Day 17: Friday, September 21, 2012
Underway: 1:15 pm Motor Off: 3:00 pm Miles Traveled: 10 Stayed At: Marina
First Things First: Saw our first asian carp jumping in the prop wash from a tow; first real marina with pool and hot tub; first introduction to lots of other Loopers; first $2.00 daiquiris’.
Mile 213 to Mile 203: After sleeping in a little past sunrise, we lazed around having coffee, hot chocolate, pancakes and sausage on Rumpshaker while planning the next week’s travels through St. Louis and onwards to the Ohio River. We met Cookie (Mark) on Over Due. Cookie likes to cook. He used to work his 40 hour week at his real job and then spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday cooking where ever he could find a party or a gig. He also had a wealth of knowledge about the river. Good luck on your next adventure, Cookie. This next week is going to be an adventure for us.
We originally planned to stay at My River Home today but, in order to shorten our trip to our last marina for 260 miles – Hoppies – we decided to move downriver to Alton – just a little north of St. Louis – to rest, restock, and prepare for a long, lonely stretch of river. What a great choice. Alton Marina was an amazing place with a pool, hot tub, a hundred fifty plus big cruisers, $2 daiquiris, the best showers we will see for a long and lots of friendly, interesting people.
Within minutes of arriving at the Alton Marina, we met Robert and Patty (and Maggie – their official boat dog) of Orinoco who are the local hosts for the The American Great Loop Cruisers Association (ALGCA). They are an amazing couple and a great resource for us novice Loopers. At the moment, they are marina bound because Robert is working in the area on some consulting contracts so they decided to help other people on the Loop meet each other and share their collective wisdom and stories. They live on Orinoco full time although they frequently visit their “dirt” house in Montana. They have traveled the Loop, and many of the rivers connected to the Loop, many times and are a wealth of knowledge and experience for us beginners – and a blast to share stories with. They invited us to join them and some other Loopers for dinner at a local pizza place – an offer we couldn’t refuse.
On the way to the restaurant, Robert took us on a mini-tour of the area around the Alton Marina including those essential resources for long distance boaters like the local bakery and the closest grocery store. The architecture of the homes and businesses in the area was also amazing. The pizza was great but the conversation was even better. We learned a lot about what to expect over the next week of travel on a difficult stretch of the river, and, better yet, shared stories about our respective adventures.
There are very few people traveling the Loop on sailboats but we happened to share dinner with Ron and Lynne of Northern Spirit – a Beneteau Their home port is near the Trent Severn Canal System which we traveled in 2002 so we shared stories about our trip and experiences that summer.
Did you know that Patty likes to go fast? She was a Captain for United Airlines for many years and went from going 700 mph to 7 mph on Orinoco. Quite a change I’m sure. She also likes to race airplanes with a group of women pilots and enjoys testing out the torque curve on her new, tricked out Mustang convertible – I think we hit 45 mph in the parking lot on the way back to the marina. Keep in mind, Robert and Patty are grandparents – they enjoy taking their grandkids with them on parts of their adventures. (Check out their website at orinoco.blogspot.com ????).
After an entertaining evening and some great pizza, we got home way past Cindy’s bedtime and crashed. Tomorrow we plan to head for Hoppies.
Wild Things: The size of some of the boats at Alton Marina – Aurora would make a nice dinghy for some of them.
