Illinois Waterway

Railroad bridge opening

9/7/19

     We are starting on the next leg of this journey, traveling down the inland rivers and lakes, a trip of about 1300 miles from Chicago to Mobile, Alabama.  This will be a big contrast to the open water of Lake Michigan.  We will encounter new challenges:  navigating among tow/ barge traffic, locking through huge locks, passing industrial areas along the river banks, avoiding debris in the waterway and dealing with strong currents.  Marinas are far and few between, which adds to the planning of where we go each day, searching for a good anchoring spot..  We are somewhat worried about what lies ahead, but ready to accept the challenges with a positive attitude.  We will be passing through a series of 8 locks on  the Illinois River.

Passing industrial area in Chicago

     Today we left  Chicago and entered the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.  Just the name of this area sounds pretty crummy and intimidating!  We made it through the first lock, TJ O'Brien lock without any problem.  We passed under several bridges and passed by a lot of barges, making our way  to our next big challenge:  going under the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Bridge.  This is the make or break point of any of the Looper's trip.  We have to get under a fixed bridge of 19'7" height, the lowest fixed bridge on the Great American Loop.  If we can't make it under, we would have to turn around and go back home the way we came!  We knew we would be close, even by taking down all the antennas and  lowering our anchor light.  I went out on  the bow to view it, Karl slowly cruised under while I held my breath,  and we made it!

Electrical Barrier

     The next obstacle was getting through  an electrical barrier designed to prevent and slow the spread of invasive fish species into the Lake Michigan.  It is advised to wear your life jackets, keep all pets off deck and beware of "flying fish" that jump out of the water and can smack you in  the head!  Do not put your hands or feet in  the water!  We made it through, unharmed!

     The next hurdle was Lockport Lock, a 40 foot lock.  We waited about 4 hours to get locked through!  This was our first experience with a long wait time.   It was frustrating because we really did not understand why the lock master kept us waiting.   We ended up tying on to a large cement circular structure and cutting the engines and waited and waited.  Commercial barges have priority. Another pleasure craft  was traveling with us and we chatted with them on the radio.  We finally got through and got to our destination, Jolliet, Ill, about 7:45 pm, just as darkness was upon us.  We thankfully tied up  to a free wall, ate dinner on the boat and went to bed exhausted!
   

Rainy morning

Marseilles  Lock

Dinner

9/8 
     It was  raining when we woke up.  We noticed  that most  of the boats that were tied to the wall were making preparations to get under way.  Our new friends, Chris and Janis on Paraiso suggested that we all leave together to go as a group through the next series of locks, giving us more power by numbers to get through the locks!  We traveled with 6 boats.  We waited for  2 hours to get through Brandon Lock.   We got through the next lock, Dresden Island Lock fairly quickly.  The big lock of the day was Marseilles Lock. The Army Corp of Engineers are repairing this lock, so it is restricted to pleasure crafts from locking through except for certain time periods, 6:00 am in the morning  or 6:00 pm in the evening.  They will only allow a limited number of boats during this time!  We  arrived at 4:30 pm with our 6 boats and notified the lock  master.  He said  to just "hang out" and wait and he would lock us through at 6:00 pm.  Luckily all went smoothly.  We  went about 4 more miles and stayed at Heritage  Marina, a very nice place right outside of Ottawa, IL.  We  all met at the restaurant for drinks and dinner and swapping stories about the day!

Anchorage

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9/9 Monday
     After fueling up at the marina,  we found a great anchorage for the night a few miles from our  next big hurdle: the Starved Rock Lock.   This lock has restricted times for pleasure boats as well and  we decided to tackle it in the early 6:00 am!  Two other boats (BIG and Beyond Caring)  joined us at the anchorage  and we all talked  on  the radio discussing our best chance  of getting  through in  the morning, deciding to get up early, 4:00 am to get to the lock  in plenty of time.  Bedtime was 9:00 pm!

Approaching Starved Lock in the dark

Lock wall

Karl stays at the helm,  I handle the lines 

We tie up to a floating bollard, allowing us  to float down  with the descending water level while attached to the wall 

We were close to the back of the lock doors

9/10  Tuesday 
     Four o'clock am came early!  It was pitch dark when we pulled up the anchor and slowly made our  way down the river to the lock, our eyes adjusting to the dark.   We followed  the other two boats and we made great time.   We approached the lock at 5:00 am and the lock  master said to come on through! we could not believe our good luck!

      After locking through, we began to relax a little.   When the sun brightened up the day, the boat in  front of us  decided to go a little faster, passing BIG.  We followed, but just as we  were passing, a huge barge/tow rounded the corner.  The barge must have startled the boat in  front of us (Beyond Caring)  and he seemed to just stop like a deer in headlights!  The tow captain  got on  the radio and told Beyond Caring to move to starboard  quickly!   The boat started to go to port, then we were all on  the radio telling him to move out of the way to starboard!  He then started backing up with us behind him!  Wow, I could not believe it!  We were forced over out of the channel just to get out of Beyond Caring's way!   Endorphin Voyager got into shallow water and touched bottom, causing the starboard engine to go out.  We drifted a bit and started the engines back and slowly moved back in the channel. 

     We all learned lessons that morning!   Tows push barges on the river and some may be pushing 15 barges, which is about 1200 feet long  and very wide.  They can not turn or stop quickly!  We also learned you have  to communicate with the Tow captains at all times and know their position as well as your own.  Tows can cause a lot of turbulence in  the water, too.  You have to be very cautious when approaching, passing, or overtaking a Tow.  They always take preference on the river!

Sun  Rise

     I spotted 2 bald eagles sitting on a branch beside the river.  Later we saw hundreds of white pelicans and saw more eagles flying.  We  traveled about 64 miles today and pulled into the Illinois Valley Yacht Club close to Peoria.  Sandy, captain of BIG invited us and the crew of Beyond Caring over for dinner that night.  It was delicious.