October 6-7 2013 Anchorage at Mile 77 and Angelo Towhead the next day

Sorry, no pictures since I cant upload pictures very easily.  The internet is a fleeting concept down here I think. But if your curious where we are, just follow this link to our journey map.

We left Hoppies with three other boats but only after we figured out a water / bilge problem we had which I thought was burst water line but turned out to be a rain and an an overfilled water tank from making water the night before.

It was a long day, about 90 miles but at least the Mississippi current was adding about 3 knots to our speed so at times we were cruising along at 11 mph.

Mile 78 wing damn anchorage

Aside from the all the tows, and there were many of them, it wasn't that spectacular of a trip.  The river is big, muddy and lines with banks behind which grass and forest.  We finally reached the anchorage and Jeff went in first since and set his anchor.  We followed but there wasn't much room to set it so as to avoid a possible collision with Jeff on Just Faking It so we all decided to raft together.  Worked out great.  Had a nice cocktail party on board and then went to bed after we planned on getting up at 7:30 so we could leave by 8.


The next morning, Monday October 7, we actually did get up by 8 and after Field Trip and Erin E left the anchorage, Just Faking it (Jeff) and I got our anchors up and off we went down river for another 88 miles to a place neat the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio.  It was another dull day of 20+ barges to pass or meet, and same old muddy scenery.  But....  we were still doing over 10 mph!

Looking out towards the toe head 

We pulled up to the nights anchorage, Angelo Tow Head.   I  ducked in first and set an anchor.  The reset followed in and we repeated the same 4 boat raft up we had the previous night.

Jeff and Chip in the dinghy getting Arin-E's anchor 

Our anchor is pretty beefy and would most likely hold all four of our boats however prudence, and the promise of solid nights sleep dictates we set another anchor against the strong current.  So we deployed Arin-E's anchor with Jeff's dinghy.









Tomorrow we have to figure out what to do if the 2 Ohio Locks are busy and to complicate matters, the Ohio is running faster the next few days from all the rain in the Tennessee river valley.