TX TO MN TO TX CRUISE
TRIP 2 LOGS
Gilbertsville, KY to St. Paul, MN
June 21 – July 5, 2003

Houston, TX to Gilbertsville, KY, June 21 – 24, 2003

     Angela and I flew to Providence, RI to see the mansions at Newport.  We were delayed an hour in Baltimore due to heavy rains, and apparently our checked suitcase was left out in the rain.  When we got to our hotel, we found a lot of our clothes were wet.  Also, a purple shoe bag had bled and ruined our shoes, my shorts, and several shirts, etc.  We went back to the airport the next day and sold those items to the airline.

     On Sunday, June 22 our friends Trent and Rita met us at the hotel for coffee and a roll, and we all went together the 25 miles or so to Newport, RI.  It was very pretty and not too hot, so wearing long pants instead of shorts was fine with us.  I called my daughter Debra to see where she was.  She said she had flown to Providence the previous Tuesday to work on a yacht.

     During the afternoon we had lunch and toured the best-known of the mansions, The Breakers.  It had 70 rooms and was very impressive.  We got to know some things about Newport; it was a very interesting and pleasing place to visit.  The prices were high, but the people were very friendly.

     I had previously called the Newport Yacht Club and spoken to the commodore, Frank Sales.  He had invited us to come by, and we did, about 5pm.  Frank was there, and we spoke to him at length.  He was from Orange, Texas.  The Newport Yacht Club had 600 members, and was the second oldest yacht club in Rhode Island, founded in 1894.  (The Rhode Island Yacht Club was the oldest.)  They had no restaurant but did outdoor cookouts regularly.

     We went to eat at Christy’s and had a good meal there.  While we were eating my daughter Debra called to say she was aboard her yacht and it was in Newport.  She told us where it was and invited us to go aboard the following day.  On our way out of Newport we stopped at Casey’s Marina and spotted the boat so we would know where it was the following day.

     The next day was Monday, June 23, and the four of us went back to Newport to see a few more of the mansions.    We met Debra at 11am and introduced her to Trent and Rita.  She took us on a tour of M/V BON BON.  It was a 1993 Flagship, 122 feet in length.  We met a few of the crew and saw the engine room, the pilothouse, the guest rooms, the saloon, the galley, and the flybridge.  It was very impressive.  It was good to see Debra.

   

   

     We saw The Elms, the Marble House, and Rosecliff and had lunch in Newport.  We drove back to Providence and had dinner at a Japanese steakhouse.  We said good bye to Trent and Rita as they drove back to their home in Boston.

   

     On Tuesday, June 24, we slept late and packed for the trip to the boat.  We went to the airport and caught a non-stop flight to Nashville, TN.  We rented a car from Hertz that could be turned in at Paducah, KY.  We drove to Draffenville and bought groceries.  Then we unloaded our groceries and luggage onto the boat.  There had been no problems with the boat that we could see.  It was hot inside; we had left the air conditioners in the humidity control setting.

     We drove towards Paducah and ate dinner at a highway restaurant.  Before we got to the airport we stopped at Wal-Mart for a few more things we needed.  At the airport we turned in the rental car and caught an expensive taxi back to Moors Resort.  We were ready for sleep after all the traveling around.

Gilbertsville, KY to Anchorage below Tower Rock, MO, Wednesday, June 24, 2003

     We were up and out of our slip by 7am.  A new bridge was being constructed at Cape Girardeau, MO, Mile 51.5 on the Upper Mississippi River.  We had been told that some days the river was closed from 8am until 5pm for bridge construction, and that one way to beat the game was to anchor in the Little River Diversion Canal at Mile 49 and get under the bridge before 8am.  We had to go down the Tennessee for thirty miles, including going through one lock on the TN River, go down the Ohio River about 50 miles and possibly go through two or three locks, before we could go upstream on the Mississippi River 49 miles.  We hurried whenever we could, but there were many slow areas where barges were being grouped together for the large tows that go up and down the Mississippi River.

     We were delayed about 1.5 hours at KY Dam on the Tennessee River.  A towboat and a double load was coming up through the lock.  We were dropped 57 feet to the river below the dam.  When we reached the Ohio River, it was muddy and contained a lot of debris – sticks and logs.  The water was high enough for the dams at Locks 52 and 53 to be in the “down” position, so went “over” the dams.  Indeed the locks themselves were submerged.  The new Lock and Dam, Olmstead, was not yet completed, so we went around it.  We entered the Ohio River at 10:30AM and the Mississippi River about 12:40pm.

