October 26 - 27, 2009 - Grand Rivers, Kentucky

As the sun came up, the mist rose from our anchorage at Cumberland Towhead Island. We hoisted the hook and were on our way.

As we turned from the Ohio River up into the Cumberland, we looked further up the Ohio to the impressive Smithland Lock and Dam, which was not on our route.

We think this was a Country Club at Smithland, although from what we could see, there weren’t enough homes along the bank to support it.

The Cumberland River is much narrower than the Ohio. We get a close-up view of the banks.

This is an agricultural area, with cattle herds grazing on the hillsides.

And here’s a gravel pit with a huge dump truck, busily moving the gravel to load on barges on the river.

Turkey vultures are patiently waiting for something to die. Their heightened sense of smell attracts them to “eau du dead thing!”

While the quarrying scars the land, this quarry wall is interesting.

Along the riverbank, erosion washes out the sand, and the trees try to hang on.

In the tiny town of Dycusberg, Kentucky on the right descending bank, this little church was the centerpiece.

The only lock we transit on the Cumberland River is the Barkley Lock, which forms the 134 mile-long Lake Barkley. These are named after the 35th Vice President of the United States, Alben W. Barkley. This lock, dam and lake are the responsibility of the US Army Corp of Engineers.

The lock lifts us 56 feet to Lake Barkley, which was formed in the early 1960s when the adjacent dam was constructed on the Cumberland River. That together with the Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee River, impounded the two rivers to form an inland peninsula bordered by Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. This peninsula is called The Land Between the Lakes, and was designated a National Recreation area by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Here are the lock’s double floating bollards, which can be tied to either from an upper or a lower boat deck. As they move up or down with the lock water levels, it simplifies the act of locking through. We appreciate the help!

While the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation area is mostly parkland, there are a few homes around the town of Grand Rivers. Some are most impressive waterfront homes, as this one, others are mobile homes, and others are everything in between. When the dam formed Lake Barkley in the 1960s, entire communities were removed from the lowlands by eminent domain and relocated to higher ground. Grand Rivers is the only surviving Kentucky “between the rivers” community still in existence, though they sacrificed half of their original land for the new lake.

We found the well marked but narrow entrance to our destination, the Green Turtle Marina. This is the area’s premier marina resort and deep-water harbor with 420 slips, condos, restaurants, health club and indoor pool. We did go for a swim here – the pool water was 85 degrees, which felt good after the cool weather and rain we’ve experience.

We got a great slip, and decided to stay two nights because of predicted heavy rains. The marina has courtesy vans, and we check one out to make a drive to Paducah, Kentucky, about 35 minutes away. This town is known for the National Quilt Museum and is home to the American Quilting Association.

We enjoyed our stay here. We dined at Patti’s 1880’s Settlement, a 1970’s era tourist restaurant that can seat 250 diners in numerous over-decorated rooms. The theme now is Christmas, and there wasn’t an inch of wall or ceiling untouched by Patti’s two full-time decorators. They work year-round to execute seasonal themes. But the food was good, with the house specialties a 2-inch thick pork chop, flower-pot bread and mile-high meringue pies. In celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary, we were presented with a mini-cheesecake lit with two candles, and the waitstaff sang “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.”

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CHICAGO UPDATE - October 13, 2009

On October 13th, as we made our way through Chicago heading south, our friends Ron and Linda Watters took these pictures of Monarch from the balcony of their condo. They are located on the 21st floor at Riverbend, right in the heart of downtown.

October 25, 2009 - Cumberland Towhead Island, Kentucky

Dawn came early, breakfast had to wait, as we pulled anchor and headed back into the Mississippi River. Just 43 nautical miles until we turn up the Ohio River.

The sun came out, and the fall colors along the shore were pretty.

This Coast Guard buoy tender was busy with the high water, getting the errant buoys that were off station, back to where they belonged.

The continuing flotsam and lots of logs kept us on our toes.

At Dog Tooth Bend, these campers had set up tents on the left descending bank. They had arrived by kayak, and we hope they were bound downstream!

At Cairo, we did a hard left up the Ohio River. Parked barges were stacked up on both sides of the river for the first few miles. This raft of barges holds scrap metal. Here, as we are going upriver. We have lost our 4-knot boost and now have a 2-knot head current, making it slow going. In the short section of the Ohio River we will transit, we will not be in the state of Ohio, but have Illinois on the right descending bank (our port side) and Kentucky on the left descending bank (our starboard side).

Here, the brand new Olmsted Lock is being constructed. It’s a huge project, with a considerable land-based staging area.

When completed in 2013, this lock will replace two old-style wicket locks that are upstream.

This is one of the wicket locks, and with the high water, the entire dam has been folded down to the riverbed and traffic passes right over it. In the Ohio River, as in the Illinois, these style locks and adjacent dams are common. Their purpose is to keep enough water up the rivers during dry spells to allow unimpeded navigation. So, when there is plenty of water, there is no need for the dam and lock. Then, the dam is lowered, and the lock sometimes isn’t even visible above the water. Buoys keep boaters away from the submerged lock structure.

We passed Fort Massac State (Illinois) Park on the right descending bank.

We enjoy seeing the activity along the riverbanks. Here is a barge in drydock for a refit.

We found a perfect place to anchor inshore of Cumberland Towhead Island and well out of the shipping channel. There were two other boats in this spacious anchorage, one that we had seen in Holland, Michigan weeks ago. Ashore, some Kentuckians were having Sunday evening hayrides on wagons drawn by a pickup and a farm tractor. The sunset was beautiful, and we slept peacefully with a 2-knot current to keep us snug on our anchor.

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October 24, 2009 - Little Diversion River, Missouri

A sunny, beautiful – cool at 44 degrees – morning dawned. We cast off and made our way down the Mississippi. Along the bluff we could see houses high above the raging torrent.

