We left the marina and locked right through that morning heading down river. This time we cruised fast thru what we had already seen and slowed down around the islands and scenic area. We decided on a nice cove area between two islands on Watts Bar Lak…
Celebrating Birthdays: Kodi Turns Seven
Kodi turned seven on Monday, October 6. Kodi on her 7th birthday (56 pounds)Her birthday celebration started on October 5 when we were celebrating my sister, Myrna’s, birthday. After a lovely brunch at Atlantica in Cohasset, the birthday party consisti…
Day 270…National Bathtub Day
Welcome to day 270 of 365 photos…yep! it is really National Bathtub Day. This is a good thing because I was feeling under the weather today and didn’t go anywhere. I viewed daysoftheyear.com, the self-proclaimed resource for worldwide events, festivals, funny, weird and wonderful “Days Of The Year”. National Bathtub Day worked for me – […]
The post Day 270…National Bathtub Day appeared first on Moosetique Musing.
Fort Loudon marina before Lock and dam down river
On our way back through the Tellico River to to Tennessee we saw the Master craft factory and some wake boarders.
Pulled into Fort Loudon marina to refuel and stay for one night to catch the locks early in AM. They have a courtesy van that we used to g…
Fort Loudon marina before Lock and dam down river
Pulled into Fort Loudon marina to refuel and stay for one night to catch the locks early in AM. They have a courtesy van that we used to go to store and I did laundry again:/
Port #26: The BIG BANG !!!!
Great Loop II Date: 9/25/2014
Day # 56 (Thursday): 110 miles (1520 total miles)
Locks: 0 (10 total locks)
Port #26: Cape Girardeau, MO
UnTide, Infinite Sea and Ocean Breeze all elected an early morning departure so we could have plenty of daylight to get to our first anchorage, Little Diversion River south of Cape Girardeau, MO.. Untide lead the pack of three. OB took the middle of the grouping and Infinite Sea pulled up the rear. Untide traveled a few MPH faster. They were still in VHF radio range however OB and Infinite Sea were staying together and well behind at about the same speed.
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| A beautiful sunrise on a calm and cloudless morning. |
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| We saw many eddies and swirls from the weir dams under the water. |
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| Limestone outcroppings were more frequent. The eddies and swirls continued from the weir dams. Some caused big whirlpools in the water that we had to avoid. |
The day unfolded perfectly with sunny skies and no fog. We still had quite a few oncoming tows to navigate around. We were having a fine time, dodging some logs along the way, working our passes out with the tow captains and keeping our distance from the ever present swirling waters moving over the weir dams. Although the Mississippi had just receded from flood stage, it quickly went back to below normal pool. We had not noticed it being low water, but the tow captains had mentioned it in their conversations.
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| Debris left behind from the earlier flooding. Look closely…there’s a red nun buoy on the left and a green can buoy on the right in the middle of the debris! |
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| We passed this huge quarrying operation. Notice the water… |
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| Todd was worried one of these machines might fall from the precipice of the quarry. |
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| Loading limestone into the barges. |
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| Tow ready and waiting for loaded barges to be readied for transport. |
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| More limestone outcroppings. |
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| The Kaskaskia River Lock and Dam. Some Loopers opt to stay here tied off the lock wall. |
We passed by Chester, IL, the birthplace of Popeye. Stephanie (Infinite Sea) and I had communicated about taking pictures of the sign that stated that fact. I also took pictures of a large lighted marker anchored to a tug that had sunk outside of the channel earlier in the month.
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| The Queen of the Mississippi docked at Chester, IL. |
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| Chester, IL. claims to be the birthplace of Popeye. The Chester Yacht Club proudly advertises it on the side of their club house…’Popeye City’. |
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| More barge traffic as the navigatable part of the river narrows below Chester. |
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| Marker for the sunken tow boat. |
In the meantime, Todd had communicated with the tow captain of a large approaching barge unit. After Todd positioned OB to pass the barge, a large log presented itself right in our path so Todd moved OB a little more to starboard. BANG !!!! Todd instantly and instinctively tried to move OB off the water covered weir dam. OB shuttered in anger!