   

     We reached the Little River anchorage about 3pm, and it looked like it would be a good place to spend the night.  However, we decided to push on and cover more distance.  When we passed the bridge construction, we were glad we had pushed on.  The river was open that day and scheduled to be closed the next day.  It was also a very congested area.  I could easily imagine us being delayed and not getting under the bridge by 8am.  So we made a good decision, I think.

   

     Looking at the Corps of Engineers charts for the Upper Mississippi (starts at zero miles at the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi) it is difficult to tell where the water is.  There is a channel, which is light blue.  But there are also wingdams, or dikes, which are shown as solid black lines extending out into the channel.  Sometimes those lines extended all the way across the channel, so I could not tell if in fact the dikes were underneath us.  The dikes that we could see were high mounds of rocks that extended in a line outwards from the bank into the channel, disappearing under the surface.

     Generally, the towboats take the outside of the bend; so we should usually take the inside.  It is best to ask them on the radio, because there are exceptions.  Anyway, the current is strongest on the outside of the bends in the river.  Running around the insides of the bends allows an upstream boater to increase his speed due to less current opposing the boat.  Of course, staying close to the buoys on the inside of the bends means you're close to the ends of the wing dams; and if a buoy is missing, you might get over too far.  We usually ran at 20 knots going downstream, and 16 - 18 going upstream; and the difference between the inside and the outside of the bends was 1 - 2 knots.

   

   

     On the charts some of the waterways behind islands were shaded brown, meaning sand, when in fact there was water in them.  It was one of those we chose for our anchorage, at Mile 78.  It actually showed blue on one page and brown on the next, so we went in carefully.  After passing the black buoy the depth got shallow quickly, and we saw depths from 15 feet down to 10 and 5 after that.  I did some searching around to see if there was a channel across the bar, and there was.  We got 500 feet or so away from the channel and anchored in 10 feet of water.  Our anchor grabbed and held well; we used the rope bridle we had made in FL.  The current through there was substantial.

     We were anchored by 7pm.  We grilled our dinner and were only rocked by one towboat with barges the whole night.  Our biggest problem was the water pumps; pump number 2 had quit long ago, and pump number one only worked intermittently.   That was a concern because we never knew if it would come back on again.

     The weather that day was hot and humid, with blue skies and a few nice clouds and a cool breeze of 5 - 10 mph from the south.  We ran 10 hours on the hour meters and covered 158 statute miles.

Anchorage below Tower Rock to Kimmswick, MO, Thursday, June 26, 2003

     I was up at 7am, but I let Angela sleep late, which is her idea of luxury.  We did not have too far to go that day.  She keeps saying we work too hard, and I remind her that cruising is an adventure, not a vacation.

     We pulled out at 9:30am and had no trouble getting over the sand bar and back into the channel.  We passed the entrance to the Kaskaskia River on the LDB; we tied up to the floating guidewall at the lock and dam there in 1997.  The scenery along the river was great if you like rocky bluffs, which I do.  We reached Ste. Genevieve, MO at Mile 120, and from that point on, almost all the way to St. Louis, we had high rocky banks on the port side (RDB).  There were a large number of quarries located there, and the workers were hard at work turning the rocky bluffs into smaller rocks of all sizes and shapes.  It was pretty.  There was a fair amount of towboat and barge activity along there related to the rock quarries. 

   

     Our destination was Hoppie’s Marina, at Mile 158 on the RDB (Right Descending Bank), just below St. Louis.  We arrived there at 3pm and filled up with the most expensive fuel so far on the cruise.  We moved the boat away from the fuel dock, tied up, plugged in, and cleaned the boat.  Angela cleaned inside, and I did most of the outside.  There were a lot of bugs on it when we arrived, and we had more every night.

 

     Our friends, Norm and Vivian, came over to the boat about 6pm, and we visited there for about an hour.  Then we went to The Old House Steakhouse in nearby Kimmswick.  The place was originally built in 1770, or at least part of it was built then.  It was a true log cabin.  The food there was very good.  We enjoyed a slow dinner and good company.  They dropped us off at the boat about 10pm, and we made plans to see them on our way back down the river.

