St Louis to Green Turtle Bay, Kentucky

In one of our first blog postings describing our trip and the route we were taking, we referenced the western rivers of The Great Loop as the most challenging of the entire trip. Although we have had many challenges with wind, waves, weather, etc, the next 3 days of our trip down the Mississippi to the Ohio River to the Cumberland River was indeed the most challenging.
We departed Alton Marina early Tuesday, September 15th and met other loopers at the Melvin Price Lock just south of Alton. We now have a flotilla of 9 Looper Boats – “Mayalisa”, “Perfect Remedy”, “Meander”, “Rick ‘n Roll”, “Morningside”, “Sterling Lady”, “Riff Raff”, “Pookie II” – as we travel the ~300 miles to Green Turtle Bay Marina on The Cumberland River. The trip will take 4 days with limited resources (fuel, marinas, etc) along the way.
Having visited the arch over the weekend, we were thrilled to see this familiar structure from the waterway as we passed St. Louis. Unfortunately, there are no marinas or facilities in St. Louis for pleasure boaters to stop so we continued our journey to one of the most interesting “marinas” we will ever visit. Hoppies Marine Service is located at mile 158 on the Mississippi – 40+ miles from Alton Marina. Hoppies is a must stop not only because the next fuel stop is Green Turtle – 242 miles away – but is a great resource of information about the river. Hoppies is actually three very rusty 100 foot barges tied to the cliff with cables. Our “flotilla” arrived around 2:30 and took turns getting gas and tying up for the evening. The picture on the right is Hoppies with "Still Busy" tied to a barge on the inside. The barge we were rafted on had a leak and we heard the bilge pump emptying the barge ever hour or so all night. Hoppies is located at Kimmswick, a small village with very quaint shops, restaurants, and bakeries. We walked into town for shopping and arrived back in time for Hoppie and Fern to brief us on what to expect further down the river. This next picture is a "typical" sight on the Mississippi - barges, trains, industry. The picture to the right is an island on the river.

We decided to leave at first light on Wednesday with the intent of traveling 110 miles to our best anchorage out of the river at Little Diversion Channel – a narrow river that empties into the Mississippi. When we arrived at Diversion channel, we rafted in 2 groups – 5 in one and 4 in the other – some stern to stern. The current was not strong, we all settled for appetizers and drinks aboard and an early night. We are very encouraged by our fuel consumption as we are traveling with the flow behind us and have no doubt we can make the trip to Green Turtle for our next fuel stop.
The flotilla pulled anchor early on Thursday prepared for another long day on the River. Late morning, we turned off the Mississippi into the Ohio River. We have traveled over 200 miles on the Mississippi and will miss the current pushing us along as we now travel 50 miles up the Ohio with the current on our bow. We can feel the difference in GPS and water speed. We arrived at our first Ohio River lock mid afternoon and experienced the most difficult lock we have been in so far after ~150 locks. The lockmaster allowed us to lock through only if we don’t tie to the bollards and float in the middle of the chamber – 9 boats with 15 knot winds “floating” in the middle of the lock for almost 1 hour – a very exhausting experience! Here is a picture from our boat of all the boats "floating" in the lock. However, all passed the “bumper boat” test! When we arrived at our 2nd lock of the day, near Metropolis, Illinois, we were advised by the lockmaster to anchor below the lock for the night and we could all lock through in the morning. There were multiple barges and tows waiting in line to lock through and the lock will operate all night. The flotilla was able to find anchorage out of the channel and we all anchored separately after another long day of travel. We are now less than 50 miles to our weekend destination at Green Turtle Bay just north of Paducah.
Once again, the flotilla was up at first light to line up for our lock through - here is a picture of the flotilla as we waited for the lock at sunrise. When asked if we preferred to tie up to bollards or float in the middle we immediately reached a unanimous decision – all based on the previous days experience. We arrived at Green Turtle Bay Marina around 5 PM after fighting a lot of current on both the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers. In spite of the distance of 240 miles and the strong current after we left the Mississippi, we arrived with ample fuel. While at Green Turtle Bay, along with Betsy, Rick, Ron and Marji, we took advantage of the courtesy car and drove 26 miles back to Paducah to visit the Maritime Museum and the National Quilt Museum. Both were worth the trip. Paducah is trying very hard to be an “artsy” little rivertown and we enjoyed it very much.

The last 3 pictures are 1) Leaving the Mississippi into the Ohio Rivers, 2) Leaving the Ohio River into the Cumberland, and 3) arriving in Green Turtle Bay Marina after a long 3 days on the Rivers.
We now really look forward to traveling the short distance into the Tennessee River after spending the weekend at the marina on the Cumberland. In addition to the 9 boat flotilla, we were joined in Green Turtle over the weekend by 6 more looper boats as everyone is pacing to arrive at Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama for the looper rendezvous. Our original plan was to continue up the Cumberland River to Nashville but, because we would like to travel home early October, we plan on leaving Monday and taking our time for a 400 mile trip up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga where we will rent a car and drive home for a few days. When we return, we will backtrack 200 miles down the Tennessee River to Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama for the Looper Rendezvous in late October before traveling down the Tenn-Tom to Mobile.