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| Click on the picture to see the weirs in the middle of the river better. |
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| This is the actual track from our Navionics. It’s easy to see where we hit the weir dam and how we narrowly missed the next two as we moved back into the navigatable part of the river. Stranger yet, I looked at our log from our 2010 Loop…we hit a log just 5 miles before this point that caused prop damage. Too much of a coincidence! |
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| This is a picture of a chevron weir dam like the one we hit…only the one we hit was submerged and supposed to be one we could travel over. |
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| These are wing dams. Weirs are also built like these only they are under water and come from the shore into the river. Gravel lining the shoreline is a hint there are weir dams coming from the shoreline. |
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| Another hint is the way the water looks. The water where we were looked like th water on the left…there just wasn’t enough water. |
Todd put OB in neutral and instantly went back to check to see if we were taking on water. The earth and time stopped for those moments. I had pictures of us sinking to the bottom like the tug we’d seen marked a few miles back. Todd called back to me in the bridge and had me maneuver OB first in forward then reverse, one engine at the time. Then he had me turn the rudder starboard (right) and port (left). No water was coming in, both shafts were turning without vibration and the rudder stems seemed fine.
As all this unfolded, we had communicated with Infinite Sea what was happening as they passed us. They waited ahead. A tow at the coal dock we had just passed also called to offer help. We were so thankful for all who watched and worried as we flounder for those moments.
Todd called the approaching barge that was nearly beside us letting the captain know we were sitting in place until he passed. Next was to test OB’s ability to move. OB was sitting between two weir dams as Todd carefully maneuvered OB to the sailing line (deep water and the boating channel). OB maneuvered well.
Next was to bring OB slowly up to the 900 RPM we’d been running to see how she responded. There was some vibration but nothing really bad. We breathed a sigh of relief. We knew we had prop damage and hoped our rudders, shafts, struts and cutlass bearings (everything aft of the engines that make OB move and turn) were okay.
The rest of the day was somewhat of a blur as we worried about what we couldn’t see (the underside of the boat). Our next test was to turn into the Mighty Mississippi’s current to get into our anchorage for the night. Todd had to increase the RPMs to 1200 to 1500. There was a little more vibration but much less than we expected.
We had followed Infinite Sea for the entire trip. They were in constant contact. Once anchored, Stephanie and Paul came back to OB on their dinghy and spent a pleasant evening with us on the bridge. It gave us time to thank them for staying with us even after we knew OB was manageable and was good for navigation.
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| A mural wall at Cape Girardeau, MO. |
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| Looking downstream at the Mighty Prop Eating Mississippi River behind us. |
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| Looking upstream in the Little Diversion Canal with Infinite Sea, UnTide, Canadian Flyer and a sailboat in front of us. |
The night was peaceful. Little Diversion Canal was our anchorage during Loop #1. It is a place where the boat never moves and we went to sleep listening to crickets and tree frogs.
What follows was taken from public blogs as well as from the Army Corps of Engineers who put in and manage the weir dams in the Mississippi. By all rights we should have been able to move over the weir dam without hitting it. Once out of the water, we found if there had been as little as 2 to 6 more inches of water we’d have passed unscathed.
The Mississippi River is perhaps the U.S’s most visible and enduring example of an altered river. Where the Upper Mississippi River was once free flowing with islands, backwaters, and wide floodplains to support diverse fish and wildlife, it is now a series of pools, created by an extensive lock and dam system. The Mississippi’s conversion to a “working river” that can support barge transportation was achieved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) extensive work to manipulate and harness the river’s natural flow, functions and features.
In addition to the 29 locks and dams on the River, the Corps maintains a 9 foot deep navigation channel on the river using “river training structures” like chevrons, wing dikes, and bendway weirs. These structures are placed in the river to help the river self- scour and reduce the need for dredging. Between 1980 and 2009, the Corps built at least 380 new river training structures in the Middle Mississippi, including 40,000 feet of wing dikes and bendway weirs between 1990 and 1993. The Corps built at least twenty-three chevrons between 2003 and 2010. (That’s what we hit…see the picture below of our actual track taken from our Navionics).
The Corps frequently argues that these new structures are more cost effective and create a more diverse stream bed, which can be environmentally beneficial. However, the Corps’ St. Louis District office has not documented any adverse or beneficial impacts, relying on mostly models and a handful of surveys that do not fully support the Districts’ claims that these structures are eco-friendly. Despite the addition of so many new structures to the river, the Corps has not updated their environmental impact statement since 1976.
