Saturday, September 19, 2009

Gale hit the road before 8 am as Maureen started her morning dedicated to laundry. A large group was beginning to gather as boats came in throughout the day. The Gateway Boat Club of St. Louis, MO, was having a “rally” of sorts and filled in the first 23 slips on “H Dock.” We were in Slip H26. Last night only 3 or 4 club boats had been in the slips but they made enough noise for 10!

Maureen finished her chores about 3:30 pm and she and Lucy went for a walk over to the Alton Riverfront Park and Amphitheater adjacent to the marina. The Third Annual Mississippi Earthtones Festival was underway and offered many eco-friendly vendors, food booths, contests and events as well as live folk and bluegrass music. Maureen and Lucy walked around the venue and enjoyed listening to the folk band playing on the stage.

Gale’s drive to Clear Lake included a stop in Iowa City to visit Kelle. It was good to hear that things were going well for him after a month into the semester at the University. Kelle mentioned that he could really use the extra television we had stored in our garage at home so Gale said he would pick it up and deliver it to him on his way back through tomorrow. Another stop was in Mason City where Gale picked up a wheelchair to help us get his mom and dad out to the end of the dock where our boat is slipped in Alton. He arrived in Clear Lake a little after 5 pm, made a quick stop at the condo and then spent the evening with his mom and dad.

Friday, September 18, 2009

We left our Twelve Mile Island anchorage at 7 am and arrived at the Alton Marina in Alton, Illinois, at 11 am. We had completed our passage on the Illinois Waterway and began the portion of the trip on the Mississippi River at Grafton, Illinois. It was a lovely morning and we enjoyed the river, but we were ready to spend a few days at a marina to restock, do laundry, clean the boat and rest. At least Maureen was hoping for some rest – Gale’s plan was to rent a car, drive to Iowa, pick up his parents, bring them back to Alton so they could see the boat, take them for a ride, put them up in a motel and then make another trip to Iowa to take them home.

Once we were settled into our slip next to Ally’s Cat at the marina, Maureen called the local grocery for a ride to the store and Gale began to clean the boat. It wasn’t long before Maureen was back from her shopping trip, putting groceries away and continuing on a few chores. We quit at 3:30 pm for showers. Gale was picked up by the rental car company at 4 pm and back at the boat by 5 pm. We had promised ourselves a nice dinner in town tonight. We were told that the place to eat was Tony’s and we could get there by taking the Argosy Casino shuttle and then walk one block to the restaurant. While on the shuttle, Gale started a conversation with the driver and the other three passengers who were all casino employees and they concurred that we should eat at Tony’s rather than the casino. We took them at their word and were not disappointed! Gale ordered the house specialty, Tony’s Peppercorn Steak, and Maureen had the seafood pasta. Both were excellent and we had lots of leftovers to take back to the boat. We walked back by way of the casino, stepped inside to lose $20 at the slot machines, and then took the shuttle back to the marina.

When we arrived back at Blue Heron, we saw that Don and Ally of Ally’s Cat were home, too, so we visited with them a little bit before retiring for the evening. Don and Gale made a tentative plan to meet up in Kentucky Lake where we would help each other step our masts.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

We were up before sunrise to shower and catch up on the blog journal entries. Gale baited up a line while we went about our morning activities. We let the dinghy down and crossed over to the other side of the river where we noticed either a lot of rock or a lot of shells. It turned out to be an old clam bed filled with millions of shells – mostly broken – but we took some time to walk the beach and see what treasures we might find. By 9:30 we were back on the boat, bringing in the fishing line and pulling up the anchor. We headed downriver with a nice breeze and enjoyed a cool, leisurely float.

Because there were no more locks on the Illinois River, we knew that we probably could travel the remaining 62 miles to the Mississippi today, but we decided we were in no hurry and dropped the anchor at 5 pm at Twelve Mile Island, presumably named as such because it is at mile 12 on the river. The area along the river looked like it had been devastated by recent flooding and many of the dwellings were abandoned. We poured some wine, baited up a fishing pole, put our lawn chairs on the forward deck and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. While we were relaxing, Don from Ally’s Cat called to let us know that they were at the marina in Alton, IL, and if we were thinking of staying there, we should reserve a spot tonight. We made the reservations, grilled up some chicken and fish, and settled in for a quiet evening.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

At 7:20 am we were having our coffee and cereal and saw our friends on Laura Lee and Get A Way going downriver. We pulled up the anchor and set out at 7:45 am. There was a nice northeasterly breeze with a little cloud cover that developed later in the day keeping us quite comfortable and cool as we floated down the river. We arrived at the LaGrange Lock and Dam shortly after 2 pm and saw the Laura Lee and Get A Way anchored in the pool above the lock. We learned that they’d been waiting for some repairs to be done and had been told it would be fixed “any time.” That was three hours ago. We dropped the hook and settled in for the wait. Gale and Lucy took the dinghy to shore and found some wonderful treasures along the beach. At 3 pm as they were heading back to Blue Heron we got the word to proceed to the lock. While in the lock, we were told that a “hunk” of concrete had fallen off the lock wall and had to be removed from the chamber. We could see the crumbling wall and were very glad that we weren’t in the lock at the time it happened!