Kimmswick, MO to Rockport, IL, Friday, June 27, 2003

     We left Hoppie’s about 8:30am, and we were in the downtown St. Louis area by 10am.  The banks of the river and the waterways themselves were filled with industrial buildings and vessels.  St. Louis may be the largest city on the Mississippi River; I don’t really know.  But it was large and impressive.  We saw the famous arch and remembered when we went up in that arch a number of years ago.  I remember it was built in 1965, because I associate that with my class in college, the Class of ’65. 



     

     After passing the fleets of barges and strings of towboats tied to their barges, the bridges in downtown St. Louis, and the casino paddle wheelers, we turned right into a canal that bypassed a rock dike across the main river.  In that canal we went up 12’ through Lock No. 27, or the Chain of Rocks Lock.  At the upper end of that canal we had the downbound main river to port, then the mouth of the Missouri River to port, and then the Mississippi River upbound on our right.  Currents were pushing and pulling us; that phenomenon occurs often on the Mississippi River.

     Lock 27 is the last, or lowest, lock on the Mississippi River.  Tows and barges can be quite large below there because they do not have any more locks on their down river trip.

     Our next lock was the Melvin Price Lock, or Lock 26.  That one was familiar, as was number 27, because we had been down that stretch of the river twice before.  Both locks have an auxiliary chamber for smaller vessels.  We were lifted 23 feet in the Mel Price Lock.

     Immediately above the dam is a very impressive bridge, and the Alton (IL) Marina begins at the bridge and occupies the IL bank there, followed by the casino ALTON BELLE.  That marina was one of the nicest, and the people were very nice, when we stayed there in 1997.  Recently we had stayed at Hoppie’s for lower prices and to be closer to Norm and Vivian.

     

     The Mississippi River had high rocky bluffs on the west bank, or Right Descending Bank (RDB), from St. Genevieve up to St. Louis.  Now the high bluffs were on the LDB, our right side.  The river was wide and pretty, and the high bluffs were a special favorite of mine.

     Soon we passed the entrance to the Illinois River, and that can be a tricky area.  There was a sand bar between the two channels.  We didn’t know that the first time we came down the IL River, but the Mississippi River charts show it clearly.

    The location of the main river channel was deceiving in many places, and the buoys were the only hope of staying in the channel.  Getting out of the channel was a fearsome prospect due to the wing dams, and we were not at all sure there weren’t some wing dams in the channels.  There were not buoys at the ends of each wing dam, just a string of buoys that was supposed to keep you off the wing dams.  At least that’s how it looked to us.  Buoys were not shown on the charts because they were frequently moved due to changes in the height of the water in the river.

     Immediately above the junction with the IL River, the Mississippi was new to us.  We were cruising there for the first time.  It got smaller in width, and the number of buoys and the numbers of turns in the river increased.  It started to look more like a river.  Everything was green, and it was warm, in the low-80s for a high.  There was a cool breeze.

     You can see some strange things on the river; that's part of the appeal, I think, of getting outdoors to see what's going on.  This gentleman (I assume) had an unusual way of traveling down the river.

   

     We spent the night at Twin Rivers Marina in Rockport, IL.  The marina was a galvanized covered shed marina like many we had seen in Tennessee.  We got an outside slip, so we could use our satellite antenna and so we would not have to put down our radio antennas. 

     The Lighthouse Restaurant on the premises was no comparison to the meal we had the night before.  While we were eating they were setting up the outside speakers for the street dance and the outside bar around the pool.  It was Friday night.

     In addition to Locks 26 and 27, we went through Locks 25 and 24.  There was no Lock 23.  Our lock total for this trip was 5.

Rockport, IL to Hannibal, MO, Saturday, June 28, 2003

     We left at 7:40am and tied up in Hannibal at 10am.  The only lock we went through was Lock 22.  The weather was overcast and cool to start, but it warmer up and cleared up for a nice day with a high temperature in the low-80s.

