Stats for Friday, October 12, 2018

Origin:  Alton Marina

Destination:  Kaskaskia Lock Wall

Distance:  85.6 miles

Speed:  12.1 mph

Time on the Move:  7 hours

After a discouraging day the day before, we woke on Friday morning feeling like we needed to get the heck out of there. We did not want to sit in Alton for a week if at all possible. The river was only rising with every day that passed. Without the wind factor, we figured we could keep better control of the boat, and that would help us with navigating the lock safely and avoiding debris.  Laura from Have Another Day texted me at 4 am saying she wished we could just leave.  I responded at 8 am with “Okay-you talked me into it.  We’re outta here!”

 

Of course fast current and massive amounts of debris were still a concern, but we were both feeling like we should try again.

 

Mike called the lock and he said he would put us into the big chamber meant for barges because the little chamber was full of debris and he didn’t have another larger vessel waiting to lock through. That was all mike needed to hear to seal the deal. We made quick prep for leaving—turned on the blower, finished making coffee, unplugged from power and cable, fired up the engines to warm up, mike put contacts in, and we layered up to beat the cold. About 15 minutes later we were nervously pulling lines and backing out of our TEENY TINY slip. We were both anxious to see what the conditions were that day, but we were hopeful that we would feel more comfortable than the day before.

 

We had a bit of a wait to get into that chamber while another tow moved out of it. We took care to stay well away from lock walls and survey the amount of debris. We saw logs, boards, sticks, and whole trees floating everywhere. It quickly became obvious that we could not avoid all the of junk in the water, but instead we had to choose what was the least dangerous path through the debris. I was feeling pretty anxious to get into the chamber and get this lock behind us so we could move past the bad juju from the day before and move on to a new area.

 

 

 

Finally, the lock was empty and we were signaled to enter the lock.  By signaled, I mean the lockmaster called Mike on the radio and asked him if he was ready to “get in there and start taking whoopings like a man.” This is not necessarily the normal way you’re signaled into a lock, but ya take what you can get.  The lockmaster also told us we could just float in the lock which means we wouldn’t actually tie up to the wall, we would just move slowly through the long lock chamber and wait for the doors to open on the other side.  This was a first for us, but we decided to go ahead and just float.  As we were nearing the lock, the current increased significantly and sure enough, it started to turn our boat just like the day before.  Mike decided not to fight the current because there wasn’t a whole lot of space, so he let the boat spin and actually backed us into the lock before turning us the rest of the way around once we were out of the worst of the current.  We literally did a 360 right into the lock.  I was standing in the doorway and watched the lockmaster laughing and shaking his head.  I just shrugged and waved to him.  What can ya do?!  Mike and I have decided 360s should be his signature move every time (but we actually decided not to at every other lock afterwards).

 

Sure enough the rest of the locking went as expected.  But boy oh boy was there debris when we came out!!  Branches and trees and logs everywhere.  They would just build up and form dams on the side of the river, which probably actually helped keep some of them out of the channel.  Poor Mike stayed at the helm for about 6 hours and 59 minutes of our 7 hour trip that day.  Between the rain and the debris, it was a rough day, but we were ecstatic that we made it out of Alton and were headed south.

 

We were not ecstatic about the freezing cold weather and pouring rain.  Apparently the kids weren’t either, because I’m not sure they came upstairs the whole entire day.  Actually, looking back, it might have been about 2 complete travel days that the kids were on their own down in the salon–no mom nagging them to brush teeth or anything.  We needed all adult eyes on the flybridge to search for debris and quickly decide which logs would be the least dangerous to hit.

Usually passing the arch and St. Louis is a bit of a milestone for loopers, but on our day passing through, it just meant more flotsam in the water and a dramatic increase in commercial traffic and barges just anchored all over the river.  Thank goodness for AIS–it helped greatly to see who was moving and which direction they were going.

 

After what seemed like forever, we finally reached the Kaskaskia River where we turned upstream and tied to the lock wall.  Three other looper boats were already tied up on the wall, and they all came out to catch our lines and help us get set up on the wall.  I can’t even tell you the feeling of comfort and security that came with tying up on that wall.  It was such a relief to have a big chunk of the Mississippi behind us, to be able to do something else than scour the river for logs, and to know we were safe and sound.

It was still rainy and freezing.  I can’t even remember what we had for dinner, but I was so thrilled to be out of Alton and safely in Kaskaskia that I made brownies for all the boats.  Hayley and I went out in the rain to deliver brownies, and then came back to INNTW to enjoy ours while we watched a family movie.  It was a great way to end a long day.  Early to bed because we knew we would have a repeat of the great river run again the next day.