Day 3 of river

The day started with grass and muck all around the boat. To try and not plug the main motor, we used the outboard and we think we plugged that up now, will try and look at it later in the day. It started to sprinkle shorly after we left the dock, which made for a cold wet morning. About 15 miles down river the main motor raw water inlet had plugged again and overheated the motor again. Dave got it open again and then off to lock 10 and our first fuel stop. We topped of the tank with 15.6 gallon of diesel for 161.4 miles. Dave had planned for about 10 miles per gallon, so we are doing a little better than that. Our friend Deeanna bought us homemade ham and bean soup last night so we had that for lunch. It might be an interesting night in the boat as the soup had lots of beans.

We have passed, and been passed by, a huge cruiser (see the photo on day 1 post). The two boats are like the tortoise and the hare. We are up early and run late, and they run faster than us. They are on the way to mobile also. At some point they will leave us behind.

Most of the rest of the day went well, got through both locks quickly. When we got to Dubuque we had 3 marinas we tried to get in to. The first one said channel was worn to 8' at low pool, but when we turnned off the river it was at 4'. Being that we are at 4'6", we ran aground in some muck. Dave was going slow, we tried to back off, with no luck. So I got the dingy out and took the anchor out as far as I could. The wind and the current pushed me back too quick. On the 2nd try I was able to get out bit farther and it grabbed. So I cranked on the anchor as Dave used the motor, and we did get unstuck. I tried calling the 2nd marina and no one there. So off to number 3, and it was closed on Sunday but looked like a bigger marina with 8' of depth per our book and yup it was only 4' grrr stuck again. This did not take as long to get out. Back to the river and day light was going so we stopped just off the river and put out 2 anchors to keep us in this narrow channel.
　
Tonight was going to be dinner out and showers instead no showers in 3 days and beans for lunch plus temps are going to be below freezing.
So the hope is tomorrow getting to Clinton, Iowa, getting hot showers and hot dinner. We will see what the day brings.
　
Are we having fun yet ????????? time will tell.