Sunday August 13, 2017
And we are at the
famous Hoppies Marina
We woke up this morning to find it too foggy to get underway at
0600, but thirty minutes later, it was clearing. We popped out of the Kaskashia River to find
we were behind a tow and gaining slowly on him, a first for us on the
Mississippi. He reported he was maxed
out on speed, and it took a hour for us to finally get ahead and clear of
him. It was a clear, dry, and very temperate
day, and we ended up on the flying bridge to enjoy the weather. Mary researched some sites along the way on
her smart phone. We made our best
overall speed today, 5 MPH and arrived at Hoppies Marina at 1430. This ramshackle place is three old barges
lashed end-to-end and tied to shore via a walkway, and it is famous amongst the
long range boating enthusiasts who transit this part of the Great Loop which
circles the US east coast up to the Great Lakes, and down to the Gulf Coast via
the route we have traced from Alabama in this boat. It is the only Marina on this river south of
the St Louis area and is used as a jumping off point for “loopers” heading
south. The town of Kimmswick here is a touristy little place for bored St Louians to come for the day. We ate a lunch/dinner at theBue Owl. Tomorrow we need to get moving
early so we can hopefully get through the busy St Louis area and through the
Chain of Rocks lock and canal and then the Melvin Price lock to finally arrive
at a marina, all told about 60 miles.
Given the current, this is ambitious, and we are expecting delays at the
locks.
