T-Minus One Week and Counting

The formal departure for our trip is on July 4th around 12:00 noon.

Today being June 27, we now start a one week countdown clock that ticks away despite some problems that have arisen.  Let's start right in with problem number one. I had intended to launch the Blue Fin from Boom Island Park in Minneapolis just above the St Anthony dam but this plan has now become interrupted by a flooding Mississippi river.  The US Army Corps of Engineers has announced that the upper and lower St Anthony dams, as well as the Ford dam, in the Twin Cities will be closed starting today.  That means no boats will be allowed through the locks until further notice. The estimate is around 2 weeks for recreational boaters to again be allowed lockage and if it rains more this could change.  How does this affect us?  I'll need to look for another place to launch from but as of now I'll stick to the planned departure time. The new location must be downstream of the closed dams and will most likely be in the St Paul area.

 I wish these Twin Cities dam closings were the only problem that has popped up from the high water conditions but they're not.  I discovered problem number two while making a closer check of river condition to our south. The charts show that the Mississippi is flooding to an even greater degree in southern Iowa and northern Missouri and the Corp of Engineers has announced the closing of 6 dams stretching along nearly 200 miles of river. This is a really big problem as we have no way to get around them.  Here in the cities I can just pick a different boat ramp and trailer the Blue Fin beyond the closed dams.  Once we're 500 miles downstream and come upon a closed dam we're stuck. Without a trailer or vehicle to get the Blue Fin out and around these dams we're stalled and 2-2 The Gulf becomes 0-2 The Gulf.

So what am I going to do about this?  I really don't know but Mary and I are going to leave as planned anyway.  At this time it looks OK to get to Davenport, IA but once beyond there we encounter heavier flooding and run into the closed dams. This could short circuit our trip and if I have to, I'll bring the Blue Fin about and head back upstream to home. The Gulf Trip would have to be continued another year. The other possibility is to find a trailer and vehicle for hire to transport us over the road to somewhere south of Quincy, IL.

Take a look at this email message I received from son Matthew after asking him about the problem.  I pasted it here verbatim and in reading it I'm pretty sure he'd  chase me back down the river if I returned home without making it all the way to the gulf.

After all your planning it looks like it might be a real adventure trip after all! 

I really wouldn't get too stressed. The majority of your trip will be fine. Also, the way those lockmasters are, I wouldn't assume anything until you're at the entrance of the lock. If you cant drive over it, around it, or beg to get through; then you'll have to trailer around it, not the end of the world. You've left yourself plenty of time which makes things easy. Of course money helps too.

I had warned you to be prepared to trailer the boat at some point. At least you know when and where it's likely.

Some trailering options... 

- marina friends - if there's a marina nearby and two boat launches your set

- venza -  I'll make the 5hr drive and trailer you around the whole mess

- uhaul - boat easily fits inside and moving trucks are a good, small town, one way rental option; drag it up or have a marina fork it in and out. Or rent a truck and flat trailer, and make it easy. 
 

- hire someone - flat bed tow truck, marina, boat moving service   

what do you think?

This is why you chose a small boat, right!

matt

He always makes it sound so easy. And in sticking with the nautical theme, I think the tide in this family has turned and where once I was the leader now I'm the led. 

Surprisingly, if we could get to St Louis the river forecast beyond there calls for only slightly higher than normal water levels. I suppose since the Missouri River is not flooding, it's lesser contribution to a Mississippi, now capable of near double the capacity beyond their confluence, blends to make things almost normal.

Standby for more updates as I try to figure this out and if anybody near Davenport or Muscatine, IA wants to haul two people and a 16ft V hull boat to the Hannibal, MO area, here's a chance to make some $$.


If you're inclined to, take a look at these websites. These are the tools I mainly used to discover our problem.

Closed Dam Announcement

AND

Water levels

The first link says it all.  Don't you just love it when something as normal as a river flood now gets branded with a title and logo:  "Summer Flood 2013"

The second link is useful but clunky to use.  You can find the water level forecast for almost anyplace in the US.