Illinois River to the Key West of the Midwest

  

Grafton, Illinois at the end of the Illinois River

We woke up eager to get an early start on our second day of our Journey south on the Illinois River only to be met by dense fog. We contacted the other loopers in the marina on VHF and we all decided it would be safer to wait until the fog lifted before heading out.  However, just as we were settling into our second cups of coffee/tea, we saw Baker Street Blue (BSB) appear out of the fog heading past our marina. They had spent the night further north and had already contacted the next lock about passage. BSB advised us the visibility was not too bad on the river and, not wanting to miss out on a lock opening, the rest of us at the marina quickly scrambled to get underway and follow BSB to the Dresden lock. The fog soon lifted, the sun came out, and our travels that day were pretty easy. 

We made it through both the Dreseden and Marseilles lock without any wait and shortly after noon we were tied up in Heritage Harbor near Ottawa, Illinois. This was a very well run facility with a nice pool and restaurant. While Cam and I helped each other re-install our radar domes that we had removed to get under the bridges in Chicago, Karen and Heather enjoyed lounging by the pool. That afternoon, the harbor master, Jeremy, held his daily briefing for all the Loopers. With notebooks and iPads in hand, we took copious notes about river conditions, anchorages and marinas we would be seeing along the rest of the Illinois River. These types of briefings are invaluable in planning for a safe voyage.

Southbound on the Illinois River

Heritage Harbor Marina, Ottawa, Il

We would have loved to stay on at Heritage for a few days but we needed to keep moving. At 6:45 the next morning, we left with our buddy boat Sea Clef and 4 other boats. Our first objective was Starved Rock Lock. We had been advised by  the lock they would have to clear through a few commercial tows before we could lock through so we slowed down to 6 mph from our usual cruising speed of 9mph. Even with slowing down, when we arrived at the lock we were advised we would still have to wait. Our options at that point were to either drift in place or tie up to a "cell" (sometimes referred to as dolphins)  near the lock. This would be a new experience for us. Cells are large round structures built into waterways, usually near dams, bridges, or locks. They are sometimes built to be used as a mooring site for boats. Other times they are constructed to prevent ships from accidentally damaging the structure they are protecting.  In this case, the cell we were advised to tie up to was a circular structure, approximately 15 feet in diameter with a corrugated metal skin filled with concrete. There was a single eye in the middle to tie onto.  Over the previous 6 months we had tied up to a variety of structures….. but never a round one. Fortunately, the current was not strong. After Karen hung a bunch of fenders near the middle of our hull, I was able to float us slowly up to this unforgiving metal structure and Karen was able to scamper off the boat and take one of our lines to the center eye.  I was then able to pass her a second line. Once we were settled, Cam guided Sea Clef up to our side and rafted up with us.  Not having been an avid boater for long, new experiences like this cause Karen a fair amount of anxiety. But she pulled it off like a pro and we could give ourselves a well-earned high five for a successfully tying our straight sided hull to an unforgiving round structure without so much as a scratch!

Two of our "Buddy Boats" tied up to a cell

Within less than an hour after tying up, we got word from the lockmaster that we could proceed into the lock. We had a lot of company in the lock and we were rafted 4 deep. But it was an easy drop and, after exiting the lock, we proceeded down river to our destination for the night, the Henry Lock Wall.

Starved Rock Lock

Barge (Tow) traffic on the Illinois River

Built in 1870 at a cost of $400,000, the Henry Lock and Dam was the first such structure on the Illinois River. The river in that area was shallow enough that for much of the year the river could be crossed by horse and buggy. This made navigation through this area by boat or barge nearly impossible.  Once completed the river was deep enough for navigation but a nearby bridge became necessary to allow the horse and buggy traffic to continue to cross.  In the 1930’s the original bridge was struck by a barge and damaged beyond repair. (I guess they should have installed some protective dolphins!) It has since been replaced twice.  Much smaller than the more modern locks, the old Henry lock was last used in 1927.  The old stone walls are now a popular spot for Loopers to tie up for a night. There is a small marina next to it and the marina operators also care for and manage the old wall. To call it rustic would be generous. But it was a unique place to spend the night. As the walls were rough, irregular and tall, it was not easy to get on and off the boat. Karen never did make it off the boat there.

