Wood Branches Collect on the Anchor Chain
It was a great night on the hook. Some logs bounced off us and we collected a few in the anchor rode. Nonetheless, Nellie held her ground and we slept soundly. For reasons that will become clear shortly, we're going to spend another day here.
We hadn't seen any houses since starting up the Mississippi so it was nice when some appeared along the banks yesterday. A few looked alarmingly close to the water. So close in fact I remember thinking, "How can they possibly survive a flood?" The answer is, they couldn't. And yet, they had. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Paraphrasing some long dead Greek: When beliefs aren't corroborated by observation, it's time to reexamination those beliefs.
St Louis' Mississippi Floods by Season
I thought the Mississippi usually didn't flood in the summer. And, since this is summer, the Mississippi shouldn't be flooding. Oops, the chart above shows that one-third of St Louis' floods came between June and August. The light bulb finally comes on: the houses look close to the water and our progress north is painfully slow precisely because the river is flooding--or nearly!
The Current Gage at Cape Girardeau, Missouri
We'd predicated our route and boat speed on Hjortie. She's Nellie's sister ship and cruised the Upper Mississippi back in 2012. But, what Hjortie covered in one day is taking Nellie two days. The graph above explains why. The river level was 20' lower in 2012.
The waters have started to receed. By hanging out here for another day we hope to be rewarded with better boat speed tomorrow. Is 4 mph too much to hope for ;-) ?
They're Coming...
Sharing the anchorage tonight are the season's first two southbound Loopers. The fleet can't be far behind them. That means until we're north of the Illinois River, we're going to be competing for fuel and services. That's OK though, it has been lonely on the Mississippi.
We're still at Anchor in the Castor River Diversion Canal, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, near Mississippi MM 49. Zero miles today and holding at 3,425 miles for the trip. DBH
