The Waters of the Mighty Mississippi are Finally Going Down (Again)

I have good news.  Work has begun on the SaSea Sally in earnest…….but there still is a lot to be done yet.

Our original Great Loop departure date was June 1 but two epic floods have delayed us quite a bit.  Last weekend (6/15/2013) the water receded so Port Charles Marina is now dry and the disruption to their operation “is water under the bridge”.  Our target for departure is now the end of July.

The lady sewing the new canvas top arrived and started cutting fabric Mon. June 17 and the radio installer showed up for an hour on that Monday also to “go over what needs to be done”.  Real progress.  The new electronics have to be installed and integrated with the 4-5 other older electronic navigation components.   

After Port Charles finishes their list of “To Dos” which they feel will be done the week of 6/24, the canvas top fabricator finishes her work which she estimates will take another two weeks, and the electronics installer finishes his work (a week whenever he shows up), we will bring the boat to Louisiana.  Once we are back here we’ll need approximately 3 weeks to clean, sort, re-arrange items, load/unload stuff from the house and Mary A II and provision the boat. 

Then we’ll leave Louisiana heading south, presumably around the end of July.  We'll spend several days in the St Louis area, then head down the Mississippi to Paducah, a 6-8 day trip from St Charles.  Due to losing nearly two months of cruising in 2013 due to major flooding, we are not planning on cruising  any part of the OH River except the 60 miles from the confluence with the Mississippi (at the southernmost tip of Illinois) to Paducah, KY.  The silver lining to our delay is Sally can swim daily at our marina pool!

Once in Paducah, we will head up the Tennessee or Cumberland River to Grand Rivers and Eddyville, KY.  Then on to Clarksville, TN, Nashville, TN and 50-100 miles beyond Nashville; then back to Grand Rivers, KY .   Bus and air service from STL is very good to most of the Cumberland stops. 

Once we are back at Grand Rivers, KY, we’ll head south on the Tennessee River, then east and northeast to Chattanooga and Knoxville, TN.  We then head “down” the Tennessee for the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous at Rogersville AL (Joe Wheeler State Park) for the week of Oct 13-18.  After the Rendezvous we’ll turn south on the Ten-Tom Waterway in NE Mississippi and follow the Mississippi/Alabama border to Mobile, AL .

Almost everyone who had scheduled a leg previously (before our delays) has had an opportunity to “re-up” for their original leg or an alternate leg.  If you were not signed up before and are interested in doing a leg with us this summer or fall, please let me know.  Let us know if you’d like to join us.

When the River goes down, it just comes back up!

Woopie!!!  Sounds like a broken record but at least it didn't rain much today.

Federal officials fear lengthy flood for Louisiana, Clarksville

Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2013 at 12:41 pm

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Weather Service (NWS) expect current Mississippi River flooding in Pike County to last many days if not longer.
MoDOT officials on Saturday, June 1 did not know how that would affect the closure of the Champ Clark Bridge over the river at Louisiana.
“Once the Mississippi River crests next week, river levels are not expected to fall for many days as flood control reservoirs in Missouri and Iowa will continue to release water into the Mississippi for weeks to come,” the Corps said.
There is also a 30 to 40 percent for more rain Tuesday night, June 4 through Friday, June 7.
“This is a particularly worrisome pattern as any more rain on our rivers already in flood only makes things worse,” the Corps said.
NWS hydrologic predictions show the river between 24 feet and 24.5 feet through Saturday, June 8. The river crested on April 22 in Louisiana at 24.99 feet.
The Abel’s Quik Shop in south Louisiana was closed on Friday night and was surrounded by flood waters Saturday morning.

Finally, the River level goes down!

Finally the river level has gone down to the “high water” level, not major or minor flood level any more—hooray!  Larry Chamberlain, Ron Newton, I was able to take the boat to the marina in St Charles Saturday May 18.  The water was still quite high but conditions were not as bad as I feared.  Ron also brought his "map chip" so my chart plotter display showed exactly where the river channel was even if the buoys were underwater, which a few were.

Port Charles Marina had SaSea Sally out of the water by Friday 5/24 but really hadn’t started working on the boat by Friday 5/24—you have to remember Port Charles is a boat yard and boat yards are on their own time zones.  In all fairness, there were a lot of folks who wanted things done to their boats by Memorial Day weekend but that was for naught as it has rained heavily all three days of this holiday weekend.

