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.