Old Henry Lock Wall

Our next night was in Peoria Illinois at the Illinois Valley Yacht Club. We got there just in time to purchase the last few tickets to their annual Lobster Boil. Unfortunately, being the last folks to get tickets, we were the last to be served and we were still eating way past “Looper Midnight.” Peoria is the home of Caterpillar Tractors. We did not go, but we heard they have a great factory tour.

Illinois Valley Yacht Club, Peoria, Illinois

With a somewhat ominous weather report we set out the next morning with a group of Loopers for what would be our first night on anchor on the rivers. We dropped the hook behind Quiver Island near Havana, Illinois. The Anchor set well on the first try. Anchorages on the rivers are known for having a lot of debris on the bottoms that can snag anchors so we set the anchor with a “trip line” that would enable us to pull the anchor out backwards if needed. Although there are a variety of floats that can be used to locate the trip line, I figured an old plastic jug would work just as well and help me pass for a “good ole boy.” We could see barge traffic passing by on the river but we were set well back off the main river and the setting was quite peaceful.  Sea Clef hosted “docktails” on their boat and later that night we had rain and an electrical storm show but, fortunately, very little wind.

Anchoring behind Quiver Island

My Hi-Tech float for our anchor trip line

Beautiful sunset was followed by fantastic electrical storm

Weighing anchor the next morning, Karen got a taste of how much of a pain it is to have to worry about the trip line but we got it in ok and had beautiful sunny skies for our 33 mile run to our next unusual spot for a night, tied up to a working barge of Logsdon Tug Service.  The sea (river) wall here at Beardstown, was a good 30 feet tall and we had to climb a tall wobbly staircase to get up on shore. What doesn’t kill ya only makes ya stronger- right? The town was "kinda" cute, in a small town America kind of way and we had lunch at a diner with Cam and Heather and later, docktails on the barge.  It was pretty darn hot that day and there was no electricity on the barge. We ran our generator that evening to run our AC and top off our batteries. One of the great things about our boat is we have enough battery power to run one of our ACs overnight. I never met another Looper who could do that with their boat. We ran our AC that night in our stateroom and slept soundly in air conditioned bliss and still had over 70% battery power left in the morning. Thank you Greenline Yachts!

Beardstown Illinois

Tied up for the night to barge at Logsdon Tug Service

We spent the next night on the docks of Mel’s Illinois Riverdock Restaurant and then continued on to Grafton, Illinois where the Illinois River ends and joins into the Mississippi! Grafton was the largest city we had seen since leaving Chicago 1 week before….wow- that was an interesting week. Grafton Harbor Marina was quite large and impressive. It was our first experience with covered docks. The Mississippi and Illinois rivers can have huge floods, with water levels rising 40ft or more. The whole marina was floating.  Not just the docks…. even the restaurant, offices and pool were floating and the pilings that supported them were huge- over 40ft hi and 2ft in diameter. We spent 4 days in Grafton relaxing, swimming and hanging with other Loopers. We even took a chairlift up a hill to have lunch at a winery.  There was an incredible view up there of the Mississippi and we got our first glimpse of the St. Louis arch in the distance, a site we were looking forward to seeing from the water!

Mel's Riverdock Restaurant

Grafton, IL - Key West of the Mid West

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!

The Windy City

 

Sept 8, 2022 – On a clear sunny day with calm flat seas we cruised into Chicago. Eight weeks and one day after first dipping our keel into the Great Lakes in Buffalo, New York, we arrived at out last port on these incredible lakes. We were very excited to finally arrive in the Windy City for many reasons…..

1: The Great Lakes are known for their potentially treacherous conditions. We had been very prudent and lucky and managed to avoid any significant real sketchy conditions but with summer winding down and fall approaching good travel days on the lakes would become few and far between.

2: We would be visiting the city where my father grew up.

3: We were going to be meeting up with my old friend Ray and Karen’s nephew, Miles and his family.

4: We were going to meet up with Heather and Cam on Sea Clef and finally have a buddy boat again.

5: Most importantly – we would be leaving the boat for 3 days, the first time since we started our adventure, to meet up with Delaney and Griffin at a wedding in Milwaukee.

