Great Loop Overall Statistics to date:
Statute Miles: 4094.9
Average Miles/Day: 48.7
Total Hours Underway: 545.5
Average speed (mph): 7.5
States Transited: 16
Total Days: 182
Travel Days: 84
Locks: 53
Fuel Purchased: 1102.5
Miles / Gallon: 3.5
Nights at Extra Days
Marinas: 48 88
Anchor: 24 6
City dock: 4 1
Free Wall: 9 4
Mooring: 0 0
Travel Day 80 - Leaving Alton
A buddy-boat coordinated the very early (0615) departure of a number of boats, about 9 or 10, from the marina so that we could all arrive at Mel Price lock at the same time and not hold up any commercial traffic. We arrived and were able to go right into the lock and were out by 0700. The ride down in the huge lock was very fast. We arrived at the second lock of the day at 0830 and had to wait a short time for a passenger riverboat to finish locking through. This was the first lock that we were instructed to "float free" while the lock was drained - as opposed to being tied to one of the walls. The lock was so large, it was not a problem for all of the (relatively) small boats inside. Once out of the lock all of the boats slowed past the St. Louis Arch for some photos of each other. We arrived after a long travel day at Kaskaskia Lock, which we would not go through, but allowed boats to tie up to the outside wall for the night. After all the other boats were in, we attempted to tie up to the last spot available on the wall, but we quickly ran aground in the silt which had built up there. We were able to back off and instead set the anchor out near the mouth of the Kaskaskia River entrance.
Travel Day 81 - Leaving Kaskaskia River
We were the second of 14 boats to leave the Kaskaskia River at 0630. It was quite foggy in the early part of the river as the temperature had dropped overnight into the 50's. Radar on, sharp watch. Water has powerful eddies created by "wing dams" which extend underneath the surface out from shore. These dams are created to slow the erosion on the edges of the river. The eddies spin the boat first one way and then the other as we pass through/by. Some barge traffic and VHF radio communication for instructions on passing on one side or the other along the curves in the river. After learning of a potential explosive demolition river closure near Olmstead Lock (removing the old lock 53), we began contemplating, with our buddy boat, doing a longer day today to get partway up the Ohio River to anchor. This would put us closer to the demolition area that normally began at 10:00AM and we could get through before it started. We fought a bit of the Ohio River current (3 knots) for the last two hours of the day and anchored at mile marker 973 behind a barge near the shore. We earlier had found out that the demolition blasting was not going to going on the next day anyway but decided to press on closer to the lock anyway. It was a tiring, record distance day for us - 111 nautical miles.
Travel Day 82 - Leaving Mile Marker 973 anchorage on the Ohio River
We hauled anchor at first light and had a buddy boat traveling with us the entire day. The new Olmstead lock, which replaced locks 52 and 53 on the Ohio River had their wickets (gates) down so there was no need to “lock though”. We saw 2-3 knots of foul current nearly the whole day on the river and our average speed was only 4.5-5 knots for the day. A few barges and a container ship made for interesting radio conversation. Other than fighting the current, it was an uneventful day. We learned that we were able to gain about 1/2 knot of boat speed by traveling just out at the edge of the main channel of deep water. The bulk of the volume of water (and thus the current) travels down the middle of the river and there is less current over at the edge of main flow. The penalty, however, is nearly all manual steering and a close watch for partially submerged trees, etc. that line the shore.
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Great Loop Travel Days (GLTD):
080: Kaskaskia IL from Alton IL
081: mm 973 Ohio River KY from Kaskaskia IL
082: Paducah KY from mm 973 Ohio River KY
Map of our Overall Great Loop travel:
GLTD080 Kaskaskia IL (from Alton IL): Nine looper boats started communicating at 5:30 AM for a coordinated marina departure at 6:15, to transit 2 locks before passing St. Louis. One of the boats, mv Subject to Change, volunteered to be the single point of contact with the locks.
This photo shows the 4 boats behind us as we left Alton.
🔺 Great Loop Milestone: We are starting a new inland river, the Mighty Mississippi!
