Moving A 42ft Houseboat up the River - Part 4: Hastings, Minnesota to St. Paul, Minnesota

An unexpected bonus day of houseboat moving! In the last video (part 3) we thought we were done when we hit Hastings MN. Then the owners decided to move it a little farther, to Saint Paul MN. So we hopped back on the river for another day of houseboat adventuring!
(This isn't one of my own boats, I was just along as the "expert", because growing up on an island in Alaska plus owning 500 terrible boats probably adds up to river pilot experience, right?)
The boat is a 42ft Gibson built in the 1980s. It has a fiberglass hull and twin Crusader 270 engines that mostly work some of the time.
We passed a lot more industries and docks today as we were mostly travelling through suburbs of the Twin Cities. I'm sure Hastings-ites would scream at being called a suburb, but everything in today's journey was within the 7-county metro area of the greater Minneapolis St. Paul region.

[@RobbsHomemadeLife]

your commentary in your river videos makes them enjoyable to watch as the viewers learn from you what they are seeing unlike a lot of travel videos. I hope you do more and maybe spend more time showing the things you are passing by. I like to imagine myself living on a house with a boat on the river one day so it is always interesting to see the different houses and the dramatic landscape features like the bluffs,etc. Thumbs up!

[@saveitforparts]

Thanks, glad you liked it! I've done a few kayaking trips on local rivers where I try to describe some of the sights, I might have another one coming up soon!

[@waltersvg]

That old bridge between Newport an Inver Grove was such a timesaver. It's a shame they didn't keep it up. I didn't see any Grey Cloud Island Druids doing rituals on this video either. Great music. Great video.

[@msnpassjan2004]

This was pretty cool. Thanks for sharing !

[@lae52]

I spent a number of years off and on growing up in La Cross. I always loved the river, but never really grew to appreciate it until later in life. There's just something about the Upper Mississippi that I can't put into words.

[@steverudder3321]

Ahoy there! In my opinion this whole video Adventure was very well done. I felt like I was right there with you guys as one of the crew, yet I didn't have to do any chores or pay for gas. From the dialogue to the Drone footage, everything in this video was superb!🏆

[@adampeters4542]

My family is on the river since 1851!

[@_onesimpleidea]

I liked watching your series, just for the standard boat stuff, but also for the unintended comedy. First, "... over there, we see some grass, and next to it, apparently there are some rocks. Although we haven't tested it, we're assuming there is dirt under the rocks and grass." And at the end, you really didn't need to announce your arrival to St. Paul. The cop car sirens did that for you! All in all, sincerely enjoyed it. Nice job. :)

[@clownearound5751]

I’ve watched this little series of videos a couple times and really enjoyed them, the commentary was a particular highlight and the ‘river nemesis’ continuing to show up made me laugh. I love the idea of just cruising up/down a river and berthing/anchoring up for the night. Maybe a shanty raft type of vessel could be a future project for you? Best wishes from England

[@saveitforparts]

I've always wanted to do a shanty boat and just drift along, but it's hard to do once you have a house and pets and a real job. You have to hit that peak moment when you're skilled enough to build one that won't sink, but not old enough to be responsible 😁

[@andrewjones6239]

The rocks that you are identifying as wing dams are actually rock walls that were added a couple of years ago by the Corps of Engineers. These were added to prevent silting of the channel as it snakes from bank to bank north of the Hastings lock and damn. Wing dams would not be effective in these areas because the main channel (between the buoys), crosses the natural flow over the shallow waters in this wide open part of the river. You probably noticed that the channel narrows considerably in this part of the river because of the silting that takes place from this cross flow. Wing dams stick out nearly perpendicular from the shore and most often have a buoy marking the end. They get their name from the fact that they look like a wing coming off the shore. Sometimes you can see the rock of the wing damn on or near the shore. It is extremely rare to see a wing damn exposed away from shore. Their purpose is to direct the flow of water to the center of the channel. You can see the water swirling around and over the wing damns as you pass nearby. I grew up on this pool of the river, I know it well.

[@jimsteele7108]

Always fun to visit those little river towns. Lots of neat history there.

[@somewhere7129]

Very enjoyable river trip . 👌 thank you .

[@johnbecay6887]

i like your professional demeanor and sense of humor

[@raymondj8768]

that looked like a cool ride up the river i never been on that river .

[@garyfairbrother5532]

I used to do that trip quite often from 2002 to 2016, it’s fun to do it again. I knew exactly where you were all along the way, so you did a fine job. Good , accurate, and informative tour. Thanks.

[@jamesscott1932]

Thank you enormously for making this series on river boating. It must’ve been a lot of work and I’m sure that there are going to be thousands of others Who will benefit from your diligence and skill. If your friend with the Boetel decides to put that out as an Airbnb, please let me volunteer to be one of his guests. I will wear a huckleberry fin straw hat and smoke from a corn cob pipe out on the aft cockpit.

[@infoscholar5221]

This was great, I felt like I went on the voyage with you guys. Nice little adventure.

[@freddyferguson7763]

I love fishing from the lock and dam number 2 in Hastings

[@pilotman012]

That was cool to see. I live in Saint Paul and have flown over a few times.

