Little River Diversion Channel

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 168 - September 15, 2017

When we got up this morning, we faced a minor crisis! The ARB had shut itself down and the temperature had risen from the normal 15 degrees to 25 degrees, so I knew I had some troubleshooting to do, and was hoping against hope that it would not be something deep inside that would require a technician. Fortunately, we had enough internet for me to download the ARB manual, and right near the end was something that gave me a glimmer of hope. The ARB has a low voltage monitor that shuts the unit down when the battery voltage drops below a certain point, and there are three settings. "Hi" protection is used if the ARB is connected to a starting battery, and "Lo" is used if it is connected to a house or auxiliary battery. On checking, it was set to "Med" - I don't ever remember setting it at all, but I changed the setting to "Lo" and it started up. According to the Victron, the house battery voltage was 12.3, and that should not have triggered a shut down, but evidently it did. Or maybe it is just gremlins, how can you ever be sure?

Also, we keep a one gallon jug in the ARB to freeze water, and another gallon jug in the cooler, swapping them every morning. This system has worked great to keep the cooler cool. Only this morning, the gallon jug in the cooler was empty. We found a slash about an inch long and another hole, no idea how these happened, so we need another gallon jug.

Nothing particularly interesting about our cruise, except we continued get a great push from the current. We were seeing mostly about 9 mph, but some bumps to 10 and even 11, with the Honda running at just 1,800 RPMs. We know we will have to pay the piper when we turn up the Ohio!

I'll be looking for another gallon jug of water at the Little River Diversion Channel, but our real mission is to get some more fuel. We probably have enough to get to Green Turtle Bay, but somehow "probably" does not leave me feeling quite confident enough. I think we need to be able to say "certainly"!

We turned into the Diversion Channel by the recommended method - go past it, turn around and approach it going upstream, so we were in control of our direction and not the current in the Mississippi! Once inside, it was very calm with no perceptible current. Most Loopers stay downstream of the Railroad Bridge that is no more than a quarter mile up the Channel.  We went under the Railroad Bridge easily, and i am pretty sure we could have cleared it even if the water had been five feet deeper.

We knew we needed to get to the boat ramp to be where we could buy fuel, but really did not know how far that was. It turned out it to be about two and a half miles, and for a stretch, the water was pretty skinny - barely over two feet! So we followed Jonathan Arthur's advice when we approached Honest John's Fish Camp: "Put your outboard up and be adventurous!" This worked once again, and we were soon anchored between the boat ramp and the I-55 bridge.

This screenshot accurately shows Daydream's anchorage under I-55!  The boat was floating in water, not on dry land! Navionics does not know anything about the Diversion Channel except where it leaves the Mississippi!

It was early enough in the day when we got anchored, about 3:00 p.m., that I thought I had better get going to find where I was going to get gas. I knew there was a gas station nearby.  I just assumed ("Assume" means makes an "ass' out of "u" and "me"!) that the station was somewhere close above the boat ramp, so that is the direction I started walking. I could see an intersection ahead, a LONG way away, far too far away to be walkable with 5 gallons of gas! As I was pondering what to do, a true gentleman, Frank Knight, a retired accountant for the local CBS affiliate in Cape Girardeau, stopped and asked if I was just walking for exercise or if I needed some assistance. He told me there was no gas station anywhere close on this side of the Diversion Channel. He took me to the local Tractor Supply, where I bought a gas container, told me the Rhodes 101 truck stop I was looking for was very close but on the OPPOSITE side of the Diversion Channel, and drove me back to the boat ramp! When I looked the right direction from up on top of the boat ramp, I could actually see the big truck stop sign!

By now it was getting to be sundowner time, but now I have a plan to get gas and hopefully a gallon jug of water tomorrow!

We had another wonderful sunset that I just seem to struggle to photograph with the iPhone, this is the best I could do!

Little River Diversion Channel sunset