Today also marked a first for us. We caught a fish with the dinghy. Yep. An Asian Carp jumped right into the dinghy while we were travelling! He flopped around in there for a few hours before moving on to carp heaven. Once we got secured at anchor the clean-up began.
9/13/11 Tuesday Once again we were underway by 7am. One thing we've noticed while travelling the Illinois is that it seems to be the final resting place for old barges, towboats, and old casino boats. The lower end of Chillicothe was no exception.
Shortly after leaving Chillicothe we started across Peoria Lake, a wide expanse of water to the eye but only a narrow channel through it. We soon were passing through Peoria. Hometown of Richard Pryor and of course Caterpillar.
A few miles below Peoria is the Peoria Lock. I had been monitoring the commercial traffic as well as the lock on the VHF and knew it was going to be busy at the lock. Once we rounded the last corner and had a clear view to the lock my suspicions were confirmed. A quick call to the lock and a response of," it will be at least 2 hours, maybe more." The lockmaster suggested we anchor between the I-474 bridge and the dam, outside of the channel, so that's what we did and began our wait.2 hours and 20 minutes later we locked down with the towboat M/V Julie White.
Our day ended at anchor behind Sincarte Island. A narrow anchorage with a great view of the channel.
9/14/11 Wednesday We slept in this morning and didn't get going until 7:05am! The day was overcast as we arrived at La Grange, our last lock on the Illinois. A call to the lockmaster revealed that there was no traffic at the lock and that we could enter once they were done greasing the hinges on the gates. It wasn't long and we were going in. The lockmaster gave us the choice of hanging onto lines from the lock or floating in the chamber. We opted for floating. 15 minutes after arriving we were watching the lower gates open for our departure. A record.
If this lock looks similar to Peoria you're right. Both locks have wicket dams which from the upstream side gives the appearance of an infinity pool. In this photo the dam is to the left of the little tug boat. The wicket dams are lowered when the water gets high enough allowing the traffic to go over the top of them and avoid locking through. At that point most if not all of the lock structure would be under water.
At one of the towns below La Grange we happened upon this old Navy LST pulled into shore and open for tours. It turns out LST 325 had served in WWII at the D-Day invasion and in fact had made 44 crossings of the channel by wars end. It has since been restored by an ex-Navy group and is travelling around giving tours.
Just like the day before, we caught another Asian Carp today. This time on the swim platform. Also like yesterday we passed another old derelict commercial boat rotting on the riverbank.
By the time we pulled into our anchorage behind Willow Island it was raining steadily and the wind was blowing out of the north at a pretty good clip. Time to turn on the generator and get some heat in the cabin!
Thus far our travels on the Illinois have been interesting. Once out of the Chicago area it becomes a pretty river winding through the countryside. This time of year it is shallow, even in the channel. At one point we were meeting a barge and we agreed to pass on the one whistle (port to port). It was at a slight bend in the channel and as we neared one another he hit a shallow spot and it forced the towboat and rear barges over into my lane of travel. Watching this unfold it didn't take long to figure that we were going to get hit if we didn't move. With shallow water just outside the channel all we could do was back up, and fast, until we were out of his way. Once the crisis was averted the towboat pilot and myself had a laugh about it on the VHF.
On another corner we had to wait while a 15 barge tow jockeyed his way around a tight and shallow corner. It seems that the Illinois is either above flood stage with more water than is needed or at near draught conditions as it is now making life miserable for the towboats.
I've mentioned our success with catching Asian Carp. It has apparently become a sport along the Illinois. We witnessed a small boat with 2 guys bow hunting the carp as they idled along stirring up the carp with the sound of their engine. Sorry, no pictures.
9/15/11 Thursday OK. Today we really slept in. Departure time today was 8am. Only 30 miles to Grafton and the Mississippi River. The sun was shining after a night of temps in the 40's. Still cool but bearable in shorts and sweatshirt. We eased on toward Grafton passing a car ferry that was quite busy before we got off the Illinois.
We passed Grafton Marina and at 11:03am we hit the Mississippi River and crossed our wake completing our water journey around the Eastern United States. We continued upstream on the Mississippi to Port Charles Harbor in St. Charles, Mo. where we will get Tourists engines tuned up and some other minor maintenance issues taken care of before we continue South back to Legacy Harbour in Ft. Myers.
Upon pulling into Port Charles Harbor we spotted two other looper boats. Sweetgrass who we had last seen in the Dismal Swamp and Seamoore who we had bumped into at different times while crossing Canada and who we later had dinner with at the Duck Club next door to our marina.
Now that we have completed the Loop we can display the Gold burgee that signifies a loop completion.
Including the miles from East Dubuque to Grafton on our initial trip down river we travelled 5938.2 miles by the time we crossed our wake.
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