Even more concerning for many riverside communities along the Mississippi River are concerns that adding these structures to the river bottom is significantly increasing flood levels. At least 51 peer-reviewed scientific studies demonstrate that river training structures are significantly increasing the risks of floods for riverside communities. These structures have increased flood levels by up to 15 feet in some locations and 10 feet in broad stretches of the river where these structures are prevalent. Despite the evidence of increasing flood risk, the Corps denies the validity of these claims. (http://www.americanrivers.org/blog/flood-risk-rising-mississippi-river/)
Weirs:
A weir is like a dam that is designed to be topped. That is to say, it’s a structure that’s built under the surface of the river’s water to change the flow characteristics of the water. Bendway weirs are a popular concept for reducing the erosion and meandering problems noted above. Weirs angled upstream appear to cut down on the amount of erosion on the outer bank of the river by minimizing the secondary currents of the river spinning outward. (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/what-weve-done-to-the-mississippi-river-an-explainer/239058/2/)
The hydraulic effects of the weirs reduce erosion on the outer bank of the bend by reducing flow velocities near the outer bank, reducing the concentration of currents on the outer bank of the bend, and producing a better current alignment through the bend and downstream crossing. In addition, the Bendway Weir is able to solve many stream alignment problems while simultaneously improving aquatic and stream corridor habitat
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Navigable River Weirs:
In a navigable river a Bendway Weir is a rock sill (5,000 pound maximum weight stone) located in the navigation channel of a bend, usually angled 20 to 30 degrees upstream (into flow), spaced from 400 to 1,400 ft apart, varying in length from 400 to 1,600 ft, and level-crested at an elevation low enough to allow normal river traffic to pass over unimpeded. The weir should be high and long enough to intercept a large percentage of flow at the river cross-section where the weir is located. Weirs are typically built in sets (4 to 14 weirs per bend) and are designed to act as a system to control velocities and current directions through the bend and well into the downstream crossing. (http://chl.erdc.usace.army.mil/chl.aspx?p=s&a=ARTICLES;109)
She’s Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No pictures yet, but soon.So despite my vigil at the laptop glued to the screen and toggling back and forth between the vessel finder and port everglades webcam links, I did not see my girl enter the waterway. I had to give up at midnight, when I…
10/3/2014 to 10/7/2014 – Friday to Tuesday – Biloxi waiting for a weather window
After the front blew through on Friday, my mother decided to drive down to see us. It was a little scary because we had to help her on and off the boat so that she did not fall between the dock and boat. The marinas around here are not floa…
Moline to Moline and beyond
We’re Baaaaaackkkkk. Literally. Left you as we left the Quad Cities, heading for the Twin Cities, and we now have been to Minneapolis/St. Paul and back. The River is an 853 mile long dead end, and the only way out is the way we came in.
To recap, Bombfire Pizza in Sabula, IA was a hoot. Great pizza, and owner Tom picked us up at the Marina—-in his truck, not in his ’60’s VW bus. After we’d eaten our pizza and enjoyed the piano players—hired and impromptu, Tom had disappeared, so another patron returned us to the Marina in Tom’s truck. The keys were in it—“I sold it to him, guess I can drive it!”, said he. Small town America!
Both boats, CAROLYN ANN and YOUNG AMERICA were able to find dockage at marinas every night but one. And that day we simply moved out of the channel and dropped our anchors into the stickiest mud we’ve seen in many moons. Watched the tow boats pass at a respectable distance and felt safe and secure.
As we approached St. Paul, our Looper pals Liz and Steve Kemper came out onto their waterfront to wave and take pictures. Big lifesyle change going on with them! Their house is rented, emptied, and the van is packed, ready for them to move south and become full time live-aboards. Their boat, SHINGABISS, awaits them in Florida, and we were happy to arrive in St. Paul in time to spend a fun evening with them.
