Alton,IL - The Mississippi

Day 53, September 24th, 2009

I was sorry to leave Grafton as I really liked it there. The people were very friendly and the swimming pool, hot tub and "bathroom suites" were right up my street! However, we left around 10:45 and pushed onto the town of Alton only 19 miles away. Just out of Grafton we passed into the Mississippi where the two rivers join. The river is wide and barge traffic is obvsiously much much busier. We won't have enough power to pass them so it will mean sometimes just plodding on behind to stay out of the way. Too bad the sun wasn't shining as we weren't seeing it at its best I'm sure. On the Illinois side there were beautiful sandstone cliffs and on the Missouri side it was flat!

Anyway John drove all the way. It was raining off and on and rather get wet in the cockpit, I cleaned the head and generally tidied up down below. That wore me out so then I had to have a little snooze! Then John called to say we had arrived! Another lovely marina all under cover with these big sheds. All floating again, including the office, pool, hot tubs etc.! My disappointment over leaving Grafton was soon alleviated when I saw the bathrooms here were even more gorgeous, the pool bigger and not just one hot tub but two!!! All right!!! Also the WiFi is so much faster I was able to add all the photos onto the blog. Had a lovely swim this afternoon, then John and I enjoyed the hot tub before having a lovely shower. What luxury!!

And all for $1/ft!! Great deal.

Grafton, IL

Day 52, September 23rd, 2009
Finally, the end of the Illinois River today! Only a short day leaving Willow at 8:00 and arriving around 12:30 to the little town of Grafton and their lovely new marina. Because of the flooding, the whole marina floats, including the sheds covering a lot of the boats, the swimming pool and hot tub and the main office, store and restaurant!! Two very nice guys were there to take our lines and get us fueled up and then we moved over to our slip, this time beside the shed rather than underneath!

One of these guys kindly loaned us his new Cadillac "my baby" to drive to Jerseyville, 20 minutes away, to get some groceries at the Super WalMart. There are an amazing number of very kind people in this country!! I was very happy to get it back without a scratch and he was probably relieved too. Anyway, while juggling the laundry machines with others, we enjoyed the pool and hot tub. Then there was the joy of the "Bathroom Suites"!!! Oh, this is the place!!! John and I had supper at the restaurant, overlooking where the Mississippi meets the Illinois where we shall be going tomorrow. (Ooooh, its lovely to be clean!!!)

Willow Island, IL

Day 51, September 22nd, 2009
A good start to the day - only 6 miles from Beardstown we arrived at La Grange Lock and Dam and 4 loopers together entered straight into the lock and tied up. A drop of only 10ft. This was the last lock on the Illinois River. There was quite a bit of turbulence on the lower side with the water rushing over the dam. This really helped our day though as the current pushed us along, making up to 7 knots at times. Again the scenery was much the same. Its hard to get a good idea of the general area because all you see on the river bank are the trees and the levees. We understand that when the river is in flood there can be a rise of 40ft., consequently the state of Illinois has built all these drainage levees to try to protect the land around. There are some houses on the river banks, although not many. They are built up on stilts to protect against the flood waters. Some of the newer ones must be 20-30ft high!!!

We were wondering what the anchorage would be like, afraid we would not have enough depth again but were delighted to find a lovely spot behind Willow Island with 6ft beneath us!!!
Bugs were bad, we rushed to put the screens up and grab a fly swatter each to do MURDER!

Thought you might enjoy the last photo of my view in the morning as John secures the anchor!

Its a little awkward as he struggles to reach over the mast support at the pulpit!!!

Beardstown, IL

Day 50, September 21st, 2009
From Quiver, we thought our next anchorage would be at Grape Island. Again a long day and the book said we would have 20ft at Grape Island. Huh! Wrong again! No rain for three weeks meant the water level was down, and there must have been considerable silting up at that point.
We tried sneaking in but touched bottom twice. Enough of that! We had seen the old barge from Beardstown moored in the river so decided to tie up to that. It used to be moored right at the town but floated downstream a year ago during a flood and they never put it back to the dock. Anyway, there was plenty of room for the two boats and lots of depth! I went catfishing but no luck - maybe one bite but he got away! Very disappointing, inspite of Mike furnishing me with all the right stuff - the "worm" and the stinky bait that looks like peanut butter and smells like gone off cheese, the lead weight etc. I was all fired up to get hold of that "beautiful" fella too! One of these days!

