Day 11 - Kristin's First Night on the Hook

We left Hoppie’s at 8:50 AM after cleaning our strainers and filling our water tank.  The weather was gorgeous with sunny skies and little wind.  There was about a 5 knot “push” from the downstream current and we averaged about 20 knots.  Nice homes sat on the bluffs and the shores were sandy.

 

 

 Fern told us about 3 bends in the river that were treacherous due to turbulence.  The first of these was at Mile Marker 130.  As we arrived there, we saw a tug pushing 15 barges towards us.  Needless to say, we turned around and went back upriver to wait for the tow to pass.  Good thing!  Fern was correct, the river there was very narrow and turbulent and Kristin Says was bounced around quite a bit. 

There is a lot of barge traffic on the Mississippi and we had to be aware of it.  As Fern told us, there were many floating work docks too and we slowed our speed as we passed them.  Randy radioed the tows as we approached them for permission to pass.  We reached the Kaskaskia Lock and Dam at 11:50 AM and continued on down the river. 

We passed several cities as we continued our trip.  We passed the City of Chester and the Chester Bridge.  There was a large building there that looked like a railroad terminal; lots of railroad tracks.  We also passed the city of Cape Girardeau.  Below is a picture of a mural that is painted on the flood wall in Cape Girardeau.

  

 

At 4:00 pm we arrived at our stopping place, Little River Diversion.  Following Fern’s directions, we went past the small river opening and then entered going upstream.  Randy went very slow and watched the depth closely as we passed in to the canal.  There is a “hump” at the entrance and we weren’t sure how shallow it would get.  Fortunately, the bar came up to 6 feet and then dropped off to 12 feet.  The canal is very narrow and so we used both a bow and stern anchors to keep us from swinging into the bank.  We were the only boat anchored there that evening.  It was my first night “on the hook” and all went smoothly.  We watched the sun go down and then went inside the cabin as it got very buggy outside.  The sunsets and sunrises over the rivers are beautiful and we took (too) many photos of them!