Spring 2017 Ft Lauderdale to Stillwater, MN

4/24/17 Ahh, Springtime. Just as the birds follow their destiny, so will Lady Chateau. The ice has left the St Croix River and it's time for us wrap up that power cable, check the Lake Okeechobee water level, and cast off the lines. We're underway!

This year, our good friend from MPYH has offered his help in getting us north. Ken flew in on Friday, helped with the last charter, and is ready to be chained to the wheel to drive all day long. We've loaded fuel, bought the groceries, checked the charts, and ... here we go! We'll make the 6:00AM lift at the Sunrise bridge and head for the first lock at Stuart.

The day started very foggy, which means it's calm. The forecast was for 25 mph winds, so the conservative captain elected to travel on the ICW for the day. As it turned out, it worked out well because it was very windy, and we got to see the sights of the ICW.

Here's LC at Coconut Bay, resting before a long journey ...

One of the nicer bridges in Palm Beach County ...

Going past Mar a Lago ...

Approaching downtown Palm Beach ...

A huge yacht service facility ...

We made it to the St Lucie Lock with just enough time to re-hydrate and get some rest for tomorrow's challenge of crossing Lake Okeechobee in shallow water (with a nervous captain!) ...

4/25   Wahoo, we made it! Well, at the outset, it doesn't sound like a big deal, but for us onboard in shallow water we were kind of concerned. From Ft Lauderdale, we go north to Stuart and take a left across Lake Okeechobee. This brings us to Ft Myers. The Lake is a reservoir for fresh water for south Florida, and it needs to be monitored for depth. If it gets too much water, the surrounding dikes could erode and fail. If there's too little water, the surrounding commerce is affected. On Tuesday morning, the Lake level was 11.81 feet above sea level, and that gave us less than 6 feet of draft. We went across in 2012 when the level was 11.83, so we thought we'd give it a try. As mentioned, we made it! We bumped bottom only once, and that surely got our attention.

So out into the Lake we go, but we had to pull back the throttles because, for the most part, we had only a foot or two under the keel. We engaged the auto-pilot and talked about how we could better the world ...

We're making our way back to the western shore of the Lake ...

Things were better after we left the Lake, but we knew that we shouldn't

                                                                          do any swimming ...

On to Moore Haven Lock, and headed downstream ...

4/26 ... We had a very pleasant evening at Riverview Marina, but daylight found us back underway ...

Down to Ortona Lock ...

The view going down ...

Through the Fort Denaud Bridge. It's an old one where the operator walks to the center of the bridge and doe's the operations ...

There's always a qualified Captain at the wheel ...

Just relaxing ...

Past Ft Myers city docks ...

Finally, down to our anchorage by Useppa Island for the evening ...

A little relaxation ...

All capped off by a great sunset ...

4/27   Today will be a relatively short day. We're traveling only to Longboat Key in Sarasota. We have a couple very good friends that keep their boat at that resort. They're from the St Louis area and we met a few years ago while we were dry-docked in Mobile. They were bringing their vessel down for the winter for the first time. We've visited when we're in the area, and this year they've berthed at the very nice Longboat Key Club. We had such a good time that I forgot to take a pic ... oops!

On the way we pass another of these old walk-to-the-center operated bridges at Blackburn Point ...

4/28  Another easy day, and this one is to Clearwater. We're still on the ICW, so it's slow and busy. Going past the Sunshine Skyway Bridge ...

Back off Tampa Bay into the ICW ...

4/29  We've made it to Clearwater Beach Marina, but we're stuck. Well, stuck isn't the correct choice of words, but we're here for a while. The wind has picked up and that makes the offshore conditions a little uncomfortable. The Sunday night report had the offshore wave height at about 8 feet. That's too much for us, so here we sit. We rented a vehicle and did a couple errands. We've gotta stock up on food, and a well fed crew is a happy crew!

The marina is pretty commercial, and there are many boats that'll take you fishing. Head boats, sport fishing boats, pontoon boats ... they're all here. Plus, there's a couple dinner-cruise type vessels. Here's a partial view ...

Whew, it's been a long day just doing very little, and it's time to relax and watch the sun go down ...

5/2  We've spent a couple days here in Clearwater, and we really want to get going. It looks like the weather will work for us tomorrow, so we'll give it a shot.

