The World Cruise of Veleda IV

 We join the Mississippi River

Our first night at anchor in the Mississippi was safe, but we had some anxiety about the thumps and bumps as the logs and debris hit our anchor rode and clunked down the side of the boat. The colour of the river was even dirtier than the Illinois River. Here it was a sandy dark brown with lines of sediment visible in addition to the logs, branches, sticks and other garbage floating by. We were off the main channel and had little wake caused by the tow traffic.

Our task this first day on the Mississippi was to locate a marina where we could leave Veleda for a week, as I had tickets to fly out to Salt Lake City on the 9th of Oct. and today was the 8th. We had originally planned to leave Veleda at anchor in Pere Marquette Park just before the Illinois River joined the Mississippi, but the entrance was too shallow for us. I thought it would be a more precarious operation launching the dinghy from our Dinghy Tow system in a four knot current, Dinghy Tow system but I was able to release it from the towing arms from the cockpit, and just pulled it alongside the boarding gate to enter it. The outboard started O.K. and off we went to check out a couple of the marinas by dinghy, rather than taking Veleda and risk grounding in shallow openings.

The first marina we entered was Venetian Harbour. There was an old paddlewheel steamer at the outer breakwater, and a narrow entrance into their harbour, lined on both sides with covered docks. No one was around. We wound our way in through the zig zag maze of docks to try to find the main office. We finally came alongside a dock with a gangway going up to shore and some old buildings that may have been workshops. We saw a 36 foot sailboat on the hard with mast alongside getting ready to be stepped. and fresh paintwork in evidence. We finally found the office and asked about weekly rates. The price was satisfactory, ( about $150 for a week), and the secretary was very helpful and would also give us a ride into the airport the next day. We thanked her and said we would get back later. On our way out, we sounded the entrance, from the dinghy, and found no more than four feet depth and we draw four and a half. So, that settled that.

As we motored on down to the next big marina, I noticed a narrow, seemingly deserted channel going back to some sailboats about 100 yards off river. Judy thought it might be an abandoned or secondary entrance for the next marina. However, I wanted to explore it, first sounding the opening, which was between four to six feet, then going up the channel to see where it came out. As we got to the end of the channel, we saw some covered docks, so we continued. At the end of the 100 yards of covered docks we noticed open docks with sailboats. Then we saw a Canadian flag among the sailboats, and here we found Rod Brown and Ino, who we had not seen since Detour Passage, and whom we had heard had difficulty in stepping his mast at the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago.

We had a good long chat with him and some local sailors who invited us to bring Veleda in. This turned out to be Sioux Harbour "Yacht Club". The price was right ($50.00 U.S. = $75.00 Canadian) for the week, and they would also be able to use their crane to step our mast back on deck for another $50.00. We went out and brought Veleda in, and settled in for the next ten days (included in the $50.00). The next day, Nov. 9, we stepped the mast with the help of Rod, a couple of workers at the club, and a couple of other boaters in the morning; then Casey, the Harbourmaster, gave us a ride into the airport.

I caught my flight to Salt Lake City, and Judy went in to St Louis and arranged to catch a bus to Buffalo where her sister lives, then later home to Toronto to visit her parents.

In returning to St Louis, I was to rendezvous with Judy who was flying in from Toronto at the same time. Before leaving Salt Lake City, I phoned Mike Bartlow a fellow boater we met before leaving Veleda, and he and his wife agreed to meet us at the airport. This was greatly appreciated as there was no bus or limousine service to the community of Portage Des Souix where the marina was. Mike wouldn't accept even any gas money, so we took them out to the local pub for their Friday night special, all you can eat catfish fry. Veleda was fine in our absence. The next day Judy went up to St. Charles with Carole, Mike's wife,for grocery shopping.We greatly appreciated the help Mike and Carole and several other boaters there gave us.

St Louis Power Squadron members We were going to leave around noon, but we found the local St. Louis Power and Sail Squadron was having a Chili competition in the shelter ashoreand we were invited to participate. They were a friendly group and came down to see our boat and to see us off. Before leaving we exchanged Toronto and St. Louis Power Squadron pennants.

We got off about 1500 with the plan to go five miles down river to Alton Marine to refuel water and have what we thought would be a final pump out. We had been told by several people that there were few pump out facilities on the Mississippi, and we were going to reconnect our Y-valve. However, when we attempted to open the through hull we found it was cracked, and we had to shut it off again. The next day as I was at the marina office sending out E-mail and seeing if a mechanic could install a new through hull, we met Jim White, one of the boaters from the St. Louis Power Squadron we had met the day before, who then offered to drive us up to the local West Marine to buy the through hull. To install the through hull would be a bit complicated and might necessitate hauling Veleda to do it. SO, we decided to try to tough it out until we got into warmer, clearer water where we will do it ourselves, as then we can swim overboard to put an outside patch on while we change it. 

Now we start on our trip down the fabled Mississippi River to be continued in the next log.