October 12, 2009 Fairport Landing to Keokuk, IA

October 12, 2009

Fairport Landing to Keokuk, IA

At 9:30, Tim came to get us to fuel up – the truck was on its way. We were finally done and out of there by 11:00. We took on 350 gallons of fuel and apparently we were in luck again as the cost of diesel went down $.18 overnight, and we paid $2.62 a gallon. Our plan was to make it 60 miles and through 3 Lock & Dams. With such a late start we were hoping we would not meet any tows in the L&Ds.

This stretch of the Mississippi is mostly industry and we saw barges being loaded and unloaded along the way. Also, there were many homes built on stilts along the river. At one of the RR swingbridges, we met a tow going through at nearly the same time. As we were communicating with the captain of the tow, we thought we understood where he wanted us to go, but it was confusing. Apparently we started turning the wrong way and the captain made it simple for us and gave us directions using the words, “left” and “right”. Oh, well. We will get better at this and nothing was hurt but our pride.

We were in luck, and breezed through all three Lock & Dams. What we did not anticipate was that we would have trouble finding a marina to stay at. The one at the 60 mile point did not have the depth again to accommodate Grateful. After calling a couple of others, we were forced to go another 40 miles with two RR swingbridges to Keokuk, IA. The Keokuk Yacht Club could put us outside the breakwater because the water was deep enough. Yeah, you guessed it – we had to make about an hour of this trip in darkness and rain. We spotted red buoys, but never found green ones. We passed tows/barges and prayed we wouldn’t be surprised by shallow water. As we found out later, the Mississippi River above the Keokuk Lock & Dam is wide and deep and is referred to as a lake. Had we known we may have felt somewhat less anxious.

The Keokuk Yacht Club has a clubhouse that is open year round and the bartender is also the dock help. He saw us coming, came out and signaled us where to go and caught our lines. Mark said the best thing was that the bar was no more than 50 feet from where we tied up. And after traveling 100 miles, that was our first stop!!!

We talked with regulars at the clubhouse and they mentioned that the night before, Summer Song, one of Stan Hubbard’s boats, had docked where we were. We see this beautiful boat on the St. Croix all summer. Then they mentioned that the Keokuk Lock & Dam has one of the biggest lifts on the Mississippi of 38 feet. Whoa! And then they said that the Lock & Dam has “floating bollards”!!! Now this was something for me to contemplate rather than sleep.