Mississippi River - Sept 21 - 23

Sunday morning by 7am we left Grafton for our beginning run on the Mississippi River. We left with five other boats, the NanseaAnn, Just Us, Freedom, SnailMail and Late Date. The captain on Late Date is a licensed captain running a boat to Florida. It was great following his experienced lead. The river is running fast with lots of debris so traveling is a tedious task. Our destination today is Hoppies Marina located by the city Kimmswick, Missouri. (60 miles from Grafton). It was awesome passing by the arch in St Louis mid morning.  Hoppies Marina is a very common stop for Loopers. This is the only place to get fuel for the next couple hundred miles and the only marina for the next 228 miles. Dockage is at three 100 foot barges tied to the river bank with cables. 

Boy do these barges rock when a 18-barge with a three engine tow pushing up-current passes by.

Our boats along with the barges we were tied to, rocked for over an hour after this passed.

Hoppies is owned and operated by the legendary Fern and her family.  Fern is an elderly woman who has spent her entire life on the river. She gives a daily briefing on the river and advice on how to proceed.  Since we were there on a Sunday, we were invited to the weekly potluck with the family.

Monday morning we left Hoppies by 6:30am for a big day on the river. We traveled 110 miles to reach the anchorage at Little Diversion Channel.  It was a long travel day - dodging logs and handling the current - so we were happy to have our anchor set by 5pm. We threw the dinghy in and went boat to boat to visit our fellow travelers before grilling out on the Pura Vida.

Tuesday, the anchor came up before the sun did. (This is getting crazy!) We were back on the muddy Miss by 6am.  48 miles later - by 10am - we made a turn to our port on to the cleaner waters of the Ohio River.

We decided the 2 happiest days of a boat owners life are the day you buy it and the day you get off the Mississippi River!

 Leaving Grafton

 Our Lady of the Rivers Shrine

 St Louis!

 Check out the debris in the lock.

 Note sign on right. It it critical to follow the route to the left as it is a bypass around rapids on the Mississippi.  

 Logs in the river

 All day.... Logs

 Not the Pura Vida!

 Briefing at Hoppies.

 Fern

 Steve fueling up at Hoppies. 

 Hoppies Marina

 Sunrise on the Mississippi.

 Coast Guard resetting buoys that have been moved off station by barges or desbris. Go Travis!