We awoke to another beautiful day and were ready to shove off by 9:00 AM. Because Lock 26, aka the Mel Price Lock, is less than two miles away in Alton, we called the lock master before leaving to check the traffic. He said they were only using one of two chambers, there were a bunch of tows already in the queue and we would have to wait four hours to get through! It ended up being more like five, but we were grateful that we could bide our time at the marina in our covered slip rather than out on the water dodging tow boats. We were significantly behind schedule for the day and began to worry about getting to our planned destination before dark. The next major port we passed was St. Louis, which has zero recreational boating facilities and few good places to anchor on the heavily industrialized riverfront.
We also had one more lock to pass through, the Chain of Rocks #27. This final lock on the Mississippi is in a 10-mile canal that bypasses a set of rapids in St. Louis. All vessels must heed the simple sign below and enter the canal to avoid the rapids. In 2021, one skipper missed the turn and you can see what happened.
We didn’t miss the turn, and got some payback for our long wait earlier—Lock 27 was ready to take us down the final 12-feet with no wait, and they let us “float the lock,” where you use your engine to stay in the middle of the lock chamber without taking any lines from the lock master. When we exited the Chain of Rocks Canal and got back in the main channel, the current was ripping along and gave us a 3-4 mph boost. We recalculated our ETA and realized that we could still see St. Louis in the light and make our next stop just after sunset. We called Hoppie’s and they graciously offered to wait for us.
We arrived at dusk, got instructions on the VHF and landed Dragonfly into the heavy current as the staff took our lines, safe and sound after a challenging 41-mile day. Since 1934, Hoppie’s Marine Service has been a part of river history and Looper legend. Hoppie’s is a series of barges tied together and anchored in the river and ashore. Services are basic, but it’s a critical last fuel stop on the Great Loop route before Paducah, KY, a distance of over 200 miles. Hoppie and Fern are behind the scenes now, but their daughter Debbie and her husband Ray continue to offer boaters not only a safe place to stop and gas up, but their considerable knowledge of the river and how to best navigate the last stretch of the Upper Mississippi.
This morning we walked into charming Kimmswick, MO (population 157), had breakfast at the Blue Owl, visited one of the many gift shops in town, returned to Hoppie’s to top off all of our fuel tanks and jerry cans and got back out on the river.
We throttled down on the Suzuki outboard to conserve fuel, but still averaged 8.5 mph over the 42 miles to our next stop. The strong current can be seen below in the tail of water to the right of the nun buoy. The rock pile in the center right is one of hundreds of wing dams constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers to funnel water into the main channel, which scours out the bottom to keep it as deep as possible. Many wing dams are visible during the current drought, but many are still submerged, and woe betide the careless skipper who leaves the navigation channel and encounters one of these immovable propellor-busters.
The Kaskaskia River is a tributary of the Mississippi and has a lock about one-half mile from its mouth. There is a floating wall that separates the lock (left) and dam (right) and the friendly lock masters will let you tie up for the night, a pleasant respite from the swift current and tow boat wakes on the Mississippi.
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