🔷 Boater Tip: It is helpful to have 2 VHF radios. One VHF should be kept on channel 16 – the standard hailing & distress channel. It can be temporarily switched to “working” channels to hail bridges, locks, or tows, or to listen to US Coast Guard information broadcasts, or temporarily switched to “non-working” channels to communicate with other boaters.
When travelling in a coordinated fleet, as we were, the fleet can designate a non-working channel for fleet communication.
One of the VHFs can be a handheld VHF that can also serve as your dinghy VHF and/or be stored in your emergency ditch bag.
If you have a second VHF, you can leave it on another channel appropriate for your travel area – bridges, tows, etc.
Alternatively, most new VHF radios have a “scan” feature which allows monitoring of several channels (that you select) at once.
🔷 Boater Tip: VHF communication is an essential navigation and safety element. If you are travelling in a boat where the mast is lowered for transit of the inland rivers, consider options for temporarily raising the antenna in another manner so that your VHF will transmit and receive for a few miles.
⏱ Lock Delay: ~15 min: Thanks to the coordinated fleet communications, the lock was ready for our “fleet” and we went straight through the Mel Price lock for a speedy 23-ft down-lock.
Bollards were "screaming". Listen here:
As we exited, the sun was rising above the fog. I got some pictures of almost all of the fleet.
🔷 Boater Tip: AGLCA membership and website are helpful tools for loopers.
I have used to member directory numerous times to look up email addresses of fellow loopers in order to send them photos of their boats.
Hint: Most loopers enjoy getting a photo of their boat underway. Loopers who get, from you, great photos of their boat, will usually look for your boat in the future and return the favor. 😊
Thanks to mv Slo Pace for this great photo of SCOUT in the Mel Price lock. 😊
⏱ Lock Delay: ~25 min: Before arriving to the 2nd lock, Chain of Rocks (12-ft down-lock), our fleet “Admiral” was advised that dredging was in progress, but they would try to get us in.
After arriving to the lock entrance, the riverboat American Countess was leaving, heading north.
You can see in the photo, that Mel Price lock has twin chambers. The riverboat is exiting from the LDB chamber, and our fleet is lining up outside the RDB chamber.
🔷 Boater Tip: What is LDB and RBD? There is common inland river terminology, and many of the looper guide books, as well as the tow captains, will use them. One set of terms is “LDB” and “RDB”.
River banks are referenced based on their downstream direction: “Left Descending Bank” and “Right Descending Bank.” Ref: https://www.uscgboating.org/images/486.PDF
For this Chain of Rocks lock, we were advised to ‘free-float’ in the chamber since bollards are not very good -- a first for us. We needed to control our position with the engines during the process. Luckily, there were no “bumper boats”, and we all made it out without incident.
By mid-morning, we arrived at the St. Louis Arch. Here, the fleet of loopers made sure everyone’s boat was photographed at the Arch by slowing and circling around in the river. This photo of SCOUT was taken by mv Freedom. NOTE: The thumbnail photo (at top) was taken by mv Subject to Change.
We also got the obligatory selfies.
Ray captured an amazing photo of migrating pelicans!
“Kennett’s Castle” was built in 1854 by Ferdinand Kennett, a Mississippi River steamboat operator. Selma Hall, its formal name, patterned after North Italian Renaissance country houses. was occupied by the Kennett family until the Civil War time, when the castle was frequently fired upon from boats on the Mississippi [and] the family fled to St. Louis for safety. The limestone structure [and surrounding 2,300 acres] has been owned by the Union Pacific Railroad and its predecessor companies since 1953. In 2020, Cushman and Wakefield of St. Louis listed the entire property, including the golf course, for $24,750,000.
We arrived at the Kaskaskia Lock entrance channel mid-afternoon and radioed the lock to request permission to tie up to the wall. Permission was granted.
Our original plan was to raft to mv Subject to Change at the last open space on the lock wall, but they touched bottom. Our Plan B failed when SCOUT touched bottom at another spot just forward of them on the wall.
