Author: NJ

October 11 & 12, 2017  Wednesday & Thursday

Going south, the first marina on the Illinois River after Tall Timbers Marina in Havana (mm 120.3) is Grafton Marina (mm 0.0), a mere 120.3 miles away. Since an average day for us is 30-40 miles we expected to take three days, with two anchorages on our way to Grafton, we made it in two days.

There is a good anchorage five miles before the La Grange Lock and Dam (mm 80.2 – 10 feet) that we had planned on anchoring at Wednesday, but when we called the lockmaster to check on the transit situation, he said: “come on down and we will get you right through.” Since it can take hours if you get to the lock at the wrong time we continued to the lock. As it turned out, the tow that was in the lock encountered a problem and it was a forty minute wait, still, we were happy to transit our eighth and final lock on the Illinois River. We were the only ones in the lock and were allowed to float instead of being tied to the lock wall.

After leaving the lock, we had a little trouble finding an anchorage that we felt good about. We finally anchored at mm 61.2, just before the Norfolk and Western Railroad Lift Bridge. At that point the river is wide and the water out of the channel was about 6 feet. Not a good anchorage in bad weather but perfect for the evening. Shortly after we anchored, a barge came by and Rick contacted the captain to ask if we were out of his way. The captain’s response was, “No problem little buddy.”  The closest city to our anchorage was Valley City, IL a population of 13 at the 2010 census, making Valley City the smallest incorporated town in Illinois.

Since we had gone 61.2 miles and only had another 60 to go, with no locks, we decided to make the trip in two days instead of three. Tonight we are at the Grafton Marina at the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.

Wednesday and Thursday were both great bird watching, days: mostly egrets, herons, and eagles. However, the gray and misty skies really hindered taking pictures, it seems we have not seen the sun in days, no beautiful blue sky for picture taking. You might wonder why the White Pelican “video” is a series of pictures instead of a true video. Our poor camera is more worn out than we are, sometimes we can take videos and at other times the camera says; “Not today” It often takes up to three minutes to shut down, we are expecting any day that she will say; “That’s all for me, I’m done.” We are just keeping our fingers crossed that she will make the entire loop with us.

October 9 & 10, 2017  Monday & Tuesday

The Illinois River has long been an important resource for food, water, and transportation for both native Indians and the new European arrivals. The first European troop to pass through the Havana area was Father Marquette, Louis Jolliet, and company. In 1827 Havana was surveyed for its first European settlers. Ossian Ross established a canoe ferry for those wanting to cross the Illinois to reach Spoon River and a settlement called Ross’ Ferry was formed. Locals noted that a nearby island at the south of Spoon River resembled the island of Cuba and was referred the island as Cuba Island. Incorporated in 1848, Ross’ Ferry took the name of Havana.

In August 1858, both Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas spoke at Rockwell Park while running for the US Senate. In later years, it was discovered that the raised mound of Rockwell Park was actually an Indian burial site.

In the years that followed many famous and infamous people visited Havana and its riverfront. During the 19th Century summertime, Chautauquas were popular throughout the country. Chautauquas were large gatherings in designated areas for people to enjoy camping, fellowship, pleasure boating, swimming, and hearing traveling speakers on current events of the day, guest speakers included Booker T. Washington, Thomas Edison, and the Reverend Billy Sunday.

Rumor in the town was that Al Capone, the Chicago gangster, developed underground gambling and entertainment centers in Havana and on riverboats throughout Mason County. On Halloween, sixty-four years ago, 52 state troopers raided the casinos and taverns, closing Al Capone’s operations in Mason County and the little town of Havana, once known as Little Reno, became a small town with lots of interesting history.

October 8, 2017  Sunday

After two days of rain, today’s warm, sunny weather was magnificent.  With just over four hundred miles left on our loop, marinas and good anchorages are at a premium, this is especially true when you consider the extremely low water levels in the rivers this fall.  We have to plan carefully in order to ensure that we are safe at anchor or in a marina each night. Navigating the rivers at night is possible, those with local knowledge do it all the time but we are hoping that we won’t need to. Barge traffic, fishermen, and deadheads are much easier to navigate around in the daylight.

Locks make planning more difficult because you never know how long you will have to wait to lock through. Today we had to make it through the Peoria Lock by 1:00 pm or stay in Peoria. We were lucky to get there just in time to join four other pleasure craft as they transited the Peoria Lock, mm 157.6 – 8 ft.  This was the first time we had been allowed to just float in the lock instead of using lines on the wall. Of the five vessels in the lock, two used the lines and three of us just floated. We were out of the lock by 11:30 am and on our way to Tall Timbers Marina, Havana. We were the only boat in the group that could clear the 3-foot entrance into the marina, the rest anchored behind Quiver Island. Tied up by 4:30 pm I had plenty of time to do laundry, cook dinner, and enjoy the sunset.

