.......the Mississippi that is! We
left Grafton on Monday the 13th, with our new Gold Looper flag proudly
flying, the dinghy in tow, and were headed across the river to Woodland
Marina to find Little John to see if we could get the davit for the
dinghy welded.
I found him in his shop, welding away on
a custom stainless steel, hydraulically operated swim platform he was
building. I stood there watching, not wanting to disturb him until he
was done with the weld he was working on.
I showed him the part I needed welded,
and explained we were traveling, and kind of stuck until we got this
fixed. “No Problem”, he said. He hardly missed a beat as he clamped the
part to his steel bench, and started laying in a weld. 15 minutes later,
he had it polished up, better than new! Boy - did we luck out here!
I talked to him a little, and found he was originally from Minnetonka, and used to haul boats in that area.
He also likes to boat - FAST!!!
This is his boat - Kwitchabitchin! He and his crew run the National Drag Boat circuit.
I believe he said he is 2nd in the Nation right now! You can see more at:
I bet he could do the Loop in about a week!
I wonder if Pat’s nephew Brad saw this one run at Lake of the Ozarks last summer?
Back to the boat, put the davit
back on, hoisted the dinghy up, and off we go. Back to our home port of
Ole Miss in Red Wing, MN. Grafton is at Mississippi River mile marker
219, and Ole Miss is at mm792.
That’s 573 miles traveling upstream, and 22 locks to negotiate.
Locking up is a little more difficult
than locking down. As they fill the locks with water, the water in the
lock becomes very turbulent.
The lock-master can control how fast
they fill, but in most cases they just want to get it up and done, so
they pour the coals to it! As you are in the lock being raised up, you
have to control the boat so it doesn’t bounce off the walls. There are
two ways to do this. Some locks will let you float if you are the only
one there. Then you use your engines and thruster to keep the boat in
the center of the lock. Otherwise you tie to the wall, with fenders
between the boat and the wall,
and use ropes to hold the boat in place.
There are two types of locks we will be
going thru. Bollard locks, and line locks. In a bollard lock, there is a
recess in the lock wall that holds a large “can”, that floats up with
the water. On top of the can is a post that you run a line around, and a
plate over the top of the post so the line will not slide off the top.
You attach a line to the mid cleat on the boat, wrap it around the
bollard, and then snatch it back on the cleat, but you do not tie it to
the cleat. Sometimes the bollard will stick in the wall, and if the line
is tied to the cleat, the water will keep rising, and pull your boat
right over. By just running the line under one ear of the cleat, you can
just let go, and the line will pull off the boat, and off the bollard.
As you are pulling the boat against the wall from the center, in a
straight line, you can hold the boat to the wall fairly easily as the
water rises.
Pat is tied to a bollard in the pic below.
In a line lock, the lock-master
drops you two lines, one at the font of the boat, and one at the rear.
The lines are tied to the guard rails at the top of the lock wall. You
snatch a line under a cleat ear on the side of the boat opposite the
wall, and use that to keep the boat against the wall.
Depending on the lift of the lock, these
lines can be very long. Now you do not have as much leverage to hold
the boat against the wall, due to the length and angle of the line.
The first lock we entered was a line
lock. The lock-master drooped one line for us in the center of the
boat, and walked away. I tried hailing him for another line, but he did
not answer. As the water started going up, the bow of the boat started
swinging away from the wall. I saw there was no way Pat was going to
hold it, so I powered off the wall and floated. I called the lock-master
on the radio, and he just said I should have stayed on the wall, that
when he got the water really going, it would pin the boat to the wall.
Yeah - RIGHT!!!
The next lock we came to was also a line
lock. When I called the lock on the radio to announce our arrival, I
requested two lines, one bow, one stern, 40 feet apart. The lock-master
dropped us one at the bow for Pat. I was standing at the stern waiting.
He looked down at me - “You want another line???? Why????”
I swear, these people should be made to lock thru a dozen times so they know what we need!
I think the problem down here is they don’t lock many pleasure boats. It’s mostly tows.
Back home, the locks know how to lock
pleasure craft. Back home, the lock-masters are chatty and friendly,
much like the Canadian locks.
Well - we made it unscathed thru the first two locks, and ran 67 miles to Two Rivers marina.
We had stopped here on the way down last year. They have a courtesy van, so Pat went to town grocery shopping.
On Tuesday, we did 82 miles and four locks. At one lock they let us lock thru with this small tug.
Our destination was the Keokuk
Yacht Club. When we entered their channel, we were a little concerned
that we would even fit thru, between the boat houses and the slips. But -
we made it!
Keokuk is a very “eclectic” yacht club!
They have a nice deck overlooking the river -
and a very nice view of the river. They had one of the best gas prices we have seen in a while, so we filled on 200 gallons.
They have a very nice bar /
restaurant, and the people were some of the friendliest we have met.
When they heard we were loopers, they were all interested in the trip!
One gentleman helped us tie up. Pat
asked him what the population was there, and he said - “About 12,000,
if there hasn't been a murder!”
Then he
said he had to go over and talk to his girlfriends before he went home
to the wife. He was still talking when we went to bed!
It is Wednesday now, and as I am
typing this, Pat is piloting up the river. Hopefully, our destination
is Muscatine. However, it is almost 90 miles, and two locks. Friends
Mark & Becky live there, and want us to stop by. We met them in
Marathon, when Marc & Michele from Marcs Ark introduced us. It was
Mark & Becky that gave me a ride to Key West so I could get my
flight home.
They just purchased a new boat in Sturgeon Bay, and are planning the Loop in two years.
This is what is ahead of us today - not bad huh??
Oh Well - someone has to do it!
Check back - more to come!
Captn Ken
