ROLLING, ROLLING, ROLLING!

Saturday, Sept. 27 – We left at 6:45 am and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise. 

Next stop - Mel Price L&D.  Got right in with one other trawler and had to wait for a small sailboat to join us.  Took a couple tries to lasso the bollard but got the job done. Shot out of that one and on to the Chain of Rocks L&D.  Were lucky enough to get right through this one too, no waiting.

The Mississippi joined the Missouri River and we went from a 2 knot current to about a 3-1/2 knot current.  Now onto St. Louis.  It is unbelievable to us that St. Louis has no developed waterfront presence.  There are NO marinas, there is NO place to anchor.  We went by the arch which was neat to see from the water.  We’ve been up in it but this was a totally different perspective.

South of St. Louis the barge traffic really picked up.  The number of barges each tow pushes has gone way up from the Illinois.  We passed one upbound that had a 5X5 or 25 barges it was pushing.  These are really BIG towboats with like 3 engines.  When they push north they really throw a wake.  The waters keep moving and swirling and they got the best of our poor little Molly.  I should not have fed her mid-trip but I did not anticipate the change in the status of the river.  We started to see trees and other debris like never before.  It took constant vigilance at the helm to avoid the hazards. 

 Our destination was a place called Hoppies.  Boaters vie for a reservation here as there are few places to stop or anchor.  This is a mom and pop shop, 3 old steel barges tied together right on the open channel.  We had a small recovery drill when I lost one of the boat hooks overboard.  I had insisted that we buy a big net with a telescoping handle (thank you Kathy Lindo for the idea) in case Molly falls overboard.  It came in really handy to fish the boat hook out of the water.  I think my captain would not have been happy with me if we hadn’t snagged it.  Then into Hoppies.  Wow, it was like a 3^rd world marina.  There is no marina, just these barges tied up where you get power, water, can buy diesel and thankfully ICE!  You are invited to attend the daily briefing from the resident river guru (and Hoppie’s wife) Fern at 4:30.  We went and listened to her advice.  She is quite a piece of work and the place was just a trip. 

We ran into several Loopers, including a Canadian guy named Pierre who was doing it in a canoe.  We also met the crew of the little sailboat that had been behind us in the locks.  It was a young couple, maybe 22 (or 18) and they had made it this far from NY.  Their plan is to go down the Mississippi and ot turn off at the Ohio.  Wow, we wouldn’t do that and they are in a little boat, and so young. John was in awe, I was concerned.

Tying to this dock meant ROCK AND ROLL.  The barges went right by and there was no protection so we rocked and we rolled.  Add in the train track that was only feet away and it was evident that this was not going to be our best night of sleep.  Then the guy from the sailboat in front of us noticed a huge log coming down.  We got up front to fend it off and he tried to help and FELL IN!  Scared us but he was fine.  I grabbed a boat cushion to toss to him but he swam back to our swim platform where John had quickly deployed the ladder.  He was fine.  He kept the log off our boat and apologized for getting our cockpit wet when he walked through!  We were just so glad he was OK, it all happened so fast.

The amount of debris that was coming down river was really disconcerting but we just had to go to bed and try to get some sleep.  Have more pics to post from this day but our laptop battery is about to die.  Will add them to tomorrow's post.