Old Man River, Loose Barges, Muddy Fluddy Waters and Half Fast Ohio

Little Diversion Canal in Cape Girardeau turned out to be one of our top 5 anchorages on our Loop adventure.  After spending all day on the fast-moving, muddy, churning with debris-filled, monster tugs "Old Man River", this tiny inlet was an instant relief at the end of a long day.  The current was so strong we had to pass the Little Diversion inlet before turning upriver to make our approach.  As soon as we turned in to the Little Diversion inlet, the Mississippi released its grip on Viridian and we were instantly in smooth, clean water.  A RR bridge about a half-mile up stopped all large boat traffic in the canal but left a 90-foot wide by 30 feet deep channel for several boats to drop a hook in.  The slight current kept all boats pointed upstream and the tall tree-lined banks protected us from any wind coming from the north or south.  The bottom was soft mud and the anchor set on first try.

Not a ripple from the tug traffic all night, and Viridian and Gypsy Spirit weighed anchor and slipped past the other two Looper boats that had come in behind us.  It was 0630, and we checked the AIS for commercial traffic coming downriver before powering upstream back into the Mississippi river, then turning downriver to head south to Cairo where the Ohio meets the Mississippi.  Shortly after getting underway, the USCG came on CH-16 to announce that 10 barges had broken loose at a location about two hours south of us.  I just happened to switch our secondary radio to CH-73 and picked up the conversations between tugs that were rounding up the loose barges, and it sounded like cowboys roping wild steers on the open plaine.


This alert was mistaken by the commercial traffic as an "All Stop" situation.  As a result, we were the only boats moving on the upper Mississippi and started to wonder if we were missing something.  I decided to call the USCG on CH-16 and get an update to see if we should avoid the area altogether.  The USCG person said that it was all clear and to proceed on through.  So we did.  Later, a tug captain called the USCG and asked if they could start moving too.  The USCG said that they never issued an "All Stop", just a "Proceed with Caution".  This was news to the tug captains so they got him to repeat that statement again.



By this time, we had arrived in the Cairo area where there was still a minor flood warning in effect.  The Ohio River meets the Mississippi here, and we made a port turn and our speed was cut in half.  It felt as if we were going nowhere fast.  The river widened and barges and tugs were everywhere.  The muddy floodwaters spread out like an ocean and the sun beat down a 94-degree temperature. With the wind at our back we were stewing in our own juices.  The firstmate went below, turned on the generator and fired up the a/c.  It was smothering hot on the flybridge, and aluminum foil was used to shield our electronic equipment from the direct sunlight that heated it up like a fried egg.



We soon approached the Olmstead Lock and Dam construction project, an over-$3B project that will replace the two upper locks and make it less congested on this high tug traffic area.  We sailed right on past in the pre-marked channel and into another debris area filled with trees, sticks, logs and a basketball or two.


As the sun began to sink behind us, it started to cool a little, and the views on the river at late afternoon were spectacular.  We pulled into our dock at the Paducah City Docks, tied up, hooked up and turned on the a/c.  Shared another meal with Gypsy Spirit and crashed as soon as our heads hit the pillow.



Paducah, KY is where the Tennessee River meets the Ohio River. We will spend two nights here before heading down the Cumberland River to reach Green Turtle Bay Resort, where we will stay a couple of nights before continuing south on the Tennessee to our point of crossing our wake at Grand Harbor Marina on Pickwick Lake, MS.


That's the news and here are the views:

We are here:

Today's Route from Little Diversion Canal, MO to Paducah, KY

Early morning at Little Diversion Anchorage, MO

Another day on Old Man River

Where's my sunglasses?

Mighty Ohio River

Olmstead Lock and Dam on the Ohio River

The travel lift in the background transported huge concrete structures that were manufactured on site for the modular construction of the Lock and Dam

Closer to Paducah, KY

More obstacles to avoid

Viridian Docked at Paducah City Docks, KY

Willow fly hatch

Willow fly infestation

Configured for big floods

Loopers at Paducah, KY

Thirty Barge Escort

A thick fog fell as the sun rose this morning and kept us tied to the lock wall until 0900. Our plans for a 114-mile run to the Ohio River were crushed, and we had to fall back on plan B. Plan B would take us to Little Diversion Canal, about 70 miles south, where we would drop a hook and spend the night off the river.