Port Charles has a long list of items to install and repair, four pages worth of "to dos".  There are two other parties who have major projects--Kate's Covers is fabricating a new canvas enclosure for the fly bridge (up stairs steering station) and Cory, from Lake of the Ozarks, is installing my new Si-Tex active AIS, Garmin radar and two Garmin chart plotters and integrating them with the other existing electronics on board.

All I know for sure is I planned to have the SaSea Sally to Port Charles the third week of April, before their "busy season" started.  By the calendar, SaSea Sally was four weeks late getting there.  Logic says that puts me four weeks behind my June 1 departure schedule but that may be optomistic due to the fact the busy summer boating season has now started.  Probably, leaving Louisiana around the Fourth of July Holiday is a good guess when we will depart if all goes well.

We'll keep you posted on our schedule as we know more!

The Water Receeds!

"E Dock" where the SaSea Sally is moored.

The water level at Louisiana hit the fourth highest level in history this April.  This flooding was due to a HEAVY rain in Mid April; like 4-6+ inches from mid-Missouri to Chicago.  The river came up very quickly over a few days cresting around the 20th of April.

New way to get to the front door of Two Rivers Marina

The US54 highway bridge closed, the IL levy US54 runs through was closed with 6-8' of sand and sand bags, the inventory in the Two Rivers Marina store and parts area were moved to high ground in MO as was all the machinery in the marina shop.  The drywall in the marina office was cut out, the cabins were put on flat bed trailers, and the place shut down three weeks ago--IT IS STILL SHUT DOWN. 

I wasn't able to get to the SaSea Sally for a couple weeks and can't now without knee boots.  The water went down nicely early last week but late last week we got another 1-2+" of rain; now I need my boots again to reach the boat.

From the Marina office looking north toward E-Dock

All this flooding has definitely delayed our June 1 target to depart on our Great Loop trip.  That isn't all bad as we have been catching up on our "to do" lists!  The boat still has to go to St Charles for 2-3 weeks worth of work.  After they finish in St Charles, we have to bring the boat back to Louisiana on a "shake down" cruise, provision it, and make final departure plans. 

Our current target to leave Louisiana is around June 20th, subject to the next revision!

Cabins hoisted on a flat bed trailer by crane before the flood.

Please remember that these pictures are AFTER the river went down around 3' and AFTER the US 54 bridge was reopened.

Planning and preparing in South Florida

I have been in Florida for 4 weeks and have several more weeks to go in the balmy weather.  Sally and I drove to Florida with a stop over in Mobile, AL to see friends Jean and David Dorris.  We were in Orlando for 5 days then went to Satellite Beach FL to visit Brenda and Dave Johnson at their new condo.  I had noticed a "clicking" sound from the engine that got severe as we drove to Satellite Beach so I took the car to the Buick dealer to get checked out.  The car wasn't making any noises, so I drove 30 miles to try to replicate the noise from the evening before.  Finally when stopped and in gear it made a few clicks.  They diagnosed a cracked flywheel.  The dealer had one in stock and was able to replace it within 26 hours!

We then visited with Barb and Jan Moore in Port St Lucie and then picked my mom up at Uncle Woody's and Aunt Shirley's in Ft Lauderdale.  Next stop Key Largo.  Sally headed home to take care of paperwork and taxes while I went to the Miami Boat Show for 3 full days. 

Two Garmin GPS chart plotters and a new Garmin radar unit were purchased along with a dozen other smaller items.  I also purchased a number of items at the Rotary Nautical Flea Market at Founders Park here in the Keys.

Loopers Pat and John Pitney, cousins to Dr Phil Pitney, have been in the area and we've had the opportunity to catch up on their adventures.  They leave Key Largo tomorrow for Miami which is their jumping off point for several weeks in the Bahamas before they resume their nor

Tomorrow, I'll be getting my newest, old boat, a 10' 2002 Nautica inflatable boat with 15 hp motor.  This will be our new dinghy.

Sally will be flying back to south FL March 11.  We'll get mom back to Uncle Woody's and head north for a few Cardinals spring training games in Jupiter on the way home.

