It’s now November so that means that we have been living on Starship for four months now as we continue on our three year journey that will soon take into the Caribbean waters and then onto two planned ocean passages. Since Chicago, we have conquered the following rivers – Calumet, Illinois, Mississippi and Ohio. We are now on the Cumberland River and will soon be on the Tennessee River as we continue pointing our bow south to Alabama. I have lost count of how many locks we have done but 10 would be an accurate guess as we are about half way to salt water and there were a total of 27 locks we needed to get through.

Yesterday we came into Green Turtle Bay Marina in Kentucky. After a full week of long travel days, including some very cold days, this marina is a big treat! There is a curtesy vehicle for us to use to provision and it has beautiful facilities including a heated indoor swimming pool with sauna.  We are here for three days to push the ‘reset button’ so to speak before we continue on. It also appears we are finally south enough to get us back into warm weather and we are all so excited about that!

Since I last blogged, we’ve enjoyed some great anchorages as well as two marinas before this one. The first marina was in Grafton which cruisers refer to as the ‘Key West of the Mid West’! It was a fun stop and the weather was so nice still that the kids got to enjoy the outdoor pool there. It also had a gondola style chair lift that we all took up a high hill. There the kids rode a roller coaster at Grafton SkyTour at Aerie’s Resort and loved flying down the hillside while us adults all enjoyed a patio beverage with a spectacular view of the Mississippi River. That night we all ended up at the Oyster Bar with a big group of fast friends!

Our next day of travel got us to Alton Marina where we ended up staying 10 days to get school work done, boat projects tackled and to spend time checking out St. Louis. Due to how loud our engine is, we have shifted to traveling for a few days and then on our lay days covering as much school work as we can. So far that is working out and we are meeting our goals in each subject so that we can all enjoy a nice, long Christmas break together.  Speaking of Christmas break, Alex’s plane tickets are official booked! He flies into Key West on December 23^rd and we can’t wait! Alex is doing great in his fourth and final year at the Cdn Coast Guard College but I can’t help wishing that he was along with us for the Big Trip. One of the projects we got done in Alton was our boat cards. It felt so strange to me to not include him in the crew picture on the card. I am just thankful that he will be jumping on board as much as he can over the next three years!

So back to our stay in Alton Marina. It really felt like we were there forever and we had so much fun! One day, us, Surprise and the family on the boat Saga (Boris, Mayli and their kids Michael and Anette) all headed to St. Louis. Our first stop was the Purina Farm where the highlights were seeing the kids milk a cow followed by a really entertaining dog agility show.

From there we went to one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city, The Gateway Arch. We all rode up the cable cars to the top and enjoyed the spectacular views of the city as the dizzying height of 630 feet. That day in St. Louis included a nice dinner at Salt + Smoke Restaurant followed by checking out Union Centre before we settled into our long drive back to the marina.

At that time, we were getting ready to leave Alton but felt that we had so much to get done still before heading into long travel days again. Alton Marina had a special running – stay five nights, get 5 nights free! We decided to take advantage of that and wished the flotilla well as they left and we stayed put. That decision also allowed for us to wait for the crew of Surprise to return to their boat so we could all set off together again the following week. We’ve really enjoyed their company and are having a blast spending as much time together as possible!

During our last few days in Alton we needed to rent a vehicle to get some necessary errands run. We also were told by our friend, Jennifer (who had lived in St. Louis for 6 years with her husband, Dale), that we absolutely needed to check out the City Museum and we are so glad we did! That place is insane and Jas best described it as ‘an artist, architect, welder and cave digger got together, dropped acid and came up with a plan for an ultimate playground!’ It is housed in an old shoe factory and was quite the experience. The three of us laughed and meandered through the various tunnels all afternoon! Dylan was impressed that Jas and I could keep up as we wedged ourselves through tiny passages that opened up into big, interesting displays and rooms! The day included circus themed entertainment including contortionists and amazing fire shows.