Lady Chateau at the dock in Clearwater ...

Some of the Harbor ...

5/3 Yep, it's time to go. The weather looked pretty good for getting across the Gulf of Mexico, so we'll give it a try. We've got 164 state miles from the sea buoy at Clearwater, to the sea buoy at Carrabelle, so we'll need to get an early start. We're up at 4:00AM and of the dock to a nice morning. It takes a little navigating to get around the crab pots that are close to the Clearwater inlet, but we made it, and were treated to a beautiful sunrise ...

Then it's on to the important stuff, like catching the sunshine ...

Of course, we need to "show our colors" ...

It was a pretty good ride, but as we got closer to our destination of Apalachicola, the weather started coming in. 

Fortunately, we had enough time to safely get inshore and make our way down the ICW to our dockage destination. We'll have a little details to look after like getting fuel, checking engine filters, and cleaning up after a long offshore ride, but that's okay for us. This part is in our back pocket!

5/4  Apalachicola is a very old, seafood and cotton town. Today, the cotton has left, but the seafood remains. There's the retail trade of the restaurants in town, and the sully-side of the guys that get the seafood. Here's a couple locals ...

Cinco de Mayo ...  The rain has ended, and we have a beautiful morning ...

Time for taking on fuel, and making a new friend on the fuel dock ...

At the fuel dock ...

I forgot to snap a picture of the town, so this was last minute as we were leaving ...

Ken's always thinking about real estate, and he thinks he sees an opportunity ...

It was really, really windy on the ride to Panama City. We saw a few gusts in the 35 knot range, so we were very thankful to be inshore instead of bouncing around in the Gulf. Our destination marina is the City Docks at Panama City. They're old and we've been staying here for many years, but we just love being here. Especially as the sun is going down ...

They're very accommodating here at the marina, and Ken really appreciates the free morning coffee to get his motor running ...

And, we're leaving the dock office, off to Ft Walton Beach ...

Panama City is somewhat of an international shipping port, so we get a chance to see some of the big guys ...

At Panama City, there's two large bays that are our route: the East Bay and the West Bay. Here, we're looking back towards Panama City ...

Here, we're leaving the West Bay and returning to the narrow ICW ...

We follow a long stretch of this narrow portion, then re-enter the Choctawhatchee Bay ...

We saw this guy, paddling with his dog ...

We spent an evening at the Ft Walton City Docks. It's a great little dock that the city has provided for the boaters to access the restaurants and shops, and stay over nite, too. When we pulled in, there was a jazz festival of local high schools showcasing some of their talent. Very nice!

Morning departure at Ft Walton ...

5/7 Today it's beautiful. Clear sky and nice temps. To get to Mobile, we first pass Pensacola and Navarre ...

Passing the Pensacola lighthouse ...

This is very close to the Navy base where the Blue Angels practice. We didn't see them today, but the fighters pass so close that you can almost see them grinning as they're buzzing us.

 We continue towards Mobile down the ICW. That brings us into Mobile Bay and  25 mile ride up to Dog River. The wind was pretty strong from the west, and that gave us a little roley-poley (that I don't like!), but it was a beautiful day. The birds have figured out that as the boats are moving, there's a chance that the propellers kick up some fish. They follow us for miles and miles, looking for lunch (and pooping on us, too ... @#$%)

Mobile is a major shipping port, and the shipping channel extends from the Gulf, up about 30 miles, to the mouth of the harbor. The Bay is generally about 10 feet deep, so a channel has been dredged to accommodate the ships. It needs constant maintenance, and here we see some of the work ...

We stay at Dog River Marina. It's a place known by everyone who travels this area. It was owned by a guy named Sonny, and he was an icon for the boating industry in this area. Unfortunately, he passed this winter, but the superior service and hospitality that he offered will continue on in his staff that he left behind.

5/10 Our journey will take us on the Mississippi River through St Louis. That area had 11 inches of rain, and it's now flooding the River. That makes travel for us very, very difficult, so we've elected to stay a couple days in Mobile. While we were there, we worked on a generator issue with the cooling system. There's a little part that costs $4.00 that needs to be replaced, but Onan tells us that it'll be over a month to get it. We can leave without fixing this, so we took the day to do a little fabrication on the thermostat housing, and flush out the cooling system. Mobile is an area that has the parts we need and the Marina has a car that we can use, so it turned out great. But, we've gotta keep going on our trip, so we shoved off at 4:45 AM and headed towards downtown Mobile just as the sun is coming up ...

