Deer, Carp, Fog, Mississippi River!

Rick and I returned to Breaking Away in Havana, IL as planned! I brought with me my new Great Loop burgee (the triangular yachtsman flag). Now I'm official. Well, at least now others will know we're doing the Great Loop. I've been a member of the Am Great Loop Cruisers Assoc for over a year now, but I didn't buy the burgee til recently. Others on the Loop fly it, and everyone wondered why I didn't. It helps you meet fellow Loopers and also get discounts at marinas and for fuel.

Last Saturday Rick flew to Peoria from Providence, and I took the bus from Dayton. We met Gary right on time, who had driven us last Sept 7 from Havana to the Peoria Airport. We made such good friends on that trip that we called him and he was anxious to take us back again. He is a local Havana real estate assessor, and Rick had found him via the barber in town when he inquired whether anyone wanted to drive us to Peoria for what it would be to take a cab. Well, not only did Gary drive us there and back, but treated us to dinner at the nicest restaurant in Havana last Saturday. Then, he generously drove us to the grocery market and waited while we shopped to restock our galley. Finally, he delivered us to the marina. The folks along this trip have been so friendly and helpful.

Everything on the boat was fine. We washed it first thing Sunday morning, after using the heater to warm up after the 35-degree night. It mysteriously got colder during our 3 1/2 weeks away. haha We did other necessary chores and then departed back out onto the Illinois River. For the first time on this river it was not horrendously windy. It wasn't windy at all. It was glassy and serene, and we meandered 31 miles down the scenic (no factories or barges lining the banks) to the little village of Beardstown.

We had read in our guide books that the only place to tie up a boat in Beardstown was on a barge tied to the river wall. When we got there, we could not tell which one it was (turns out it changes since it's a working area). We yelled to some guys on a tug and they motioned us to a barge and also walked over to help us land. Then he said it was $1 per foot for the night ($37 for my 37-ft boat). Really? That's what marinas charge, and they have electrical hookup, water, bathrooms, showers, coffee, laundromats, etc. This barge had nothing, and you even had to walk precariously across the other barge with logs to get to the gang plank over the river wall. Why didn't we just anchor and save the money? The charts for the Illinois River do not give depths, so I never knew how deep the water was near the banks. Oh well, the beer at the local tavern was only $1.25.

Oh, let me not forget this: Since this was a working site for tugs and barges, and they can come and go at any time, we endured a 15-minute noisy bouncing in the middle of the night as tugs were moving in and out and all about.

Yesterday, Monday, was just as placid on the river and we again had it to ourselves. And then we saw these four deer swimming across the river!!!!!!

We stopped the boat to let them pass in front of us. Here's a close-up of two of them.

And here they are running off once they reached the right bank. It was SOOO cool to see this "nature moment"!

This shows me passing a tug with 15 barges (the most we saw was 18, three wide by six long). If you want to pass a tug/barge, you must call them on the marine radio and ask whether you should pass on the right ("one whistle") or the left ("two whistle"). You can see he told me two whistle, so I'm puttering by him. But I was barely going faster than he was, so it was taking me forever to pass him. We were approaching a turn, so I had to really give it some gas to get in front so he wouldn't run into me when he had to turn.

Earlier we had to wait 90 minutes for this tug at a lock, as he dis-attached his load to get it all into the lock. We finally decided to anchor while we waited, so I rode my bike on the trainer to pass the time. Another trawler doing the Great Loop arrived and locked down with us, but they motored on ahead when we were done.

This bridge, in Meredosia, is one I pedaled my bike over when I rode across the country in May, 2007. I recall stopping with Dave Thompson in the middle of the bridge and telling him that someday I would be cruising right down this river on my own boat. Well, that day had finally come. As I approached the bridge, I called Dave and told him where I was and he remembered, and we had a nice little chat! This photo is after we passed under it and a tug/barge went by us.

Shortly after this bridge, we reached the westernmost point on the Great Loop as we headed south. Only now, we were going slightly easterly, paralleling the Mississippi.

So there we were, minding our own business in the serene quiet of the river, when we were startled by a loud thumping. Both Rick and I thought we'd run over a log. But then the thumping continued as I put the boat into neutral. Rick went down the stairs and saw this! We couldn't believe that an Asian Carp had leaped over the three-foot boat side into Breaking Away.

It was about two feet long and weighed at least 20 lbs. We'd heard about Asian Carp jumping into boats, but not trawlers with high sides like mine. He continued to flop around while I took pictures, and then Rick, wearing gloves, tossed him back over the side. Amazing! We didn't think we'd fish on this trip, and I guess we didn't need to. They were coming to us!

We arrived late at Mel's Riverfront Restaurant dock, where we tied up for the night. there to help us land were the crew from Lady Royal, the boat we had locked through with earlier in the day. We joined Rob and Deb for dinner and enjoyed comparing stories about our Great Loop adventures. They left from Cleveland, so our paths were different except for the Illinois River. It was a great evening with charming folks.

This morning, this is what it looked like on the river - pea-soup fog. We were not going anywhere until that would lift. This was the first time on the trip when fog was interfering with my travel. After a leisurely pancake breakfast, and it still was foggy, Rick and I walked around the small town of Hardin. By the time we got back, the fog was lifting and we took off for the final 21 miles to the Mississippi River.

For the 3rd day in a row, it was totally calm and glassy and beautiful. We eventually saw homes lining the banks, but look how they must be built. That shows you how the river levels can fluctuate around here. It was the same way once we got to the Mississippi, of course.

The Mighty Mississippi River!! This picture shows the swirling of the water at the confluence with the Illinois. Rick was driving at the time, and he had a heck of a time controlling the boat. We also picked up speed with the stronger current of the Mississip.

But almost immediately we turned upriver and went against the current, heading just two miles upstream to a marina where the fuel price was significantly less than others. We had not gotten fuel since upper Wisconsin on August 26, and there would not be any opportunities on the Mississippi since it is not meant for pleasure craft. So the boat slowed down from 8 mph to 4.5 mph, and we now had to dodge floating logs and branches everywhere.

Here is Breaking Away at the fuel dock, and they have a sense of humor here, don't they? Jaws was just completed a few days earlier.

Once we reentered the Mighty Mississip and went downstream, our speed increased to 11 mph. In other words, the current was about 3.5 to 4 mph to push us along at lightning speed. Dodging all the logs was now easier since they were floating in the same direction as we were traveling. And we got to view the rocky cliffs and stately homes above them along the way. Our destination was the Illinois town of Alton, 15 miles down from the confluence and 202 miles from the Ohio River.

It was pretty cool cruising down the Mississip!

The mass of white in this picture are white pelicans. We had seen huge flocks of them in certain places along the Illinois River too. Now here they were again, and they were also flying overhead in large V formations headed south. It was pretty amazing to see so many of them all over, and they are so regal as they fly by, just as brown pelicans are in Southern California.

After we arrived at the marina in Alton, cousin Carole Prietto drove up to spend the evening with us! Carole has lived in St. Louis for 21 years. She is an archivist, and also a singer with Sweet Adalines. She has composed/arranged about 25 "barber shop quartet" style songs which are sung now as part of the four-part-harmony repertoire.

We walked to a nice Italian restaurant and enjoyed our visit!

Tomorrow we will go through our only two locks on the Mississippi, then pass the Gateway Arch in St Louis, and end the day at Hoppie's Marina 23 miles south of St Louis. The adventure never ends!