Down the Hot Illinois!

And it was so darn hot, even the cows were going for a swim!

When we last left you, we were waiting in Joliet for the lock to get fixed. I took a walk thru town, on both sides of the river while we were waiting. Just upstream from us was an American Tug, the Calypso, with a Looper flag flying. I knocked on my way into town, and again on my way back, but no one was home.

The lockmaster said the lock was scheduled to be ready by 6:00 PM, and when we radioed him at 5:30, he said come on down and we could lock thru. That made our day! We headed down, got locked thru, and headed to the Harborside marina for the night.

The next morning we gassed up, and headed to Ottawa. Two locks took us thru upon arrival, and we easily made the 34 miles to Ottawa.

In one of those locks, we got to lock thru with the Mark Secrease, pictured below. It’s a little unusual to let a pleasure boat lock thru with a tug. Both the tug operator and the lock master have to agree to do this. We know to stay well clear of them! When they put those props in gear, their prop wash will spin us like a rubber ducky!

Ottawa has a nice, but small free wall with power, and, according to Skipper Bob, water. The power was there, but I had to hunt for the water. It was actually a yard hydrant hidden in a planting area on the bank. As it was a few hundred feet from the boat, I was happy to see there were numerous garden hoses there to water the plantings. After pulling some hoses together, we were able to water the boat. Got the laundry done after a mile walk to the local laundromat, and put a pizza in the toaster oven for dinner. It had been a long day, and we retired early.

The next morning as we were just getting up, we saw the Calypso from Joliet going by. They would

have had to have gotten up mighty early to get locked thru, and travel to Ottawa.

We took our time, and headed out to the Marsellas lock, less than 10 miles down.

When we arrived, we saw the Calypso waiting, along with a full tow, and a lone big tug in the lock.

NOT GOOD - looks like a long wait.

We radioed the lock master to announce our arrival, and he said, “Keep Er Comin! - we’ll take ya down between da splits. Just tuck in wit dat little Tug and da Julie White.”

You have really got to hear these lock masters, and the tow operators talk to appreciate their jargon!

It’s a language all its own! 

The picture above shows this to be a VERY busy lock! You can barely see the top of a tow just below the lock waiting to come up. To the right of us is another full tow waiting to go down. In the lock, ahead of the Calypso, is the Julie White. Believe me when I say we were VERY lucky to get to lock thru ahead of all this. I think it was because the Julie White was committed to go down, and she was just a tug with no barges, so there was room for us. It would have been a minimum 2&1/2 hour wait otherwise!

We made it thru OK with the Calypso, and finally got to meet Mark & Bev over dinner at the Illinois Valley Yacht Club.

They are from Punta Gorda, Florida, and started the Loop in April. 

The lower portion of the Illinois is looking more and more like home.

It was sure nice of this heron to mark this snag in the channel for us!

Further on down, we came upon this dredge working. It is a constant battle keeping a 9’ depth in the channel for the barges. There is a big auger on the tube in the front that loosens the mud from the bottom, and it is sucked up thru the tube. 

The slurry of mud is then pumped thru these pipes - 

and in this case is spit onto the shore. Sometimes they pump it into barges, haul them away, and empty them with a crane.

Much of this material is sand, and is used for road construction. 

You can see here how much the river has changed over the years. This was a coal dock. Now you can’t even get close to the pilings. We are not sure if the bank was filled in with dredge material, or if the river changed that much. 

Here is something I have never seen in all my years on the rivers. A tug being pushed in a “dry dock”. Apparently, this tug is disabled, can not move under its own power, and had to be moved. The dry dock is sunk by pumping water into the “floats” on the sides, they push the tug over it, and then it is raised by pumping the water out. 

Pat had mentioned the electric fish barrier, coming out of Chicago. The Illinois, and the Mississippi have been infested with “Asian Flying Carp”. These fish are voracious eaters, and can devastate the rivers and lakes eco systems. They are trying to keep them out of the Great Lakes and Canadian waters with the electric barrier.

These fish lay quietly under water, until they are disturbed by a boat going by. They then jump as high as 12’ out of the water. If one hits you while you speed by in a small boat, it can hurt you bad!

If they end up in your boat, they make a bloody mess!

Pictured is Bob, the owner of the Tall Timbers Marina, where we stayed Friday night. When we pulled into our slip, five or six carp jumped up, and landed on the dock, and in a nearby john boat. Bob gets to throw them back! 

If you go back to the beginning of our posts, on August 31st last year, we were in Grafton, IL. This is the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois river, and where we actually “started” the Great Loop.

We will be back there on Sunday, which is when we will “cross our wake”, and finish the Loop. Then we have 600 more miles to go back up the Mississippi.

What we didn’t tell you was about the Gin Pot in Grafton last year. We had stopped at Grafton Marina for a few days last year with Marc & Michele on Marcs Ark. We met a couple from Sweden who were doing a portion of the Loop on a sail boat, and also a boating group from Tall Timbers Marina - which is where we are right now - who were on their annual boating vacation from Tall Timbers to Grafton.

The Tall Timbers group invited us all to join them on the dock, to share their “gin pot”. A gin pot is a concoction of gin, lemons, limes, Fresca and ice all mixed up in an old aluminum water pitcher. You just pass it around, and everyone takes a drink.  We had a fun evening with them, and they told us to be sure and stop at Tall Timbers on our way back.

Well - when we pulled into Tall Timbers , we asked Bob if the Gin Pot crew was here. He looked at us kind of funny, I suppose wondering how we knew about the gin pot, and said they were in Grafton, but due back anytime.

Well - they made it back!!!!!

We're not done yet!!! Hang in there - we’ll have more on our final travels to Grafton, and back up the Mighty Miss.

Captn Ken