Port Day at Alton Marina

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 165 - September 12, 2017

It was time for a port day today, so we could do some shopping, do the laundry, and generally relax a little after our 340 miles plus!

We thought we had everything we needed on-board to head down the MIssissippi, but when we did a little mental inventory, we found we needed a few more things - so a trip to Walmart was in order! We walked out to the front of the marina and fired up the Uber app, typed in the address of the Walmart, and in about three minutes Kirstie was there in her Cheverolet Spark and we were off to Walmart! 

We bought a few things besides more groceries. We like to have six 1 lb. propane bottles in reserve, and we were down two, so we bought a couple more. We realized that we gave no thought to the fact that we might encounter cool weather, so we each got a sweatshirt. Patty needed a new watch, so she got one. As always, we spent way more than we thought we would, and we ended up at the checkout stand with way more than we could conveniently carry, I but I had our West Marine folding wheeled cart, and we had a bunch of cloth bags collected from boat shows and various other places, so we were able to get everything outside. I was sure hoping the Uber driver for the trip back to the marina would not be Kirstie! She was a nice person and a good driver, but a Chevrolet Spark would be severely taxed trying to bring us and our purchases back to the marina! Fortunately, a different driver showed up with a larger vehicle, and we got a dock cart back at the marina to get everything down to the boat!

Patty did laundry and I did the final catch up on the blog, and pretty soon it was time for our new friends Les and Kelly Rohlf from St. Louis to come down to the marina. They have a 2007 C-Dory 25 Cruiser named Intuition, and we compared notes on our boats. Of course we have removed a lot of the stuff that Daydream came with at delivery, like the Wallas cooktop / heater, the Norcold refrigerator and the hot water heater. Les has made a number of changes on Intuition as well, and is in the process of changing both heating and cooking over to propane with a propane locker in the cockpit. One big difference is that in 2005 when Daydream was built, the interior cabinets were all Decraguard, which is  laminate covered plywood, and by 2007, C-Dory had switched over to molded fiberglass interiors. Both have their advantages, I'm sure!

We headed to Tony's in downtown Alton for dinner. We had a good dinner, but we really had a lot of good conversation about cruising the Mississippi. Les and Kelly had a wealth of experience cruising the Mississippi from one end to the other, and Les shared a lot of his knowledge with us. The cruise down the Illinois was not particularly challenging, but we really don't know much about the Mississippi, and even less about the Tenn-Tom Waterway. Les is going to send me some information from their cruises, which I'm sure we will find very helpful. We had a very pleasant time talking with Les and Kelly!

Les, Kelly, Patty and Pat at Tony's Restaurant in downtown Alton

According to the AGLCA Forum, particularly the Executive Director Kimberly Russo, Lock 52 on the Ohio River is closed to all traffic. In one scenario, it would potentially open on Sunday. In another scenario, it could be closed for three more weeks. We decided to head to Hoppies Marina in Kimswick, MO, and work our way down the river as close as possible to the Ohio, perhaps waiting out any closure at the Little River Diversion Channel in Cape Girardeau. The real limiting factor for us of an extended delay would be running out of water, and I am pretty sure we can get close enough to the boat ramp on the Diversion Channel to ferry some additional water in the Aquatainer via the Sea Eagle kayak! Anyway, we will be casting off our lines from

 Hoppies in the morning!