We arrived in Chicago around noon and tied up to a mooring ball. After settling in we hooked up with Heather and Cam to venture into the city with two goals for the day – Architectural boat tour and pizza. Chicago is known for its magnificent buildings representing the architectural styles of the eras in which they were built and the best way to view them and learn about their history is on an Architectural Boat Tour on the Chicago River. Gothic, Neo Gothic, Art Deco, Modernism, and Contemporary buildings are all on display. 

Some of the memorable structures include the Willis (Sears) Tower that was for decades the tallest building in the world, the Merchandise Mart that when built in 1930 had the most square footage of any building in the world, Marina city with its corn cob like structure and the amazingly beautiful Vista Tower, the tallest building in the world designed by a woman. We also learned about ways in which these sky scrapers are designed to resist the fierce winds that blow off Lake Michigan. The Vista Building has multiple floors that are wide open, allowing the wind to blow through the building. The amazing 150 N Riverside building rises from a narrow footprint and appears it would topple over with the slightest breeze. Near the top of this building are giant water vaults that act as liquid dampeners. To quote the Chicago Tribune, “If wind pushes the high rise one way, the water sloshes the other way, damping the wind-induced sway and eliminating the threat of rattling chandeliers and whitecaps in the toilet.” Our young guide on this trip was both knowledgeable and enthusiastic. I’d highly recommend this tour for anyone visiting Chicago. 

Vista Tower

Merchandise Mart

Marina City

150 N Riverside

A few years ago Delaney had an internship in Chicago and got turned on to Lou Malnati’s Pizza. She sent us a couple of their frozen “pies” and we have been ordering them for ourselves and as gifts ever since. Best frozen pizza ever! We could not go to Chicago and not experience a fresh pizza. After disembarking from our boat tour, the four of us Ubered over to Lou Malnati’s for some deep dish delight. As expected, as good as the frozen pies are, the fresh are even better. Back on the boat that night we had an incredible view of the lights and skyline of the city.

The next morning we moved from our mooring ball to a slip in DuSable Marina. This is a large beautiful marina with many large beautiful boats. We have heard that many of the boats here are owned by people with no idea how to drive them…. They hire captains to take them out for a ride. Too bad for them they will never get to experience the terrors and exhilaration of backing in to a slip on a breezy day. The marina is named after the man recognized to be the founder of Chicago, Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable. Little is known about his early life. He was of African descent – most likely born in Haiti. There are no known portraits of him but he has been described as handsome and well educated. A trader, he was considered the first non-indigenous settler of the area that would later become Chicago, Illinois. During the Revolutionary War he was arrested by the British as an American Patriot sympathizer. Aside from the harbor, he also has a school, museum, park, bridge, road and a snowplow named after him.

Settling into the marina we cleaned the boat and that night met up with an old friend Ray and his wife, Kris. Ray and I were crew on a racing sailboat, Redline, back in 80’s and 90’s. I had not seen him for many years. After moving to Chicago he became a very successful sailor. In 2021, Ray and Kris and their crew won the J109 North American Championship on their boat, Courageous! We had a wonderful dinner downtown with them that evening.

The next morning we left the boat and drove up to Milwaukee to pick up Delaney and Griffin who were flying in from Boston for her friend’s wedding. We shared a tasty breakfast and headed out for a little sightseeing. Karen and Dee split off to get their nails done leaving Griffin and I to explore. We found the National Bobblehead Museum! Who knew there was such a thing?! The museum’s collection is in the thousands. Did you know there were Chinese bobblehead figures documented in England as far back as the 1760s? The first sports bobbleheads were produced in the 60s. We wandered through the museum for over an hour with a smile on our faces the whole time. There were representations from sports, politics, cartoons and movies.

Checked into our hotel, that night Karen and I spent our first night in a non-rocking bed for the first time in 6 months – in a room with more square footage than our floating home! And we took showers that lasted more than a minute! Mazel-Tov to Libby and Nathan for a beautiful wedding. We wish you long and healthy lives together and thank you for planning your nuptials so we could meet up with Dee and Griffin!

Back in Chicago we had only one thing left to do before setting off again. Karen’s nephew Miles and his wife, Mary, brought their two adorable boys over to the boat for a visit and a walk for some ice cream. It was great to visit with them even if it was for only a short time. That night, 9/13 would be our last on the Great Lakes. Our sleep that night was a little troubled with both the excitement and trepidation of starting our voyage south on the great rivers early the next morning.