Meandering Magees: On The Hook

Day 12 - Sunday, Sept. 18
703 miles to Little Diversion Channel

"On the hook" is boat-speak for anchoring out instead of being at a dock in a marina. (or on the Mississippi, being tied up to old barges!) Last night was our first anchorage and tonight will be our second. So far we have continued to have internet coverage so I've decided to keep up with the posts. If I didn't write for 3 days, the next one would be so long, nobody would read it. Including my mother-in-law, and she has two sons on board!

Although we were at Hoppies with 2 other Looper boats, there were no docktails as it rained the 2 days we were there. The rain also prevented us from going into the, what we were told, cute little town of Kimmswick. The amount of debris that floated by us while at Hoppies was incredible. Fern told us to say hello to the debris because we would be seeing in farther down the river. The Kali Nichta was one of the boats tied up with us and they asked if they could travel with us to Green Turtle Bay, our next marina. The Kali has smaller fuel tanks and Scott (the captain) is a little concerned about having enough fuel.

We left on Saturday morning at 8:30 local time. Appropriate for college football day, a football floated past us as we pulled away from the barges known as Hoppies Marina. Kali Nichta asked us to take the lead. We wondered where the debris that we saw for 2 days went because this stretch of the river was not as bad as we expected it to be.

The current on the Mississippi is fascinating to us. More tows pushing more barges (the biggest we passed so far was a tow with 35 barges tied to it!) are creating actual waves like we see on Lake Michigan. The wake from tows on the Illinois was hardly noticeable for us. The river also has random swirling whirlpools that make steering the boat harder . It is a full-time job dodging debris, tows, and whirlpools and dealing with the current.

In the spirit of football Saturday, lunch was a tailgate menu - brats and chips.
At one point we saw the most amazing line of geese flying south, more than I have ever seen together. They all landed on a little side tributary. Maybe that was their "anchorage" for the night.

With as many times as I go up and down the flybridge ladder, I should have a Fitbit to see how many steps one can take in a space 16 ft by 53 ft!

Much the of the logs we saw floating past Hoppies seemed to have settled right in front of our anchorage spot. Fighting the current and the debris, we tucked into Little Diversion Channel at 5:30. There was one boat already anchored - Jet Stream. We were tied up with Jet Stream the first night at Hoppies and we watched it leave on Friday, going sideways trying to get through the current to get back in the middle of the river. We pulled in the calm, narrow channel and Kali Nichta did the same. We dropped both our bow anchor and got the extra one we are carrying out to drop off the back. I get a front row seat to the back and forth between Mike and Greg at times like this - i.e. the best way to anchor. I think it is just a brother thing, an unwritten code that brothers really aren't suppose to agree on anything.
Mike: "I'm afraid we are going to drift backwards."
Greg: "Tell Scott (on the boat behind us) to throw out a bumper then."

About an hour later, a fourth Looper boat joined us in the channel for the night - Gypsy Spirit.

We have been at anchor in the North Channel of Canada or Lake Michigan before. After a hot day of traveling, we often jump in the water to cool off. With the brackish colored water, the debris and the jumping Asian carp, none of us had any desire to jump in!

The plan was to leave Sunday morning at 8 am for the 81 mile trip to our next anchorage on the Ohio River. Dense fog delayed our start until a little after 9. Jet Stream and Gypsy Spirit left about 15 minutes before us. We never saw Jet Stream but did catch up and pass Gypsy Spirit before reaching our turn up the Ohio. Watching Kali Nichta leave the channel in front of us was like watching tubers white water rafting - between the current, its wake and a whirlpool.

The debris for these last 48 miles on the Mississippi was the thickest so far. At times it was literally picking the smallest one to possibly hit. The river became very curvy, with lots of bends. Barge traffic was heavier. Butterflies flirted with our open windows, but none flew in.
Our lingo with the tows has shortened to : "Miss Allie, this is southbound PC True North. One or two, cap?"

At 1:55 we hit another milestone moment. We said goodbye to the mighty Mississippi river and turned left to head east up the Ohio river. We will not be on the Mississippi again while on the Loop.
The Ohio river starts at mile 0 in Pittsburg and ends at mile 981 when it connects with the Mississippi. We are now going upstream against the current, which became quite evident as our blazing speed of 12 to 13 mph dropped to 7.5. True North tried to keep the 10 mph we were doing (the current bumped it up to 12), but a vibration because of our prop issue prevented it. We had a tug in front of us and we were all ready to radio it to ask permission to pass it. But we didn't need to as we couldn't catch it! So for this afternoon,we are REALLY meandering. The Ohio has very little debris and the color is a more pleasing blue/green. The Mississippi was dirty brown.

Our destination today is Little Chain Bar Anchorage or Bean Branch Anchorage, 32 miles up the Ohio. Added to the 48 miles to get to the Ohio river, it will be another long travel day.