⚓Anchored. We were able to motor forward off of the silty bottom and ended up anchoring at the mouth of the river inlet. By evening, when another looper joined us at anchor, there were 14 boats tied up or anchored here. Ray flew the drone for an aerial photo confirmation.
2 pairs of boats were rafted to each other on the wall, and another pair was rafted together at anchor in front of SCOUT.
It was now obvious, the loopers were getting bunched up in this part of the river where stops are fewer and farther between; so, during docktails, the group gathered information about downstream anchorages from other loopers and discussed intended stops for this group the next night.
None of the boats at anchor dinghied over for docktails, but the “fleet” communicated with us on the designated VHF channel, so everyone had a general idea of other boats’ plans the next day.
The anchorage was quiet, and we had no issues with depth or anchor holding that night.
🔷 Boater Tip: The Facebook group “The Great Loop”, managed by AGLCA, is a great resource for getting “real-time” updates from “current” loopers. Several of these loopers posted updates to Facebook, which were much appreciated by the boats coming along behind us.
Interesting Fact: About a week after we tried to tie up to the shallow spot on the wall, the Corps of Engineers announced a temporary closure of the wall for dredging. I’m not sure if that dredging was pre-planned or if the assessment was the result of our “groundings”. Again, this information was shared by loopers on Facebook.
GLTD081 mm 973 Ohio River KY (from Kaskaskia IL): SCOUT left the Kaskaskia anchorage around 6:30 am, anticipating a long day. It was cold -- 55 degrees, 10 mph wind, 94% humidity. For a while, fog provided great photo opportunities.
📞 Future stay marina planning: I had to pause marina planning for a while when we lost Verizon cell service – approximately between Murphysboro & Brazeau.
At one point, Ray commented, "These wing dams make the water do weird stuff." Skipper Bob noted the area is very turbulent due to the bend-weir dams and advised "avoid meeting a tow in this area.”
Ooops! Ray hailed the tow who advised to pass on the "1". (Luckily, it was a "tiny" tow -- only 2x3 barges 😊). You can see how skinny the channel is over on the far side of the green cans (marking the RDB side of the channel).
Immediately behind the 1st tow, was a 2nd tow (2x2)! I think there was even more turbulence than normal --with the wakes from 2 tows. Or, maybe it’s always this turbulent. 👀
🔷 Boater Tip: On the Mississippi River, tow captains seem to consistently refer to recreational vessels as Pleasure Craft (PC) or Recreational Vessel (RV).
Then, Ray noticed we had passed over a 78-foot hole. That must be why there were whitecaps and we raced to 10.7 knots briefly!
📞 Future stay marina planning: We finally had 2 bars of Verizon cell service, and I was able to connect for soft reservations @ Green Turtle Bay (KY) and Paris Landing State Park (TN).
🔺 Milestone: Fastest clocked speed: 11.8 kts (13.6 mph), as we rounded Tower Rock Natural Area, Frohna MO. The river narrows here and forces the water to flow through at a higher rate.
Eddies and whirlpools on the bends of the Mississippi make for a wild ride! Next we made a left turn at the junction, and headed up the Ohio River.
Decision Time: Early afternoon, after learning of a potential Army Corps of Engineers closure of the river the next day near Olmstead Lock, we began contemplating, with our buddy boat, a longer day today to get partway up the Ohio River to anchor. We had originally planned to anchor at Angelo Towhead (near the turn onto the Ohio River).
We expect about 3 kts foul current once we turn to travel north up the Ohio River, and we had planned to get all the way up to Paducah KY the next day, which is just before the intersection of three rivers -- the Ohio, the Cumberland and the Tennessee Rivers.
Our buddy boat used Nebo to find and communicate with loopers about potential anchorages for us.
🔷 Boater Tip: Nebo is another helpful looper resource. Nebo is a boat logging app that makes it easy to record and share your boating memories and experiences. Ref: https://nebo.global/
Many loopers, like us, use it primarily for looper boat tracking and communication. When travelling the loop, it is often great to have first-hand, recent knowledge of a troublesome area: lock delays, bridge outages, shallow water, or full anchorages, to name a few. This can be a way to message someone you see in an area of interest.