The fog finally lifted and Viridian and Gypsy Spirit inserted ourselves back into the swift, muddy waters of the Mississippi River. We   were soon scooting along at a clip of 13.5 mph. We met one of the huge Mississippi tugs (three engines) pushing a 6X5 stack of barges. Powering against the current, she left behind 16, 6 foot standing waves about 3 seconds apart. We did not get into these waves but were hit by the bow waves, which were just about as bad. Ahead in the distance we saw another Mississippi tug that was going our way. It had a 6 across and 5-deep stack of barges and was churning along at 13 mph with the current. A few hours later, we caught her but were not able to get around her simply because we didn't have enough power. I called the captain and told him we would just fall back and follow him until we turned into our anchorage at Little Diversion. He was going all the way to New Orleans and said he would escort us as far as we were going. Since he was going downriver, the upbound tugs had to pull over to the bank and allow this larger downbound tug to pass. We were still able to cruise at about 12 mph but at a much lower rpm. With the tug about a mile ahead of us, we had smooth sailing all the way down to our destination, thanks to the giant escort clearing the way.

Four Looper boats ended up anchoring in Little Diversion tonight, and what a nice, calm anchorage it was. A is a great place just off the Mississippi River and about 100 miles from Paducah, KY. Tomorrow will be another long cruising day, half on the Mississippi (downriver) and the other half on the Ohio River (upriver).

That's the news and here's the views:

We are here

Today's  Route from Kaskaskia Lock Wall, MO to Little Diversion Canal, Cape Girardeau, MO

Viridian on the Kaskaskia Lock Wall

Fog keeps us tied up

Work day

Our Escort the Alix Anne Eckstein (one mile away)

Log Jam, Gateway to the West and Hamburgers on the Wall

Six days at Alton Marina waiting for the flood warning to expire on the Mississippi was long enough.  We got up at 0500 to make a 0700 departure time so that we could go past Hoppies Barge docks to the Kaskaskia Lock and tie up on the wall.  I called the Melvin Price Lockmaster at 0600 to check on barge traffic before untying our lines.  The Lockmaster said that a northbound barge had just hit the lock gates and the primary lock was closed until they could assess the damage and get the Coast Guard in to make a report.  The barge was carrying some dangerous chemicals and they didn't know the extent of the damage to the barge, so the primary lock was closed until later notice.  The secondary lock was filled with trees and they were attempting to clear it out to start letting traffic through it.   The upbound barges would need to be broken up to get into the smaller auxiliary lock and take twice as long to get through.   Barge traffic was backing up both north and south of the lock and we pleasure vessels would have to wait until things got cleared up.  I called the lockmaster every hour on the hour until 1200 and he said we (5 boats) could start easing toward the auxiliary lock and they would get us down.  The catch was that we couldn't tie up to the walls but would have to float around in the middle of the lock with all the tree trunks and branches that they were not able to clear away.  It was up to us though.  Well, we all headed for the lock and picked our way through the debris and somehow managed to survive the locking with out any issues.  It was a huge MESS.

The next tandem lock was the Chain of Rocks Locks. They were just letting a huge tug out when we got there, so we slid in and took the 4 ft. drop down, and this time we were tied to a bollard.  After exiting the lock, we were free to go without any more locks to deal with for the rest of the day.   We passed through St. Louis, MO and right past the Gateway to the West Arch.  The water was filled with logs, RR crossties and broken branches.  Huge 6x6 tugs (36 barges lashed up to one tug) were churning up river as we bobbed in the turbulent waters, dodging all kinds of junk in the water.  Once past St. Louis, the junk thinned out and we sailed right on past Hoppies and cruised on down to Kaskaskia Lock and tied up on the approach wall behind the Looper boat Meridian.  After cooking hamburgers on the grill, we walked over to Gypsy Spirit and sat down with the crew and had a wonderful meal and recap of the day's cruise.

Tomorrow will be over 100 miles to the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers to anchor at a place called Boston Bar before taking on the upriver slog toward Paducah, KY.

That's the news and here's some views:

We are here

Today's Route from Alton, IL to Kaskaskia Lock Wall, IL

Great white pelicans feeding before heading south

Logjam at Melvin Price Lock, IL

Chain of Rocks Lock, IL

Heavy current helps our speed on the Mississippi River

Long day on the muddy waters of the Mississippi River

St. Louis, MO

Bridge over troubled waters

Gateway to the West arch in St. Louis, MO

Old Faithful?

Chillin on board Gypsy Spirit