Monday Oct. 6, 2014

Today we took the courtesy van and went across the river to visit Grafton, Illinois. I was looking forward to taking the Grafton Car ferry we had observed crossing the river when we came into Port Charles Marina on Saturday. One of the marina personnel pointed out that he didn’t think the ferry ran during the week. Only on Friday thru Sunday. He was right as local knowledge is all important. Then it was literally you can’t get there from here kind of story. We ended up driving 39 miles down to Alton, Il. To get to the closest bridge that crosses the Mississippi River. We could have taken the boat across the river and the trip would have been about 8 miles. Oh well. I had visited Grafton 3 years ago when Tom Mirus and I brought the boat up to Lake Michigan. We must have visited on a weekend because the place was dead as could be on a Monday. Many of the stores were closed and nothing was happening. We went up a steep hill to a winery- restaurant overlooking the area call the Aerie Winery. The food was ok but the view of the rivers was fabulous. We cruised thru Alton on the way back to the boat and called it a day. Colletta went out for a walk and I replaced the impeller in the generator. I had noticed a decrease in water shooting out the muffler and more exhaust smoke. Seems to have corrected the problem.

This is a picture from the Aries Restaurant above Grafton, Illinois. That is the Mississippi River in the back grround

Sunday Oct. 5, 2014

It turned out to be a beautiful day today. We got a late start because someone slept in. But the crew deserves a rest. We borrowed the marina’s courtesy car, a Dodge Mini Van to go into St. Charles today. I should mention that many of the marinas have cars available for transients. All you do is sign a waiver and let them copy your driver’s license and off you go. As a courtesy for letting us use the car I always put some gas in it but the marinas never tell you to. We headed into town forewarned by the marina manager that there was a bike race going on blocking our way into town. As we proceeded into town we were waved thru so no problem. As we approached St. Charles we kept seeing motorcycles, and more motorcycles. It was the Rat Run which is a big party at a number of bars along the highway into town. More motorcycles then I have ever seen.

 

In town mean while we parked the car and heard this commotion one block over and found the finish line for the Mo’Cowbell marathon and half marathon. The historic town of St. Charles was really jumping. The have a very quaint downtown with many shops and restaurants. We returned to the boat around 4:30 after having a full say sight seeing.

Saturday Oct. 4, 2014 Beardstown, Il. To St. Charles, Mo.

We departed Logsdon Tow Service barge at mm 88.4 where  we were tied up to early this am. 7 am is much earlier than usual but we had a long way to travel today. The temperature was 38 degrees and Colletta wanted to know where the warm weather I promised her was. We bundled up and off we went.

 

 

 We departed with Balderdash and R&R. We arrived at the last lock on the Illinois River at Mile Marker 80.2 the La Grange Lock and Dam. This is a wicket dam which means during times of higher water they can lower the  wickets ( these are the moveable dam walls which not every dam has) and instead of going thru thee lock and waiting for the doors to close and the water to drop. You go right over the lowered wickets of the dam. A little nerve racking the first time you do it but it works and saves us time.  It was almost as windy today as yesterday but the sun came out as the day went on and really was quite comfortable. We had to shed the coats, sweat shirts, gloves and hats from our departure. I think the other boats were running a little faster today because by noon they were 7 or 8 miles ahead of us. Nothing we could do as with the current of the river our normal 7.5 kt (9 mph) was 9.2 kts. (11 mph) we were flying!  Colletta did some crafts up on the fly bridge with me and we took turns driving.

Breakfast and lunch were served on the flybridge and we just cruised along. We passed a few tows with barges all headed north so I called them on the radio and asked which side they would like us to pass on. These tows are so big pushing all these barges (the biggest one so far was 3 across and 5 long so 15 barges total push the tow at the stern pushing them) they have to set up their turns around the bends in the river so sometimes you pass on their port or you may switch sides of the river and pass on their starboard. The AIS really is great as it identifies the tow by name, how fast he is going, and where we should intercept each other. We show up on his AIS screen also so he know s where we are and he can call us if need be. This way things work smooth. We like smooth.

