An Exciting Time with Loopers

It is hard to believe it is October.  At last the weather is wonderful with warm days and cool nights and best of all...Loopers.  We enjoy the boaters as they adventure south in a Quest to complete the Americas Great Loop (AGLCA).  Many just started in Wisconsin or Minnesota and arrived at the Alton Marina where they are greeted by the Harbor Hosts, Patty and Robert with the Maggi happily wagging her tail.
Such excitement as the boats pause here and are full of happy people with our same sense of adventure wondering what the Big River has in store for them the next 300 miles as the Mississippi joins up with the Ohio and the Ohio joins the Cumberland.  As Robert explains in the nightly briefing, this section of the Loop may be the most difficult as boats much anchor on the rivers before reaching the Green Turtle Marina where fuel, food, stores await.
We enjoy telling them of the independence they will feel as they motor down the river with no fuel except 50 miles downstream at Hoppies.  There will be no tow boats to snare them in an emergency except close to St. Louis and close to Green Turtle in Kentucky.  They stock up on food, fuel and water here and have everything they need for the journey.
We take some to stores here and help find parts for items on the boats that they want to be repaired before leaving.
As we tell them of the hazards and fun of being self-sufficient on this portion of the rivers, we get so excited to go with them.  We plan on it about November 1.

LOOPERS ENJOY A GOOD DINNER AT MAC'S IN ALTON, IL

ALTON MARINA UNDER THE CLARK BRIDGE HOME OF LOOPERS FOR A BRIEF STAY

Of course we cannot forget the other wonderful part of October: BASEBALL.  Our Cardinals won the Central division and are in the playoffs with the Pirates.  The first game was October 3 and we won!  If you think people here are not caught up in Cardinal fever just look at the 40,000+ at each game.

Loopers visit Alton Marina

This month of September is busy with our favorite group, The AGLCA Great Loop as groups come down the Mississippi enroute to Great Turtle Marina on the Cumberland River.  The two must stops on the rivers are Hoppies Marina about 50 miles from Alton where there is fuel, water, and a cute town within walking distance.  Best of all they can meet Fern, owner of Hoppies. She and her husband have owned and operated the marina for decades and she knows all about the river downstream and is kind enough to share that knowledge with the Loopers as  they set on the 200 miles with no services or marinas.

Loopers leave Hoppies and make about 50 miles per day requiring anchoring out on the Mississippi and also on the Ohio.  The two locks, Lock 52 and 53 sometimes are backed up with the tows pushing barges to the Mississippi and from the Mississippi up the Ohio.  When the river is higher, they sometimes lower the wickets and boats can simply pass over the lock without stopping.  Now the river is low so they must wait for their turn in the locks.

Every day, new Loopers come to the marina so Maggi and I wander the docks in the afternoon to look for newcomers. We invite them to Robert's 5:30 briefing about going down the river.  We get phone calls and emails from Loopers letting us pass on their experiences for the others behind them.

Our land house goods safe in a big storage unit near Absarokee Montana

Robert gives a briefing every day at the marina about the trip down the river

The Orinoco Readies for the Bahamas

This is September, 2013.  After being away from the blog for a couple of years, we are getting ready to head south in October.
September finds the mariners at home on the good ship Orinoco having sold the house in Idaho and moving all the remaining items in storage in Montana.  Now we are free to roam the rivers and oceans at will with no house to worry about all winter.
This is Looper season with many boaters sharing the adventure of the Great Loop coming down river from the Great Lakes and Chicago on the Illinois River to join the mighty Mississippi.
We are currently at the Alton Marina which is the finest marina anywhere!  We are proud to serve as Harbor Hosts for the AGLCA (America Great Loop Cruisers Association)and as such we meet and greet fellow loopers and introduce them to the interesting things around town, take some to the grocery store and to Mac's Restaurant for the $15 steak.
Robert is installing a water maker for the Bahamas so we can anchor out and be independent of the expensive water we have to buy in the Bahamas.

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.