Fw: Our Villa, Cruises the Great Loop

We arrived at our marina in Trempealeau,WI on the Upper Mississippi River on
our 37 foot Lord Nelson Victory Tug on September 5, 2008 after 11 months of
cruising America's Great Loop. We cruised 6,801 miles, locked through 182
locks, used 1,389 gallons of diesel and logged 967 engine hours. We burned
1.44 gallons per hour, which averaged to 4.9 miles per gallon, with nothing
subtracted for generator consumption.
We had 3 mechanical issues on this trip. Our muffler collapsed on the
inside causing the engine to overheat, to remedy the problem we had the
muffler cut in two and rebuilt and also replaced the sea water pump. Our
alternator failed due to grease on the slip rings. The motor mount bracket
broke when a bolt broke that attaches it to the marine gear, which we had
welded. We had problems with our motor mounts five years ago when a bolt
broke. We severely damaged a 40 pound Dansforth style anchor and replaced it
with a 65 pound Forfjord anchor.
We crossed our wake on June 16,2008 in Burlington,VT where we purchased Our
Villa in July, 2003. The most memorable parts of the trip were the many
wonderful people we met and the beautiful scenery in the USA and Canada
Joe and Arvilla Glinski aboard OUR VILLA, hull #56

Lansing,IA To Trempealeau,WI

0545 Depart Lansing City Dock. 1525 Arrived at home port of Trempealeau at Lock Six. Cruised 50 miles and three locks. 73 degs and mostly sunny with AM fog. About 2 hours delay at the locks. We are now finished with our trip and would like to thank everyone that made comments on our blog, and thanks to everyone that followed our trip. It was a once in a life time trip and we met so many wonderful people, and saw so many interesting places. We are now sitting at our marina and it is raining, nice
to be tied up to a dock, as we anchored out 5 nights in a row.
Arvilla & Joe

Dubuque,IA To Lansing,IA

0550 Departed anchorage. 1920 Arrived Lansing City Dock. Cruised 75 miles and two locks with two hours of lock delay. Cloudy and rain most of the day temp stayed at 58 degs all day.
Joe & Arvilla

(no subject)

Departed anchorage at 6:03. Arrived at mile 585 to anchor for the night at 7:30. Had 1 hour delay at lock 12 and 2 1/2 hours at lock 11 ( tow boat & American Queen cruise boat). Only 64 miles today due to delays at the locks. Cloudy and rain and a high of 69 deg. What a difference after 91 degrees yesterday. Getting closer to our marina.
Arvilla & Joe

New Boston,IL To Clinton,IA

0550 Depart anchorage. Arrived at anchorage at 1935. Cruised 83 miles and four locks. It was 91 degs,sunny and not much boat traffic. We only had 2 one half hour delays today.
Joe & Arvilla

Keokuk,IA To New Boston,IL

0600 Depart anchorage. 1926 anchor below Lock 17. Cruised 81 miles and two locks. Sunny and 91 degs. A nice smooth ride with not much boat traffic, even though it was a holiday.
Joe & Arvilla