A lot has happened since out last post. Ken underwent surgery to put in 5 stents in St. Louis and went home at the end of that week. He went on to have subsequent physical problems not heart related for a couple of months. At Thanksgiving 2015, our son Matthew suffered liver failure and received a transplant on Dec. 21st. He is still in rehab after suffering serious complications. We have not been back to the boat since September of 2015. Grafton Marina has been very helpful in many ways helping us handle all boat related needs.
The
first day we worked on getting boat cleaned up and ready to head south while we
waited to make sure Matthew was stable at home.
There were numerous tasks before heading into the most concerning
section of our journey so far! Luckily,
a mechanic from Bloche Marine in St. Charles, came right away and took care of
the alternator/generator problem that we had been experiencing. We also took a couple of hours and went to
West Marine in St. Charles and did a little site seeing along with lunch in
their very impressive and artsy historic district.
After hearing things were better at home, we left early the
next morning heading south to the Mel Price Lock. Five other boats joined us in the lock. We passed the Chain of Rocks Canal which
allows travel around the rapids in the Mississippi River while passing St.
Louis.
Travel the first day came to the end at Hoppies Marina. Hoppies is a series of barges along the side
of the river in Kimswick, Missouri where about 6 other boats stopped for the
night. This is a “must stop” as it is so
interesting to Loopers. Fern, the owner,
gives a daily briefing to boaters on the next part of the river travels. We later walked into Kimswick and found some
dinner at a new barbeque place. I was
hoping we would decide to stay until the bakery opened at 10:00am but we elected
to travel with a couple of the faster boats, therefore, we had much earlier
departure. The current was with us
heading south so we made very good time.
The next morning, we headed out early and began the front
man position with Bayflower and Odyssey following.
We went another 48 miles on the Miss. then turned east on the Ohio. The current was now against us which slowed
everyone down considerable. The water
color changed from brown to less brown, more blue/green.
The next 30 miles were slowed by the 3 plus MPH current
against us. We arrived at the new
Olmstead Lock area and went into a waiting pattern for a couple of hours. We were waiting along with 6 other boats to
be led through the new lock construction area and thru the old Lock 53
remains. After this long wait for what appeared
to be “for no reason” we crawled through.
We entered Lock 52 immediately upon arrival and were allowed to float
while the chamber was filled. This
entire scenario was opposite what most people experienced. Usually the wait was short to go through 53
and the wait long at Lock 52. We
continued northeast for the next 5 miles until we took the cut south after
Paducah, KY behind Owens Island and tied to a barge instead of anchoring at
Cuba Towhead. There were four
boats: Odyssey, Bayflower, PDQ Tiger and
Seventh SunIII. After getting everyone
tied up, we stood around a talked a bit but then headed to our boats, now dark
and buggy, we were all tired and hungry.
We headed out the next morning toward the Cumberland River
which cuts over to Barklay Lake. We arrived at the Barklay Lock and shortly
entered and tied up. When the doors
opened we all headed into Green Turtle Bay and our slips.
We went to dinner at Patti’s 1880’s Settlement in Grand
Haven with Landon and Mindy. We spent
the next day finding people to fix the issues on the boat, cleaning and getting
it ready in case we left the boat at GTB for the winter. The next evening, we had dinner at the GTB
Yacht Club with Langdon and Mindy and Dan and Kathy from Odyssey. The next morning we headed for home.
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