[@davekimbler2308]

My dads best friend once owned Navy Island , back then it had a bar and 6 rental houses and the city of St.Paul stole it for pittance to make it a park ! When I was about 5 I hated to go down those steps on the side of the bridge !

[@saveitforparts]

Minneapolis has been trying to force out everyone and everything along the river to make more parks. There's one house in NE that still has waterfront and about 30 junk boats sinking along the bank. Honestly that's what my yard would probably look like if I was on water :-D

[@ryannelson4131]

Welcome to the city :)

[@justinrice8509]

I like that boat! We don't have anything like it in Australia :( You should do voice over work. You have a good voice. Thank you Justin

[@saveitforparts]

Thanks! I think I'm getting better at the voiceovers, I cringe at some of my early videos now! Its interesting how different country's boats look to each other. I actually prefer the look of certain Australian and UK boat designs over stuff from the US.

[@alexmikhael5061]

10:10 is that an AMPHATHEATER on that little island ?????????????? nice!!!!

[@saveitforparts]

Yep, that's Saint Paul's Raspberry Island, part of the riverfront park. I think they do weddings and maybe music down there sometimes.

[@patbueltel9628]

Are you going to have a series of videos on helping them do repairs renovations etc etc? I think that would be really neat series if you helped your friend or relative do the restoration / repair work

[@saveitforparts]

I think they want a real mechanic for this one! I'm fine with boats made of duct tape and zipties, but the owner seemed a little stressed out by the unreliable engine :-D

[@comeandtravel1]

I would have gone on the St. Croix somewhere. But St. Paul is convenient.

[@saveitforparts]

I think they tried but couldn't find a slip large enough on the St. Croix (or St. Paul was cheaper maybe). There were definitely a few marinas that wouldn't handle something this large. There were also a lot of marinas that just don't answer the phone or email and never have anyone on staff, it doesn't seem like a very professional industry :-D

[@ericludwig5854]

Sweet. I'm not far from there at all.

[@jaxsun72]

Skarven sounds like someone who's really drunk would say.

[@naturetamer]

hi, I'm new to your channel. thanks for taking us along on your adventure. can you say how much the fuel cost was?

[@saveitforparts]

I didn't pay for the fuel so don't really know for sure, sorry!

[@bishopkinlyside8477]

Looks like you guys are driving around with full noise are you

[@saveitforparts]

It was pretty loud, even up in the bow those two big engines are a good constant rumble. I guess I'm used to it from fishing in Alaska, I used to sleep right through the diesel starting :-D

[@MHoodFishing]

I like your channel. Where is sandland in Wisco?

[@saveitforparts]

It's in Western Wisconsin near-ish to Minnesota. The owner doesn't usually give out the exact location without meeting people first, if you're interested in helping out I could try and get you in touch!

[@MHoodFishing]

@@saveitforparts Yeah cool, thanks. I would like to check it out. I go up sometimes to make fishing videos.

[@captaincoolziy2319]

Thanks for the vids!..how many gallons did she burn..if he wanna share that?!how many miles?..does she get on plane?..we still have gibsons on the sac delta

[@saveitforparts]

I think it was something like 6 gallons per hour per engine, we must have been planing a little since we got it to go faster than hull speed!

[@captaincoolziy2319]

Sweet thanks good luck

[@bobmirror7164]

No palm trees! Where are the palm trees?

[@ryanballot5565]

ahoy there captain, what was the name of the ghost town along the river?

[@saveitforparts]

Nininger was the one I mentioned, here's some more info on it: www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2014/02/short-history-nininger-minnesota/

[@raymondj8768]

hey dude hows it going

[@adampeters4542]

What kinda drone you have?

[@saveitforparts]

The current one is a DJI mini, it's a step up from my last one that now lives in a tree :-P

[@adampeters4542]

F**K YEAH!! I’m Headed to lake superior next week, for a week and I was looking at the same drone. Thanks. Im pulling the trigger on it! Michigan to Minnesota !

[@79tazman]

I live in Canada and I travel the Trent-Severn Waterway and it has many locks it also has one big lock called the Peterborough lift lock or lock 21 and it's a hydraulic lift lock that brings boats 65 feet up or down and it's been around since the late 1800's. Here is a video of the lift lock kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqq1d6CwotWSnbM

[@saveitforparts]

That's great! I've seen some of the boat lifts in Europe but didn't know about that one!

[@DetroitMicroSound]

Hey bud, get yourself and extra furry mic cover. it'll reduce wind noise a lot.

[@saveitforparts]

This cam doesn't have a mic jack, I need to upgrade some day!

[@DetroitMicroSound]

@@saveitforpartsHey, you can still put a wind cover on it. A small square of faux fur. 😁

[@raybon7939]

I'm not much at all in fact zero On looking back on my life crap. But if I could do it all again I'm 50 now so fuck work, But if I could do it all again I'd get into boating Cuase my body and mind would of gone through Far less crap Cruises boat cruises selling Them ,

[@tendymancommeth]

bruh, when are you gonna start calling yourself jeddadya and wear a plain wide brimmed flat?

[@Cell1000bc]

St Paul looks nice.