It's raining in Missouri/Illinois/Kentucky. I know I will not get much sympathy from our friends in Texas, where it is still 100 degrees plus in late September. But it is wet on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Grand rivers they are. These limestone cliffs tower above the Mississippi near Alton, Illinois just before the Missouri meets the Mississippi. Look how calm the water is.
Well a spring and summer of record rains and last winter snows have flooded the Missouri and when we met it just above St. Louis, hang on. The Mississippi took on another whole different and uglier character, with lots of debris, whirlpools, 4+ knot currents, and muddy, muddy water. It has been quite a ride for 4 days down the river, and at noon today we met the Ohio and turned left.
The Ohio is no slacker itself and it is bringing a ton of water down from the Appalachians, right on our nose. So what we liked about running down with the current on the Mississippi, we hated as we fought our way up the Ohio into a 2-3 kt. current. The rain started yesterday afternoon, all last night, and really hard all day today. Lots of lightning and thunder to make our journey interesting on the Ohio.
These rivers are not really for our kind of boat, ie the "pleasure craft". That is what the Tow captains call us, "pleasure craft". There are no marinas, and damn few good places to anchor for the night, safely out of the current and these huge barges. One of these photos is 10 Looper boats (pleasure craft) tied to a lock wall just off the Mississippi. We travel in packs for safety and because we all have to stop at the same places. Like I said, there are not alot of choices.
So as we traveled through, and could not stop in St. Louis, because there is no place to stop, I am talking to the Tow boat captains who are pushing these massive groups of barges. My goal: simply let them know where I am and ask them where do they want me to go as I get near them. "Northbound Tow, this is a southbound pleasure craft at Hanging Dog Bluff. Where would you like me to pass, Captain? Then you listen closely as a good ole boy from Louisiana, with marbles in his mouth, tells you, " Yea, I see you... I'll see you on the two." I answer, "Ok Captain, thank you, and we'll see you on the two."
That is river jargon telling me that he wants me to pass him on his starboard, and my starboard. Now I know how to stay out of his way and pass by this huge tow pushing 36 barges, 6 wide and 6 deep, full of some material instrumental to our country's need. They call it a tow, but its actually pushing these barges up or down the river with unbelievable skill. These guys are good in handling these massive loads, in fast currents. The tow boat itself is 150 ft long, with two sets of crew so they can run 24/7 and two to three massive diesel engines generating over 6000 horsepower. Watching these guys push and manage a load up river is quite a site.
So in a typical 10 hour run like today, we passed maybe 20 tows, and managed to safely dodge them all. Tomorrow we will finish another 20 miles on the Ohio, and run up the Cumberland River into Lake Barkley. It is connected right by the dam to Lake Kentucky which is actually the Tennessee River. These two rivers have been damned at their junction with the Ohio to form these two beautiful lakes in western Kentucky. And the land between the two lakes is...wait for it....The Land Between the Lakes State Park, which is truly one of the prettiest parks in the country. The leaves are turning and hopefully the weather will turn nice, once it stops raining. So we will spend a month exploring The Land Between the Lakes. Marc
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