3/23/21 The saga continues ...
With the virus taking it's toll on our lifestyles and economy, Lady Chateau didn't return to Ft Lauderdale this winter. It broke our decades-old string of wintering in Florida. But, the next-best option was here in Mobile, AL. We had to complete our Coast Guard dry-dock inspection, and here at Dog River Marina is a great place to do this work. First off, we needed to haul out the vessel ...
They do a great job, and we came out of the water in the first week of December. Every two years, the Coast Guard needs to inspect the hull and the through-hull fittings and a number of other items. They're pretty fair here, so this works out well. After we passed the inspection, there was paint work to do on the hull, anchor chain to maintain, the bottom needed anti-fouling paint, and a number of other items. We weren't in a hurry, which was good. There were some pretty cold days to deal with in January and February. It got down to 19 degrees a couple times ... whew!
Here's our view from on the blocks in the parking lot ...
The last thing to address while we were on the blocks is to paint the bottom. I'm finally finished ...
This is a video of the boat going back in the water. It's kind of long, but may be interesting for those that haven't seen a vessel out of the water ...
Once we returned to the water, I was able to do some topside paint and varnish. Here, an aft door needed to be re-glued and stripped of varnish and re-varnished ...
A little painting ...
A little varnishing ...
3/24 Today was to be our departure day. Unfortunately, one of our 12 volt batteries acted up, and it needed to be changed. It's pretty heavy and it's a bugger to remove and install a new one. Here it is, sitting on a generator, waiting to be lowered in ...
We needed to get fuel prior to departure, so we moved down to the Fuel Dock for the evening ...
3/25 Finally, after a long and stationary winter, we're off. We left much before sunrise, and it's pretty rough in Mobile Bay as we approach Mobile ...
It's not a very nice morning, and it's raining and very windy as we go through Mobile Harbor ...
There's been a number of severe storms that came through the South, and that left the area with a lot of rain and flooding. Here on the Mobile River going north, the River went up about 25 feet in a couple days. That means a lot of current and much debris in the water. There's no relaxing for the Captain when this happens! As it turned out, it wasn't too bad, and we made it to the first lock at about 10:30 PM.
A little storm damage ...
Parts of the River are very bendy and winding. There's spots when we travel 5 miles to make only one in the right direction ...
3/26 Today is another day with high water and much current. We have only 95 miles to go to the first Lock, and that means we get in fairly early in the day. First, we top off the fuel tanks with some less expensive fuel. This gives us the ability to really check our fuel economy as we go forward. If we're using way too much fuel, that means that there's something amiss, and we'll need to investigate. But, all seems to be okay and we settle in for a great evening meal.
3/27 This should be our last "long mileage" day for a while. We'll be going through two Locks and tying off to some pilings for the evening. As we approached the Lock, we could see another round of storms just ahead, with what looked like a funnel cloud. All was good, though!
3/28 We're hoping that now we're further north, the current will slow down. Well, we're not so lucky. It continues to be strong, but there's not so much debris in the water. We're able to stop by a lock with good holding protection and enjoy the rest of a good day. First, we have to negotiate out of the Lock with much debris ...
3/29 Today has us transiting a few locks and being able to stop pretty early again. First, a beautiful morning ...
Because there's a lot of elevation change, this section has locks that are very close together. Here, we're in one lock while we're looking at the next one ...
Our view from inside a Lock ...
This is what part of the lock mechanism looks like ...
As we travelled upstream, we kept wondering why the current continued to be so strong. As we found out, the Tombigbee River flows into the main waterway as it carries all that rain with it. We found this out as we approached a Lock and saw all the debris and current ...
A few miles above that nasty spot, we go through the last lock on the Tombigbee Waterway. It's called the Jamie Whitten Lock. It has a 84 foot rise, and then we move into the Bay Springs Lake, and then the Tennessee River ...
It's turning to Spring here ...
One of the waterway components where the small tributaries flow into the river ...
This brings us to the anchorage for the evening ...
And getting ready for dinner ...
3/30 There are only two locks for us to pass through on the Tennessee River, and the first one is called the Pickwick Lock and Dam. We had a short wait for tow traffic, but then we're through. With the River level so high, there's much water coming through the dam, and it made it kind of rough ...