     We had a strange and wonderful experience at Lock 22.  When we arrived at the lock there was a double load coming towards us, coming down the river.  There were two double loads waiting to go up, the same way we were going.  The lockmaster told us to come on up to the lock; as soon as the towboat in the lock was out he would take us up.  That made good sense to me because we could get through a lot quicker than either or both of those double loads, but our experience at other locks told us we would have to wait for all the tows to get through the lock before we could go.  Not at Lock 22.  In fact, when we were raised into the upper pool, there was another double load waiting to go down, and he backed up to let us out.  Not only that, but the downbound tow and barges needed to move laterally as well.  The lock was equipped with a small towboat that helped to move the larger towboat and its string of barges into position for locking after we cleared the lock!  We were impressed that here, on the Upper Mississippi, there were lockmasters and lock rules that were not punitive to recreational boaters.  All of the locks we're talking about are operated by the same Corps of Engineers; if they ran all of them like they did on the Upper Mississippi, I'd feel much less like a taxpaying citizen with no rights.

     

     I had been on the phone trying to arrange some less expensive fuel and found some in Hannibal.  I told them we would be there at 10am, and we were.  The truck was there, too; and Carl, the driver, showed us where to pull in.  We tied up to a small towboat.  A bystander named Ray Richmond helped us a great deal – to tie up and to fuel up.  He was a relief pilot on the paddle wheeler MARK TWAIN, which occupied a berth next to us.  Both guys were nice and friendly.

     

     We pulled around to the steamboat dock and tied up for the day and evening.  We wanted to see the hometown of Mark Twain.  We had seen the IMAX movie “Mark Twain’s America” at least 5 times.  We liked the movie, and we liked Mark Twain.  His love of the steamboat surely accounts for some of the favorable emotions they cause today.  A number of towns on the river have replicas of the old steamboats, and they offer rides on them up and down the river.

     Everything in Hannibal seemed to be about Mark Twain.  We went to the museum annex and paid an admission price that allowed us to see six different buildings including his home, the home of Becky Thatcher, the famous whitewashed fence, Grant’s drug store, the old and the new museums, etc.  We ate lunch at the Mark Twain Family Restaurant.  We had really been spoiled in Kimmswick.  Everyone was nice, and no one seemed to care much whether you had your tickets or not.

     

     We took a one-hour tour on an open-air bus, and that went all over the town and out to the Tom Sawyer Caves and up the hill to a couple of overlooks down onto the river, one of which contained a statue of Mark Twain.  Then we ate dinner at Lulu Belle’s, which was pretty good.  We walked a lot, and my back was ready for bed when we got back to the boat.

      

     I found out there were over 5,000 caves in the State of Missouri.

     Six locks had been passed on Trip 2.  Our total mileage for Trip 2 was 389.  We had run the engines 28 hours and the generator for 52 hours.

     Lock 22 provided another interesting opportunity.  As the tow was leaving the lock, the lockmaster advised me to enter the lock “…whenever I thought it was safe to do so.”  A little bell went off in my mind at his choice of words, but who listens to those things, right?  I went on in, and I got a lesson in the turbulence that exists inside the lock while the towboat is pushing his load out.  The water was swirling around, and soon we were, too.  No damage was done, but I think the lockmaster was offering me a lesson, and I hoped I had learned it well.

     Pump No. 1 was malfunctioning at times, usually whenever one of us was in the shower.  We had to watch out for each other.  The cure seemed to be to turn it off and turn it back on again, and then it would run for a while.

Hannibal, MO to Bass Island Anchorage near Muscatine, IA, Sunday, June 29, 2003

     We left Hannibal about 7am.  The river had changed character.  Below St. Louis, and to some point above St. Louis, the river might have an alternate channel around an island, which was usually dammed off to force the current to go into the main channel.  That was done for the benefit of navigation, as were the wing dams and other kinds of channelization developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers over the years.

     Now the river had several alternate paths in addition to the main channel.  We could not have known where the main channel was, or where the wing dams were, without the buoys, which were unnumbered but much more frequent than earlier.  Each island was full of green trees and vegetation.
  
     The US Coast Guard was responsible for placing the red and green buoys on the sides of the navigable channel.  We saw small caches of buoys, like this one at several locations along the river.  We saw the Coast Guard cutter which pushes the barge with the buoys, the concrete blocks, and the steel cables, too.  Note the green and white day marker.  I don't know why some are green and some are green and white, but the little white sign above the green and white day marker is the mile marker - it was hard to read.

     We saw the smallest boat we have ever seen on a great big river like this.  It looked like it might be ten or so feet long.

     We thought we would try to find a suitable anchorage among all those islands, without, hopefully, hitting one of those wing dams.  About 6pm we chose a spot that was indicated on the chart to be clear, and we went in and anchored with no problems.  We had an island named Bass Island between the main river channel and us, and Blanchard Island was on our right.  Our river mile marker was 448.

