“You have to know when to hold them. Know when to fold them. Know when to anchor. Know when to not.”

August 3, 2014

SATURDAY - Do you know that song??

All was smooth and predictable as we cruised slowly upstream on the Mighty Mississippi, waving to passing tows with their many barges. Active Captain (a cruiser’s web site) had listed two possible day’s end anchorages. Both were behind rock pile wing dams where there’s usually little current. One even had a 4 star rating as of last Fall. But. . . as you can guess, the river is ever-changing. The current is faster now and the water much deeper, over-running many of the normally exposed close-to-shore wing dams. We approached our first choice carefully but, before even entering the smallish area, we saw very turbulent, dangerous currents. “We knew when not to anchor.” To reassess, we anchored temporarily just off a sandy bank across from the wing dam to hold while another huge tow of barges passed. Some locals camping on shore suggested a place just a half mile back in a huge “chute”. This is an alternate water flow area, often on the backside of a small island, that’s often a sand bar but in high water deep enough to anchor. We hauled anchor and scoped it out, carefully, but the depth quickly turned from 10 to 3 feet. We knew when not to anchor once again.

A little farther South, the river was a little wider, with a sliver of space just outside the channel so Mike anchored there, in 12 feet, and Fred brought “Young America” in and rafted to us for the night. We knew when to anchor!!! All this maneuvering took a couple of hours but we felt safe at last, in two knots of current, 300 feet outside the barge channel with 115,000 pounds of boats hanging on our Rocna anchor. A passing tow confirmed by radio that we should be safe from barge traffic in that spot.

Linda had us over for a wonderful salmon and rice dinner and all shared the day’s experience. Nice to have neighbors so close. We just step over on their boat from ours when rafted that way. We saw 1500 foot long tows moving in pitch darkness up and down the river, navigating the turns and obstructions and around each other in total darkness. How do they do that ??

All remained stable for the night and we awoke to the sound of whippoorwills on the shore and sunlight twinkling through the trees.

Today is a 40-mile run, traveling an average of 4 knots. We’ll tie to a barge near a lock tonight and maybe go ashore? Have not been on land for three days. 

Good book about this Mighty River.

Sandy shore with Cottonwood trees and a deer at center on shore.

Anchors up at dawn.