We see how the high levels are impacting the locals. These structures that are on land would normally have about 15 feet to the River level. Now, they can pull up by boat ...
Because of Mother Nature, this guy now has some issues ...
Our goal for the day is Clifton Marina. It's a great little spot with owners that work hard to make everyone feel like we're home. Here, we're pulling in to our dock ...
The water is very high here, too, so it can be complicating ...
3/31 We spent an extra day here at Clifton to take care of a few mechanical issues. Oil change, cleaning, and other things made it pretty relaxing.
4/1 We're off for Pebble Isle. Today is only about 60 miles, and with the strong current, that should make an early arrival. This is pretty easy driving at this point. Some of us maybe take it too casually?
We'll take on a little more fuel, and the Captain can get in a much-needed run!
4/2 Heading out for the morning from Pebble Isle ...
We'll be stopping at Ken Lake Marina for a great price on fuel. The owner is so nice and the staff is all so friendly.
4/6 We've had a few days off and it's been great. Some running and some cleaning and some fixing ... it's been a good little break. This is a spot for a crew change and one crew is off and the new one is on. Howard, our buddy from St Augustine, rode his motorcycle up in 10 hours to help us. He's got his own boat and he's familiar with our program. It's not that the last one didn't know the program ... we really appreciated their help and we'll miss them, and Howard is great, too!
We loaded up the bike ...
... took on some water, and off we go. It's another short ride for us. We have about 20 miles to get to the Kentucky Lock. Here, there can be much towboat traffic and this could result in a long wait. Luckily, we had only a 75 minute delay, and we were able to scoot through ahead of a tow. In we go ...
And out we go ...
This is an area that does an lot of towboat and marine maintenance. Here, we see a guy that may have been smoking at the wheel ...
After the Lock, we move down to the city of Paducah. It's located at the intersection of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers. The City has recently constructed docks for use by transient and local boaters. The facilities are very, very nice, and we're able to get off for a little walk into town ...
4/7 Today is the day that we'll discover the conditions on the Mississippi River. Because there can be a lot of debris in the water, we won't head out until there's enough light. It's about a 50 mile ride downstream on the Ohio to get to Cairo, and that's where we turn to go up the Mighty Mississippi. We've got the throttles back to save fuel, but we're still moving along pretty fast. As we pass through Cairo, a captain on a towboat spotted us and sent this photo ...
After making the turn, we see that it's really not too bad. There's a fair amount of current, but the debris in the water isn't as bad as we've seen in other years, and this makes it much less stressful. We've go another 50 miles to make it up to Cape Girardeau and our spot for the evening. There appears to be a lot of towboat traffic, and I guess that this is a good sign for the economy.
We're spending the evening on a small canal that's off the main channel. There's very little current and we're pretty protected against the expected storms for the night ...
4/8 It's off to the current! We seem to have lost just a little bit of upstream speed in this section to Kaskaskia. It's a ride of about 68 miles to a lock off the main Mississippi channel that is on the Kaskaskia River. It's a great tie for a secure evening, so it works very well for us. But first, there's some debris to avoid. Here's a few trees that were stuck at a bridge ...
And here's a few that are getting ready to get stuck on a bridge ...
It's good to be tied up for the day ...
4/9 Today is a beautiful day. We were to be off before 6:00AM, but the main propeller shaft stuffing box was talking to us. This is where the main drive shaft penetrates the hull, and it needs to keep out the outside water, but it needs to be lubricated. There's packing material that goes around the shaft that jammed into a structure and this results in not too much water coming in. Well, for us, this material has worn out, and this resulted in us sinking! Well, not really, but we need to fix this. So, we'll have to add new material to seal up the leak. It was a 1/2 hour job, but we finished it and we're underway.
It seems as though the current has increased, and there's more areas of debris. Because of the strong current, the River churns and boils, and we'll have to keep steering by hand to keep us on course. This makes for a tiring and anxious stretch at the wheel. Fortunately, both skippers are up to the task.
This stretch is nice because there's more signs of civilization, and we're getting closer to the first lock. After the first lock, we're hoping that the current and the debris slow down.