At 1600 hours (that is 4:00 pm for you landlubbers) we arrived at the “Big Muddy” “the Mighty Mississippi River”. 

 

There is a marina right at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers in Grafton, Il.  My buddy Tom Mirus and I stopped there when we brought the boat north from Texas back in 2011. Nice marina and town but I decided to check out this marina I had heard great things about in St. Charles, Mo. So we turned up into the Mississippi River and saw our speed go from 10.2 kts (12 mph) to 4.5 kts ( 5.5 mph) going into the current of the Mississippi.

It was a long 4 miles up the river to the marina. We got into Port St. Charles Marina last night at 1715 (5:15 pm) after traveling 92 miles. I had talked to them earlier and they told us where to tie up. It worked out great as the wind was still blowing but this marina was very calm so docking by ourselves was uneventful.

This morning as I write this it is 48 degrees and sunny. We are going to borrow the marinas courtesy car and explore historic St. Charles, Missouri today.

Entering the " Big Muddy "

 

 

Friday Oct. 3, 2014 Good bye Peoria

Just a quick note about posting new entries. Sometimes our internet sucks. Verizon in southern Illinois is very disappointing performance wise. We have even had bad phone service. So if I don't post for a couple of days just drop me a text to enquire whether we are still floating. LOL.

Sitting at the free dock in Peoria

We departed the Peoria free dock at 7:51. Beulah Belle, the boat we have been traveling with is staying thru the weekend because of relatives visiting them. We headed to Peoria Lock and surprise , surprise. No Tows and barges waiting. We locked thru immediately in the the company of 2 other power boats.

R&R from New York ( Roger and Rhonda on board) and Balderdash from Charlevoix, Mi. with Tom on board single handing it. In the lock at 8:30 out by 8:45. It was only a 6 ft drop put it was over cast and very windy ( 30 mph gusts).

So off we went. It was a long day from mile marker 162.5 to Beardstown , Il. Mile marker 88.4. I know that doesn’t sound like much in a car but we only do 9 mph. It was so windy that there were actually white caps on the waves in the river. I my trips south I have never seen that.

The AIS ( Automatic Identification System) worked great today as I had 2 tows with barge contact me to let me know how they wanted to be passed. This system combines radio and gps so you can see targets on your chartplotter and get info about them. Really neat and it saves a lot of the anxiety of coming around a sharp turn in the river only to be confronted by a tow pushing 15 barges.

As  I said it rained a lot yesterday and many of the creeks tthat  feed into the Illinois River dropped all kinds of logs and junk in the river that must be avoided lest you bend a prop or worse. There was a lot of zigging and sagging on the river today. Thankfully the other two boats are faster then us so they called back on the radio to let us know what to expect.

We arrived in Beardstown at 4:45 pm. Had trouble docking what with the wind and current. The other two boats both docked with the current. I prefer to dock into the current because you retain more control of the boat. We went back out into the river and Colletta did a great job of quickly moving all the fenders and docking lines to the other side of the boat. We got the boat tied up and we then had to walk across 5 moored barges, up about 50 steps to the tug office and pay $ 1.00 per foot for the pleasure of tying to their barges. It’s the only game in town.

The picture doesn't do the waves justice. But we had gusting 30 mph winds and 2 ft waves with whte caps on the beautiful Illinois River. Never saw this before.

 

Tomorrow  early start for Grafton, Illinois and the end of the Illinois River. Then on to the Mississippi River.