Quiver Island,IL

Day 49, September 20th, 2009
It was rather sad to leave Hamm's. Bit of a "rum place" but we had so much fun there!!! We left around 9:00 and set off again down the river. This photo was taken of the waterfront at Peoria. First overcast day we had had in over three weeks and when we arrived at the Peoria Lock it poured with rain! Went about 58 miles that day. Scenery all much the same - trees, trees, trees. Lots of blue heron and white egrets and even white pelicans, flocks of them. Arrived at Quiver Island where there was meant to be 10-12ft of water. However, we inched up behind some barges and anchored with 2ft beneath us. It was fine there though apart from the bugs. After our long day we snuggled down below with the screens in.

A Fun Day!!!

Day 48, September 19th, 2009
The day began early at 6:50 when Mike and Clay arrived to take John catfishing with their friend, Dan. Cindy wasn't far behind when she arrived to hang out at 8:30. We went for a walk along the beach, chatting non stop, before joining Paul and Sue on their boat. We loved hearing all about her daughter Johanna and her adventures working in the White House for President Obama. Johanna is one of two "Press Leads", travelling all over the world smoothing the waters and getting stuff organized before President Obama makes his official visits. It all sounds just like in the movies! Cindy told us about meeting Barak Obama while helping out in the primaries. My goodness what mothers will do to help out their kids!!! Diana joined us just before lunch and then the guys got back with stories of lots of fish!!! In the afternoon we climbed back in the cars and went to Cindy's house for supper. My goodness those guys can cook!!! Mike and Clayton did an amazing job of cooking up the catfish with all kinds of veggies from the garden to go with it. It was delicious!!! We'd never eaten catfish before and I'm telling you its good!!! When I'd asked Mike at Alexander's whether catfish are really that funny looking, he had answered that "how you see the catfish, is in direct relation to how much you like to eat them!" I totally agree. The catfish is one handsome son of a gun!!!! All four of us also enjoyed the delight of their hot shower with snowy white bath towels to pamper ourselves with!! Thank you, Cindy! We had such a good time, it was hard to say goodbye. Thank you Diana for driving us home - one hour to the boats and then another hour to get home! You guys are amazing!! Next time we'll try not to leave it 40 odd years!!!!

Our Family Get Together

Day 47, September 18th, 2009
The day was spent in anticipation of our Great Reunion! I cleaned and scrubbed the boat ready for the grand tour!! That is, in between chatting with the neighbours, including the three very friendly pit bulls on the dock!!! John and Paul walked into town for milk and we generally kept busy.

At 6:00p.m. the fun started with the arrival of Cindy and Mike and their youngest son Clayton and his wife Jessie. Diana and Kevin and their youngest daughter Sarah, were a little delayed when they missed the turning and got a bit lost but it wasn't long before everybody had had a quick look at Periwinkle and we were off to Alexander's in Peoria. What a great restaurant. A steak house where you choose your steak from the refrigerator and you can cook it on the huge barbies yourself or get them to do it for you. Cindy reckoned her two sons were the best barbecuers in town, and she was right!!!! So her older son George and Clayton looked after the cooking while we gabbed!!! George, his wife Stefanie and their baby son Gage met us there. The evening seemed to fly by as we caught up on all the news, shared photos and had a good old laugh. We also celebrated Kevin's 50th Birthday! Before I knew it, I happened to look around and found everybody else had gone home and the staff looked as if they were hoping we might follow soon!!! With plans to meet early again in the morning, we said goodnight and we were kindly dropped off at the boatyard.

Hamm's Holiday Harbour Marina

Day 46, September 17th, 2009
Today we had intended to do just a short trip to the little town of Chilicothe where the book told us there was another free dock. We like that word "free"! The book also said you could stay there overnight! As Twice 's Nice only draws 3.5' they went in first to the dock and managed to tie up but it was shallow. Paul took his boat hook and walked up the other end, sticking the boat hook into the water until it touched bottom. It seemed as if there was probably 5' at the other end of the dock so we started to edge in - no go, we touched bottom about 2' from the dock. A soft bottom but we got out of there very quickly. Paul and Sue wanted to walk up to the shops but noticed a sign on the dock to say that overnight stays were not allowed after all.
With no obvious anchorages John and I decided to move onto Hamm's Holiday Harbour Marina where we had booked for the Friday and Saturday nights. We hadn't tied up very long when Paul and Sue followed us in.

