Yesterday we traveled 81 miles, from Joliet to Hennepin, IL. We descended through four locks. We cruised for 11 hours, but the four locks took an hour so it was 10 hours of actual moving. Now you know how fast we travel - yes, 8.1 mph!!
This picture shows the scenic Illinois River. The first 20 or so miles were the Des Plaines River, but it becomes the Illinois when the Kankakee River joins in. Most of the river was like in this picture, but in quite a few places there were barges anchored along the banks, or grain elevators loading the barges, or power plants unloading coal from barges, or gravel yards loading barges, and tugs maneuvering around all the barges.
And when we encountered tugs pushing barges, it could get pretty interesting! We saw one pushing 15 barges, three wide and five long. I read there can be 18, 3x6. As we approach, we must call on the marine radio, channel 13, and ask whether he wants us to pass him on the right or the left. In all cases, they have answered immediately with their choice, except once when he said he didn't care.
The word on tugs and barges is that they have first choice at the locks. Since they have to untie their loads and can need two lock-downs to get it all through, pleasure boats sometimes have to wait three hours to get their turn. Well, I must say, that is NOT what we found yesterday! Prior to our first lock, just a mile down from Joliet, one of the five boat captains tied to the wall with us called ahead as we watched a tug go by with six barges. He wondered whether we might go ahead of him if we hurried there right away. The lock operator called the tug, WHO SAID YES!!, and the lock master called him back with the good news, and a demand to honor our promise to hurry. Well, I was on the phone with Janet in my night shorts when the fellow came running up yelling that we all had to leave immediately. I hung up and Rick and I scurried and departed in a matter of minutes. All five of us did. Sure enough, there was the kind tug waiting in front of the lock as we five passed him by and into the chamber. We thanked him on channel 13.
We also saw limestone cliffs like the ones in this picture near Starved Rock. There was a lock near there too, and luckily, we got through all four locks yesterday without having to wait. It was very windy all day, so getting safely up to the lock walls were a challenge, but we did it.
Here we are at our final spot for the night in Hennepin. The book had said the public dock was the best on the entire Illinois River, so we searched and searched when we got there and decided this must be it. Look how I'm sticking out since I'm too long. Oh well, it worked, and it was free!
One reason we traveled 81 miles was I could not find anything in our books to entice us to land and look around, especially since any landing would be risky in the strong winds. Hennepin was a small community, with a river front that reminded Rick and me of the little hamlets in the California Delta. Just 100 yards from the boat there was a perfect restaurant -- the only restaurant -- filled with local color, good food, and low prices!
I took this picture this morning, and you can see the fog we had on the river. It gave it a mystical appearance!
Today's 40-mile cruise to Peoria included scenes like this one, with old tugs or barges left high and dry on the banks. Of course, there also were dozens of anchored barges, moving barges/tugs, rusted pieces of barges.
Actually, today was neat because of all the pleasure boats out and about, more than any other day on the entire trip. And in places, the banks were lined with fishermen and campers. Loved seeing the locals enjoying their river.
We arrived in Peoria and turned into the marked channel in the lake to enter our marina where I'd called ahead for a reservation. I told him my boat had a four-foot draft, and he said it would be okay. Well it wasn't. I idled in and my prop and rudder were dragging in the bottom silt the entire 400 yards. I was pretty upset, but I don't think it did any real harm. Still, I'm not looking forward to going back through it when we depart tomorrow.
Rick and I biked into the downtown and located the upscale riverfront, complete with restaurants that overlook the river. We of course had to get rehydrated after our strenuous two-mile ride, so here is Rick, and...
...here I am enjoying a tall cold one.
As we were watching all the boaters having fun, we got to see a tug pushing these two LONG barges right through everyone's parties. He honked his arrival and quickly the pleasure boats scurried out of his way.
Another thing we saw were the infamous Asian carp jumping out of the water...for long distances! They would be scared by passing boats, and would leap out for about 20 feet, wiggling the whole time. The ones we saw were 1.5 to 2 feet long, and apparently they can reach 4 feet/100 lbs. We came back to relax on the flybridge, and saw them leaping right here too, as boats exited or entered the marina.
Tomorrow is supposed to be very windy again, so it may be another long day when the risk/benefit of stopping to explore will lead us to putting in many miles toward the Mississippi River 165 miles away.
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