Notice the flock of white pelicans, yesterday most of them had their heads down trying to hide from the wind and rain, today they are soaking up the sunshine.

October 6-7, 2017  Friday & Saturday

Friday: At the briefing yesterday Jeremy told us that the fall colors were beginning and it is true, we saw several beautiful trees today. We transited one lock today, Starved Rock Lock at mm 231.0 with a 17-foot drop. We were very lucky that we were able to transit within an hour of arriving at the lock, another pleasure craft had waited almost three hours and a tow was also waiting. We were pleasantly surprised that they let the three pleasure boats go before the tow. As we left the lock our beautiful morning of sunshine turned into an afternoon of rain.

We stopped at Hennepin, named after the explorer Louis Hennepin a Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollet order, for the evening.  We had two options the public wall or the public dock, since the docks were shorter than Andiamo and bounced around we decided the wall would work better. In the rain, we spent about 30 minutes securing Andiamo to the wall only to decide that the extremely rough, high wall was not a good fit for Andiamo and we moved her to a slip on the docks where we spent a bouncy, but uneventful, night.

Saturday: No locks today but plenty of wind and waves. We had hoped to make it to Peoria but we only made it as far as Chillicothe on Upper Peoria Lake. As we pulled into Hamm’s Holiday Harbor Marina the wind was gusting to 30-mph, waves were building, and the rain began. However, once securely tied to the docks we spent a cozy evening on the boat planning our next 178.8 miles to the Mississippi River.

Trivia: When the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway was building its mainline from Chicago to Kansas City in the 1800’s Chillicothe was selected as the crossing point on the Illinois River.

October 5, 2017  Thursday

Up at sunrise we once again left Spring Brook Marina and headed for Marseilles Lock. We called the lockmaster and he said we would have about a twenty-minute wait, that wait turned into about one-and-a-half hours with five pleasure craft floating outside the lock waiting for our turn. When we did enter the sailboat that had been waiting with us did not enter the lock and we wondered what happen to him.  Later that afternoon we saw his boat being pulled into the Heritage Harbor Marina by Boat US. It seems that just before the lock opened he ran into a rock and damaged his rudder, so sad.

We stopped at Heritage Harbor Marina because the dockmaster there gives an excellent briefing on possible marinas and anchorages between Ottawa and Hoppies Marine Services at Kimmswick , MO. We have lots of information but his briefing gave us the current status of each location. Anchorages that have been great in the past years are not viable with the lower pool levels this fall, good briefing.

Most of you have probably heard that the Illinois River is full of invasive Asian carp. The electronic fence that we crossed on Monday is in place to try to keep them out of the Great Lakes and boaters are warned that they can damage your boat and/or persons on your boat. They weigh in at 4.4 – 31.0 pounds and jump as high as 10 feet. We saw one at our marina that jumped on the dock and lost its life because it is illegal to throw them back in the water.

We always enjoy watching the birds along the river, the blue heron was grooming itself while we were waiting to enter the lock, he seemed so proud of himself when he was finished.

October 3-4, 2017 Tuesday & Wednesday

Tue: We were up early this morning hoping to make it to Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa a mere three locks and 46-miles away. With a delay of 40-minutes at the Brandon Lock mm 286 – 34 feet and almost 2 hours and 30 minutes at the Dresden Lock mm 271.5 – 20 feet we knew we would not make it before dark and opted for Spring Brook Marina at Marseilles. What causes the delays? Government and commercial vessels have first priority and depending on the size of a tow & barge it can take hours to lock though, they have to disconnect barges, make multiple transfers, and then reconnect on the other side of the lock.

We miss the clear water of the lakes but are enjoying observing life along the rivers, lots of birds today. At mm 273.0 the Des Plaines and Kankakee Rivers join to form the Illinois River, which we will travel on until we reach the Mississippi River at Grafton.

Wed: We tried for about an hour to call Marseilles Lock for a status report but no one was answering the phone. We finally gave up and started down the river, when we finally connected with the lockmaster we were told that the lock was down for repairs and would not be open before 6:00 pm. Knowing that the waiting tugs would have first priority we decided to return to Spring Brook Marina with plans to arrive at the lock very early tomorrow. With rain most of the day we spent a lazy day on the boat and visiting with Steve and Pam on Sweet Stuff, a 42 foot Grand Banks Trawler. They are just transiting from their life-on-land to being full-time boat dwellers.