     The day began overcast and cool, which changed to light rain and then heavier rain.  Then it cleared up, and we had blue skies.  The high temperature was 78, and winds were light and variable, cool when you were out in the wind.

     We ran for 11 hours and 139 miles that day, passing through 5 locks, for a lock total of 11 for Trip 2.  Our mileage for Trip 2 at that point was 528.  Water pump number 1 only malfunctioned once at the kitchen sink.  Number 2 would not work at all.

Bass Island Anchorage to Island 241, near Dubuque, IA, Monday, June 30, 2003

     The day started out to be nice; the morning temperatures in the area were in the low 60s.  It was 70 at St. Louis at 7am.  Our anchorage had worked out well, and we had no problem getting back to the main channel.

     The photos show some scenes from Davenport, IA, which was interesting to see.  There is a Visitors Center near the lock and dam there, but you can't get to it if you arrive by boat.  It's only for non-boaters or people arriving by car - curious, right?  See the Corps of Engineers River Cam for Lock and Dam 15.  See other river cams.  

     

     When we got to Lock 16, we were delayed for 2.5 hours, which set the pattern for the day.  Due to delays I ran on one engine, anchored and turned off the engines, tied up to the long wall of the lock, and turned off the engines while locking.    As a result, we were on the river for 13.25 hours, but we only logged 10 engine hours on the day.

     Again, when we pulled up to Lock 16, there was a double load coming down and two tows with double loads waiting to go up.  We were taken up as soon as the one coming down was out of the lock.  In contrast to that procedure, we have had to wait until all the tows were gone to get a lockage on the Tenn-Tom, the Tennessee, and the Monongahela Rivers.  The lockmasters, and some authors of cruise guides, seemed happy to tell you that everyone on the river had a higher priority than the “pleasure boater”, or “recreational vessel”, as I believe the Corps would like for us to be called.

     I have heard lockmasters call us “RVs,” which will probably continue to be used.  It is easier to use and more correct than “pleasure boaters”, as anyone who has ever sweat through the oil changes and other work associated with our type of boating will attest.  My wife dislikes the title of pleasure boater because it is so much work.

     Anyway, we continued to be impressed that the lockmasters decided, not the towboat operators, as we saw at Pickwick Lock, what the priority was to be for lockage.  Recreational vessels, perhaps because they could be locked through quickly, were invariably locked ahead of a tow with a double load, even if the lock had to be filled to pick up the RV and bring it down.  This made our locking on that trip more pleasant, although June 30 was just not our day.

     We were delayed at Lock 16 for 2.5 hours; Lock 15 for 30 minutes: Lock 14 for 1.5 hours; Lock 13, no delay; and Lock 12 for one hour.  Our total for the day was 5 locks and 4.5 hours spent waiting for a lockage.  We ran 114 miles in 10 running hours from 7am until 8:15pm.

     After Lock 14, at LeClaire, IA, we met a fuel truck and filled up with 469 gallons of diesel.  That was a pleasant experience that we intended to repeat on the way back down the river.  Approaching LeClaire, IA we got to see the beautiful riverboat TWILIGHT.  

     We were having trouble finding, at the end of our day, a marina with 50-amp power and with harbor depths more than 4 feet, so we anchored again.  We again had an easy and pleasant experience.  Both of those two anchorages were technically in IL, as they were on the LDB and on the IL side of the main river channel.

Island 241, IL to LaCrosse, WI, Tuesday, July 1, 2003

     Our plan was to fly home on Saturday, July 5.  We needed to get to a marina in the Twin Cities area and get the boat settled there in time to catch our plane.  That’s why we were putting in some long hours.  We were also seeing some great scenery, better than we had expected; and we have some pictures to show the beauty of the waterway.

     We left our anchorage at 6:30am, and we enjoyed a nice day.  It was about 70 degrees F at 7am.  There was some fog, which was unusual; and we saw a valley partially obscured by the fog.

     We went through Lock 11, 15 minute delay: Lock 10, almost no delay; Lock 9, 1 hour delay; almost no delay; and Lock 8, no delay.  Our lock total for Trip 2 was then 20 locks.