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| almost twins, steaming up the Upper! |
We docked at Watergate Marina in St. Paul. For Punk and Joe, it was a base for sightseeing. For us, a place to leave the boat. We flew to NY on Sept. 2. This time we were happy to be able to support daughter Ada as she prepared for and celebrated the grand opening of her dream—-Salon Lucere! A couple of spots of rain did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm. About 100 folks from in and around Chester, NY gathered under a tent for the official ribbon cutting, and then were treated to ‘runway walks’ by 4 models from New York whose hair had been ‘done’ by Ada’s staff in the newest Fashion Week styles. Food and drink were great, and tours showed off the fabulous job Ada has done of co-ordinating the renovation of the building with rentals to two related services upstairs! Congrats, Ada, we’re proud of you, and happy that our granddaughter, Devyn is a part of the staff!
www.salonlucere.com Let your hair shine!
Next stop, Washington, DC for 5 days of US Power Squadron National meeting, coupled with spending time with daughter Jen and Christopher, who live in Burke, VA.
Back to NY for Dr. visits (Fred’s melanoma site is clean and he got an
A+ from MemSKCaCen in New York.) and back to the boat!
Had a fun afternoon at Target Stadium watching a Twins’ Game. We totally missed the end of the Yankees season, and the retirement of the Captain. Sigh. Derek is definitely one of the good guys!
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| 3 Nurses from the Swedish Hospital Sch. of Nsg. Way back when! |
Jane and June, two of my nurses’ training buddies who live in the Twin Cities, came for lunch on Monday, and then we tossed the lines and motored over to the Bohemian Flats where we tied up on the Excursion dock and had dinner with Captain Dave. We opted not to go thru the Upper and Lower St. Anthony Falls Locks—we’ll rely on our run to the end of navigation last year for the memories.
Federal legislation has mandated the closing of the Upper Falls Lock at the end of this season. The rationale behind the closure is to stop the spread of our old ‘friends’ the Invasive Carp (no longer called ‘Asian’ as they were when we encountered them in the IL River on our 2009 Great Loop trip.)
For an interesting (to me, at least) article about the situation, you can go to: http://www.minnpost.com/environment/2014/06/downtown-minneapolis-lock-closure-means-portages-whitewater-park-still-possible
Our longest stop on the way south was again in Moline. My brother Gene’s daughter and son-in-law, Sandi and Lou, brought Gene and ‘Frank’s Pizza’ to the Marina on Saturday the 27th of Sept. It was 90 degrees on the back deck, but on the bow of the boat we found shade and a lovely breeze, so we had our pizza party there.
The next day, my sister Betty, her husband Gene and their dog, Daisy (recuperating from shoulder surgery) drove in from So. Dak. It was the first time we three sibs could recall just hanging out together as adults—-with no excuse (such as wedding or funeral) for a get together. We’ve always been a very close family, said she with tongue in cheek.
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| For sure Norwegians! |
We took an extra day in Moline to have a doctor remove what my mom would have called a ‘hurt bump’ from my right elbow. OK, not quite the same… if I didn’t behave, she would offer to “put hurt bumps on your head faster than you could rub them!” But this bump did hurt, and I’m glad it is gone!
“Keep ‘er coming Cap—we’ll have it ready for you!” 23 out of 27 times these were the wonderful words we heard from lock masters as we called to say we were approaching a lock as we moseyed down the River. A pretty amazing record! There has been a LOT of rain in the past few weeks, and the extra water ends up in the river. So locking was also speeded by the fact that the water is again so high (crested at 20 feet above normal here at St. Louis today) that the lock drop might be 2 feet instead of 10, or 5 instead of 28. As the river level rises the debris on the shores gets picked up, and pushed downstream. Weaving through logs, manny the size of telephone poles, as well as assorted branches and trunks is challenging and tiring. We;re told that the water level will drop 2-3 feet per day for the next 5 or 6 days, and the flotsam will return to the banks.
But the current is great! We were going 12+ mph today! Whiplash!
The Mississippi is like no other river we’ve cruised. It definitely has a personality all its’ own, and we have thoroughly enjoyed making it’s acquaintance. Twice.
Tomorrow we’ll race through the minefield as we get pushed down the ‘goofy 200’ at high speed.
Onward and upward……….we’ll be back soon. Do remember to breathe!
Tellico marina and outrunning storm
We had looked at the radar and watching storms that were moving in and decided to go into a marina for the night. We pulled anchor and started heading to Tellico marina and just as we were entering their channel all hell broke loose. A nice guy on hous…
