September 18-23
The next morning when paying for our slip, the marina owner, who knew
of our plight from conversations the day before, pointed to one of
their rescue boats equipped with a crane. He said that if we had contacted
him first, he could have gotten us off in a flash by lifting us with
the crane, and he didn’t know why the Coast Guard hadn’t
recommended him. He determined that it was after hours and he was
probably closed; said he should give them his cell number. We finally
had our first experience locking through tied to a barge; we had only
heard about it until now. It was really easy because the barge hands
did all the work tying us up to them, and then we left the lock first
with the barges behind. There is still much barge traffic, along with
many pleasure boats of all sizes. We arrived a Springbrook Marina
in Seneca, IL, to have a haul out to check the damage done by our
hard grounding. The night before we borrowed the courtesy van and
drove for dinner at a local restaurant called Boondocks and were very
surprised to find that it had a tropical theme that reminded us of
a restaurant of the same name in the Florida Keys, where we had eaten
many times. Upon mentioning this to the bartender, she informed us
that this one was patterned after the one we knew because the owners
were friends and the owner here loved the one down there. She’s
also familiar with the other one and loves it down there, too. Small
world. Back at the marina, there was heavy barge traffic all night
long. Next morning we were hauled out and happy to learn that our
props were pretty badly damaged, but the only other damage was some
scraping on the bottom of the keel. They determined that it was fine
to wait until we got to Port Charles Marina in St. Charles, for repair;
we planned to be pulled out there, anyway, so they could check the
bottom work they did last year, 6 units worth. Back on the water after
leaving Seneca with still four locks to go, we saw these big mooring
rounds at the entrances to the locks. Upon inquiring with the lockmaster
at one, we were told they were for pleasure craft as well as barges,
so we decided to try to tie on outside one lock where we had to wait.
It was good once we were tied on; the captain could sit and relax
instead of sitting at the helm controls keeping us out of danger.
But the process of tying on was another story since tying to something
big, concrete, and round was a new experience. We only saw one other
pleasure craft use them, and the barges were always anchored near
the shoreline while waiting for their tugs. Again the barge traffic
on the Illinois River was extremely heavy. Now we know why pleasure
boats use the Tenn-Tom Waterway instead of the Mississippi River to
the Gulf of Mexico; all this commercial traffic continues on down
Ol’ Miss. We really needed both of us on the bridge at all times
today, one to pilot and one to navigate through all the commercial
vessels. In addition, the location of many of the actual markers was
very different from the chart locations. On top of that, the sun was
shining brightly in our eyes and glaring off the markers, which made
spotting them and determining whether they were red or green very
difficult. Add to that the rough water; there were actually white
caps in the Illinois River! The water calmed down during the day and
we successfully arrived at our next marina, Henry Harbor Landing in
Henry, IL. Our next marina “slip” was one of the most
interesting of all. The real slips only accommodate smaller boats,
so we were along an old lock wall, which had been built in 1872, the
first one of its kind on this entire river. It went out of commission
in 1927 and is now used by the bigger vessels. Tying on was really
innovative; a piece of metal pipe sticking out of some rocks on the
ground, a tree branch, and a tree trunk were our cleats and pilings.
There were other boats already tied up and some friendly, helpful
people with suggestions and extra hands. The power system was just
as bad, old electrical boxes with some connections working, some not.
We were told to just “check around, there should be 50 amp service
someplace down there.” We did find a poor but working source.
That night there were all these beautiful white ducks in the water
nearby; we just hoped they would stay off our swim platform since
the thought of a cleaning job in the morning didn’t appeal to
either of us. Been there, done that, too many times. They complied.
Carefully pulled out in shallow water the next morning, heading for
Peoria. These birds the locals called pelicans followed us for miles;
must have mistaken us for a shrimp boat. We were lucky to get a slip
at Eastport Marina; the boaters yesterday told us they couldn’t
get slips here. Maybe mentioning membership in AGLCA helped; the group
is getting big enough that many marinas cater to us. We had a good
dinner easily within walking distance and then listened to a really
good band and danced a little. Our kind of evening! Decided to stay
here for a few days and sample the food at other nearby restaurants,
and made a $200.00+ Wal-Mart run using a courtesy vehicle that belonged
to the owner of the marina. Loopers really rely on Super Wal-Mart
stores all along the route and report on those close to marinas along
the way.