Observer

Hosed off the May flies and left the dock about 7:30.  By 9:00 we were off the Ohio River and then on the Cumberland River. The Cumberland is much more scenic and tranquil than the Ohio. Today's destination is Green Turtle Bay Marina.  It's a resort area on Kentucky lake and a favorite of the Loopers.  Although we did not all leave at the same time, there are nine Loopers headed for the Barkley lock.  The next three photos of our flotilla taken by our lead boat, Chemistry . We called at 1:00 and we're told that it would be a minimum of three hours wait and maybe longer based on the priority of commercial tows.  We arrived at the lock about 2:00, put down our anchor and waited for the lock master's instructions. We were told that a south bound tow who arrived before us at the lock had offered to let us go ahead of him.  THANK YOU!  We still had to wait for this very large lock to empty, lock through another tow, empty and open for us and that took til

Paducah is a brand new marina which just opened three days ago.  That said, we awoke to may flies all over Observer - oh Joy. Tried hosing them off the boat but they just moved around and landed somewhere else. A police office stopped by the marina to say hello to the Loopers and tell us about his future interest in doing the Loop.  He gave me information on a great bike trail nearby which I jumped on about a 1/2 hour later. It was a very warm day and the May flies were still buzzing around so it was more of a 'stay in with the AC on kinds of day'.  Paducah is a decent little town; we did find out that there really is not a place to re-provision close by so we held off on that.  We strolled into town and had a nice dinner.   The town has constructed a flood wall along the shore front and local artists have pained it with murals Paducah check!

Today we climbed a mountain whose peak is 'Lock 52'.  Up early, walked Millie at the nearby shore and she sunk right in the mud - lovely (mud on Millie, Tim, the dinghy and then Observer).  Anchor up and headed out of the channel.  We announced on channel 13 "securite, securite, this is the pleasure craft Observer heading out of Little Diversion Channel @ mile marker 48.8 heading southbound.   All concerned traffic respond on channel 13, Observer out."  We did check our AIS just before exiting but made the announcement as an abundance of caution; we did not want to get squished.  The exit of Little Diversion Channel out to the Mississippi We encountered a great number of tows again today. Fortunately all went well.  We finished the Mississippi by 11 - yeah! We then started up (and against the current ) on the Ohio.  The Ohio seems wider and so far has less barge traffic.  Our aggressive goal was to get through the Omstead lock, then locks 53 & 52.  The Olm

We left Hoppies at 7 and the goal was a 110 mile run in daylight.  The trees are just beginning to turn colors. We had a 4 knot Mississippi current with us and no locks on today's route. We passed (head to head) probably a dozen tows along the day.  We usually reached out to them a couple miles out.  We can see them (including tow name on our GPS).  They respond with "meet you on the 'one whistle' (port to port) or the 'two whistle' (starboard to starboard)". It sounds simple and it is but it's VERY IMPORTANT not to make a mistake here. Mississippi is very serpentine Typical tow on the Mississippi We arrived at our anchorage at the Little Diversion Channel about 4:00. There were two Looper boats when we arrived and five of us total for the night.  We laid anchor for the first time while on the loop. Observer at anchor We are out of the current and there is no wind.  It's a little challenging walking Millie without her g

We headed out of the Alton Marina about 8:30 after a call to the Mel Price Lockmaster to see when he might be locking pleasure craft through.  We were told to come on down and let any other boats in the marina know that he would wait 10 minutes after our arrival for any other boats that might want to get through quickly.  Otherwise, there would be a long wait.  We alerted two other boats we knew were planning on leaving Alton this morning and they hustled to accompany us through the lock. It was an easy ride with the four knot current pushing us along.  We breezed through the second (and last lock) of the day before passing the St. Louis Arch.  An awesome guy who we met in Grafton and works in St. Louis had offered to grab some screen shots of the live cam overlooking the arch as Observer went by.  Thanks, Jim...very cool!! Observer is in the lower left of this of the next 3 photos off the railing the man in the frame is a statue We arrived at t

Sat. 9/09 beautiful morning in Grafton. This is a 1969 Chris Craft in beautiful condition that pulled in next to us last night.  We hung around til 'Art in the Park' opened to check out the offerings of local artists.  Left the dock about 11:30 and made our way down the Mississippi River 15 miles or so to Alton, IL.  This is a very large (180 boats or so) marina.  We have a covered slip which keeps us out of the sun and rain. We topped off our fuel and got a pump out at the fuel dock and later joined Betsy & Steve on Heaven to Betsy at the marina restaurant for lunch.  We took a walk over to the amphitheater where they were setting up a Jazz concert / wine event / art show but there was no relief over there from the sun.  On the way back we stopped by to see some Loopers we had not seen since Meldrum Bay, Ontario - John & Sandy of Sea Scape.  We made plans to get together tomorrow evening.  There was a large family party going on just outside of the marina wit