Preparing for the trip

Captain Jerry has been making the final preparations to North Star, our 32 foot Cape Island down east trawler. We are anxious to leave our landlubber lives behind and begin our long awaited journey around the Great Circle. Join us as we travel 10, 000 kilometers: through the historic Trent Severn Waterway; the pristine waters of Georgian Bay; the North Channel of lake Huron; and hop from beach to beach on lake Michigan. We will visit Chicago and begin our trek along the rivers: Illinois; upper Mississippi; Ohio; Cumberland: Tennessee; Tenn-Tom Waterway and the Black Warrior. We will have transited through 68 locks at this juncture. We have chosen the inner route from Mobile Alabama to Tarpon Springs Florida and the shorter Ocheechobee Waterway to reach the East coast of Florida. We will skip over to the Bahamas to wait out the winter before heading North on the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway.
The 10 years of researching and planning are finally at an end and we invite you to come along on our adventure.























Friday, September 16, 2011

Kaskaskia River Lock and Dam

We only travelled for 5 hours yesterday to tie up to the Kaskaskia River lock and dam. We are following our Australian friends who have AIS which means they can tell what direction and speed barges are travelling.  We were warned by Fern at Hoppie's about a sharp turn in the river where we should avoid meeting barge traffic.  We hovered waiting for a northbound tow to clear the bend but a large Navy Ship, the LST was able to pass the barge in the narrow bend so we all followed suit.
We travelled for 10 hours today to reach mile 7 where we are sharing an anchorage with our German friends and an American couple on Interlude.
We are enjoying the swift current on the Mississippi but tomorrow we travel upstream on the Ohio.  We will see our speed drop by 2 knots.
After St.Louis, the city that has no marina, there are no marinas and not much to see so we are zooming along to Green Turtle Cove Marina. Not sure if we will reach it tomorrow, it depends on locks and current.

Loopers at the Kaskaskia River Lock and Dam
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