Good Morning Upper Mississippi Cruisers!!

Today we have a long day planned.  Again.  We expect the current on the Mississippi River to give us 3-4knots making the day shorter.   We waited until most of the fog had lifted.

Misty Morning in Kimmswick, MO

Misty Morning Looking upstream

Sunrise at Hoppies, Kimmswick, MO

Leaving Hoppies on our way south

Pictures along the Illinois River heading southbound.  We noticed many full and empty barges tied together heading northward.  Now that we know, they are obvious to us.  Can you tell the difference?

Randomly parked barges in the middle of the Mississippi

Filling a barge!! Looks almost 1/2 full by now

Wing dams!  They are apparently supposed to help keep the Mississippi from silting in.  According to Fern at Hoppies, that is debatable.  The wing dams look like rock outcroppings to me.  Something you certainly wouldn’t want to hit.  Sand and shallow areas are sometimes visible behind the dams.  Sometimes, not so much.  The current changes around them.

Wing dam

We also heard about the weir dams.  They are structures under the water deep enough that we can safely cruise over them.  However, and you knew there would be a however…. they cause severe turbulence at some spots especially around corners of the Mississippi.  Turbulence is a nice way of saying…whorl pool!!   Lots of whorls and circles and frothing waters.  I was able to capture one of the circles.  Some of the areas look like the water is bubbling from beneath.  Fascinating.  Keeping both hands on the wheel keeps us true to the channel.

Sworl near a turbulent area

Obvious full and empty barges found side by side.

The non-industrial areas are beautiful. We encountered more barge traffic heading in both directions today than on the Illinois.  The upbound or northbound barges have to overcome the 3 knot flow and can stir up quite a bit of wake behind them.

Approaching Cape Girardeau.  A few more miles and we are at our destination for the night.

Our destination is an anchorage called Little Diversion Canal.  110 miles in 8.6 hours!!  We averaged 13mph at a engine rpm normally would give us 10mph.  We made excellent time!  We do appreciate the Mississippi giving us a helping hand.  The entrance to the canal is difficult to see.  We had to drive past it, turn around, and then we saw the entrance.  Wayne had to really power up the engines to overcome the river current at the entrance to the canal.  The fact that several Loopers had their AIS signals on helped.  We knew at least 2 boats had found the entrance.   Once in, we found 12 foot calm water.  A bit of debris ( tree limbs ) in the canal that were easily avoided.  No wind, almost no current, a peaceful evening.

We traveled with 2 other Loopers today.  We all made it safe and sound.  We found 3 other boats in the canal plus our 3.  Lots of room.  We rafted our 3 boats, had dinner together and shared Looper stores.  A wonderful evening meal shared between Always Home, Bama Dream, and Fryedaze crews.

Little Diversion Canal inlet in the morning sun

Little Diversion Canal in the early morning