Much remains to be done before we shove off but there is no need to stress about things.  While we have a target departure date of June 1, 2013, we'll go when we are ready!

America's Great Loop Cruisers Assn Fall Rendezvous

Sunday, Oct. 20, I left Sally, my house guest Tom Treece, and friends Tom and Nancy Thomas before 8AM to drive to Rogersville, AL (northern AL between Huntsville and Florence, AL) for the AGLCA (America's Great Loop Cruisers Association) Rendezvous  The Fall Rendezvous is held at Joe Wheeler State Park at MM278 on the Tennessee River, that's 278 miles from the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers.

The AGLCA holds two or three Rendezvous each year--the two big ones are the Fall Rendezvous and the Spring Rendezvous. These Rendezvous are held in northern AL and somewhere along the mid-Atlantic coast during the spring.  The Rendezvous in AL is held a 60 miles east of the Ten-Tom Waterway enterance at MM215 on the Tennessee River.  The Fall Rendezvous is held at this location because the Loopers heading south all congregate in this area because of the great fall weather and the fact their insurance companies won't allow them to travel south of Columbus MS during hurricane season which doesn't end until November 1.  Conversely, the Spring Rendezvous is held north of Charleston, SC the point where Loopers must be north of when hurricane season starts if they like reasonably priced insurance.

There were 50-60 Looper boats of all sizes and shapes at the Joe Wheeler State Park Marina which probably berthed 120-130 Loopers; the rest of the over 300 Rendezvous attendees were vendors, speakers, past Loopers, and wanna be Loopers stayed at the Lodge.  Joe Wheeler has nice hotel and convention facilities.  The Loopers were from any and everywhere--Yakima, WA, Joplin, MO, Brazil, Australia, and Canada--even Kansas.  Clay got an award at the "recognition" banquet for being the most tenured first-timer at the convention plus a cap and the table centerpiece!

During the two afternoon "Dock Crawls" events,  Loopers open their boats to others to admire.  This is great for the 100+ wanna be Loopers who haven't purchased a boat yet.  It gives them an opportunity to see what different models and brands look like inside and out.

I met Ric Robinson who has a 2003 Mainship 430 Trawler a year newer than SaSea Sally during the first Dock Crawl.  I spent over an hour looking at modifications and electronic upgrades Ric had made to his boat that day and another 45 minutes the next day.  Ric purchased his boat the NANSEANN in FL several years ago.  Ric is from south-central IL and kept his boat at Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand River, KY.  I picked up some valuable information and tips from Ric which will save me more money than it cost to attend the Rendezvous.

The informational sessions were put on primarily by other Loopers who talked about safety, what to expect on various segments of the Loop, how to go to the Bahamas, etc.  Experts from various marinas also gave talks on topics like life raft use, medical issues on the Loop, new electronics, and boat electrical systems.  How many of us know that a refrigerator purchased from Sears will totally screw up your boat's AC electrical system?  That is because for home use, the neutral wire and the ground wire are connected?  On a boat, this connection must be cut to avoid shocks in the water around your boat.

No folks, that isn't a backdrop from a Sears portrait studio!

I had a chance to visit with John and Pat Pitney, friends from Kansas City, and their friends, Larry and Lois Wheeler, who also live in Kansas City but keep their boat in Portland, OR.  Larry and Lois are contemplating doing the Loop in the future (anyone want to truck a 50' boat from OR to the midwest?). The Pitenys started the Loop in early October from their home port in Grafton, IL and are proceeding down the Ten-Tom as I write this blog.

I've purchased three TVs for the SaSea Sally which we are in the process of mounting in the salon and bow and aft staterooms.  As soon as I can choose a satellite TV service provider, I'll order the satellite antenna and have the marina mount it like Ric Robinson's.  My carpenter touched-up some bad spots on the woodwork and I am in the process of starting the winterization process on both boats now.  The list of "to dos" is only three pages long now.

At the Rendezvous, I learned a lot about how inverter/chargers work and how to wire them into my boat--unfortunately, I need to add additional battery capacity which wasn't on my "definitely needs done" list originally.  I'll wait till the Miami Boat show in February before deciding on my major navigation system upgrades.

For wanna be Loopers, the Rendezvous are excellent opportunities to get a better feel of the boats, the people and the dream.  Right up my alley!