After we picked up Donny and Marilyn Mitchell in Memphis, we continued down the Mighty Mississippi and stopped in Greenville, MS and spent the night in the yacht club.  A delicious meal was ours to have in the new club house/restaurant that was built of concrete to be able to wash out the building after the next flood.  The building was high on the bluff and it was hard to believe that the river was over the walls there but they showed up the marks of the high water.

Next stop was in Vicksburg but there were no marinas there just a big turning basin and commercial docking for tows and barges.  The Corps of Engineers had many floating barges of living quarters in the basin undergoing repairs and updates.  We found a nice place to anchor behind a row of barges.  The evening was enjoyable with fishing and a meal onboard.

At last we made it to the lock for the Atchafalaya River and dropped anchor in the round area beside the dam for the night.  Early the next morning we moved into the lock area and we were in Old River which was the Atchafalaya.

It was good to get off of the fast flowing Mississippi with the giant tows pushing 42 barges with their three engines puffing out black smoke.  They looked like a big freight train coming right at us.  The sound of the high pitches engines frightened Maggi and she hid her head in Robert's arm when she heard the sound.

Orinoco moves south down the Mississippi River

The good ship Orinoco is on the move again after a two year stay in Alton, Illinois. Robert took a two year consultating job with General Dynamics and on April 1st we left our good friends at the marina and headed south to Memphis.

After a great stop at Hoppies for fuel (4.39/gal), we left and headed south into the current at about 41/2 mph. it is great to get a push down the river. We encountered tows pushing barges and one trawler creeping upstream at 3 to 5 mph while we churned downstream at 13 mph.

Our first night we spent anchored in the Little Diversion canal and was pleasantly surprised at how peaceful it was. We did not roll in the wake of the tows passing or hear any noise.

At 0700 the rested crew cranked up the mighty Cat engines and motored into the aggressive current.