Start of the Great Rivers

 

Dateline: September 14, 2022, 6:20 AM

Sunrise on Lake Michigan off Chicago - Our Buddy Boat "Sea Clef"

The Great American Loop is composed of a several unique segments. So far we had done the Caloosahatchee River and Lake Okeechobee in Florida, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the Dismal Swamp, the Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean, the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, and three of the Great Lakes. Each of these segments had their own unique challenges and charms. In preparation for these segments we had to prepare for currents, tides, winds and waves, boat traffic, storms, and shifting sand bars and shallow (skinny) water. This was all new to Karen and was cause for a certain amount of anxiety…..and I am certainly proud of her for tackling her fears. Although I respected these challenges, they, for the most part, did not cause me to lose too much sleep as none of them were foreign concepts to me. I will admit docking this boat in wind or current does get me a little jittery.

Our view of the City after transiting the Chicago Lock from Lake Michigan

This next section coming up, The Great Rivers, was the first one that got me pretty nervous. Over the next few months, we would be traveling from Chicago to Mobile along the Chicago, Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee Rivers and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. This was new to me. We would be on twisty rivers dealing with blind curves, huge tows (tugboats pushing up to 30 barges at a time) currents, sand bars, gargantuan locks, and crazy things called wing dams (submerged structures designed to control water flow)….. all at one time! These great rivers are the highways for a significant amount of commerce and the large tows rule these waterways. We had heard stories of pleasure boats being run into the sides by unexpected tows, hitting submerged wing dams, damaging props on sunken trees or being stuck for hours waiting for locks.

We had to duck to get under the low bridges of Chicago

To get down the rivers safely we would have to rely on our AIS (a part of our radio that shows us the position of other ships and shows our position to them) and we would have to basically learn a new language to converse with the tow captains to make sure we pass each other safely. Although most of these tow captains proved to be professional, courteous, helpful, and friendly, they all speak in a deep voice with a strong dialect that is some kind of combo of southern drawl and deep Cajun accent. In addition to trying to decipher their speech we would also have to speak in the jargon of the rivers. Passing is not done on the right or left, it’s not even done on the port or starboard. The proper etiquette goes back to the days before two way radio when all communication between river vessels was done by whistle. So, we would be passing on the one whistle or the two whistle. If a tow captain heading towards us wanted us to pass him on our port side he would tell us he would “see us on the one”. And we would repeat that back. Conversely, if he wanted to “see us on the two” we would pass him on our starboard side. If there was a sharp curve coming up, he may ask us to stand down and hold our position until he rounded the curve.

 

Scenes from the Chicago River

Needless to say, when I went to bed the night before we left Chicago, I was nervous. Would I be able to get us down these rivers safely? I am happy to report, like much of this trip, the anticipation proved to be far more nerve wracking than the trip itself. We did face all of the obstacles we anticipated but the rivers were much wider and more forgiving than we expected and the tow captains were very gracious and helpful. Within a few days we would get more comfortable with the challenges and we ended up really enjoying our journey south through the middle of America. We also forged a strong bond and friendship with Heather and Cam on Sea Clef, our buddy boat for the rivers, and met and traveled with many other Loopers whom we would come to call friends.

 

Say Hi to Cam!

We left our slip in Chicago just after dawn and met up with Sea Clef outside the Chicago Harbor Lock. After a short 10 minute wait and an easy lock through we entered onto the Chicago River right smack in the middle of the city. This was the same stretch of water we were on for our architectural boat tour I wrote about in our last blog. It was a very cool experience to travel through the city on our own boat! Passing through the city we turned south onto the southern branch of the Chicago River. Our plan for the day was a 53 mi cruise down the Chicago River to the Illinois River stopping for the night at Harborside Marina. Over the course of the day we would pass under 55 bridges and go through 2 more locks larger than any we had yet seen. It is interesting to note that most of what we call the Chicago River and the Upper Illinois River is actually the man-made Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. As its name implies, this is not exactly a scenic waterway. The Chicago River originally flowed into Lake Michigan. This meant that all the sewage from Chicago drained into the lake – the very lake from which the city got its water supply. When the canal was completed in 1900 it, not only, provided a way for larger ships to travel from the Mississippi to Chicago, it reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that sewage would flow down-stream away from the city and its fresh water supply in the lake. The building of this canal also provided training for the subsequent building of the Panama Canal.

Passing our first "Tow" on the Illinois River

Scenes from the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal

 Most of the bridges of this stretch were tall enough for us to pass under with our bimini top and radar dome removed. There was however one railroad bridge that required an opening. As we approached this bridge we caught up with Dave and Julia on their boat Baker Street Blue. With Dave’s extensive boating experience as an ex Coast Guardsman,“Coastie”, and Julia’s British accent on the vhf radio that the tow captains seemed to love, we elected to have them as our leaders for the day. We did not know it then but Dave and Julia would become good friends of ours further on in our travels.

 

We caught up to our new leader, "Baker Street Blue" waiting for a lift bridge.

Tied up to canal wall before the Lockport Lock waiting for our turn to transit.

The canal is a very busy waterway with many tows loading and unloading barges on either side. Although the tows would get larger further south, the narrowness of this canal made for some tight passings. The locks we transited that day, the Lockport and Brandon locks, are very busy with commercial tows which, understandably, have priority over pleasure craft. We have heard of Loopers having to wait 3 or more hours before being allowed into the locks. Fortunately, our wait times this day were only about an hour at each of these locks. These locks are large! Once we were allowed into the Lockport lock, we had to share the space with 3 large barges, 1 tug, and 7 other pleasure boats. Although we had already been through close to 40 locks on our trip, these locks on the rivers provided us with new experiences and skills to learn. In the smaller locks on the Erie, we had lines hanging on the walls we had to hold onto to maintain our position. In these locks we tied onto floating bollards. These are large pins, recessed into the walls of the lock, that raise and lower with the changing water levels. We came to really appreciate the bollards as they held us much more securely to the walls. With 8 pleasure boats and the barges in the same lock there was not room for all of us on along the walls. Some of us were able to tie off normally onto a bollard. Others had to tie off up to the barges and a couple had to tie up (raft off) to boats tied off to the barge. We were nervous about all of this as it was all new but after these first few locks it really became pretty straight forward and easy.

Rafting Up to barges in the Lockport Lock

Following Baker Street after the Lockport Lock

 Shortly after the first lock, Baker Street and some of the other boats in our group pulled over onto a free wall in Joliet, Illinois. The rest of us kept going to Harborside Marina. We all met up for dinner that night.  One of the other couples, Marci and Chris from Blue Moon, would also become friends as we traveled the rivers. That night back on the boat, we were tied up right along the side of the river. Tows would pass us all night long. All we could see was their massive search lights and the shadow of the barges as they maneuvered around the bend in the river near us. They use up every bit of space on the river to get around the tight turns. It’s humbling to watch the skills with which these captains handle their tows and a reminder of how important it is to stay aware of where these tows are as we head down river.

Rafted Up  3 deep in the Brandon Lock with Sea Clef and Blue Moon

It was a long day and we were tuckered out as we settled into bed that night at Looper Midnight (8 pm or so). We had survived our first day on the rivers. It was not always scenic but it was memorable!