Wednesday Oct. 8, 2014

Hoppie’s Marina to Kaskaskia Lock and Dam

We cooked pancakes for breakfast and then headed out for a walk. Kimmswick shops don’t open until 10 am so we walked around until then. Turned out the one thing Colletta wanted the store didn’t have so we had a nice walk. We departed the marina at 1100 hour with the boat Harbor Lights. The have come all the way from Minnesota down the Mississippi River. As we headed out a big sport fishing boat went by the marina flat ass flying. With all the debris floating thru here I think he is crazy. We headed down river with the current running our engines at 1500 rpm and cruising along at 10.6 kts. Usually at that rpm we would do about 7.5 kts so you can see what kind of current is running in the river. We dodged debris and a few tows with barges. Once again the AIS was great. We could identify the tows and they call us for how they want us to pass them. In our briefing at Hoppie’s with Fern she had highlighted 3 problem areas where it is very narrow and you don’t want to meet a tow there. Well won’t you know we met 2 tows on 2 of the three turns. Thankfully the AIS identified them miles before we entered the turns so we could be where they wanted us to be in the turn. They swing wide when they make their turns and still stay in the channel.

 We arrived at Kaskaskia Lock and Dam mm 117.5 at 1445. We called the lockmaster for permission to tie up to the lock wall. It is really secluded and calm after being on the river all day. From the wall we can see the Mississippi River and the tows going by. We had Warren and Debbie over for cocktails. We discussed our voyage for tomorrow. We will depart here and go to the Little Diversion Channel down by Cape Girardeau, Mo. MM 48.8

They have really done a nice job with this lock wall. The powers that be installed numerous boat sized cleats to tie to. You used to have to tie to this huge barge like cleats that were not conveniently spaced for normal boats. The lock master said I would be impressed with the improvements and I was. I have stayed at this lock twice and never saw a tow and barge go into this lock. I kind of felt this lock master was the Maytag repairman of lock masters. But what should arrive early the next morning but an empty barge pushed in by a tow.

This was one of my favorite dockages on the river. You really cant understand how nice it is to come off the river after a whole day of dodging debris and tows and find the tranquility offered here.