Tackling the Mighty Mississippi | Sailing Soulianis - Ep. 28

Hey guys, if you're new to our journey, here's a quick recap to get you up to speed. After buying our Tartan 37 in Racine, Wisconsin, we sailed it around Lake Michigan, then started making preparations to head south to Saltwater. We decided to take our boat to the Gulf of Mexico via the inland river system, which is made up of several rivers and canals, including part of the Mississippi. We unstepped the mast to clear a bunch of low, fixed bridges along the route. We then prepared the mast for shipping south via truck, and we'll put it back up when we reach the Gulf. Now for the duration of our trip down the river, we won't be sailing, but rather motoring Soulianis. Right now, you've joined us in Grafton, Illinois, about 300 miles into our 1,300-mile journey from Chicago to Mobile, Alabama. We're going to go see a tugboat. It's actually a tow, but they call it a tugboat tour. No, I called it a tugboat tour. No, it says tugboat tour on the pamphlet. Oh. Yeah. We know it better. A towboat has a flat bow for pushing barges. A tugboat has a pointy bow, is much more maneuverable, and can push or pull a larger ship in any direction. This is the Twyla Lure. We're a twin-screw, 6,800-horsepower boat. This is where the navigation of the vessel takes place. I've got two radars, my main radar, and I also have two Xeon search lights. The Xeon lights can pick up a buoy up to three miles, up two to three miles away on a dark night. It's a long, white beam that can be reduced down to about a foot in diameter. From the bottom of the boat, bottom of the bow of the boat, to the river bottom, it's 9.2 feet deep. So actually, the boat's drawn nine foot, so it's about 18 feet deep right here. The electronic chart identifies and tracks other vessels in the area, shows the direction they're traveling, their destination, the speed. Very helpful. It does a lot of other stuff, too. Alright. There you go. What do you think? That was pretty cool. Yeah. I wish we would've got that on camera. I shot some of that. No, when she was like, so what did you do for all these computers and stuff like that? Oh, yeah. Looked out the window. Any boat that was on this boat, 57,000 gallons. So that's the most that they've ever filled up at any one time. Oh. But it'll hold 236,000. Those are the steering hydraulics. All the spares. Wow. Oh, they can do laundry. This is their oil. 140 degrees. Oh, my God. Could you imagine working like that? We'll tow anywhere from 25 to 30 south, but we could bring 36 back. So you do six wide by six long? Yes. Wow. Hey, brother, how many days in a row do you guys work? We work 28, get off the boat 14. In Grafton, there's a winery on top of a hill. Climbing up to it is a thing to do, especially for us boaters who can really use the leg workout. It's not 50, it's warmer. Is it? Yeah. It's supposed to get to like 69 today. It was morning, though, and the winery wasn't open. That was just fine. We were on a mission to see the fall colors. Far away. Losing track of time. Smoking cigars we dipped in honey. Finding new ways to spend our money. Along, trying to read the signs. Walking the back streets and the pathways. Past the tobacco fields and bad days. All the way. This is probably going to be our best colors, huh? Yeah, it's crazy because there's techno line set back against... Look at that. Do you see that blue-green moss over there? Yeah. On that tree? Everything's a little bit wet, so all the bark is really dark and setting the colors off. Screw the fall colors, I want to look at your hair. She's the only one there. We planned to stay in Grafton for a couple of days to get some work done, but we ended up staying there almost a week. We checked off a lot of things on our to-do list, including laundry, a provisioning run, computer work, and more engine maintenance. The engine was due for an oil change, and we needed to change the primary fuel filter. This was our first time tackling these tasks, and as always, it takes longer than it should. Fortunately, everything went pretty smoothly. Lauren got some time to do yoga and take a couple of runs along the river. All those beautiful colors, and the Mississippi. And we spent an evening checking out Grafton's nightlife. This multi-level bar, called Third Chute, appeared to be the hot spot in town. And now begins our journey down the Mississippi. With its swift, four-knot current running in our favor, we plan to cover the 218 miles in just a couple days. Just 15 miles downriver lies the town of Alton, Illinois. It's home to the last floating riverboat casino that's still in operation on the Mississippi, and a flour mill that produces up to two and a quarter million pounds of flour per day. Are we going past Alton? Yeah, we just passed it. I thought you had it turned on. No. Whoops. We didn't get it. Just downriver from Alton, we entered the Chain of Rocks Canal. We're in a canal. That's all. This eight-and-a-half-mile-long canal was built to bypass a rock-filled section of river just north of St. Louis, which is unnavigable at low water and dangerous at best at high water. Nine-nine. What? Just give it a second. Yeah! After the one-to-two knots we had on the Illinois River, it felt like we were flying down the Mississippi. Kirk, that's probably the first time that chartplotter's ever displayed double digits. Oh, no. We're down to 96. Bummer. We're going to fly by. That's what they said. It's a nice city to watch and wave as it goes past. The cruising guide said this almost verbatim, not only because of the swift current, but also because there's literally no place to stop in St. Louis with a boat. No docks, no marinas, no anchorages, no nothing. We were in Grafton this morning. It's still morning, and we're now in St. Louis. We've already done 40 miles. I guess that's what happens when you can do 10 knots. Oh, wow. What