Day 30: Illinois Riverdock Restaurant to Hoppies Marina, MO

We left the Riverdock Restaurant floating dock (we were the only boat there) at 7:12 and ran the numbers in the river a little while later (the speed, rpm, gph and dBA numbers for the story in Power and Motoryacht). The boat topped out at 21 knots even, an impressive performance, even on a flat river, for a Swift Trawler, burning only 19.2 gph. The Illinois River merged into the Mississippi after 20 miles. At that point, the Mississippi was broad, fairly blue and sparkling in the morning sun. Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, kids on rafts, all that, the American heartland of legend. All that changed in 10 miles or so, as the river turned a more brown color, the commercial traffic increased, and any thought of doing this on a raft left our minds.

We refueled at Grafton Harbor, taking on 116.485 gallons and pumped out the black water and gray water. This is a terrific place, right on the river, and the people were extremely friendly and helpful. I really recommend this as a stop for anyone on this trip. We had two more locks and then St. Louis with the famous Arch on the west shore, and we stopped for a major photo shoot. Then another 20 miles to the infamous Hoppies in Kimmswick, Missouri, arriving at 3:15, and 80 miles from Riverdock. We met our relief crew and had a wonderful visit with Fern Hopkins, whose family has been running Hoppies for 39 years.

Best, 

Peter