Towards the Harbor ...

Past a new Navy ship, just living port ...

This is where the ship was built ...

We're now on the Mobile River, and the traffic changes to a lot of barges. I think my first car is in there someplace ...

This is the 14 Mile Bridge. It somewhat signals that we're leaving civilization ...

                                      

We have about 113 mile up the River to get to the first lock at Coffeeville. It's a very old lock that's seen a lot of traffic, but it'll get us upstream. We got there just as a tow was going in to lock down ...

It tok a little extra time, but we made it into our "dock" for the evening just after dark. Bobby's Fish Camp is the "dock" and it's not much, but it has electricity and we don't have to anchor.

5/11  Out early with no fog ... yahoo! Our captain is happy!

It's a beautiful morning ...

Today is a 100 mile ride to Demopolis, Alabama, and the only lock of the day for us ...

We recently have had to wait at this lock, but we zip right through and into the Yacht Basin ...

5/12 ... We're off and into a fishing tournament (argh @#$%) Fortunately, we're off early enough that they're all still on the dock when we leave. We have only 70 miles to go to get to our evening destination of Bay Springs Marina, but there's 7 locks, too, and that's what can stop our progress. Although we're out in the middle of nowhere, Ken keeps working ...

Each section of jurisdiction for the Corps of Engineers seems to have different interpretations of the regulations. Here on the Tenn-Tom, lifejackets are required to be worn during lockage, and they look nice, don't you think?

Approaching another lock ...

The lockage procedure is all done by gravity. Flooding doors are opened and the water rushes in to fill the chamber. Here we see some of the turbulence ...

The final lock of the day is named Jamie Whitten Lock. It's rise is 84 feet, and it's the fourth highest in the country ...

A photo opportunity for both of us ...

A look around shows us how big this is ...

5/14 ...  We had a great evening of music and burritos, and today we have a very nice and easy run to Clifton, TN. First, a little smoke on the water as we enter the Divide Cut portion ...

It's a stretch that's about 25 miles long that was excavated to connect the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee Waterway. It's said that there was more earth moved for this than there was for the Panama Canal project. After leaving, we approach the Pickwick area. It's a beautiful place with clean water, great marinas, and huge homes ...

Aqua Yacht Harbor ...

Grand Harbor Marina ...

Pickwick Lake ...

My next home ...

And down towards Pickwick Lock ...

Every lock has a sentry ...

Heading out ... 

We then travel a couple miles and encounter an interesting vessel. It's Pegasus, the solid rocket booster recovery vessel. They track the expended boosters for the rocket program and go out to get them for re-use. Gotta love recycling!

We'll pass a number of sand dredges. Apparently, the sand at the bottom of this river is highly valued...

Here's an old mansion that was used as General Grant's headquarters during the Civil War ...

Clifton is our spot for the evening. It's a small town, but it's got a great spot for us ...

The marina was dredged out of the bank. Here we can see the tops because of the high water ...

And into our spot ...

Our hosts are Gene and Sonia, and they make us feel really appreciated. Sonia is our chef for the night, and I thought I'd help out ...

5/15 ... It's another beautiful morning on the Tennessee River. A little traffic ...

Some great scenery ...

And a great captain!

We stopped for fuel at Mile 96 at a marina that's a little off the channel. As we're pumping, the electricity for the area went out, causing the fueling to stop. It look almost two hours to complete the job, and that kept us on the river until after dark, but it was a nice sunset ...

5/16 Well, once again, Mother Nature has placed her hand on our travel plans ... @#$%! We were hoping to get a few additional crew members to help on the run from Paducah to St Louis, but it didn't turn out that way. Ken had to get off and get back to real life, so we called in the Super-Crew ... Marcia! We had a couple days to sit until Marcia flew in, and this is where we are at Kentucky Dam Marina ...

Marcia's flight was scheduled to get in at 4:00PM, but things happen and she finally arrived at 10:30PM, but she made it!

The conditions on the Mississippi still aren't the best, so we took an extra day for groceries and some vessel clean-up. It rained on and off, but I was able to run, and that always helps! Saturday evening was a dinner that couldn't have been better at a restaurant. It was Asian Chicken, fit for an emperor ...