When it was finally time for us to leave Alton, we were part of a flotilla of 7 boats setting off before the sun to get to our first lock ahead of a barge heading up river. I had thought we were done with locks for awhile but this day we had two to go through. The first lock was a tough one as the strong wind made it a challenge for me to keep the bow off the wall as we locked down. Unfortunately, I later found out that one was the easier of the two for me. Many miles later we were approaching the Granite City Lock and Dam. As the last boat to go into the lock, we were not able to take a starboard bollard so we had to take one on the port side. That is a bit trickier for Jas as our prop walk goes to starboard. This just means it’s a bit more of a challenge for Jas to make his approach. All I had to do was get the midship line around the lock bollard as I have done many times before. This one was harder to reach. With all the other boats secure and ready, we made our first attempt and I missed it. Jas got us turned around as I adjusted to give myself more line to toss. Frustratingly I missed it on the second attempt as well. At this point, all the other boats were patiently waiting for us and so was the lock master. Seeing we were struggling, two boats kindly put out offers over the radio for us to raft up to them to lock down. At that point I desperately wanted to accept that offer but Jas wanted us to do a third attempt. He has well earned the role of Captain on Starship so at his direction I prepared for a third attempt to wrap that damn bollard. As we made our approach my hands were shaking from the anxiety of the situation but I did it! I let out a squeal of delight as I successfully lassoed that bad boy and I was so happy that Jas made the call for us to keep trying. It felt good to do it and I felt myself relax as the gates closed and we began our 15 foot drop.

On October 31^st we were anchored in the Meramec River for Halloween festivities. Our anchorage looked kinda creepy with the narrow channel, trees along the shore and the old train bridge above us. It was the perfect spot for us to set up a Halloween scavenger hunt for the kids. In our route planning, we tried hard to find a place that was close walking distance to a town so that the kids could go trick or treating but there really weren’t any options. That meant we had to get creative. We are happily travelling still with our friends Ryan, Maureen and their two boys Will and Dallin (and doggo Dakota!) so we headed over to their boat, Surprise, to carve pumpkins. Maureen and I then went to shore to scope out scavenger hunt landmarks. When the boys picked us up in the dinghy we had quite the production with muddy pawed Dakota. The result was a mud-covered dinghy, Maureen up to her knees in the cold Mississippi waters and us all laughing our way back to the boat as Jas and Ryan took pictures of the entertainment that was unfolding in front of their eyes! Once we were done our dinner together of severed fingers and intestines (aka wieners and spaghetti!) the boys got their first clue which took them on over to Brian’s boat to collect candy and the next clue. Brian is a solo Captain (along with his doggo Rako) on his boat Wandering Winnie. The hunt went well but it was very cold and a bit tricky as we did our best to not trip on logs or go tumbling down the ravine we made them climb. I also remembered that when we did our tour of the Melvin Price Lock and Dam in Alton, I learned that the Mississippi River banks were a home to venomous copper head rattle snakes. As quickly as that realization came to me, I put it out of my head and added a bit more of a ‘pep’ to my step. Thankfully we didn’t see any snakes. Before we knew it, we were all back on Surprise with tons of candy. We all warmed up and watch the movie Beetlejuice. We believe it was one of the best Halloweens we’ve ever had!

All in all, the river game is continuing to go well. Starship is happy and so is her crew! So far we have successfully found many anchorages that nicely grab hold of our anchor while allowing comfortable depths below our keel. Our travel days are long and I sometimes find myself on watch at the helm for hours. As my confidence increases, I find I really love those times now. The hours slowly roll by as I watch to make sure the chart plotter information matches the reality around me. I navigate carefully to keep us centred in the channel and always between the green and red channel markers. I have also gotten more comfortable on the radio as well as helming when barges pass by us. When we first started the rivers, and I’d see a barge, I’d call out for Jas to take the helm. Jas really does a good job of encouraging me to trust my abilities. I need to take the helm more when docking or to take us in and out of locks. I have done it a few times but it’s hard. I know experience is the only way I can get better at it.

So when we moved onto Starship back in July, we splurged and bought ourselves a nice bottle of Barolo 2018 Gianni Gagliardo. The plan was to enjoy it in celebration of crossing Lake Superior. We crossed Lake Superior but the bottle did not get opened. We then decided to wait until we got to Chicago…but again we didn’t feel ready to open it. I think now the plan is to pop the cork when we are finally in salt water enjoying a perfect sunset sitting on the bow. Yes, that is the new plan! Perhaps it will be the day Alex arrives on Starship in December and we can enjoy it in celebration of how good it will feel to be a family of four again for a little while!