Sept 19, near Cairo, IL

Today we got underway at 6:30 am. Linda and Rick left the boat early as Rick is leaving us and Linda will take Rick to the airport. Rick tells us that there is no grand baby as yet but he thinks probably ‘very soon’. Linda will then take Ken’s car to the Green Turtle Resort in Kentucky which will be our next Marina.

Owen and Ken left Hoppie’s Marina at 6:30 am so we could motor 150 miles downstream on the Mississippi River to arrive at an anchorage suggested by Fern. We had a 3 knot current helping us along.

Tug pushing 15 barges on the Mississippi.
Big bluff in the background.

Interesting rock formations.

Home or Castle?

Number of barges gets larger.
Here this tug is pushing 36 barges. Six wide by six deep.

Getting ready to pass this set of barges on the 'one whistle' side.

Pretty bridges.

Barge tied to a tree.

We arrived at Mississippi Mile Marker 7, (mile marker 0 is Cairo, Illinois) under the I-57 bridge at the entrance to the ‘Boston Chute’ about 6:30 pm. It was a 12 hour day and a long time to be underway on the river. We did watch Florida beat Tennessee on TV while motoring along. Neat satellite technology.

A welcome sight about 6 pm after almost 12 hours on the water.
This is the I-24 bridge crossing the Mississippi. We will anchor in a deep pool of slack water just before the bridge on the LDB (left descending bank).

At anchor. Finally!

Tonight we are at anchor with no facilities, but this does seem like a good spot. We are out of the way of the barge traffic and out of the strong current. It is also a pretty spot. There is nothing but wilderness underneath this Interstate Highway bridge. We can see the barges going past our location a half mile away. We do not usually ‘anchor out’ so this is a new experience for us. Linda enjoys a Hampton Inn as there is no way for her to reach the boat tonight.