Day 2 & 3

Day 2 we left Pepin Marina at 6:55.  We cruised for 10.5 hrs burning a gallon a Mile to Lansing Iowa.
We ran at 2160 rpm's and made 15 knots over land with a 4 to 5 mile current .  The sun was out but we ran into 20+ mile head winds out of the south.  Holding on to the lines in the lock was a B____! 100 miles,  6 locks, 2 RR bridges!

Saturday we ran at 1600 and made 1.5MPG , we made about 80+ plus miles to Dubuque.  A great day with 3 perfect locks. BS'd with a tow boat captain for 45 minutes and got great tips on anchorages and fishing in Mobile. AIS is a great add to anyone doing the Miss. You can see Tows in advance and time the locks for best time and optimize fuel.  I even had 2 captains contact me with info! Dubuque municipal Marina is brand new!  What a great Marina,  a 10!  We will come back next year for 3 nights on Wicked Waters! Pictures to follow!

Day One, yup it did happen!

I will not go into all the gory details but after parts arrived by UPS, we replaced 2 senders, and still one gage read 220 degrees and one read 100 (should be 180 degrees).  We started swapping around the 4 temperature gage's until we finally figured out I had one dead gauge that was making the other one to read hot.  No new gauge to be found so Sunnyside is looking for a gauge, once obtained they will mail it to a Marina down River.

We cast our lines off at 1:38 and headed south on a beautiful sunny afternoon.  We got through the 4 no wake zones, 2 RR bridges and the Red Wing Lock . ( had to wait about 40 minutes)  we made it to Pepin Marina at 7:30 PM .  Cheers!

What was once was a distant dream is now our new life!

Wednesday, September 17,  Putz'n Around left her slip at Sunnyside Marina for the last time at 7:06 a.m.  Jillian, Eric, and Cubby were there to see us off.   We were just out of the no wake zone, when the port engine appeared to overheat.  We were back at Sunnyside by 7:30, where all hands came on deck!  We pulled the boat to check water intakes and props.  Everything's cool - it appears it  is a temperature sensor issue.  The guys found a part in Ohio, which is being air shipped in.  If all goes well, the part should be here at 10:00 am and we should be on our way again around noon!  That's boating!!!! I can't thank the entire staff  at Sunnyside enough for their assistance!!!!!!!

enough for their assistance!!!!!!Our rigid plan of  infinite  flexibility will have us travel the first 9 days at a pace of 100 miles a day to reach Paducah,  Kentucky by Sept. 25th.  Our plan is then to slow it way down and enjoy the new waters of the Tennessee, and the Tenn-Tom Waterway.  We plan on making Mobile  around October 14th and Fort Meyers by Nov. 15th.  We will post a couple of times a week so enjoy the ride as you wish!
Cheers!
Scott and Brigitte
This a link to our SPOT  tracker, click on the link and you see our path of travel.

https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=1rhbt7UOVhqbLfiD2BO41MCq2ijcKaK4W

Putz'n Around is in her slip

We turned up the St Croix on Tuesday afternoon one day ahead of schedule! It was nice to get back on the calm waters of the Croix!  We put her in the slip at 4:35 in the afternoon.  We traveled 1180.4 miles in 10 days, what a trip.  I would like to thank my crew that helped bring the boat around safely!   Brigitte McConnell, Bill Matthews, Jan Reyers, John Clemency, and Scott Holway!  The all did a fantastic job.  Thanks to all of you that have followed along on our journey. This will be the last post until we head south for Florida  and the next chapter of the Adventures of Putz'n Around. 

headed into th slip

heading up the St Croix

The final four days were a grind as we headed up the Miss. in strong currents and 4 days of all most solid rain! We saw a rental house boat l go under the Dam at LaCrosse and sink ,  11 people went in water and suprizingly they all survived.  The good Lord was definately looking out for them.   There will be one more post soon!

I rained ever time the guys had to go out in the lock.
It also was always 55 degress!

The final leg

You are supposed to go through a lock not drive over it!

Locking through wth a Tow Boat

Putz,n Around at rest at Grafton Harbot the confluence of the Illinois and the Mississippi

New crew member reading the orders of the day

Eating well!

Jan's first day as a crew member, not much work getting done!

Saturday, started at 6 am to beat a tow boat to the first lock.  We had a stiff breeze  out of the Marina so we sprung the boat off with ease.  Boat lines used correctly are your friend!  We set our speed at 2150 RPMs and headed up river into very stiff current.It rained a cold rain all day We breezed through 4 locks witoutissue or wait time. Two of the locks had short secondary locks so we sailed through even with Tows in the main lock!  Sweet!  We decided to push on and make five locks and get into the next town and through one more lock and dam.  As we entered the lock the starboard engine died! As we tied up on the wall the port went out.  After much head scratching we deducted we ran out on fuel even though my math said we had 50 gallons left.  This is not a good thing with these motors to get them started you have to bleed the air out of the fuel system.  One of the lock guys crawled down into the engine room and worked for a while as I called boat US for a tow and a marina for marine engine mechanics.   Two guys showed up and we began a process bleeding the lines and filling some 60 gallons of fuel from 5 gallon cans, four trips worth.  After 4 and ½ hours in the lock we got them started. And left the lock for the closest marina in Clinton Iowa.  We docked at 10 pm . We were very blessed as to where we ran out of fuel rather than in a river running at 6 knots and at a lock with 0 barge or pleasure craft traffic.  Both mechanics and the two guys at Lock 13 were fantastic!!!

Sunday   Now you are all trying to figure out how I could be so stupid,  but as Paul Harvey would say “and now for the rest of the story”  as will filled up at 8 AM we found that my fuel tank only holds 350 gallons of fuel , contrary to what the specs show as 400.  So my math was correct on fuel required!  Quite the lesson!  Today we traveled about 100 miles to Guttenberg Iowa.  It rained hard most of the day.  Nothing notable happened THANK GOD! 

Internet is bad so will post pictures when we get a good signal!