5/21  We can wait no longer! It doesn't appear that the Mississippi will improve much more than it has. So, with much trepidation, we're shoving off! We've paid the dockage bill and checked in with the lock, and they tell us that it'll be 4-5 hours until they can run us down. Well, we can live with that, so at about 2:00, we cast our lines and make our way towards the Kentucky Lock ...

Here's the last tow that we've been waiting for: the Jinx B Smith, coming out as we're going in ...

Our happy crew ...

It's an easy 22 downstream miles to downtown Paducah, where we'll spend the evening. We'll need to be here at 5:00AM so we can reach our next spot in daylight. But first, some of the commercial scenery as we approach town ...

Although there's currently no marinas downtown, the City has plans to have them installed pretty soon. Until then, we have to be a little creative and stay at a double-secret spot, but don't tell anyone! ...

5/22  We're off at 5:00AM, and the strong winds of yesterday have left us another great sunrise on the Ohio River ...

The two locks that are on our route are sometimes operational, and sometimes, not. Today, the water is high enough that we go right over the dam. Yeah, it freaks me out, too, every time we do it. This is the lock house that runs the whole deal ...

And, I'm fascinated by trains ...

We've got 52 miles down the Ohio, and 49 miles up the Mississippi to get to Cape Girardeau, our spot for the evening. We were pretty concerned about the debris in the river with the high water, but the first 20 miles were very good, and the last 29 we're really too bad. There's a secret little hidey-hole that works great for us to get off the River in no current, and have something to tie to so we don't have to throw out a couple anchors. It's not fancy yachting, but it works for us!

The view towards the Cape ...

We're tied up early enough to enjoy a little pre-dinner refreshments and apps, and then spark up the grill for that pork tenderloin that we've been salivating over for a week. That's the Mississippi off in the background ...

5/22  We got in an early start (again). We would really like to get up to Hoppies, just south of St Louis, but we won't know what the debris and current are on the River until we give it a shot for a while. Unfortunately, the current is very, very strong, and we can't make it to Hoppies in the daylight. We won't travel after dark on this stretch of the trip, so we'll pull into Kaskaskia Lock and an early quitting time. We can catch up on a couple things and have a good nights sleep before a real tough run upriver to St Louis. 

Kaskaskia Lock is on a tributary off the Mississippi, and the Corps of Engineers allows boaters to tie off on a section. It's really a great spot for us to spend the evening ...

It's time for sleep, soon, but not before another sunset ...

5/23  We have only about 40 miles to get to Hoppies, but the River is so fast that we're sometimes making only about 5 miles per hour. It's so frustrating, but the River has some beautiful scenery ...

Yahoo, we made it to Hoppies! It's not a fancy pants kind of place, but it's an icon on the River. Fern and Hoppies know everyone and everything about the river. Besides, it's somewhat of a sanctuary for those of us that aren't fast enough to get on more miles in the day.

The River was at flood levels, again, and they had about 9 feet of muddy, nasty water in the ground level of their house. Here's Hoppie with his custom house-cleaning shoes ...

And Fern, zipping around and helping ...

The water level was at about 42 feet, which put it up and over the bank. When we were there, the river level was about 32, so imagine an additional 10 feet! Usually, it's about a 20 foot walk up the hill. It's amazing how tough this can be ...

Our spot ...

5/25  We have another 25 miles of heavy current to get to the first lock. Here, the Missouri river dumps into the Mississippi and the ads to the flow. We're looking forward to that psychological boost as we greet the day ...

Driving towards St Louis ...

And past the Arch ...

St Louis is an old town, with some very cool, old bridges ...

And some interesting "art" ...

The first lock on the Mississippi is on the Chain of Rocks Canal. We're fortunate to zip right in with a tow that's also making his way north ...

Looking upstream in the lock ...

There's one more lock for the day, and it's called Mel Price. It's right at Alton, IL, and it's kind of a sad tale about the Corps of Engineers. A huge amount of time and money was spend to build this about thirty years ago. Prior to the new lock, the tow traffic would back up for days because it was the confluence of the Lower Mississippi, the Upper Mississippi and the Illinois Rivers, so there was a lot of traffic. When the lock was built, the engineers had the great idea of building a large chamber for the tows, and the small chamber for the other traffic. Unfortunately, it's usually the case the small chamber doesn't operate for various reasons. I think it's because the lock guys are lazy, but who knows? Anyway, we had to wait for two and one-half ours to get through.