     Dubuque, IA was attractive with its limestone bluffs along the RDB.  We saw a paddle wheeler casino boat, a dive operation in the river, and attractive locks with high bluffs behind them.  We saw the riverboat Isle of Capri at Marquette, IA, a small town with high rock bluffs on both sides of the river.

     The only marina with 50-amp power was a couple of miles off the main river channel, so we chose to stop at Pettibone Boat Club in LaCrosse, which was right on the channel.  I had tried to arrange to get diesel delivered to us at Pettibone, and I believed they wanted to make too much on the fuel.  It had to be delivered by truck, and I could not arrange for the distributor to bring it to me without going through the boat club.  The distributor said it was due to the fire marshal’s regulations. 

     Anyway, their price for a slip was $0.75 per foot, so we decided to go in there.  I had bought a “Smart Y”, which was an adapter for two 30-amp plugs to feed my one 50-amp, 220-volt plug.  It was a good time to try it.  I found out the hard way it just did not work well for us.  We could get up to 13 or so amps, at 220 volts, and then it would trip the circuit breaker – down at the end of the dock.  I think I walked down there 40 times that evening.  The last time it tripped, I just started the generator and let it run all night, again.  When we turned the generator off upon arriving at LaCrosse, it had been running continuously for about 68 hours, since we turned it on in Hannibal, MO.

     I met a nice fellow named Bob who owned a Gibson houseboat.  I asked him, after finding out the fuel dock attendant could not help me, if he had an extra 30-amp power cable.  We discussed it, and he thought another cable would help, as it would allow me to get half my power from one pedestal and half from another.  He said he often had the same problem.  He borrowed one from a friend, and I tried it for an hour or so.  It didn’t help, so I returned it.  I tried just running one air conditioner, etc, but it still blew the circuit breaker – at about 13 amps.  I don’t understand why.

     At that point we needed to pump out our holding tank, and that we could do at Pettibone.  We also needed to get rid of some garbage, which we also did.

     I usually rinse the boat with the marina water and then fill the water tank, which was low at that point.  That water was so cold; it never gets that cold in Houston.  I rinsed off the boat with that cold water.  I filled the tank, and we sat down to eat.  Then I tasted the water; it was terrible.  Apparently it was well water, because it had a strong iron taste.  We could smell the iron in the water when we took a shower.  And our water tank was full of it.  It would be a good idea to taste it before putting it in that tank, which I’m sure I knew.  I just can’t remember all those lessons I have learned in the past.

LaCrosse, WI to Red Wing, MN, Wednesday, July 2, 2003

     That was an exciting day, the day we were going to reach our destination at St. Paul, MN.  I was excited at reaching our goal and seeing the Twin Cities from our own boat; I was also tired and had back problems.  We got off at 6:30am, as we had 145 or so miles to go (more than we had made any day on the trip so far).  We ran for three hours, and I was doing my usual thing of talking on the phone, making plans as I was driving the boat.
      

     Then disaster struck at Mile 732.5 (+/-), above Lock 5A.  As we came around a bend in the river to our right, near Fountain City, WI, I failed to see any green buoys on our left.  The first one was way down the channel.  I WAS TOO FAR OVER TO THE LEFT, AND WE RAN OVER THE END OF A SUBMERGED WING DAM.  I was shocked; it was like hitting a brick wall.  It was like having a car wreck.  The running gear hung up on the rocks and then the boat went over them, violently.  There was no other green buoy other than one way down the channel.  I wish there had been one closer to us.  Maybe there used to be one there and it got moved out of the way by forces unknown.  I couldn’t believe it.

     Beside the pilothouse door on the port side are four drawers in which we keep silverware and other kitchen utensils.  These drawers have locks on them, but we had not locked them.  All four drawers came out and slid onto the floor or down the stairs to the front staterooms, their contents tumbling out before them.  The refrigerator door opened and some of the contents spilled out onto the floor.  The port engine died; the starboard engine was still running.  What about the stabilizers?  What about the current, traffic on the river, would the engine start, were we taking on water??  I had so many things going through my mind it went into overload.  I was in shock.

     I got us going again, slowly, on two engines.  We were not taking on water.  Angela picked up and cleaned up the spilled mess.  The stabilizers seemed to work, so maybe they had gone over the rocks without touching them.  The port side was the more damaged, which made sense as the rock dikes were built with a downward slope towards the center of the river.  We could make about 6 knots without too much vibration.  The generator was working, and nothing inside was really broken.  The main damage to the insides was some dings in the nice cherry woodwork.  The ice pick stuck in the floor; we asked ourselves why we even had an ice pick.