There was no plan yet as to where we were going to anchor tonight because the guidebooks all said there were no good anchorages between the lock and McEvers Island, another 32 miles downstream. Get A Way and Laura Lee weren’t sure what they were going to do either, however, they travel faster than we do and said they would keep a lookout for a good spot. We got a call from Get A Way saying that they thought there might be a place to anchor around mile 68; however, when we arrived, we could see that there had been a lot of silting going on and it would not be a good place to be overnight. Evidently, our friends had made the same conclusion since they had not stopped. Gale studied the chart and saw that wing dams could be found beginning around mile 63. At mile 62 just above a railroad bridge, we checked out a spot near an “L” dam. We were able to get well out of the channel and still had nearly 9 feet of water depth next to a very nice sandbar. By then it was 6:30 pm and we enjoyed the rest of the evening in this quiet place. Great Anchorage!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

We were up early and left the dock at 6:40 am just as the sun was beginning to rise. Apparently, we didn’t break any ordinances that anyone was too concerned about last night since no one came by to ask any questions. Before leaving the area, we stopped by the spot we tried to anchor in last night to recover the end of our boat hook. Gale and Lucy took the dinghy into the shallow water while Maureen stayed aboard and kept Blue Heron in the channel. They found the hook right away, we secured the dinghy, and we were moving on down the river in no time at all.

The river was so shallow and there were so many sandbars in Peoria Lake, we saw thousands of pelicans gathered on the sand as well as flying over us in large flocks. It was a wondrous sight. It wasn’t long before we noticed two large cruisers heading in our direction. From a distance, it looked like our friends on Laura Lee and Get A Way. Sure enough, Gale hailed Laura Lee to find out what was “up.” They had gone all the way to Peoria the day before where diesel fuel was available but found that they could not get to the fuel dock because of the water depth. They were heading back to Chillicothe to Hamm’s Marina for fuel since there would be no other opportunities to buy diesel along the remaining 180 miles of the Illinois River. We were glad that we’d filled our tanks at the Starved Rock Marina even though we had been told that fuel would be about 50¢ per gallon cheaper in Peoria.

After a lovely day of relaxing cruising, we anchored behind Quiver Island near Havana, IL, at mile 121.3, just beyond the coal transfer plant at 5:30 pm.

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.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Wow, was it foggy this morning! We were up at 6:30 and could barely see 20 feet around the boat! The forecast called for the fog to clear out by 9 am; however, it lingered until 10 am where we were. When the fog lifted, we could see that we were in for another absolutely gorgeous day! At 11:30 am we moved Blue Heron to a nearby sandbar where the Starved Rock Yacht Club leases an area from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It was cleared out nicely and included a few picnic tables, a fire ring and some party lights and flags. Yesterday before Dan & Julie and family arrived, we met Joe from the SRYC who encouraged us to use the spot for a picnic. We were able to anchor the boat and pull the stern close to shore so we could just step off the back of the boat and wade in. We gathered up what we needed to have our lunch on the beach. Kevin and Justin looked for more shells and played in the sand and water. Lucy ran and swam and fetched until she was so tired she simply lay down on the sand – quite unlike her but the warmer temperatures certainly had a lot to do with that. About 1:30 pm, boats began to arrive and the beach was starting to get crowded. Evidently, the Yacht Club had just finished a meeting and everyone was coming to the beach afterwards for some fun in the sun.

We left the sandbar and traveled southward toward Starved Rock State Park. After going as far as the marina, we decided we really wanted to swim and the best place to do that was back at Buffalo Rock. We anchored near the cliff face and everyone jumped into the water! Most of us swam to the cliff, but Gale and Lucy came in the dinghy both as support for the swimmers and also to keep Lucy from trying to climb up on the kids while she was in the water. Julie and Dan were on the hunt for wildlife on the cliff face and found a little brown snake and the biggest wolf spider any of us had ever seen! We had our pictures taken with the snake – Grandpa Gale said that the snake was very friendly and that the one we found was as big as any of them ever get. Julie surprised us by grabbing on to a rope hanging down from the cliff and climbing about a third of the way up! Dan followed her, only he wasn’t able to find the footholds she had used and ended up having to use a lot more upper body strength to get himself up out of the water. There was a lot of cheering and hollering from us and other nearby boaters for the two of them to jump. They counted to three and jumped together!! Looking back at the cliff later, Julie thought that they should have climbed higher before the big jump!

As we knew it must, the time came when we had to take the family back to the dock in Ottawa. When we arrived at the dock, we realized that our friends on Get A Way and Laura Lee were still there along with another very large trawler that was rafted up beside Get A Way. Rob and Richard recognized our boat and hailed us to come alongside Laura Lee. We rafted up with the sailboat allowing the kids to unload, disembark and take off. We said our goodbyes on shore, wiped a couple of tears from the faces of our grandsons and wished each other safe travels.

Back on Blue Heron and before casting off, we learned from Richard that as of yesterday (Saturday) pleasure craft are no longer required to be towed through the fish barrier. Oh well, we figured we would have easily spent that $600 waiting and wondering in the Chicago area for that 9-day interval between September 3rd when we were towed through and September 12th when we could have passed on our own. This way, we enjoyed two very special weekends in the Ottawa area with our families that we might not have been able to do had we waited. We said good night to our friends at the dock and found ourselves, once again, at Buffalo Rock for the night.