Decision Made: We decided to extend our day and travel up the Ohio River to a known anchorage at mile marker 973.5 -- across from Mound City, IL.
Bailout Plan: We would continue on, but after traveling a short distance on the Ohio and knowing our actual speed against the foul current, we would decide if we thought we could make it to the anchorage before dark. If not, we could turn back and anchor at our originally planned stop at Angelo Towhead.
Just before 6:00 pm, we turned and headed up the Ohio River -- against current. At this point, Ray moved to the edge of the channel, trying to stay out of the most powerful foul current (down the center of river).
Speed dropped from 9.2 kts (down the Mississippi) to 4.8 kts (up the Ohio). Moving over to the edge of the channel allows us to make about 5.5 kts upstream.
🔺 Milestone: Another river: Ohio River
🔺 Milestone:16th state on the Great Loop: Kentucky
Interesting Fact: Most of the Ohio River at this point is in Kentucky; the border with Illinois is on the Illinois edge of the river.
On the Ohio, there are barges anchored everywhere!
This 5x6 load is anchored by an anchor tied to just 1 barge.
Just before anchoring, we watched the sun set, 10 minutes before reaching the anchorage. Ray said, "It's a long day when our solar-powered, on-at-dusk, tiki torches are still on when we depart in the morning and also come on before we anchor. 😊
⚓Anchored. After 12.5 hours of cruising, we anchored across from Mound City at sunset.
🔺 Milestone: Most miles in a travel leg: 128 statute miles (but not quite our longest duration, which was 13.3 hours, heading to Cleveland.)
🔺 Milestone: Fastest average speed in a travel day: 8.9 kts (10.2 mph) – this includes almost 3 hours at 5 knots against the current!
As we ate our leftover BBQ sandwiches from earlier dinner out, we were sitting next to open windows that were smokey from some nearby fires ---- it seemed we were having freshly smoked pork on our boat! 😊
Fellow looper vessel mv TICK TOCK was already in the anchorage, and we faintly heard them playing “Taps” on their trumpet at sunset -- a nightly routine for them. Cool!
GLTD082 Paducah KY (from Cairo IL): Anticipating another long day of travel against the current of the Ohio River, we hauled anchor at first light, buddy boat following right behind.
Since it was Saturday (I think), no demolition was scheduled at the old locks (replaced by the new Olmstead Lock), so there was no river closure after all! We did not experience the long delays that had been reported by loopers earlier in the week.
Then, we didn’t even have to wait for the Olmstead lock! We were instructed to keep coming through “the pass”. Due to current water levels and flow, the dam gates were down and traffic could just pass right over.
The chart showed us crossing right over the Olmstead Lock “wickets” (underwater moveable gates, where there would sometimes be a dam, holding back water). Feels weird! 😮
You can see the “navigable pass” in the photo below -- the water between the locks & dam (left) and the fixed weirs (right). The “pass” is marked with a separate set of red and green channel markers (in addition to the red and greens marking the lock entrances).
The Army Corps of Engineers website explains the justification for the recent improvement project. Near the confluence of the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers is where more commerce traverses than any other location on the entire U.S. inland waterways.
Ref: https://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Navigation/Locks-and-Dams/Olmsted-Locks-and-Dam/
As we passed through the new lock area, foul current was strong, and our normal 7 knot boat speed was reduced to just 2.9 kts!
We encountered alot of turbulence as we crossed over the walls of old lock 52 where the bottom dropped off to a 100-ft deep hole!
By late morning, 4 looper boats had caught up and passed us.
And then, even our buddy boat, mv Subject to Change, passed us – trying to chase down R/S RocketShip, I think.😉
R/S RocketShip is a unique cargo ship used to transport rockets from United Launch Alliance's (ULA's) 1.6 million square foot production facility in Decatur, AL.
By early afternoon, we were docked with a group of loopers at Paducah Transient Dock. The huge pilings enable the dock to rise and fall with the Ohio River, which can fluctuate more than 30 feet at Paducah!