     Next I berated myself unmercifully for being so stupid, not doing my job, trying to do too many things at once, being too excited at reaching our destination, lack of prudence, should not run a boat, get out of boating, etc. for quite a while.  It was such a sad thing to do, or to have happen, on a trip like that.  I knew the wing dams were dangerous; after that I really knew.  Then Angela berated herself for not helping me enough, for not watching and helping me stay on track, for not taking the wheel more, etc.

     Eventually we got to the problem-solving process.  I called marinas to try and find one that could lift us out of the water, while Angela piloted the boat.  Most of those I called did not have a lift large enough to pick us up.  Watergate Marina in St. Paul, my original first choice due to its location, had a hydraulic trailer arrangement that they said could be used to get us up and on dry land.  They also had mechanics on duty, and they were working on Friday, July 4.  Adam was my contact at the marina.  I appreciated his great attitude and willingness to help us with a bad problem.

     In Demopolis, AL we had met a man who lived in that area, and I called John for some advice several times.  It was nice to know a boater who lived in the area and had some of the same needs that we did.  He was friendly and helpful to us.

     We went through Locks 6, 5A, 5, 4, and 3 with almost no delays.  Towboat and barge traffic was very low on that day in that area.  The lockmasters were nice, especially one named Todd at Lock 6.  He was friendly and very nice and helpful.  Our lock total for the trip increased to 25.

     

     At Lock 3 the lockmaster must have thought we were not close enough to the wall for Angela to take the rope from him, so he threw it to her.  The weighted, heavy end on the rope landed on her small finger, which was resting on the bow rail.  It immediately starting swelling and turning blue, and it hurt her for many hours after that.  She told him what he had done, but he didn't apologize.
 
     Most of the locks on the Upper Mississippi did not have floating bollards.  The lockmaster would stand by the rope he wanted to pass to you, and you were supposed to pull up to that point in the lock and stop along the wall.  Then he would drop a rope to you and move to a second location for your second rope.  The ropes were always on the land side of the lock, where their offices were; so we had to move fenders from one side to the other as the locks changed sides from our port to our starboard.   I think we lost one fender during the trip due to not tying it up well on one of side changes.  

     We found a marina with 50-amp power.  It was called Treasure Island Marina, and it was affiliated with or owned by a casino, which was located a short distance away from the marina.  They had no permanent slip tenants, just transients.  A young lady named Missy helped us get in there and get tied up, which was a chore in the current.  Our maneuverability was reduced due to our damaged running gear.  The marina was in a side channel of the river.

     We cooked on board, thinking of reducing our supply of food prior to going home.  We dumped the iron water and replaced it with good water from the City of Red Wing.

Red Wing to St. Paul, MN, Thursday, July 3, 2003

     I got up early and changed the oil and filter on the generator.  Angela kept saying she wanted to sleep late, so I let her.  The marina did not open until 8am.  I though I should get some diesel fuel, which they sold.  No marina above us sold it, and my plans to meet a fuel truck had been canceled by our accident.  Prudence became my goal as my world had been suddenly turned upside down.

     Angela volunteered to do most of the piloting that day.  I had a problem with my back, and she wanted me to sit on the couch.  I could write these logs, too.  Angela has always been better than I at piloting the boat.  She pays better attention and does not get distracted like I do.

     As an example, when I look at the river, I see a channel, based on the relative width of the various possible boat lanes, or the direction I imagine the river flows based on the trees, or the bank of the river, etc.  Then, I look at my chosen channel for buoys.  Angela, on the other hand, looks at the river and sees the red and green buoys.  She knows where the channel is because it’s where the buoys are.  Often the channel is not the widest opening between the islands.

     

     In downtown St. Paul, a festival was going on called the Taste of Minnesota.  It was also July 4 weekend and they were having fireworks every night.  Large crowds were out to party in the summer heat.  Quite a few paddle wheelers were on the river near the festival, which was held just upstream of the St. Paul Yacht Club.

     

     

     We left at 9:30am, and we arrived at Watergate Marina at 5:30pm.  The distance covered was 47 miles.  We covered it in 8 hours for an average speed of 5.9mph.  We went through Lock 2 with a 20 minute delay, for a Trip 2 total of 26 locks.

