Beautiful Autumn

The trees are just starting to turn all along the river.  The further south we get the less color.  ~Vicki

The weather has been predicting heavy rain for a week and it got here tonight just as we tied up at a lovely state marina.  It's wonderful to listen to it tonight safe and snug. ~Vicki

Trolling the Tennessee

We saw a lot of these fishermen in boats all screaming past us at about 40 miles an hour.  There was a fishing tournament, it turns out, and they had to be back by 4:00 with their catch and release bass.

Note: no windshield, heavy black coats, balaclavas over their faces, a whole day fishing and tearing back at break-neck speed pretty much guarantees you don't have to deal with the little woman because she's not going with you!

Crepe Suzettes

The Montreal French Canadians came over last evening and Germain made us Crepe Suzettes (flambe) his specialty and he even shared his recipe.  They were magnifique!  We head out shortly and will cross from the Cumberland to the Tennessee River and head south.  It is supposed to rain all day--which beats being hot and humid. ~Vicki

Green Turtle Bay Marina

Yesterday, Wed. 10/8, we got to the most fabulous marina ever!  They have a spa (pedicures $25, Swedish massage 1 hour $45).  They have 3 pools (2 closed for the season).  Condos for rent.  Not that we'll use this stuff but its cool!  We used their boat lift yesterday to check and see if the boat needed new zincs (did not need them) and ate at the yacht club.  I had salmon Mediterranean.  Dry county so we sipped our ice water as we dined.  But that was ok since (the Montrolians, Montreoids...) the French speaking people from Montreal made us lovely aperitfs with white wine earlier in the day.

And internet--YEAH!

Tomorrow we start down the Tennessee River which has numerous marinas and anchorages (whoppee) and I think 6 more locks (bummer).

Until the next time I have internet enjoy the autumn. ~Vicki

Barges

I forgot to show a picture of the barges.  Each barge is 100 feet long and they go three wide and eight long.  They can carry as much as 1,000 semis can.  This photo is one of the smaller ones.

Up the Ohio to the Cumberland

On the Ohio going upriver slowed us down a lot.  A bad night on the Ohio tied to a bollard on a huge cell with wind and current and from there 43 miles and two more locks (shudder!) to an absolutely lovely anchorage at the Cumberland Island Towhead. Our so-so picture shows the moon coming up through the trees Tuesday night.  Enchanting.  Plus early the next morning we left the Ohio River for the Cumberland River.  A narrow relatively shallow river, so peaceful as we motored up river.  We watched a lot of grey turtles sunning themselves on branches that had fallen in the water.  A branch might have five or more turtles on it.

If you look closely you can see the moon peeking out.

Brown Water to Blue

Along with debris we had to dodge lots and lots of barges.  One must simply stay clear of them.  Gary contacts the barge captain and asks if he wants us to meet him (or pass him) on one whistle or two whistles.  One whistle means you are going to starboard (right) to pass and two means you are going to port.  The Mississippi River was running very fast and once or twice we heard the barge captains grumbling that the pleasure craft had no business being out in the river.  We didn't find it scary because we have a reliable boat and equipment.  While we rarely cruise faster than 6 knots, the current had us doing 10 knots and 12.5 knots before we turned off the river.

There's lots of barge traffic where the Ohio River meets the Miss. River.  We manoeuvred through it all

successfully and the picture shows some of the traffic and the French sailboat in front of us as the blue Ohio River water meets the brown Mississippi River water. ~Vicki

The French Sailboat

Nex day we dodged debris down to Kaskaskia Lock which thankfully is off the Miss.  We tied up for the night and met a couple from Montreal who have come down on their sailboat (they shipped their mast to FL) and managed to bend the rudder.  The were hauled to this lock where they had spent six days waiting for parts and we watched a diver go down and attach the rudder.  It didn't work properly and they had to wait until the next day when the diver returned with it fixed.  We were surprised to see them the next night at the same anchorage we were in.

Little Diversion Channel was off the river and quiet.  I couple of times small boats full of twenty somethings went past then we heard shooting and then they came back up river.  They were shooting the flying fish that King posted pictures of in a previous blog.

Alton to Hoppies

It rained all day after we got to Alton, IL, which is just north of St Louis so we toured the dam and the first lock we had to go through.  The next morning we set out bright and happily looking forward to locking through until we had to wait 2 hrs. for barges to lock through and then the whole locking experience is scary the first time.  Once we were out and on our way down the mighty Mississippi River, we found the river was running ten feet higher than usual with lots of storm crap to avoid.
Logs the width of telephone poles, large branches and then just assorted crap kept Gary busy steering unable to use autopilot because he had to try to find a spot of river with only debris that wouldn't ruin the engine or rudder.  We flew be St. Louis right at the base of the arch but there is NO place to tie up and visit the lovely city.

We had to make it to Hoppie's Marina, an iconic place consisting of 5 barges that boaters can tie up to and refuel.  This is the only place to refuel for the next 107 miles and the only marina for the next 228 miles.  We got there Friday night about 6:30 unaware that it was Pot Luck Night so we lamely brought chips and feasted on numerous casseroles and salads.

New Crew

Gary and Vicki are back on Blue Moon from the end of September.  We had no internet connection until today to update our travels. ~Vicki