We arrived in Alton on a beautiful day, and tied up to the dock expecting to stay two nights and then head out. In fact, Louise got on the phone to make reservations at Green Turtle Bay marina and Hoppies in anticipation of this departure. I had some small boat chores to do the rest of the afternoon, while Louise had the pool on her list.
At the pool she met a couple of other loopers who were discussing Hurricane Francine and its potential impact on the Mississippi. This was the first we had heard that this could be a thing, given that we were still pretty far away from the Gulf. She passed on the news to me, and I got on the web to check weather for the region we would soon be going through. Looking at the upcoming forecasts, it did not seem to me to be too bad, and so we decided to follow our initial plan and leave the day after the following day.
The next morning, we did some boat chores. I cleaned out the bilge to get rid of the last of the coolant and guck, while Louise did our laundry. While she was at the marina, she talked to the crew of Jewel, and found out they were planning to rent a car and go to St. Louis, so she asked if we could tag along. They consulted with the other couple they were going with, the crew of Naut Lost, and so we decided to rent a mini-van together to visit the city.
There can be quite a bit of variation in the water level of the Mississippi. This entire marina floats. Every dock, every building, is built on a kind of barge-like structure, including the pool.
As we were travelling to St. Louis, the conversation naturally turned to the incoming hurricane and its potential impact on us. My examination of the forecasts showed a very windy day on Friday (this was Tuesday), and so it seemed reasonable to me that we could travel Wednesday and Thursday to someplace secure, then just hunker down for a day to let the nasty weather pass. The other boaters were more conservative, and as they had more experience with tropical weather than we did, we paid attention. They told us that if the storm held its power that it could spawn tornadoes, or flash floods on the rivers, which could ruin our day if we were caught in the wrong spot. Therefore, they had decided to stay put and let the storm pass. mmmmm
By this time, we had arrived downtown, and so we parked and walked to the Arch.
With the St. Louis arch.
We spent a couple of hours going through the museum there, and we also rode the tram to the top of the arch. It is all inside, so there is no feeling of great height, and the windows at the top are tiny, so it was not super-scary. We were allowed to spend only 10 minutes there, which was more than enough, then went back down to ground level.
The top of the arch was about 10 feet wide by 50 feet long.
View from the top of the arch. You can see a small black helicopter that landed on the barge just before this photo was taken.
After the arch, we decided to search for a place to eat. Russ of Naut Lost led us towards Busch stadium to find someplace with southern barbeque. We timed it well, as there was a Cardinals game at 7 that night, so all the restaurants around the stadium were gearing up. We had some great barbeque at a place called Salt & Smoke, then headed back to the boat.
The lobby of the restaurant area at Busch stadium, right side.
And the left side.
The outfield gate at Busch stadium. Really like how they incorporated some of the old-style elements into the stadium.
While we were in the car, I asked Louise to text the AGLCA harbour host at Heritage harbour for some advice. Bryce, who gave the briefing there, was a lock-master on the rivers, and had worked extensively on the rivers as a captain on tows, and so we felt that he would be a good person to give us an expert's opinion on the incoming storm and its impact on boating. He replied saying that we should stay put, and agreed to talk with us on the phone when we got back to the marina about details.
Back at the marina, we met the crew of Lunasea Too just as we were calling, so all four boat crews were on speaker with Bryce. He told us that he did not expect the Mississippi to change its flow, but that we could get debris or flash floods south of St. Louis. His advice was to stay put, since we were in a nice place, and not to take a chance with a big storm like that.
We decided not to mess with the monster. On this map, we are located just at the top of the upper-most circle. Our destination on the next leg of our journey (which will take one week) is right at the top "D" - location - where the low was forecast to be at 1 AM Saturday.
So, we stayed put until Saturday. The forecasts were for windy conditions on Friday, with rain the following two days. Therefore the earliest we would consider leaving was Saturday - we arrived here on a Monday.
In conversations with Melanie of Jewel, Louise learned about Walmart Plus, which is a shopping membership that gives us free delivery to the marina from Walmart. The membership fee was less than a taxi ride, and was good for a year, so Louise signed up for a membership, and we ordered our groceries for delivery the next morning. We also ordered some things from Amazon to be shipped ahead to Green Turtle Bay.