We had also tried to get into another marina further up at Peoria but they didn't have sufficient depth at their entrance and told us that if they didn't have the depth then nobody else would in Peoria either. Hence, Hamm's!!! I had made arrangements with my two cousins that we would get together here. Cindy and Mike live in Galesburg,IL and Diana and Kevin live in Bloomington, IL and Peoria is right between the two! We hadn't seen each other since we were kids when their family stopped by in England on their way home from Okinawa, where their Dad was stationed for a couple of years.

Anyway, Hamm's was a big place, pretty run down, owned and operated by this fella "Dick".
He's an interesting kind of guy, 72 years old and runs around from morning till night. He's got diggers and tow boats and backhoes - you name it. The cruise book said he had laundry but that wasn't quite right. He kindly loaded us up in his truck though and took us into town to the laundrymat! The bathrooms left a little to be desired - a door on the toilet instead of the shower curtain, would have been a nice touch! And we thought we had spiders in Collingwood! Hamm's can match CYC any day!!! However, everybody was very friendly and we enjoyed ourselves there. Dick directed Periwinkle to a slip in a shed - it was a little tricky to get in there and the mast sticking out the front was sticking out over their walkway which runs through the middle. After a little line handling we managed to move it back enough so people could walk by and threw a red towel and a life jacket over the end so our motor cruiser friends didn't kill themselves on it!

I was so happy to be there and was looking forward to meeting my famly the next day.

Hennipin, IL

Day 45, September 16th, 2009
From Sheehan we went onto the little town of Hennipin where there was a free dock. It was rather difficult to tie up against the high wall but we managed it, with only 0.1' beneath us!!
Paul and Sue and John and I walked up to the little town. They had advertised that we could get our propane tanks filled but that didn't happen - exchange only. No good to us since we have our little 10lbs. tanks and haven't got room for anything bigger. However, we bought a small tub of ice cream and some cones from the grocery store and went back to Twice 's Nice to enjoy not one ice cream cone but two!!! Paul went into the marine store there and nearly traded in his outboard for a bright sparkly new one but the next morning decided against it.

Sheehan Island

Day 44, September 15th, 2009
Continued down the river today from Ottawa, ending up at a pretty anchorage by Sheehan Island. Tall cliffs on one side with a walkway along the top that we couldn't reach. It was so warm we wanted to swim but the water was pretty grubby. We saw our first carp jumping out of the water as a pontoon boat stirred them up. The guys on the boat were whooping it up and laughing as these silly fish jumped three feet into the air!!! I went exploring in the dinghy, did get startled once when a carp jumped beside me! "Starved Rock" marina and yacht club were quite close. Nobody seemed quite clear on how this area got its name but apparently it had something to do with two Indian tribes that starved each other out!???

Ottawa, IL

Day 43, September 14th, 2009
Wow, this weather is gorgeous! Lovely hot sunshine every day!!! Only one lock today. Had to wait for an hour or so while a tow boat and his barges went through - there wasn't any room for us in the lock with him! Then just tootling down the river enjoying the quiet scenery. Lovely. Last night we enjoyed speaking with Graham on the phone and mentioned that we would be in "Ottawa" today. Not Ontario but Illinois! Arrived here around 2:00p.m. and able to tie up on their pretty waterfront at the free dock. A short walk to the grocery store where we loaded up with fresh grub and lots of drinks! They very kindly have a complimentary delivery service back to the boat. Oh yes - when we first arrived we met a couple fishing on the dock who were having great success. They let me reel in two little fish just in that 10 minutes while we were standing there talking to them!!!

When walking through the town we came upon this lovely monument to Abe Lincoln and Steven Douglas. Prior to the Civil War, while still a senator, Lincoln debated with Douglas on five occasions, regarding slavery. Lincoln proposed that every man, including African Americans, should have the same rights - the right to freedom of speech and the pursuit of happiness, as written in the Constitution. Douglas, although not exactly speaking pro slavery, felt that this issue should be up to each State to determine. The debate in Ottawa was the first of the five debates.

