THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI

Grafton IL, mile marker 0, touted as the Key West of the Midwest. Great town that comes alive on the weekends, open air restaurants and bars with all types of live music. Our original plan was to stay one night but it turned into a four-night stay.  Not so much because of the chill Jimmy Buffet atmosphere but more because our big ol’ batteries died.   After some intense trouble shooting, we discovered that the battery charger circuit breaker was not working thus the batteries were not being charged.  The indicator light on the CB panel showed it was working properly but the reality was that no power was being supplied.  We’ll spare the gory details but we did swap out the bad circuit breaker and we are all good.  At the same time, we decided to bring in 2 new 8D cell (130lb each) batteries to replace the 4.5yr old ones on board….. and since were on a roll why not a new generator battery!  The new 300lb+ of battery cells should serve us well especially since we have many overnight anchorages on the horizon. 

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Heading down the Mississippi, we spent one night in Alton, another on the Kaskaskia Lock and Dam wall and a third at Boston Bar Island anchoring.   All days were 90 plus degrees, high humidity, and direct sun which really drained our body batteries.  A highlight of the trip was seeing the beautiful St Louis Arch. Thank you to our ‘buddy boat’, Pegasus, for taking our boat picture while dodging upriver tows. The Cardinals clinched the division against the Cubs the night before, bummer,

 The Mississippi is wider than the Illinois, contains a higher population of commercial barges, and has strong swirling currents that will throw large boats off course in an instant.   River water levels are up right now which means that boats must be on constant watch for floating full-size trees that will rearrange your propeller or punch a hole through the hull.    The mighty, muddy, magnificent Mississippi River. Just ahead: a left at the Ohio River for some upstream travel!

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