St. Louis, Missouri to Paducah, Kentucky

So full disclosure, I was not exactly looking forward to doing the rivers, but I was willing to keep an open mind.   I really have tried to see some redeeming quality, but after about two weeks now; I must say,  "NEVER, EVER, AGAIN!!!!"  It has been nice to experience the Illinois and Mississippi and say that I have gone down them as part of the loop.  Also nice to sight-see in St. Louis and Paducah, but now I AM DONE.  Every day is some fire drill or other.  The rivers are running quite high which has caused a lot of debris and large logs to be in the water.  The water is also pretty swift which adds another component of concern for some of the locks and anchorages.  There are not as many places to anchor without some concern for getting out of the way of barge traffic or snagging a log and marinas are smaller and fewer than on the east coast.  Locks are a crap-shoot as to how long you may need to wait to get through sometimes several hours, then one is left trying to come into dock after dark or finding an anchorage if there is one.  Scenery is OK but not dramatic.  I  think once is enough for me.  So now that that is out of my system, here is our trip from Grafton, IL to Paducah, KY.

Our Lady of the River protecting mariners as they navigate the river

And they will likely need all the help they can get

We left  Grafton Thursday morning October 11th heading south to go past St. Louis on the Mississippi.  Our first lock was the Mel Price Lock.  The water was running like you would not believe.  We were doing 10-12 mph in neutral.  As we approached the lock there was so much current and so much debris that the two sailboats ahead of us got sideways and pinned in the logs.  We had to turn around and head up river until they were able to get free and into the lock.  We then turned back around and came through the debris and got tied up in the lock thanks to the amazing skills of Captain Keith (he is my hero).  Let me tell you we both had a bit of anxiety on this one.  Once the lock opened for all of us to leave we all had to wait about 15 minutes for the debris to get out of the other end of the lock as no one could have safely gotten through it.

This is just some of the debris in the lock with us

Once through the Mel Price lock, we continued downstream toward St. Louis.  Barge traffic is heavy here anytime, however with the high water they were even more backed up than usual.  Our AIS (this shows us other boats near us) was lit up like a string of Christmas lights with tows and barges.

Just some of the boat traffic near St. Louis

They were two deep in places

Here is a sign for the "navigationally challenged"

 Finally made it to St. Louis

Here are pictures of downtown from the water
(Lovely shade of brown the Mississippi is)

Luckily we did not have very far to go on Thursday, and arrived at our overnight stop by 1:30 PM.  It is just several old barges anchored to the side of the Mississippi and used as a small dock/marina called "Hoppies".  It is about 20 miles south of St. Louis in the town of Kimmswick, MO. 

There is a really cute bakery near Hoppies called The Blue Owl.  They have been featured on The Food Network, Today show, and Travel Channel as well as The Wall Street Journal and Oprah's magazine.  We had to try the peach pie and Levee High Caramel Apple Pie.

Pengi displaying our mini-pies from The Blue Owl

Friday morning October 12th we were up before dawn so we could leave as soon as it was light enough to see.

Tow pushing barges past us at Hoppies Friday morning

Sunrise Friday morning, it looks deceptively calm

The water was ripping past us and it was filled with all manner of logs and other trip ending debris.

Here are just a few of our floating friends

More logs

And more logs

And yet more logs

That ripple you see in the picture below is actually a channel marker.  They get pulled under by the current or debris due to high water.  Most of them were not visible at all as they were completely underwater or just swept away.  Had to be careful not to run over the submerged ones.   There were also numerous markers that were off station (not in the correct place).

Oh look, another log

Even this tow was not having a good day.

We ran as fast as we could only slowing down when we passed other boats etc. and got into Paducah, KY on the Ohio River right at 5:00 PM.  The town docks in Paducah are very nice.  Not much space.  Only 8-10 40-foot boats can fit here, but new facility and good power.  We had something on board for dinner and turned in to bed early after our stressful day on the rivers.  The good news is Paducah is the home of the National Quilt Museum.  Guess where we are going tomorrow.