Friday, September 6: Grid "Lock"

Date:                           September 6, 2013

Day on the Cruise:     144

From:                          Heritage Harbor Marina, Ottawa, IL
                                       
To:                               The Landings Marina, Henry, IL

Statute Miles:              46.2 SM

Time:                           6.5 Hrs

Cumulative Miles:       3,468.0 SM

On Board:                   Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut

Tonight we are on the Illinois River at Henry, IL.

We got our first taste of "Grid Lock" today at a lock! At 7:45 I called the Lock Master at Starved Rock Lock, 11 miles below Heritage Harbor, to see if there was any commercial traffic at the Lock. Learning that it was clear, Always Five O'Clock, Entree' and Blue Moon headed out at 8:05 for our day's run South. Five miles from the lock, we could hear on the VHF, "Summer Recess", another Mainship that had left Heritage Harbor before us, locking through.

Soon we were in sight of Starved Rock Lock, and we called to see if we could lock through. By that time, an unbound towboat with two barges was in the lock. Three other pleasure boats came up behind us and two Southbound tows appeared out of nowhere. One was a Coast Guard towboat and buoy barge. There was gridlock at the lock. The Lock Master then became more of an air traffic controller, placing all of the different types of vessels in distinct locations North of the lock. He put the pleasure craft into the lock with the Coastie after the up bound tow cleared the lock. We made the 17' drop and left the lock about an hour and a half after arriving for the lock through. It could have been much worse! The Lock Master had the right to lock both the Coastie and the other Southbound tow through before letting us down! Glad he let us go with the Coast Guard tow!

The Lock Master put us behind the dolphins at the lock. See the upbound Tow in the Lock!

The Upbound Tow is coming out of the Lock

Upbound Tow coming out of the Lock

We follow the Coast Guard Cutter "Sagamon" dow river

Following the Coastie under a bridge

Only one lock today, and we arrived at our day's destination in the early afternoon. The marina has a very small protected harbor that is too shallow for our boats. Despite having a bunch of slips available, the harbor master made our group of three tie up to an old abandoned lock wall on the River. "Summer Recess" was here when we got to the marina, and they were on the wall, so I put "Blue Moon" right behind her. We had to tie our lines to rebar that was concreted into the ground. We have power but no water and no grass. Just dirt and sand and rocks. Yuck! We paid our tie-up fee to the bar tender at the little marina restaurant. This is probably the most basic place we have stayed on the trip to date!
Tomorrow we will go about 30 miles to Peoria, IL.


Thanks for Reading!