Adios to the Illinois

Friday was an incredibly long and grueling day. We left Havana shortly after 7 am and covered 100 miles during the next 10 hours. It was hot and windy. There are only a few small towns visible along this stretch of the river, and even fewer marinas.We knew we did not want to tie up to a barge in Beardstown, and we preferred to not anchor out. (we need to replace our anchor.) So we planned this long day to end up in Hardin, IL. We tied up at the dock that belongs to the Illinois Riverdock Restaurant, also known as Mel's. No power or water, but that was OK.

We ate supper at Mel's, and Mark appropriately ordered the River Rat burger.After eating, it was a losing battle to stay awake. We were asleep before 9 PM, which they say is the Loopers' midnight. So true! This is not a wide river, so I was awake each time a towboat passed by. Wish I had night vision binoculars!

We left early this morning to beat the rain to Grafton. Grafton Harbor is a welcome return to civilization. We are in a covered slip, and there is a winery and a small town here. We have cell and Internet service once again. Best of all, we are looking at the Mississippi River!

On board and definitely not bored

We arrived back on  Mara Beel yesterday afternoon. Thanks to our good friends Mark and Lynne for driving us to Ottawa! We started with fog and temp in the 40's this morning and ended with 80 and beautiful skies- ideal weather.

We are waiting on the arrival of a Siren Marine monitoring system for our boat. It should be installed tomorrow. When we are away from our boat, this system will text us if there are any problems- low batteries, activated bilge pumps, unusual temperatures in the boat, etc. We discovered that there is a dealer/installer right here in Ottawa, so it is worth delaying our departure until Wednesday.

The Illinois waterway

What a day! 95 miles, 13.5 hours, 5 locks, 67 bridges, of which 6 had to open to let us through, an electronic fish barrier, and dozens of crazy, unsafe pleasure boaters swarming around us. We traveled from Hammond, IN on Lake Michigan to Ottawa, IL. We left Hammond at 6 AM. Our route included the Calumet River, the Cal-Sag, the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal, the Des Plaines River, and finally the Illinois River. 

We couldn't use our radar today, since our mast is down to allow us to pass under as many bridges as possible. Our AIS- Automatic Information System- has been wonderful! It identifies large commercial vessels and any other boats like us that have it, by name, heading, speed, destination, etc., and transmits the same information about us. We can see what's up ahead (on our chart plotter screen), radio towboats by name, and ask how they want us to pass- when meeting another vessel, a 1 whistle pass is port to port, meaning our left side to the other boat's left side. A 2 whistle pass is starboard (right side) to starboard. Usually they will say something like, "Pass me on the 2's, Captain." So we know we should stay on their right side. When overtaking another boat, its different, but I won't get into that now.

We got up very early- the casino was still busy at 4 AM.

Lake Michigan is behind us as we enter Calumet Harbor.

This part of the Illinois Waterway is very much an industrial canal-- a total opposite of the beautiful shores of northern Lake Michigan.The water is very narrow and lined on both sides with chemical, oil, coal, grain, you name it facilities. And bridges- bridges everywhere!

The first bridge- a railroad bridge in the raised position.

We felt like we were threading our way through a maze.

We had to be extremely vigilant the entire day to stay in the narrow channel, and avoid all kinds of things.

Asian Carp are making their way to the Great Lakes. This invasive species crowds out native fish. They are large, and frequently jump out of the water and onto boats, and have injured people in doing so. An electric barrier has been put in place to try to keep these fish out of the Great Lakes.

We turned off all of our electronic instruments so as not to damage them. Haven't encountered any Asian Carp so far, thankfully.

Saw several of these man-made waterfalls

We locked through 5 locks- Thomas O'Brien, Lockport, Brandon Road, Dresden, and Marseilles. Almost all of these use floating bollards to tie on to, which we had not seen. The bollard moves with the water level. The biggest drop was about 40 feet.

Floating bollard

In Joliet 6 bridges had to open for us. The bridge tenders were very friendly, and each bridge opened as we approached. Good thing we passed through here on a Sunday! We had planned to stay in Joliet overnight, tied to a wall in the city park. However, our friends on Help Me Rhonda stayed here 2 days earlier and told us someone boarded their boat at 1:30 AM! Rhonda yelled, and the person ran off. They did call the police, who went after a possible suspect. We decided to keep moving rather than stay here.

From here to Marseilles, we dodged reckless, unsafe boaters constantly. At first we slowed down, mindful of our wake, but smaller boats were putting out more wake than we were. Jetskiers were everywhere, and of course they love to cut behind us and jump our wake. Boats towed skiers and tubers right in front of us- we saw tubers without life jackets. It was like being in a swarm of bees for several hours. And it was HOT. The hottest day we have had.