The bluffs on the right descending bank were spectacular.

Along both banks of the river there are hundreds of wingdams or weirs, running perpendicular to the river. These are an attempt to stop what Mother Nature intends for the river. The weirs underwater, at various depths, and are designed to deflect the river current toward the center of the river, to prevent erosion of the river banks and curtail shoaling of the channel. Because the river level has such variation, mariners cannot be sure of the depth of water – if any – over these weirs. So we stayed close to the middle and on the “sail line” recommended on our charts.

Because of the river level being up 10 feet from two days ago, there were lots of logs and flotsam to steer around.

The river has ample navigational marks, and the speed of the current is evident from the “wake” around this stationery navigational buoy. Fern from Hoppies terms this fast current “the river is hot”. We were getting a 4-knot boost, which is about a 50% beneficial push.

Here is the Chester Prison, on the left descending bank. The inmates have rooms with a river view!

This is the American Heritage, a 6 X 4 barge pusher. This large raft of barges made a three-foot wake.

We anchored for the night in the quiet Little Diversion River just up the right descending bank. This is the river that diverts water around the town of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Behind us was Liz and Steve’s Shingebiss, shown here at anchor with a large tug and barges passing safely beyond her stern. This was a fine anchorage, with friends DiDi and Peter anchored upstream of us in Moon Beam. The current was .9 knots, and this kept us nicely taut on our anchor. We all convened for cocktails on Moon Beam prior to switching on our anchor lights and turning in for the night.

October 23, 2009 - Kimmswick, Missouri

After a day of heavy rains at the dock, we were ready to get up and go. Here, we wait with two other boats at the Mel Price Lock, just south of Alton. We had coordinated to go through together, which the lock tenders prefer. But then, six more boats announced they were coming out of the marina, and we had to wait some more. Hurry up and wait!

This is a beautiful 53-foot Selene trawler against the lock wall, whose owners, Peter and DiDi are from Charlottesville, Virginia. They summer in Perry Sound in the Georgian Bay.

The six boats we had waited for were mostly houseboats, which seem like the vessel for the rivers – shallow draft and loads of living space. This houseboat’s captain must be an expert locker, as we could see his rig of two swiveling wheels that easily slid down the lock walls.

We were first out of the lock on the downriver side, just in time to be tossed wildly by a tug, which was testing its wing engine at full throttle while nosed up against the lock cell. Jerry did a good job of fighting the wheel, as the tug’s prop wash tried to suck us in.

Next, the Missouri River entered the Mississippi, completing the “Meeting of the Great Rivers” including the Illinois, which we had left earlier. Further on, the Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t want any boaters to become confused and go over the rapids instead of into the Chain of Rock Canal. This sign just can’t be missed.

The Chain of Rock Lock was our most interesting ever. Once again, we were secured in the lock and waited for about an hour for the laggard houseboats and a sailboat to catch up and get tied in the lock. The wind was up, the houseboats, which have lots of freeboard, became hard to control, and some captains were not as experienced and competent as they should have been. It looked like bumper boats. We held our breath until they finally came to a safe stop – not too close to Monarch – and they tied up for the locking.

As we exited the lock, there were some tugs and barges coming at us, and the pleasure boats were arrayed like little ducks behind us. What a lot of traffic!

Now we pass St. Louis, Missouri, on the right descending bank, with its famous 630 foot-high Gateway Arch. This is the tallest monument in the U.S., and the Mississippi River’s most famous landmark.

The Arch is quite a site along the riverbank, providing a focal point for the city. The banks here are mostly industrial, and there were lots of tugs and barges.

A bit later, the riverbanks became more scenic and forested, with houses high on the bluffs.

Our next stop is Hoppies Marine Services, where we met the proprietor Fern along with her husband, Charles Hopkins. Their business on the river was started in the 1930s by his grandfather. The Hopkins men also worked on the river as navigational marker lamplighters for years, long before powered lights were installed. Fern told us the lights needed to be refueled with kerosene every 48 hours, which kept them very busy. Charles may be the last living Mississippi River lamplighter.

The “dock” is made up of single barges laid end-to-end, parallel with the shore, and connected to it by a catwalk with wheels on the shore side. The wheels roll up and down a cement launch ramp, as the water rises or recedes.

This is a rough and ready operation. There were about 20 boats at this “dock” all tied nice and snug with our bows into the 3-knot current of the Mississippi River.

Hoppies is at the town of Kimmswick, Missouri, which is on the right descending bank. This small town was celebrating Apple Butter Festival this weekend. We didn’t stay for it, but the flock of houseboats out of Port of St. Charles, Missouri (about 60 miles north) had made their annual trek especially for the weekend festival. They had their golf carts trucked down, just so they could run around town, and had them on the “dock” as well!

The “dock” had power, water and restrooms, but no showers.

Fern is a lifelong boater and renown for her knowledge of this section of the Mississippi River. She holds daily chart briefings for the boaters, which we were delighted to attend.

Our new friends DiDi and Peter also sat in on the briefing. We all took copious notes and asked questions, which Fern was pleased to answer. With her valuable local knowledge, we now feel we know what may be around the next bend! We invited DiDi and Peter, and Liz and Steve (from the Mainship Shingebiss out of Newport, Minnesota) for drinks on Monarch this evening, and to discuss our voyages so far and yet to come.

As noted, the last couple days produced a lot of rain. In fact, the area has had record rain so far this month. As the Mississippi River centers a huge watershed, there are predictions for the river to rise five feet overnight.

And the next morning, here’s the same shoreline, with the predicted five feet of water evident! We can expect more current in our favor as we continue down the Mississippi River, but also more flotsam, trees, stumps and junk!

Here is where Hoppies is located -

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