The approach into the lock ...

And out past Alton and the Alton Marina ...

We're headed for Grafton and a meeting with our good friends Dean and Linda. We saw them in Sarasota, and we get to see them again! This time with a photo, too!

We hopped in their car and drive to the top of the hill for dinner and a great view ...

Way down to the marina ...

LC at the dock ...

And a great view as the sun goes down during the final refreshment of the evening ...

5/26  Up and at 'em, headed for Louisianna, MO ...

There's often many, many miles between bridges on this stretch, and then the only way across is onboard a ferry. Here's one that operates right next to lock 25 ...

Some of the houses in the high water ...

There's a connection that we've made over the years, and it's a great spot for us. On this stretch, there's not any marinas for us to stay in, so we need to be creative. Many years ago we connected with a fleet captain and he suggested we stay at his harbor. Now, this is a bi-annual stop for us. It secure, out of the current, and I get to watch the trains. Unfortunately, the room service needs some work ...

5/27  We're off to Keokuk, IA. First, a little mist a Lock 22 ...

And some breakfast ...

Breakfast is needed to keep up our strength to get out and catch lines when it's very, very windy ...

There's always some old architecture on the river ...

We made it through the last lock of the day and turned in towards Keokuk Yacht Club ...

Keokuk Yacht Club is where we have another great friend. Capt Robbie is an icon of the area, and it seems that everyone knows him. He gets to play Santa in the winter, too!

5/28  Today is a very, very long day. We want to be back to Stillwater by Thursday, and that means that we need to put on many miles on today's leg. Tomorrow, we'll be getting fuel by Quad Cities, and we want to be there early so we're not worries about not making all the locks, and that means off the dock at 4:00AM and five locks areas of us. A little sunrise over Ft Madison, IA ...

And a pass through the interesting double-decker bridge. It has vehicles on the top and trains on the bottom. ...

Today was a terrible day for the locks. We had to wait and wait and wait, and that makes the day very long, but we were pretty happy to be tied off in Le Claire at midnight.

5/29  Whew, although we didn't get much sleep, we're happy to sleep in until 6:00AM! We have a 12:00 appointment with Fred from Fred's Gas to unload the last bit of fuel to get home. With the River running so fast, we're really pouring it out of the exhaust pipe! I had forgotten that this is Memorial Weekend, and that people other than os take the day off, and that included Fred. He's being so nice to do an early return from a trip with his family so he could help us out. Fred's alright in our book!

He had to sit down to calculate our bill. What does that mean?

At the Le Claire dock ...

It's a late start to the day and we've got almost 90 miles to go, so we quickly do our fueling and head upstream. Just above Lock 12 is a spot for hundreds of white Pelicans ...

Our destination is Dubuque, IA, and it took us 'till after midnight, but we made it. Here, we're just shoving off as the sun is coming up ...

Today, the lock gods were very kind to us ... there was no waiting! We were able to reach Lacrosse and after some debate about continuing on, we decided to pull in and see Steve at the Boat Harbor. He's been here as long as we've been going up and down, and it's so nice to see him every time.

Enjoying a sunset at the dock ...

5/31 Our last day! (maybe?) It's a beautiful day, too, but very windy. That's okay, because we'll be home in 137 miles. We shoved off at 4:10AM because we saw that the first lock would be open. Unfortunately, the second lock had a 2 1/2 hour wait. But, the rest of the day was great and we kept on moving.

As we approached Lake Pepin, we were thinking that it'd be pretty rough because the winds were gusting to 30 mph, but it wasn't too bad at all ...

We're excited to get home, but there's still time for cleaning!

And driving!

It was a beautiful ride across the Lake, and we made it through Red Wing and Lock 3 without a wait, and then we reached Prescott, WI, and the St Croix River ... ahhhhh!! Clean water, no current, and no debris! The sun set's so late here, and we had daylight until after 10:00. That got us home into little Stillwater and the end of our journey. It's so nice to be home and have had another great trip with Ken and Mom!

Of course, we had to have a welcoming committee!

And a Mudslide!!! Yahooooo ...