do you think about St. Louis? It'd probably be a lot cooler if this embankment parking lot actually had some sort of... Yeah. Yeah. You can see that there is literally nowhere to stop. The room will light up and she and I will lay the land. You're a cute little guy. That night, we stopped at Hoppy's Marine Services, which is billed as the only fuel stop for the next 107 miles and the only marina for the next 227. It also had a bathroom straight out of a horror movie. The next morning, we woke up to a wee bit of fog on the river. I got the radar up and running, so hopefully... Radar's pretty cool. Yeah? Yeah. I can see a lot. We just have never turned it on before, right? Well, I mean, I've turned it on, but I've never really actually tried to use it. I can see the buoys. I can see the little weirdam things. Oh, really? Yeah. Look at this. Hear that? It's the radar. We couldn't hear it, but the camera picked it up. We had quite the fender set up at Hoppy's because it was basically just a barge floating along the side of the river. So we were completely exposed to all the tows and current, the wind and everything. So we were banging up against the dock pretty hard. Yeah, we had six fenders on one side. So you're not supposed to travel in fog. It's not really completely foggy, but... No, if it gets much foggier, though, it's going to be pretty sketchy. We're trying to make 110 miles today, and to do so... We only have 10 and a half hours of sunlight. And it's supposed to take us, in optimal conditions of 3 or 4 knots of current, 10 and a half hours. So we had to leave a little bit before sunrise to try to arrive so we had enough time to anchor in the light. Ah, it's very cold. Poor guy needs mittens. Big, wooly mittens. Better yet, just bring a couple of sheeps. Like, two lambs. You can hold one lamb. So that's a buoy we just passed. That's a buoy we just passed. That is this buoy coming up right here. And that's obviously our riverbanks. You can see the little weir dams and stuff on the side. So this one right here is that one right over there. So it's helpful. We just crossed 156. We've already done 2 miles this morning. We've only got 108 to go. I don't know if I want to go in here. Where does the river go from here? Does it curve or does it see a street? It curves, but it's really great on a curve. We're going right into the side. If we were going to the side, it would be okay. Shit, that is some thick fog. Yeah, I'm turning around. What do you want to do? Will you drop an anchor? I don't know. I can sit up on the bow. Yeah, go up on the bow. Keep an eye out for big shapes and stuff too. Okay. This is a little sketchy. But I can still actually see a good 200 feet in front of me. And once I go sit on that bow pulpit and make it stop banging around, I should be able to hear more. We made it. Today's been our longest day. We've done 75.5 miles already. And we've got another 35 to go before we hit our anchorage tonight. And we have probably seen more tows and barges today than we have seen at any other part of the river combined. There's just one after another. And this is going to be a really wild ride through here. These guys are turning up a ton of water. It's going to be bumpy for a while. I thought yesterday with 10 was fast. Our anchorage for the night was called Little Diversion Channel. The entrance was a bit narrow and a few logs seemed to be stuck in the middle, which made us wonder what the shoaling was like under the surface. It's spinning like crazy. Speed over ground, 4 knots. Yeah, I'm like almost dizzy looking up river. It's kind of crazy. Do you think I want to be on the up river or the down river part? It looks pretty in there. I would try to go up. Above it? Yeah. Wow, there's a railroad bridge. It's still 30 feet deep here. There would be no nosing in with the swift current. We knew we had to pick an entrance point and go for it. Otherwise, as soon as we turned broadside to the current, it would take us right into the bank down river. It's just swirling in the current. Where does the shoaling happen? I think the shoal happens right up there. Oh, because it was on the descending bank at Big Blue Island. Alright, well, then I'm going to go right above it. Yeah, I think you can. Perfect. Cool. Yeah, yeah. I feel pretty good about this. Yeah, it's super peaceful. I know. You can hear the crickets. I don't think we need to go very far up here, do you? No. I think he was just saying you could go all the way to the bridge if you wanted. Yeah. Kirk. Look at the size of that barge. Yeah, it is 7 wide and 8 long. Holy crap. They're all empty though, don't you think? Yeah. But still. That is insane. No, it still doesn't look that big at the camera. That's a 6 foot wave. Yeah. So, this is our second night anchoring on the river. Kirk's down below right now putting a rubber mat in the chain locker that we just got from Home Depot so that we protect the inside of our fiberglass of the chain locker from the 200 feet of chain that we just bought. Yes? Will you drop the first few bits of chain into there? Yeah. And actually, before you do that, we should set the anchor. Back up. I can't. I'm stuck against the... What is that thing called? Binnacle. Maybe we can stand. So, we've been kind of drudging this part of the trip. Yeah. And it hasn't been that bad. No, it's sort of been the best part. Yeah, it really has. It's been really pretty. Everything south of St. Louis has been really cool. Yeah. I mean, even Grafton is cool, but... Yeah, it's like really wild feeling whereas like the Illinois felt like a bunch of farmland and like agriculture. This feels like wild. Yeah, and industrial. There's so many branches. There's nothing here. I mean, besides not getting showers, which... Yeah, and being freezing, sleeping in 29 degree weather. I want to fill the fuel tank with the next fuel can. The next jerry can. Yeah.