The End of the Rivers

We snaked our way along in and out of Mississippi and Alabama. One morning we left anchor and after traveling close to five miles realized we were less than a mile (as the crow flys) from where we left. The scenery was beautiful and wildlife still in abundance. We were fortunate enough to see a coyote getting a drink at the side of the river, a eagle regally sitting in a tree observing us, raccoons, armadillos and tons of turtles. Expecting some mail, we stayed in the marina at Demopolis, AL. It was a good chance to reprovision and just relax. Two of our three packages arrived, but the third got delayed, so after four days we decided to leave and have it forwarded to Naples. From Demopolis to Mobile was a fairly long stretch with nothing but a little “fish camp” in between to stop at. We were able to find several very nice spots to anchor and enjoyed the solitude. One night we were all tucked in to a little bayou and about 1 a.m. a tugboat shown his search light on us. He was planning on bringing a barge in and spending the night. We were glad he could see us and moved on.

As we approached Mobile, I got excited seeing brown pelicans, smelling salt water, even the sight of palmetto bushes were pleasantly familiar. The entrance into Mobile Bay was extremely busy with commercial traffic, very big container ships and tugs with barges. Clay enjoyed pointing out all the different types of ships and their uses to me. I was at the helm and just wanted to concentrate on staying out of their way! We have spent several days here in Mobile getting our mast put back up. The Mobile Yacht Club allowed us to use their jin-pole which made it interesting, but we were able to do it ourselves with the help of two other loopers. The next day we helped one of those loopers step his mast using the same idea, just a different type of mast.

We are heading out this morning across Mobile Bay into the intra-coastal waterway again. We should get into Florida but this afternoon. How exciting!
Until next time….

We've made it already to Columbus, Mississippi. Our plans changed to go up the Tennessee to Chattanooga. We made it as far as Florence where we rented a car and went to visit Shiloh Battlefield. We really enjoyed the history lesson and found out that a lot of people in the South still have bad feelings towards the "Yankees". When people ask where we are from Clay likes to say he's a Connecticut Yankee. I had to ask him to please not say that until we are out of the area, because we were getting some nasty looks!

The lock above Florence had been damaged by a barge and was operating auxillary lock, of course giving preference to commercial traffic, so the back log was pretty heavy. We decided at that point that we would go ahead and start heading for the Tenn-Tom and start heading South. Another factor was that the nights were starting to get pretty cold and we wanted to get to warmer weather. One morning the temp outside was 38 and inside the boat was 42 degrees. Burr!

Tennessee and Tenn-Tom go through some beautiful country. To add to ambiance, the leaves are changing and providing a splendid palate of color. We have enjoyed a number of quiet anchorages and keep a look out for the local wildlife, mostly deer, raccoon and coyote. One night a pack of coyote woke us up and had our hearts racing. They sounded like a bunch of screaming babies, we were glad we weren't camping in a tent.

We've said goodbye to a couple of boats we've been cruising on and off with. They had to delay their trip due to family health problems, but hopefully will pick up the trip again in January. We've met some great people along the way and hope to stay in contact long after we’ve completed the loop.

We're waiting for the lock at John Stennis Lock and Dam (probably about an hour) and then we're off again, headed South.

St. Louis



Wow 10.5!


Cocktails at Kaskaskia Lock wall

Early morning on the Mississippi

Going over "wickets" - turbulent

Orion after taking a swim




The Mississippi is justly named the "Big Muddy". It's big with a lot of commercial traffic. Clay was a little disappointed in the current - he had hoped for a bigger push as we went down river. I'm not sure what he expected, but we did get a nice ride which lowered our fuel consumption. At one point where the river narrowed, we actually got up to 10.5 knots! The river is definiately an industrial one - not many places for "pleasure craft" to dock. The places that are available are nothing more than old barges with very minimal services. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the adventure. We traveled in a convoy of several boats and after our days travels, we would join together for cocktails and stories of our adventures.

St. Louis was a fun stop - the Arch and museum were impressive. Our next stop was a "marina" called Hoppies, again it was nothing more than several barges on the side of the river. They did have fuel and water, but nothing else. We took our bikes and went to shore with two other couples to explore the little town of Kimmswick, MO. It was like stepping back in time with old log cabins, but boy did they have a really good restaurant! From Hoppies we meandered down stream to the Kaskaskia Lock. The Kaskaskia River meets the Mississippi and goes up to Fayetteville. It was an excellent place to tie up to for the night and it was very protected thank goodness because the storms that were predicted did come. We gathered for our usual 5:00 pm cocktail hour on the lock wall as the skies were turning gray. In the distance we could here the local town's weather alert sirene going off. We gathered around the weather satellite monitor and watched the storms moving around us with tornado warnings. Once again, the good Lord is watching our for us, we got nothing more than hard rain. In the morning we listened to the local news and more than 120 homes in the area had been damaged by the storm. Whew! We had one more stop on the Mighty Mississippi at another barge. It was very high and we had to climb on and off the boat on our bellies. We gathered with the group and planned our attack for the Ohio River. With all the recent rains, the reports are that the river is up and there is a lot of debris. Bright and early the convoy shoved off. We made the turn upstream onto the Ohio at about 12:00 noon. The knot meter quickly went from about 8 knots down to 3.2. The debris field was unbelieveable. Being the slower boat, we were at the end of the convoy. Clay quickly decided he had to get out of the current, so we went to the RDB (right descending bank), the sail line was on the LDB (left descending bank). We were out of the "marked" channel but we still had 20 feet of water. We were able to gain 1-1.5 knots and quickly took the lead of the convoy. It wasn't too long and the other boats lined up behind Clay to get out of the current. The river was up so the first lock had lowered the "wickets" and we could just pass through. It was quite turbulent, but the catarmaran handled it beautifully. We found a little pool to anchor in for the night. In the morning we took for, anxious to get off the Ohio with her current and terrible debris. By 1:00 p.m. we were on the Tennesssee and you could hear everyone take a long sigh of relief to be in calmer waters. After a short ride, we went through the Kentucky Dam and found a nice anchorage, went for a swim and slept soundly.

After a great night at anchor, we went in to Green Turtle Marina to reprovision and relax. It was a great marina in a beautiful area. They provided a courtesy van, so we took it and went into Paducah to a Super Walmart. While we were there we stopped in to Home Depot next door and purchased some wood so Clay could put in some shelves in one of the lockers for me (always finding something for him to do). We went in to town with 7 other couples and had a wonderful dinner at Patti's 1880 Settlement Restaurant. Their claim to fame is a 2" porkchop - with the doggy bag we had two meals from. The marina had a deal for Loopers - three nights and get one free - who could refuse? It was a good spot to regroup and reengergize.

We left Green Turtle and have just gone from anchorage to anchorage, slowly working our way down the Tennessee. We are currently at Pebble Creek marina - already getting supplies. Our plan is to have no plan, but the general consensus at this point is to head up the Tennessee at Pickwick instead of heading into the Tenn-Tom and explore that area. We've been told that it's just beautiful. We'll update again when we get internet access. We miss everyone but we're having a wonderful time!