As we push north, there's been very little tow traffic. But, we encounter the Tom Berringer, chugging along, too. He's pushing 15 empty barges and making roughly the same spared that we are. He's pushing hard, and this make a very large stand wave behind him. This causes us to bounce and roll and steer and slow down. All of this means we're unable to pass. So, it's three hours of torture! Here he is ...
Fortunately, he stops in St Louis for his destination, and we're able to make it up to our first lock on the Mississippi. Here we are, approaching Lock #27 ...
And a look as we head out to the north ...
After a short delay, we're able to scoot right through, and be on our way.
When we left Mobile, all systems were properly operating. Somehow, as we left Paducah and were making our way upstream on the Mississippi, we developed a small leak on the starboard engine raw water pump. It started pretty small, but later increased to a lot more. It was our hope to limp back to Stillwater and fix the problem after completing the trip. Nope, things got worse! We had to fix it up prior to going any further. We had a repair kit aboard, but our nervous captain always likes spares, so we pulled into a riverside marine shop to get some extra parts. It was a rusty barrage with sharp edges hanging out, so we had to be careful tying up. After getting there, we discovered that these guys were so nice and so helpful and so caring. Customer service lives! Shop at Mike's! The captain didn't want to leave the vessel unattended, so he sent the Crew off to the Parts Room in a pick up to solve our issues ...
Here's what it was at the "dock" ...
This is just the kind of place we love! Rust and machinery and great people!
As it turned out, they didn't have the preferred option for our pump, but we got what we needed and shoved off to wait for the Mel Price Lockage.
This area is the confluence of the Upper Mississippi, the Lower Mississippi, the Illinois, and the Missouri Rivers, so it can have a lot of traffic. When we called into the Mel Price Lock, they told us that we'd be number four in line to get through. This would be a pretty long wait for us, but then they called back and said "move up to the lock, and we'll get you through after this south-bounder". Yahoo! Our three hour wait just turned into a twenty minute wait. Thank you Mel Price!
We're trying to keep on a schedule, and after getting through we wanted to tie up to the dock and right away fix our mechanical to be ready to leave in the next morning. Nope ... things got tougher!
Our destination is the Alton Marina, and it's notorious for shoaling in the harbor. The River flows past a breakwater, and the river silt rolls around the corner and ends up on the bottom right where we want to go. The captain had spoken with the Harbormaster who told him "no problem, you're good to go!". Great, we thought. Upon getting past the entrance, we got stuck twice, trying to dock. After finally making it in our dock, we had some dinner and decided that there'd be no engine work tonight! We're beat! Here's what we'll negotiate as we exit the Harbor ...
4/10 We're so lucky to have a couple good friends in the area that stop by to see us as we pass though. This time, our buddy offered to drive over to help with our pump issue. Here's the look at the pump on the engine ...
We all put on our work clothes and dug in ...
There was a little head scratching and some thinking and a lot of discussion, but "we got 'er done!" The pump was re-installed and everything worked! (amazing!)
4/11 We're off for Louisiana, MO. Being above the Mel Price Lock means that the current should slow a little and the debris should be less. As we see, it's getting better! There's much towboat traffic and we have two locks to pass through, but we got lucky on both of them and we zipped right through. Here's our spot for the evening ...
And the view ...
4/12 We have about 85 miles for the day and four locks, so we need to get off from the dock pretty early. The debris has picked up a lot in this area and we don't want to travel in limited visibility, so we'll wait until there's enough light to shove off. There's four locks and a lot of traffic, but it worked out pretty well because we were able to make it to Keokuk, IA, in time to see a couple friends at the Yacht Club ...
Robbie enjoys a beer now and again, so we got him a Lady Chateau beer mug ...
4/13 We don't have far to go on this day, so the captain got in a run, we changed generator oil, and went into town and got the "Shot". Then, it's time to pull the power and off to Burlington ...
It's a pretty nice Riverfront and the wall here is great, but there's few cleats for tying. It took a while, but we made it in and secured everything in time for a great dinner ...
A nice view of a spectacular bridge ...
