Monday, September 14, 2009

There wasn’t much fog this morning and we were able to pull anchor and leave our spot at Buffalo Rock at 8 am. As we were approaching Starved Rock Marina, we saw many bald eagles and hundreds of pelicans resting and sunning themselves along the sandbar. Gale was able to get a pretty good photo of the eagles by taking the picture through the binoculars! We stopped at the marina at 8:45 am for fuel, dinghy gas and water which we expected would get us all the way to the Mississippi River at Grafton, IL (235 miles). By 10 am we were already through the Starved Rock Lock and on our way down the river on this sunny, hot day. The temperatures were in the upper 80’s, there was no cloud cover or breeze, but we enjoyed it all the same as we hadn’t had much weather like this since leaving home!

There are not an over abundance of anchorages on the Illinois River. It was getting late and we needed to find a place to stop for the night. About 6:30 pm we were coming through Peoria Lake at Chillicothe, Illinois, and found a place right off the channel we hoped would work. Our cruising guides had warned us to stay in the channel, but usually we’re able to find a decent spot since our draft is only 2 feet. Just ten feet out of the channel we realized it was too shallow even for our boat. Gale used the boat hook to check the depth and found it to be only about a foot deep. The mud sucked off the bottom third of the telescoping boat hook and we left it behind to find a safer mooring back at the town dock in Chillicothe.

It was already 7:20 pm and the sun was setting when we tied up to the dock. Maureen took Lucy for a quick walk and noticed that the signs at the dock said “No Docking – 30 Minute Limit for Loading and Unloading.” We didn’t feel we had any choice but to stay where we were. When Gale looked at one of the cruising guides a little later that evening, there was a phone number to call to get permission to stay. It was Monday night, the town was very small and very quiet, and there were no other boats on the dock, so we decided to go to bed and worry about permissions later, if needed.