We had a busy day planned, since both the brewery and the farm-to-table restaurant we wanted to visit would be closed the next day (Sunday). 😉
Paducah Beer Werks is in the old Paducah Greyhound Bus Station. They were having a fundraiser for Boys and Girls Club, with live bands all day. We talked mv Subject to Change into joining us, with Maggie. 😊 Notice the old numbered bus loading stations, and the original “Paducah Kentucky” station sign.
We all walked back to the boats to shower for an early dinner. On the way back to town, we walked beside the town’s flood walls, all along the river. The walls go all the way around the town along the riverfront.
In 1937, the Ohio River at Paducah rose over its 50-foot flood stage. The flood was considered to be the worst natural disaster in Paducah’s history. As a result of the flood, the United States Army Corps of Engineers built a flood wall to replace the earthen levee that had once been in place.
The concrete wall in downtown Paducah is 14 feet in height. The floodwall was constructed between August 1939 and July 1949. The floodwall provides a level of protection equal to the record 1937 flood plus three feet. The floodwall protects and minimizes the flood risk for 11,000 acres and more than 20,000 people.
Paducah Wall to Wall is a series of murals painted on the flood wall, highlighting the history of Paducah.
Not to Miss: Food: the freight house is in the historic railroad freight depot built in 1925. As I mentioned before, this is a farm-to-table restaurant serving locally sourced food. I recommend the "scottish salmon ... with bourbon maple chile glaze".
On the way back to the boat, we ran into some loopers we’ve been hop-scotching with through the locks. (you may see them again in future posts.)
From left to right, mv Eleanor Grace, mv SCOUT, mv Soulmate, and mv Subject to Change. (If you follow any loopers on YouTube, you may recognize the couple from mvSoulmate.)
Not to Miss: National Quilt Museum: Wow! The quilts on display here are amazing works of art!
Having watched Mama piece, arrange, and machine stitch several quilts of various formats, I can appreciate the patience required to create a quilt.
This piece is “Forest Walk” by Pat Durbin.
Look at the depth reflected on these shelves with throw pillows, in “Silk Road Sampler” by Melissa Sobotka. Yes, that is a quilt – not a picture of shelves with pillows and fabrics!
My favorites on the day I visited were in the special exhibit Never Forget Quilts From The 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
“Reflections,” by Martha Kotter, depicts the New York City skyline against a red-and-beige colored sky. The Twin Towers are missing. At the top "Reflections" is embroidered in black. Below the skyline, reflected in the water, is the same skyline, except the Twin Towers replace the void in the skyline. The sky reflected in the water is blue with puffy clouds.
“The National Tribute Quilt” (96 in X 360 in) is composed of more than 3,000 fabric squares creating a large mosaic that depicts the lower Manhattan skyline with the Twin Towers. The quilt is titled The National Tribute Quilt and is composed of six panels, with the individual blocks containing international flags, patriotic symbols, and many with the name of a victim. Panel one, on the far left, is dedicated to the victims of the four hijacked flights. The four panels in the center are dedicated to the World Trade Center victims. The panel on the far right is dedicated to Pentagon victims.
The National Quilt Museum’s main gallery is made up of quilts from the museum’s own collection. Currently, the museum has over 600 quilts in our collection. At any given time, 50-60 of these quilts are on display in the gallery for the public to view. The museum's collection became available online in partnership with the Alliance for the American Quilt through the Quilt Index. To see all of the museum's quilts, visit www.quiltindex.org.
After hamburger dinners on the aft deck of mv Subject to Change, SCOUT hosted another movie night with popcorn, showing – what else? – Captain Ron!(Note the barge in the background.)
After all, this was a whole new set of viewers (except Ray & me, who never tire of this classic.)
I think we had people from 8 or 10 boats watching with us --- as the barges passed by on the river!!! Photo taken by mv Many Moons.
What’s next? This week was filled with milestones! I wonder how next week will compare? We’ll stop at the looper famous Green Turtle Bay Resort in Kentucky before heading up the Tennessee River.
Click here to view our previous blog posts: https://n37scout.wixsite.com/travels/blog
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