Waiting out Storm at Kaskaskia Lock & Dam (#56)

We spent three nights at Kaskaskia Lock and Dam waiting out the storm. We were well protected on a secure concrete pier and felt very little of the storm. On the last day that we left they increased the flow from the dam from 1ft to 3ft so it was much more intense. We were in two flotillas (groups of boats) that traveled together. The first was our 7 boat from the original 10 boats that went through the locks together. We stayed behind one more day for weather, and joined another flotilla of 5-7 boats. The process has been to have docktails around 5pm, collect everyones phone number, create a channel to communicate (69, 72, and 17) and create a group text.

We left on another spectacular morning with a 6:30am departure from Hoppies. We decided to try to beat the two barges so we didn't have to pass them later. It was a quick scramble to start at first light.

And Laura loves the rivers so much.

The dredges are so cool!

We arrived with our 7 boats onto the Kaskadia Lock and Dam.

Our friends had a drone they took out to take pictures of all of our boats.

We had an additional boat fit in the last spot that wasn't part of our first flotilla.

On our first day here the dam only released 1 ft from each side. After the rains, this flow increased to 3 ft on each side.

The barges came through very close to our boats. The lockmaster asked that we stay available on channel 14 at all times so we got to hear all the local chatter. Quite fun!

The day before the storm we had this magnficent butterfly (solo) come stay in front of only our boat.

The lone monarch was quite spectacular.

And it landed on Ted. Ted's late mother Sandra loved butterflies.

Later in the day we had game night with our 7 boats. We all played a form of charades that was quite fun on this large dock. Unfortunately, no pictures.

The night the storm rolled in we got some spectacular pictures of Hurricane Helene.

No pictures of the rain days. We met our second flotilla and had docktails on Happy Giraffe where we made our plans for Little Diversion Channel anchorage, our first of the Great Loop.

Normal Looper Progression

1. Hoppies (last fuel stop) - complete

2. Kaskadia Lock and Dam - complete

3. Little River Diversion Channel (anchor) - next up!

4. Olmstead Lock (anchor) - skip for long day

5. Paducah Kentucky (fuel)

Stay: 3 nights

Location: Kaskaskia Lock and Dam

Pros: Beautiful, secure location, shelter from storm, Better than anchoring (in our opinion), only real stop on Mississippi form stretch, interesting listening to lock conversation

Cons: Can't get to land by foot, not electricity, no water, no amenities