Kimmswick, MO. – Cape Girardeau, MO. September 10, 2008

Everyone wants to get off the Mississippi River as soon as possible. As mentioned yesterday, marinas are practically nonexistent along here and anchorages are few and far between. There is so much tow traffic and debris in the water we spend a lot of time trying to avoid hitting something. After our meeting with Fern yesterday where we found our choices for today. We could go 40 miles or 110 miles. There were no marinas and those were the next 2 anchorage opportunities. We all agreed to go the 110 miles.

We cast off this morning at 6:30. L’Attitude Changer, Footloose, Passport, Cruising Buff and Our Way, who had arrived at Hoppies Marina ahead of us yesterday. Our Way is doing their 2nd loop. We are now wondering why anyone would want to do the river section twice!

We met several tows, but saw no pleasure boats. Apparently Loopers are the only people who are smart enough (?) to travel this part of the Mississippi. We passed very few towns and none of the towns had any docks.
Our anchorage is called Little Diversion Canal and is a well protected strip of water off of the river. It is about 250’ wide with trees on both sides. There is about 1500’ maximum usable area and all 5 boats fit in here nicely. We were anchored at 4 p.m. after traveling 109 miles. A record. We averaged 11½ mph.




The 4 boats ahead of us anchored in the canal.