The Mississippi: Alton to Kaskaskia Lock

9-8-2024

Katie B. passes the St. Louis Arch

We were up and left Alton Illinois early in company with Et Cetera. Somewhat to our surprised, the Mel Price lock was open and available and we slid right through. This brought us to the famous Chain of Rocks Canal bypass where recently a sailboat had missed the turn and gone aground in the middle of a raging Mississippi river with the vessel, a complete loss. We were attuned, therefore to look carefully for the junction point and correctly turned to port to take the canal and avoid the remaining stretch of white water on the upper Mississippi. Our second lock was also open and waiting and we lost no time heading down river to St. Louis.. The river here is nowhere near as wide as I thought it would be with a great deal of current, old industrial buildings and a lot of river, traffic, mostly in the form of tows and barges. We orbited in front of the St. Louis Arch to obtain the requisite picture of our vessel in front of the landmark and then headed down river at cruising speed with the intention to stop at Hoppies for the night. However, we were far ahead of schedule because the lock passsages had gone so well and because there was a 2 1/2 to 3 mile downriver current, which moved us along much faster than usual. At one point in fact, our vessel speed exceeded 13 mph, perhaps a new record for Katie B.

We canceled our reservation at Hoppies and struck out for the lock wall at Kaskaskia Lock and Dam. There were already about 10 loopers tied up there and space was tight, but with the help of several of them, we were able to squeeze in and tie up between two boats. No power or water on this lock wall, but we were secure after a long day on the river and content to intermittently run the generator.