Day 31: Hoppies Marina to Cape Girardeau, MO

Bonjour mes amis, and greetings to all from John Wooldridge, Editor-in-Chief of PassageMaker, and Captain Jeremy Hopkins from Annapolis, Maryland. It's Thursday, June 21st, and we are underway on the mighty Mississippi. We relieved the crew of Peter Janssen and George Sass, Sr. late Wednesday afternoon and began re-provisioning and acclimating ourselves to "The Greatest Loop." We spent the night side-tied to one of the fuel barges at Hoppie's Marina, a must-stay stopover south of St. Louis in the historic river town of Kimmswick, MO. This small town is within walking distance of Hoppie's with a dozen small gift shops, with a small town grocery nearby, including a butcher. 

Before leaving at 11:00 AM, we did a thorough check of the equipment aboard, as well as the Cummins diesel. 

We had the very good fortune to meet and consult with Fern Hopkins, who is well known among Loopers for her thorough knowledge of the river and it's hazards for those who would proceed unaware. We were initially planning to top off our tanks at the Kidd Oil Company Fuel Dock, 107 statute miles downriver from Hoppie's, but we were advised that it seems impossible, as there are several large commercial barges scheduled for fuel today and tomorrow. 

The Skipper Bob Cruising Guide covering Chicago to Mobile advised that it will be 254 SM from Hoppie's to the next fuel stop at the Green Turtle Marina on the Cumberland River. Since we had a range of 305 SM with a 20 % fuel reserve, at 1800 RPM, currently showing 12 knots SOG and burning 5.2 gph, we decided to continue on, knowing full well that we will be running into the current of the Ohio and Cumberland rivers for half that distance.

I found a way to send pictures to our Beneteau friends to share with you on Facebook and The Greatest Loop website. With the resident iPad onboard, Verizon 4G Hotspot and email, it was just an easy deal even though I was also trying to find a fish-eye lense Axel was talking about. It would actually have been a great tool as you set it on the lense of your iPhone/iPad and you are then able to take 360 degrees virtual tours with ONLY 4 photos. App is called “Pixeet 360”.

We anchored right after Cape Girardeau and are about to have a very good night of sleep.

Best,

John