Starting down the river system

Monday, 2 Septenber - Chicago

Spent the day planning our excursion down the Chicago River and Illinois Waterway and trying to find marinas along the Mississippi. Coordinated with Chuck and Susan on Blue Moon, a 34 ft Mainship – folks like us who liked marinas better than anchorages (they also have a dog, cat, and parrot on board). And we provisioned at Mariano’s – what a nice grocery.  At a docktail party on board Second Wind

(hosted by Mark and Allyn), we made plans to leave with Blue Moon and Journey - a 36 ft Monk with Tom, Melesia, her father Hank (really cool guy), and their dog Mango.

Tuesday, 3 September – Chicago to Wilmington, IL – 53 mi., 3577 cum mi.

Nice day, 63 degrees. We lowered the mast and VHF antennas and filled up with the last city water we

might taste for a while. As planned, we left at sunrise with Blue Moon and Journey. We were first in

the Chicago Harbor lock, along with a small fishing boat. The 1-ft lock was built to keep the Chicago River from flowing into Lake Michigan. We cruised west, right through town on the South Branch of the Chicago River. The architecture of the buildings was

awesome, as were the 48 bridges we ducked under, many with hundreds of people scurrying across them to get to work. The lowest bridge was 17 ft - we just made it. From the Chicago River, today’s route took us down the Chicago Sanitary

and Ship Canal, then onto the Des Plaines River, including three locks (down 74 ft). The character and scenery changed dramatically as we went south, getting more industrial. The city’s landscape became refineries, chemical plants and tug boats pushing barges, and
more barges docked at plants getting loaded or emptied, then finally to a rural countryside. We saw tug boats that had a hydraulic piston pilothouse that went up to

see above the barges they were towing, then down to get under the bridges. we passed (one at a time) through a permanent electrical barrier designed to slow the spread of invasive fish species through
the canal in to Lake Michigan. The normal stop for loopers is the town wall at Joliet, but it looked rough (both texture and atmosphere), and we heard reports of people boarding at 1:30 am, so we continued south a few more miles to the Harborside Marina – a private

marina which normally does not take transients, but took us in since some of their seasonal tenants were out of town. They did have a restaurant and a pool. It wasn’t free, but it was tranquil (although a bit shallow). Dinner at the marina restaurant was surprisingly good.

Wednesday, 4 September – Wilmington to Ottawa, IL – 31 mi., 3608 cum mi.

Beautiful day, 65 degrees. Our trio left together after calling the Dresdon Lock  (down 22 ft) to make sure there was no barge traffic backed up. Dresdon is just below the confluence of the Illinois, Des Plaines, and Kankakee Rivers. With only two floating ballards available, Blue Moon had to raft up

beside us. This is a rural area, with farms around, cattle grazing, corn fields. The river bank is tree covered with some wild flowers
blooming. We docked at the Heritage Harbor Marina with Blue Moon. Journey continued on to the Ottawa town dock. We were pleasantly surprised to find Sea Fever, Summer Recess, Meandering, Humbug, and Entrée, and the marina gave loopers a 20% discount. Nice place with a pool, restaurant and the cleanest and best equipped

baths/showers that we have found on the loop. We joined the loopers at poolside happy hour, then dinner, then at the firepit. This was the first campfire we had enjoyed since leaving home. We enjoyed it so much, we stayed another day. We took the free courtesy van to town for the usual - laundry, groceries, and liquor - as well as some site seeing. We visited Washington Park where the first Lincoln/Douglas debate took place. Hard

to imagine that 14,000 people crammed into such a small place. There were more murals that commemorated historical events than we saw at Midland, ON. We also drove to Starved Rock State Park, with fascinating rock formations, primarily sandstone, more than 425 million years old. The name comes from a legend that the Ottawa tribe surrounded and

starved a band of Illiniwek on the rock after they killed the Ottawa chief, Pontiac. Got back in time for happy hour on the flybridge and
a nice sunset.

Friday, 6 September – Ottawa to Henry, IL – 46 mi., 3654 cum mi.

Nice day, 65 degrees. We traveled further down the Illinois River with Entrée and Blue Moon. At the 19 ft Starved Rock Lock, we had to wait for a tug pushing doubled up barges to come up the lock.

Then they put the three of us in the lock with three smaller pleasure craft and a Coast Guard tug. This stretch of the river was also rural with an occasional barge fleeting area, grain elevator, or power plant. The trip was pleasant – a lot more so by water than it would have been by land. We docked at Henry Harbor Marina on the old
Henry Lock wall, near the fuel dock. Summer recess had arrived just ahead of us. It was different, tying to a tree, a rock, and a rebar, but we were glad to be docked with friends at the end of a long day.


Saturday, 7 September – Henry to Peoria Heights, IL – 28 mi., 3682 cum mi.

Hot and hazy, 70 degrees. We left in a train of four boats – Blue Moon, Entrée, Summer Recess, and

Always 5 O’Clock – in that order. Cruising down the Ilinois River was pleasant. Tree-lined banks, marked channel, calm winds. We enjoyed traveling with other loopers. The folks were really nice, and they all had interesting stories, about how they decided to loop, about their former jobs, about their families, and so on. Blue moon did a great job in the lead. We set up VHF CH 72 as our comms channel. Blue Moon monitored CH 16 (hailing and distress) and CH 13 (tugs), then would inform all of us on CH 72, with weather reports, tug boat status, and so on. We just followed in line, tied together with
RF. It was a much shorter cruise today, thankfully, since it was quite warm. We did move to the lower helm indoors for about a half hour for a short period of light rain, otherwise, we were on the flybridge where we prefer to be. When we arrived at the Illinois Valley Yacht (IVY) Club, we all wanted to fuel up for the next 168 mi. trip to Grafton, so we took turns at the fuel dock – and that took a while. Being last in line, we had to wait the longest, but when we docked, there was help at the dock and cold beers waiting for us. IVY Club is private, but they accept some transients. It has a pool (yes, we dipped), a restaurant (not open), a bar (yes, we stopped in), and a bar and grill called No Wake across the street (where we enjoyed a group dinner). Some took a taxi to the grocery, post office, and Interstate Battery shop for a replacement battery. We just chilled.