     Ours was not the largest boat at the marina, but almost.  Adam and two other guys were on the dock to help us get backed into a 50-foot slip with 50amp, 220volt power.  Our maneuverability was limited.  We got into the slip and tied up and plugged in.  Then we began to meet the people around us.  They were all very friendly and nice.  We were very favorably impressed with the staff and the other boat owners at the marina.

Lay Day, St. Paul, MN, Friday, July 4, 2003

     Adam, Keith, and Chris came by the boat around 9:30am.  They looked at the stabilizers and asked me questions designed to tell them how to set up the trailer for removing the boat.  About 10am I motored out of the slip, right to the main fairway, then left, then left again alongside the fuel dock to the ramp.

     I never imagined trying to drive that big a boat onto a trailer.  Trying to get the last few inches up as far as Chris wanted it almost gave Angela a heart attack.  He motioned me to advance the boat.  With the electronic controls, there was a delay between my moving a lever and the boat responding to it.  So the boat advanced a foot instead of a couple of inches.  Angela thought it was going to hit Chris in the head.

     After they got it on to their satisfaction, they raised the various plates which would support the boat.  They were controlled by a hydraulic pump run by a small gasoline engine mounted at the front of the trailer.  Chris drove us out of the ramp pulling the trailer with an old Army surplus truck that had articulated rear wheels.  They also had a winch truck there, but I am not sure if they used it or just had it there in case they might need it in addition to the truck.

     As it became apparent to others in the marina what was about to happen, we attracted a crowd of curious onlookers.  When the rear of the boat cleared the water, and the onlookers could see the props and rudders, we heard plenty of interesting comments.  One was, "Time for some new props."  “Those will look good on your wall.”  “Look at the angle on that rudder.”  “Struts might be okay.”  “What did you hit to cause that much damage?”

     We were on the swim platform and could not see what they were seeing.  Soon we were allowed to get down via a step ladder, but first I had to lower the antennas and the light to clear some power lines in the yard.  Chris drove us up to the main building, where there was power to run our refrigerator.  He tried several times to back the boat into one particular spot they had in mind for us, but he could not make it.

     

     So, he drove it forward a ways and then backed it out the gate of the marina, just like you would do with a 15’ boat on a trailer.  He pulled back into the marina and down the hill, and he was then able to back our boat into that one spot.  Then they blocked it up and drove the trailer out from under it.

     

     We wanted to get electricity to the boat to keep our refrigerator running at least and maybe also charge the batteries.  I pulled out the Smart-Y we had used in LaCrosse, WI.  It would not work at all.  I called some people and asked some questions.  Apparently they will not work if the source of the power has reversed polarity or has a bad ground.  If that was our problem, we were not likely to fix it that day; no electrician was available to work on the power available at the marina offices.

     


     Adam was the Manager, and he had promised us electricity.  He made some phone calls, and he drove us to one place that turned out to be closed.  We called Boat US and they did not have the part in stock.  We finally figured out a way to feed his 15-amp extension cord to a cable that had been plugged into one of our inverters; and that provide electricity to the refrigerator, only.  We also found a way to run it into the boat and still lock all the doors and windows.  Then we loaded our luggage into his vehicle, and he took us to the motel. 

     Adam was very nice to us from the very first time I spoke to him on the telephone until we last saw him at the hotel.  He was one of the big reasons I wanted to have the work done there at Watergate.  Chris was the chief mechanic and Keith was the owner, and both of them were impressive and very service oriented, too.  Almost everyone we met there increased our confidence that we were in a good place with good people.

Fly to Houston , TX , Saturday, July 5, 2003

     We stayed at a motel with shuttle service to the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.  The airport was a very nice facility located only a few minutes from our marina.  We flew out at 9:35am.

Statistics for the trip:

Running Hours:  80
Miles:  925
Generator Hours:  149
Fuel Used:  2,000 gallons
Fuel Costs:  $2,800
Running Days:  9
Lay Days:  4
Travel Days:  2
Total Days  16
Average Speed:  11.6 mph
Average Fuel:  2.16 gals per mile, 25.0 gallons per hour
Average Fuel Cost:  $ 1.40 per gallon
Average Miles Per Running Day:  103
Average Running Hours Per Running Day:  8.9
Locks  26