Rainy Day on the Mississippi River

This was our view most of the day once the rain started which was not too long after we were back on the MS River.  In this photo there is a barge/tow going down river ahead of us and another one coming up toward us.  VERY hard to see not only the channel markers but the direction the tows were going!  We do constantly wipe off the isinglass with soft cloth baby diapers.  (I did step outside in the rain to take all other photos today.)

 We call each tow to request permission to pass and what side they prefer us to pass them.

I love sitting on the bridge with the Captain but today I had trouble finding a spot that was not dripping wet ...it leaks pretty bad up there!   Actually, the ONLY dry seat is Walter's which is a very good thing or I would probably be holding an umbrella over his head.   I did find the back corner of the bridge dry and I sat there a while but began to feel the drips and eventually had to move down to the sun deck... I did go back up for an occasional back rub for the Captain.  :-)

We began backing out of our dock at this dam/lock at about 730a.

Here we are heading toward the MS River. That sand bar in photo is on the other side of the River so you see we were not docked very far off of the Big Muddy.

We immediately encountered barge traffic.

Heavy low skies today before the rain.

We passed a large dredging operation.  This boat is not the dredge but is only holding the end of a very long pipe and directing the flow of the sand/mud coming off the bottom.

This is the dredge... the largest one we have seen on the river.   It has a rotatory cutter on the bottom breaking up the dirt and then the hose sucks it up and out through the long hose to the other tug. 

Cute little top heavy tug boat.

Some rock cliffs on the Missouri side of the river.

We passed many tows today... here are a couple of them.

This is the Suspension Bridge at Cape Girardeau, MO

Our anchorage tonight is a first for us... anchoring in a strong current behind a wing dam.  In the picture you can see several wing dams. These are put along the river to help direct water to the middle of the river.  This helps to keep the channel deep.

This anchoring was not easy but had to be done twice which requires the 100 feet of chain to be hauled up again.  I was upset because I didn't get to wash it down first as we were drifting back into shallow water and the Captain had to get the anchor up quickly.  I did get out there in my rain coat and washed part of it but a lot of the MS Mud may now be in the anchor chain locker!

We have turned the boat into the current which means we are facing up river. There is so much current here our boat has a wake behind it!  We have set the alarm to go off if the boat moves only 50 feet... we usually set if for 100 ft but we don't have that much room before the shallow water.

There is a barge across from us on other side of the river.   He stops by just running his tows into the mud!  No props up front on the barges for him to worry about...

The rain is suppose to stop by 7a tomorrow.  We hope to be off by that time and in a couple of hours be on the Ohio River.  It has been fun to have nearly a 2 knot current added to our normal slow speed.  However, tomorrow on the Ohio everything will slow down again... even slower than we are used to going without a current...... we go UP river on the Ohio to get to the Tennessee River.

We are looking forward to another river day....we are so blessed to be able to see our country by River like so many of the pioneers did!