recorded history. Robert was eight feet eleven inches tall, had a wingspan of nine feet and wore a size 37 shoe.
The rustic 1904 General Store, hand-carved in Germany’s Black Forest, was part of the German exhibit at the St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair. In 1905 the building was purchased and moved to Alton, to become a photography studio and is now an old fashion candy store & gift shop.
The town is also a known as one of the most haunted small towns in the United States. Want to know more? Read Haunted Alton! by author Troy Taylor.
On Monday Rick serviced the engine while I did laundry, cleaned the boat, and served as ‘gopher’ for Rick. At the end of the day, we joined other loopers and travelers for docktails and tall tales about their adventures. Many of them plan on leaving tomorrow, loopers will continue their Great Loop adventures and the other travelers will make their way to Florida, the Bahamas, and Panama for the winter. Interesting people with great stories.
Tuesday we had a great afternoon at the National Great Rivers Museum. The museum, located adjacent to the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, is operated by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and tells the story of the Mississippi River via interactive displays, two video presentations, and a tour of the locks. We were lucky, the M/V Kylie Brown out of Houston, TX was locking through with a liquefied gas barge while we were there. When entering and leaving the locks the tow is only going about one knot. The video is 12x the actual speed. The two videos were “Power of the River” which shows the Mississippi River from its source to the mouth exploring the culture that lives along its banks and the “Lewis and Clark: A Confluence of Time and Courage” which tells the story of the Corps of Discovery from an Army and Native American perspective.
Andiamo’s fuel and water tanks are full, the holding tank is empty, and she has been well provisioned and we are ready for an early departure tomorrow.
Fri: We stopped in Grafton, located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, to pick-up a package from Ranger Tug containing the needed parts for servicing Andiamo’s engine. We were going to service the engine there but decided to go to Alton instead, a short 16 miles away.
We have experienced rain and gray days for a week and were really hoping for blue skies today but it was misty and gray with few great picture taking opportunities. However, even with the gray skies, it was beautiful as we entered the Mississippi River and cruised past eagles, pelicans, tows, Our Lady of the Rivers, and the Piasa mural on our way to Alton.
The Legend of Piasa – In 1673 Jacques Marquette reported that he and fellow French Explorer Louis Jolliet discovered a painting of what was probably two “Water Monsters” on the bluffs of the Mississippi River near present-day Alton. By 1700 those pictographic Creatures were no longer visible. In 1836 the novelist John Russell described an image cut into the bluff of a legendary dragon-like creature with wings. According to Russell, the creature was called Piasa, “The bird that devours men.” That version of the pictograph as well as myths about the Piasa has become prominent in Folklore.
We have been pulling our dinghy behind Andiamo since Florida and decided that we did not want to tow it down the Mississippi River, so we spent the afternoon cleaning the dinghy. We’ll let it dry overnight and finish taking it apart, the key will be trying to store it in a 25-foot boat that is already fully loaded.
Sat: We had breakfast with fellow loopers, went to the last farmers market of the year in Alton, had docktails and dinner with fellow loopers, and went for a long walk. Life is good! In between social activities, we managed to finish the dinghy. While the floorboards, paddles, and seat have been stored throughout Andiamo the dinghy itself is in its storage bag and will ride in the cockpit.
Leaving Grafton
Entering the Mississippi
Confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers
Tow Joseph Herrick Jones
Limestone Cliffs Overlooking the Mississippi River
Limestone Cliffs Overlooking the Mississippi River
Our Lady Of The Rivers: Portage Des Sioux, MO
Grafton calls itself “The Winter Home of The Bald Eagle.”
Going south, the first marina on the Illinois River after Tall Timbers Marina in Havana (mm 120.3) is Grafton Marina (mm 0.0), a mere 120.3 miles away. Since an average day for us is 30-40 miles we expected to take three days, with two anchorages on our way to Grafton, we made it in two days.
There is a good anchorage five miles before the La Grange Lock and Dam (mm 80.2 – 10 feet) that we had planned on anchoring at Wednesday, but when we called the lockmaster to check on the transit situation, he said: “come on down and we will get you right through.” Since it can take hours if you get to the lock at the wrong time we continued to the lock. As it turned out, the tow that was in the lock encountered a problem and it was a forty minute wait, still, we were happy to transit our eighth and final lock on the Illinois River. We were the only ones in the lock and were allowed to float instead of being tied to the lock wall.
After leaving the lock, we had a little trouble finding an anchorage that we felt good about. We finally anchored at mm 61.2, just before the Norfolk and Western Railroad Lift Bridge. At that point the river is wide and the water out of the channel was about 6 feet. Not a good anchorage in bad weather but perfect for the evening. Shortly after we anchored, a barge came by and Rick contacted the captain to ask if we were out of his way. The captain’s response was, “No problem little buddy.” The closest city to our anchorage was Valley City, IL a population of 13 at the 2010 census, making Valley City the smallest incorporated town in Illinois.
Since we had gone 61.2 miles and only had another 60 to go, with no locks, we decided to make the trip in two days instead of three. Tonight we are at the Grafton Marina at the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.
Wednesday and Thursday were both great bird watching, days: mostly egrets, herons, and eagles. However, the gray and misty skies really hindered taking pictures, it seems we have not seen the sun in days, no beautiful blue sky for picture taking. You might wonder why the White Pelican “video” is a series of pictures instead of a true video. Our poor camera is more worn out than we are, sometimes we can take videos and at other times the camera says; “Not today” It often takes up to three minutes to shut down, we are expecting any day that she will say; “That’s all for me, I’m done.” We are just keeping our fingers crossed that she will make the entire loop with us.
