Mississippi boat trip

[rsdigitald]

Anyone ever take a smaller boat down the mississippi to florida? My wife and i are talking about taking our byliner ciera 2655 from iowa to florida and i am worried about a stretch that will not be enough for fuel to make it . I have ready to take the ohio river to the tom tom and down to gulf but does anyone know for sure and in a boat like mine how far can i go on the gas? I think i have 55 gallon tank. Any advise would help.

[alanmoor]

I have family is Glasgow, MO. There's no marina there but there's a launch ramp. With enough warning they might be able to be persuaded to bring you some fuel. The current is usually fast enough you could just Tom Sawyer it with a long pole if you run out of fuel!:lol: I was surprised at how shallow the Missouri is (around Glasgow, anyway). The guy I was with didn't have a depth sounder and watched the channel markers.

[rsdigitald]

that sounds awesome you would be able to help me out if i needed fuel. I have some time but am trying to plan this as the trip will start last week in aug. of 2018. What river are they on then?

[rmitch]

I have gone from St Louis to Florida and back six times in a 48 Tollycraft. If I were you with your boat, I recommend Tenn Tom down to Mobile. If you plan on the Ohio, turn south on the Cumberland and enter the TVA lake system, Kentucky Lake etc, and enter the Tenn Tom at Pickwick Lake and go to Mobile, take the intercoastal to Apalachicola then run coastal water and work your way around the Florida panhandle until Tarpon Springs and link back up with the intercoastal. I you can run 120 miles with your fuel on the rivers, should be no problem for fuel using this route.

If you go down the Mississippi, There are only two good fuel stops, Memphis and Greenville and plan on 300 + mile legs. I would not recommend that route. It could be done, but your will hike over the levy to towns with gas pumps and lug them back, the towns are not all that accessible to the river.

Another resource for planning this trip is the AGLCA, American Great Loop Cruising Association, this route is part of the loop.

[Mocoondo]

With the new town docks in Paducah that opened earlier this summer, you now need just a hair over 200 mile range from Hoppie's, down from 250 to Green Turtle Bay.

[rsdigitald]

thanks for all your help there was not a map of this all ready routed was there? I agree with you on not going straight down the mississippi river

[Glasply1]

We have just completed the great loop on our 288. The Mississippi below Alton to the Gulf is no place for boats like ours; very few marinas and extremely limited access to fuel. The vast majority of pleasure boats take the Tennessee to the Tenn-Tom to Mobile as recommended here. We took that route, no problem. It was great.

The ONLY issue you will have is the 205 mile stretch from the last fuel stop at Hoppies to the next one at Paducah. You must plan your fuel burn carefully remembering you have a downriver push to start, but then an up river run on the Ohio to Paducah. In addition, you should factor in waiting for locks (and that can be an overnight wait at Locks 52 and 53 until the new Olmsted Lock is opened (supposedly next year). We have a 113 gallon tank and carried 21 gallons in jerry cans. (I saw a guy with a 50 gallon tank take on 15 jerry cans of fuel at Hoppies!). We carefully calculated our fuel burn and arrived at Paducah with about 3 gallons in the tank (we used all 4 jerry cans AND I dumped in the dinghy gas!). Of course, had we been willing to travel at 7 knots the entire time we would have had more to spare, but that's not why we're in a planing hull boat!

[alanmoor]

You wrote "Mississippi" and I read "Missouri" - sorry!

[capt._ron]

I'am at the umr 283 mm, about 3 years ago a couple from Lake City, Mn. came through on their to Florida in a 2655. They stayed for 3 days and I talked with them several times, they weren't carrying any jerrycans or fuel bladder. They did have a blog I followed till they got to Florida, they did take the TennTom route. If I was you I would use a fuel bladder and lay it on the front deck, a 50 gallon bladder would almost double your range. I have a 75 gallons bladder I bought for a cruise to Memphis, wouldn't need it going down the Mississippi but might for the return against the current. Good luck

[Glasply1]

Oh, and I would definitely figure out how big your gas tank is! Look at the specs. Also, do some trial runs to see what your fuel burn is at various rpm's. For example, we filled the tank, ran for an hour at 1,600 rpm (BORING!) and then refilled the tank to figure out we'd get 3mpg at 1,600. We then did the same drill at 4,000. You MUST understand your fuel burn if considering a long trip. I don't have a flowscan meter, but I now can guess within a couple gallons how much gas we'll take each fill up.

[dbarger412]

Have you considered turning in at the Ohio and going down the Tennessee to the TomBigbee Waterway to Mobile, then to the panhandle of Florida. You do NOT have enough fuel--look into a couple of portable tanks. Where are you headed in Florida? It's 176 miles from Clearwater to Dunedin. You can go around the curve but you would still want a few more gallons.

[Glasply1]

I think you mean to say Carabelle to Clearwater which is about 170 miles (Clearwater and Dunedin are basically right next to each other). The Carabelle to Clearwater stretch should not be a problem as you can get fuel at Steinhatchee about 70 miles in and/or a bit further at Suwanee River. The ONLY big fuel challenge going via Mobile as suggested above is the 205 mile stretch from Hoppies to Paducah.

[rsdigitald]

So is anyone doing the loop or half loop within a couple months i have my trip all planned out and will leave on labor day weekend and should be in cape coral by end of october but looking to cross the big bend with others