The next morning, we went up to the marina office for breakfast. They had a small canteen there, and so we treated ourselves to eggs. Over the next two hours, lots of other looper crews came in to eat, and we visited with many of the crews. We also received our groceries from Walmart Plus, which made for easy shopping!
Breakfast with the crews of Lunasea Too, Jewel, and All In.
Back on the boat, Louise worked the phones and rearranged all of our marina reservations, while I scouted the upcoming run down the river. Between Alton and Green Turtle Bay there was not a lot of options for overnighting, so I wanted to make sure we knew where we were going, and how long each leg would be. I spent some time putting waypoints in the GPS, so we could find the anchorages when we got there. The trip would take 4 to 7 days depending on what conditions we found, but we were planning on 5 so we would not need to "grind". However, because the options for overnight stays were limited, we were looking at at least one long travel day ahead.
While all this was going on, we got a notice on the Nebo app that loopers were meeting at the pool at 4:00, so we headed over at the appointed time and spent a few hours visiting with the other crews. We actually stayed so long that we had to scramble back on the boat to make dinner as the sun went down as nothing was thawed. Rough life.
View from the marina. Not much to see in the town here except for the bridge. The marina staff suggested we walk around and catch the sights in town, but Melanie and Rich from Jewel had already gone downtown, and told us there was mostly tattoo stores and pawn shops, so we decided to pass on a visit to town.
As it got dark we watched a couple of local boats come in and dock. One guy did a great job, and parked well, but the other guy hit the dock multiple times, at speed, even after he was in the slip he continued to hit. I think that perhaps some alcohol was involved.
Each night we check the weather, but since we have been on the inland rivers, we also check the apps for Marine Traffic and Nebo. Marine Traffic reports the positions of ship using AIS received by ground stations and satellites. Nebo is a recreational boating app used by many loopers to report their position using cellular. Using Nebo we noticed that the river between Alton and Green Turtle Bay was almost empty of recreational boats. Apparently everyone was hiding from Francine. Only a few boats were on this part of the system, and they were all in well protected anchorages. Meanwhile, boats continued to arrive from the North, and at one point there were over 20 looper boats in Alton, with almost as many stacked-up in Grafton, which is about 2 hours travel upriver. Everybody was playing it safe.
Breakfast was so good the previous day that we made it a tradition. Once again, lots of loopers stopped by to eat and chat. With the storm coming, most people were holding up either here or at Grafton, and these two marinas were getting full. After breakfast, we came back to the boat and napped, then met Rich and Melanie from Jewel back at the pool. That evening we had spaghetti on their boat, and then chatted until "looper midnight" hit (8:30 pm) and we were getting tired. Back on our boat, we made the mistake of coming in in the dark, and discovered that Eevee had puked in several places all over the floor. Boat life.
Each morning and each evening I check the weather. Over the past couple of days, the forecast was improving, and the predicted track from the hurricane centre got shorter. By Thursday, it was clear that the storm was running out of steam, and that we would be safe to depart on Saturday. We decided to stay put on Friday however, since the storm could still bring some strong winds into our area.
Friday morning began with breakfast at the canteen, along with visits with the various loopers who stopped by. Louise and I then went back to the boat, to order some items from Amazon to be delivered to Green Turtle bay. We also spent quite a bit of time on the phone with a local Cat dealer. The last few times we ordered Cat parts there has been no issue, but this time the fact we were not locals became a thing. After a few phone calls and some emails with them we were able to order parts for pickup in Paducah. Don't know why it was so complicated this time, but at least we managed to find what we needed.
Rich and Melanie decided to visit the local casino, so we tagged along with them. There are numerous casinos here, but all are floating. I guess it is simpler to have all casinos on boats, but I wonder why they don't just change legislation. The mysteries of government. When we got there, the casino offered us introductory memberships with $20 in "free" money to get started on the slots.
They would not allow us to take photos inside the casino, so we had to take a selfie on the outside. The casino "riverboat" is built on a barge that is permanently moored to the shore. Others we have seen are decorated to look like boats, but on this one they didn't even try.
Louise won $30 and Melanie also won, so each couple now had enough buy lunch, so we quit while we were ahead and went for "free" lunch at a local Irish pub.
The ceiling and walls of this pub were covered in dollar bills. Looking at the license plate on the wall, they have some crappy drivers in Ireland.
Back on the boat, we spent the evening getting ready to leave the next morning, then watched an episode of Rings of Power before turning in.
Boat name of the day: Francine