Plan B was to stay overnight at Springbrook Marina. However, those people were less than friendly/helpful, if not rude on the phone. So we went to Plan C. It sounded OK- another lock and 10 more miles. So far we had gotten through 4 locks pretty quickly, and we can cover 9 miles in an hour, so we decided to go for it at 5 PM.

The Marseilles lock workers were almost surly. They made us wait 45 minutes even though we radioed ahead and they said we could get right through. It was even hotter now, and we were tired and hungry as well. Grrrr. 

We talked to the folks at Heritage Harbor in Ottawa, and they were extremely helpful and courteous. They even offered to wait for us after their closing time to help land the boat. We already had a reservation here for the entire month of September, and had expected to arrive here on Tuesday. We arrived at 7:30 PM, and our friends from Help Me Rhonda  grabbed our lines as we docked. Added bonus- a pool and a restaurant at this marina! Lifesavers!

So we are here until the next leg of our voyage, October 1st. We are very pleased with Heritage Marina, and highly recommend it.

End of the Lake

We left Waukegan this morning and were treated to magnificent views of the Chicago skyline from 3 miles offshore. We decided not to go through downtown Chicago, since there is lots of construction happening on or around many bridges with barges full of equipment. In many cases boaters must give a one or two hour advance notice when requesting a bridge opening. No thank you!

This was our last day on Lake Michigan-- we will miss the easy cruising. Just set the auto pilot and watch out for those pesky sailboats when they are racing. There were a lot of them this morning. We will have to be much more vigilant on the rivers.

The Admiral on the bridge

We are docked in Hammond, IN, next to the entrance to the Cal-Sag Canal. There's a huge casino here, right on the water.

Horseshoe Casino

In preparation for the river system, we had to lower our radar mast. We are now right around 16 feet high, which will allow us to pass under the lowest fixed bridge on our route. 2 young men from the marina crew helped Mark lay down the mast. We had a pump-out and also filled our water tanks, so we are ready to go in the morning- no more waiting on an acceptable wave height.

Our mast is laying down on the stern.

Enjoying Illinois

We are still in Waukegan due to waves in southern Lake Michigan that are bigger than our comfort zone. This morning we walked to the nearby Metra station and took the train south to Evanston. Our son Nate went to college at Northwestern University, where we always enjoyed visiting. It is such a beautiful campus.

It's right on the lake and even has its own beach. We did a little shopping and ate lunch at one of old favorites, Le Peep. 

The Migas were sooo yummy!

Just when we thought we had seen almost everything.... 
A wedding took place on the boat docked next to us! They 
loaded up the booze and the wedding guests and cruised out
into the lake for a little while. They returned to the dock for the
festivities.

Bob and Kathy went home the other day and then returned to 
spend the weekend on First Look. They graciously invited us to
join them for steaks grilled on the dock. It was another wonderful 
evening with them, as we said so long for now.

Weathered In

Today we played it safe- we stayed tied to the dock. The Chicago area had thunderstorms this morning with 3-5 foot waves and an occasional 8 footer predicted as the wind has switched around to the north.

We did some computer work and watched a couple movies. Later we went for a walk. 

A sailboat race was held out on the lake this evening so we watched the sailboats go out and come back in at dusk. It was almost like a parade. 

We will see what tomorrow brings.

Sunset in Waukegan. 

Waukegan

Today we left the lovely waters of Wisconsin and entered Illinois. While this brings us closer to our destination we are sad about leaving the waters of northern Lake Michigan. We grew to love the scenery, ports and people we encountered there. Lake boating is amazing!

Today's cruise was fairly short- only about 3 hours. You might be wondering how we pass the time while we are up in the bridge with the auto pilot steering. Today we worked on tying knots. Knots are a necessity on a boat, and Mark knows them all thanks to his Boy Scout training. So while we traveled he taught me 3 different knots. 

The clove hitch, useful for tying a fender onto a stanchion. 

The 2 half hitch

The bowline, good for making a loop to toss over a pole- or for tying around your waist after you've fallen off a cliff and need to be rescued. I think I just earned a merit badge!

We are docked in Waukegan, the home port of our friends Kathy and Bob, who arrived here yesterday. They picked us up and took us to Big Ed's for lunch, and then to the grocery store. We helped them unload "stuff" from their 7-week voyage and haul it to their car. We hope to see them on the Mississippi one of these days. 

Always on the lookout for interesting boat names, we saw this one today:

You might need to enlarge the photo ( that right there is funny) to read the small print.