Evanston: rowing down the Mississippi
Evanston: rowing down the Mississippi
During RESURGAM days--1985 in Tahiti I believe--I met Kathleen and Curtis Saville, a New England couple who were rowing across the Pacific in EXCALIBUR, a 25’ boat they had built and in which they had previously rowed across the Atlantic.
As is the nature of the nautical world, I sailed on and they rowed on, and that was that, until a few weeks ago when through the wonders of the Internet I received an email from Kathleen, who now teaches writing at the American University in Cairo. Curtis died in 2001 while hiking in the Egyptian desert.
From Kathleen I learned that they successfully completed their Pacific row; and that she has led an interesting and adventuresome life ever since, teaching in Pakistan and Kuwait, and continuing to row in places as diverse as the Nile River and Laos.
Some words, such as “adventure” and “hero” are debased these days, particularly on television; but not by me. When I say her life has been “adventuresome” I use the word carefully.
In 1983 between their ocean crossings, they rowed down the Mississippi. When I went to Amazon to buy one of their books, I decided I would learn most from the one about the river row.
Also, as some of you know, I was born and raised near the banks of the Mississippi, in a suburb of Saint Louis, Missouri, though I have never been on a boat on it.
Because EXCALIBUR was too heavy to portage around the dams that do not have locks near the river’s headwaters in Minnesota, they built a fiberglass shell, 18’ long and with a 3½’ beam, which, keeping to the King Arthur theme, they named GUENEVERE.
I enjoyed MISSISSIPPI VOYAGE: How we rowed down the Mississippi River in 67 days. Briefly it even caused me to consider buying a used Drascombe Lugger and sail down the river myself. Only briefly. There are too many dams and too many barges. I think I will stick to oceans.
Due to the necessity of moving a car around, Curtis rowed about the first and last hundred miles of the river by himself, except for the very last stretch to the river mouth. For more than 2,000 miles in between they rowed together--sometimes one rowing, while the other cooked hamburgers over a small gas stove.
They camped along the banks at night, and they didn’t carry much in the way of provisions, buying groceries almost daily along the way. People were generally friendly and helpful, although once tools were stolen from the boat.
They were not the only ones going down the river in small boats. They heard of a single handed rower, and met friends of theirs who were making the journey in a canoe.
While the current was strong and sometimes dangerous in the north, it was not as they moved beyond the last of the locks just above Saint Louis, and often they rowed against a strong headwind. I was impressed that they sometimes had 50 mile days, which would be good coastal sailing between dawn and dusk.
As anyone must who is Huckleberry Finning down the Mississippi, they stopped at Hannibal, Missouri, the birthplace of Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain, and found it expectedly touristy.
Naturally I was interested in their passing through Saint Louis, and amused at their writing about stopping at a beach below the city. Saint Louis is not known for its beaches.
One exception I take with the book is that it refers to Missouri as “mid-South.” Perhaps to New Englanders; but not to those of us who were born there. Missouri is conventionally Mid-West. And even that is not geographically accurate. Really Missouri is just “mid.”
All was not smooth rowing. They experienced several sudden storms in which they had difficulty reaching the relative safety of the river bank. Only “relative” safety because in one of those storms tornado winds felled trees that almost struck them. And in another the river bank collapsed.
There are mile markers on the river, and despite a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, they finally reached Mile Marker 0, and turned back.
Americans have reputations, probably deserved, for having become soft. But not all are. Certainly not Curtis and Kathleen Saville. Remarkable and admirable people.
The illustration is one of Kathleen’s from the book.
Some of her writing can be found at:
Tuesday, December 22, 2009