Thur. Oct.2, 2014  Playing Peoria for one more day

Weather  forecast did not look good for today so we decided to stay put in Peoria one more day. What is the hurry to leave a free dock with free electricity. The day started a little different  in that it had been raining on and off all night. We decided to take a walk before it rained even more as was forecasted. As I jumped off the boat to the upside down plastic milk carton we use for a boarding step the boat moved away from the dock. Already in the process of disembarking I tried to land on the milk carton only to have it skide out from under me. Lucky I have a fat ass. Landed on my butt and flat on my back on the wood dock. Not very graceful  way of dismounting a boat. Luckily no major damage except for a sore butt and a little hitch in my back. We completed the walk and then took the bikes off the boat and road to Walmart and bought a 3 step step ladder. I  learn quick. Started raining around noon so we spent the rest of the day during things around the boat. It rained thru most of the night.

 

 

Wednesday Oct. 1, 2014

Got up at 7:15 am to do our machinery checks ( engines, transmissions, and generator). We had a very restful  night anchored  behind Lower Henry Island just south of Hennepin, Illinois.

 

This is a view of Beulah Belle who is anchored directly in front of us. We pulled up anchor and headed out  into the river at 8:03. During the evening I had gotten up and checked to make sure we were still anchored well and heard a large owl. The moon was brilliant with the total darkness being out on the river away from civilization.

 After our departure from the anchorage we immediately began seeing  more eagles. We had noticed about a half dozen yesterday some just flying around others seemingly playing games as they flew. Also we saw large numbers of herons and white pelicans. It was an uneventful trip thru Peoria Lake. That is good. Peoria Lake is very large, very shallow outside of the channel, and wins around quite a bit. I cannot imagine running thru this area at night  like the tows with barges do. I don’t know if I mentioned it but tows run 24 / 7 so navigating thru these areas has got to be tricky. We had planned on a short day today after running for almost 12 hours yesterday. We pulled into the Peoria City Docks at 11:45. After some confusion about about  where to tie up we got situated. The docks are free with 30 amp power. Remember  free is good. First chance we had to get off the boat and walk around. Walked thru downtown Peoria at lunch time. A number of food carts thru out the downtown area over lunch time. We then stopped at Beulah Belle and met of of Wally and Mary Sue’s relatives who had driven in to meet them here. After visiting for a while returned to the boat for boat chores. This trip is not all fun and games. Raining  tonite with storms forecasted on coming thru tomorrow. We will wait and  see if we depart.

                                               out in the middle of Lake Peoria a bunch of white pelicans

Tuesday 9/30/14

Up at 0630, checked engines, generator, and transmissions in preparation for 0730 departure.  Last night we put out 2 anchors only to discover the stern anchor did not set so that was no help.  We hoist the anchor and bring up some garbage then proceed to channel to wait for Beulah Belle.  They become stuck on something and take a minute to maneuver their way free and start our day travel at 0747 at mm 258.6.  Cool and overcast this am.  At 0929 we arrive at Marseilles mm 244.  Have to wait for our nemesis Samuel Fleming , and the northbound tow Champion to clear the locks. We hurried to lock and proceeded to wait.  Finally at 1109 we are in the lock. Exit lock at 1147.  An hour later we arrive at the Starved Rock lock mm 231 only to find our favorite southbound tow Samuel Fleming waiting for us.  He agrees to let us lock thru before him because we have a light tow, Tommy Andrews, traveling with us. He is heading home to New Orleans.  This light tow brought a barge to Lemont and returning home with nothing.  It will be a long way home for the father/son captain team.  In lock at 1400 out at 1424.  We just keep motoring for the next 4 hours to reach the nights anchorage.  At 9 mph we go nowhere fast.  The Illinois River is nice – nothing exciting but very nice, tree lined, big green trees, beyond them are often field of corn ready for harvest, some campgrounds on the river front sprinkled in between and eagles soaring overhead at sunset.  Anchoring out is nice but also a little nerve racking until Colletta masters the technique, it will improve.  Dinner included our family and friends, Georgia’s  rub on the chops, Joys gift of wine with dinner, Vivi’s chocolate for dessert and Brooklynn following our travels on a map – great way to end a day.

Busy commercial areas abound on northern part of Illinois River