Reunion Voyage: Grafton to Alton Marina

Dinner at Mac's Time Out Lounge

We are on the Mississippi and that is very cool. The scenery is beautiful. But that is not what made this day exceptionally unusual. As we were getting very close to the Alton Marina, we heard a distress call on the radio. A boat was calling the marina to say “we are coming back in…. we are taking on water”. The voice on the radio was definitely very stressed and the marina answered that they would meet them at the dock.

We pulled in right behind a beautiful 45 foot, 1972 ChrisCraft that was listing to starboard. The boat was leaned against the dock and in a very dangerous position. Marina crew were bringing pumps as we took the assigned slip right next to the sinking boat. This beautiful boat had a gold Looper flag on the bow, and apparently had run aground on something very hard and also entangled the props in an old rope that was probably cut loose by a barge – the rope was about 1 1/2” in diameter. We don’t know what happened first, or what was cause or effect.

Dennis was immediately helping the crew set up pumps and find hoses and electrical sources to try to get water out of the boat faster than it was coming in. After about two hours, the boat began to rise ever so slightly and by then the Tow Boat US guys had arrived to help with the boat rescue. Eventually they were able to tow the boat across the river, with the pump still running hard enough to keep water going out while they towed. The gentleman who was the boat owner/captain was so upset, we really felt bad for him.

That was all the excitement we needed for one day (or month) so the rest of the day was low key. This evening we went out for dinner in Alton and had a fine evening with friends.