4/14 A passing tow awoke the Captain pretty early. After seeing that we had an opportunity to jump ahead at the first Lock, we were off at just after 4:00AM. There's virtually no debris in this section, so we feel pretty good about night-time travel. We jumped into the first Lock ahead of the tow, and that saved us much time. So, it's off to LeClaire, IA! Well, sort of. We're riding along and we hear a sudden "BOOM" and the starboard engine revved up to full throttle. After pulling it back we ran to the stern to see if we had hit something. Nothing bobbed up and we were in the center of the channel and a little higher than normal pool, so the Captain ran down to the engine room for inspection and assessment. "Well", he thought to himself. "I've never seen that before!". There was water gushing out of where the main propeller shaft passes through the hull. Obviously, we couldn't have this happen for very long and stay afloat, so he dug into the problem. A few attempts were made to plug the hole but nothing worked quite well. That's when we put out the "May-Day". The Coast Guard got back with our Crew on the radio to get the details. In the meantime, they called the Muscatine Fire and Rescue, who sent out a couple small boats with pumps to de-water the engine room bilge. While that was happening, a piece of 1/4 inch plywood was found and pushed onto the stuffing box and bolted in. VOILA! Problem solved! Here's a look ...
Because the water intrusion was halted, we didn't really need the rescue boats, but it was good that they followed us. It was our original thought to keep going to a facility that could haul the boat, that was proving tougher that first thought, so we elected to tie to the Muscatine City Dock ...
There were about 25 personnel with fire trucks and ambulances and rescue dive teams. It turned out to be un-needed, but their emergency response plan was spot on!
In contacting them, their first reaction was "no". They haul towboats, and not vessels like us. But two guys came to Muscatine to look, and we talked and thought, and talked some more, and they finally said that they'd help us. YAHOO! Upper Mississippi Fleeting Services is now our hero!
As we're pondering our situation and what happened and why it happened, one questions was ... "is the propeller still there?" The Captain said that it had to be and the Crew said that "maybe not", so the Captain gathered his nerve and put on the gear to get into the water and really check. It's Spring here and the water is pretty cold. Plus, there's so much silt in the water that one can't see your hand right in front of your face. Never-the -less, in he went! Because is was cold and no-visibility, it was a quick check, but there it was. Another Yahoo!
After having a Martini and a little dinner, we were exhausted, and it was time for bed.
4/16 The City was so kind in letting us tie as we worked on our issues. One factor for us is that there is no electricity on the dock, and that meant that we'd have to run a generator for 24 hours straight. With this dilemma in mind, our Crew walked over to City Hall and explained our plight. Voila (again), a half hour later there was a City Representative on the dock, making some calls. In another couple hours, we had electricity! Here's the very professional City Staff helping us out ...
Getting help form the Power Company ...
And Tom with the final connections at the box ...
Everyone here has been so understanding and kind and helpful. Not to mention, the City itself is clean and very well maintained. Although we're very reluctant to leave the vessel, we walked into town for a nice meal and was able to relax a little.
4/17 This town is great for running! It has a beautiful path that leads out of town in both directions. While the Captain is off de-stressing on the path, the Crew keep ever-watchful of our leak. There wasn't much else for us to do other than worry, but we kept busy enough to keep out of trouble.
4/18 The Captain sent a thank you text to all involved to let them know how much we appreciated their help. Later that afternoon the electrician sent back a text letting us know that he would be at The Pearl and 4:00PM. Well, not wanting to miss an opportunity for another thank you, we went up to The Pearl, which was right across the street and railroad tracks. Sure enough ... all of the pillars of the towns characters were there! We had a bunch of fun and met some great people. During the conversation, the electrician asked "how are you getting around?" "We're not", we replied. "I'll drop off a van tomorrow" he shot back. WOW! Are we the luckiest people or what?
4/19 Lady Chateau has been into a dry dock in the past. It was years ago, though, and we really needed to familiarize ourselves with the process. So we hopped into our loaner-van, and made our way to the dry dock. It really meant for tow boats, but it'll work for us. Here's a shot of two dry docks together, bow to stern. We'll be in the far one ...
The procedure is that the dry dock gets "sunk" to a level where the decking is about one foot below our keel. Then the water is pumped out of the side chambers to raise the both of us. Well, that's the theory.
