Hoppie's Marine Service is the only place to get gasoline for the next 250 miles and the only marina for the next 228 miles! Hoppie's is made up of three 100 foot long barges tied into a high stone wall. Luxurious it is not but functional it is! Fern Hopkins (husband Hoppie) gathered everyone around her barge table and gave us the latest river information.
The first piece of information we checked out was the Blue Owl. Please take a look at the merchandise and drool!
Before starting down the River members (Woody, Ellen, Tom, Barb and Ken) debate politics and decide on today's stopping place. We decide on Mile 117.5 at Kaskaskis Lock - 42 mile. We are the last to leave but then have to return to get Debbie's Camera. Tom is not happy about this and even less happy when he forgets he was raising the port motor when Debbie remembered the missing camera. At the dock he puts the motor in reverse and wraps a cord around the port propeller. At least an hour later and one swim under the boat, we are ready to leave. Then we notice that the starboard motor was not turned off and was out of the water. Not a good plan. Tom decides this is a very bad day. He did not use those words ---
One of the things Fern explained to us was Wingdams. These a stone walls or groins along both banks running perpendicular to the river. They deflect the river current toward the center of the river. Safe anchorages can be found behind these wingdams but boats must be very carefully that they don't enter too shallow an area or get hung up on a shoal (shallow sand bar). Note the sand shoal in the middle of this wingdam.
Weirdams or Bendweirs are rock sills (lines of rocks under water) located in navigations channels of a bend usually 20-30 degrees into the flow of the river, 400-1,600 feet in length and 400-1,400 feet apart. Normal traffic usually passes over them but not in low water. The purpose is to control the flow of water through a bend, at least that is the Corps of Engineers reasoning. Fern says they are not working. What they do is cause major swirls and making steering through them a major chore. Fern advised us to radio upriver barges to see if they are entering the bend and if so, wait. If not, pass on the inside of the curve (or the up riverboat's path) as far away from the bendweirs as possible. Fern gave us the location of some of the most dangerous bendweirs and we passed through the Mile 13o one today. Sorry no underwater pictures!
Along the way we saw limestone walls, quarries and a house that looked like a castle.
We turned left a few hundred feet into the Kaskaskia River at mile 117. Tom called the lockmaster on Channel 14 and got permission for us to tie on the lock wall. Ken, Ellen, Woody and John came down the wall to catch our lines. Barb and Brenda were further down the Wall. With one motor we were happy to have all the help available. Today we had been averaging 9+miles an hour on one motor with the help of the current. However, it is much easier to steer in narrow areas or when docking with two motors which we no longer have. One interesting fact about this lock wall is that it is a floating wall. The Lock and Dam don't float and can be underwater in flood times.
We had our five o'clock meeting on the lock wall. It will be nice to be a short distance from the main river and much quieter away from barges, trains and cars.