Illinois River

Day 42, September 13th, 2009
Hot, hot day. Just a short trip down the pretty Illinois River. Quiet river with dense trees on both sides. Went through a couple of locks. Little different from the Trent and the Erie. Much bigger! Very helpful lock masters though and all went well. Arrived at a pretty little anchorage by "Sugar Island". Surrounded by speedboats and jet skis whizzing by!!! Everybody enjoying their last taste of summer fun. I went swimming and that water was WARM!!!! No "Oh, its lovely once you're in!" here. Just like a bathtub!!! All working well on the boat now. We really appreciate that after having a few problems earlier on!!! John is doing a great job baking whole wheat bread every 2nd day or so!!! (Thanks Lynne for that great recipe!) He's doing so well with it that I'm leaving that job in his capable hands!!!

Through the Barrier

Day 41, September 12, 2009
Shortly after leaving the wall the Coast Guard met us on the waterway and handed us a pamphlet about the safely regulations we must use to pass the fish barrier. When we arrived at the fish barrier another coast guard boat was there to meet us. We had to phone another Coast Guard person and get a second authorization after answering a bunch of questions!! Then that officer called the coast guard guy in the boat beside us and he called us on the radio and told us we could proceed!!! Had to remain seated on the boat with life jackets on. If anything was to fall overboard we were not to retrieve it, all hands to remain in the vessel, if the engine quit we were to float through and just bounce off the walls without any use of boat hooks etc.!!! All very melodramatic!!! After agreeing to take the risk ourselves we were allowed to go through, one boat at a time. It was totally anticlimatical!!! Didn't feel a thing. We did switch off the main power before entering and it came on okay immediately we were through!!!

A short few miles further on brought us to Joliet, IL, having passed through 2 locks. One was pretty interesting with a drop of 39 feet. Arrived at Joliet's free boat dock and tied up, with free hydro. Have spent the afternoon at the library getting caught up with the Blog!!!

Calumet River

Day 40, September 11th, 2009
Left Crowley's at 9:00 a.m. heading south on the waterway. Very industrial all around us but we were happy to be moving. Shortly around 11:00 John's phone rang and it was the lady from the Great Looper Association. She informed us that the Fish Barrier was now open to pleasure boats and we could traverse the barrier in the morning after 7:00 a.m. on our own and the towing company would refund our $495.00. Hooray!!!! We were so happy to at last have a break!!!! A bit of a problem arose as to where to spend the night but that got solved too. Tied up against the wall on the Old Calumet River. Took a bit of bushwhacking to tie the boat to trees - bit difficult as the trees were buried amongst the brambles!!!! Bloody scratches later we barbecued steak for supper!

Crowley's on the Calumet

Day 39, September 10th, 2009
Untied the mooring buoy at 6:00 a.m. after a horrid night with little sleep. It was lumpy on the mooring and the waves slopped us about all night. However, reached Crowley's Boat Yard shortley after 8:00, having passed through the first three bridges on the Calumet River. We immediately got busy preparing our framing to support the mast. It was a little awkward but managed to get everything in place and then the riggers took over and brought the mast down. All went pretty smoothly. We were then left to tie everything on securely. John had also noticed a small oil leak at the fron of the engine a few days before. This was just as he had suspected, a small seal needed replacing. The repair guy looked after this very quickly and we were relieved! Spent the night on the dock - we thought we'd have to pay for this but they didn't charge us!

A couple of weeks before we had started to hear about the Army Corps of Engineers increasing the voltage at the Fish Barrier just south of Chicago. By the time we reached Chicago the Great Loopers Association were taking steps to negotiate a deal with the towing company "Artco". Up until this time pleasure craft had been prevented from passing the fish barrier on their own but had to hire a dead tow from Artco to take them through at a cost of $600.00!!! It was complicated, you needed authorization from the Coast Guard to go through the Barrier as well.
We signed up with the Great Loopers Association for their deal with Artco at a reduction of 20% - $495.00 and were counting ourselves lucky with this! It took John quite a bit of time on the computer to register with the Coast Guard and get the paper work filed on the computer for the tow. While we were at Crowleys we got the okay from the Coast Guard and felt that all things had been cleared away for our tow on Saturday morning. We went to bed that night confident that all was in place.

Chicago, IL

Day 37, September 8th, 2009
Chicago at last!!! About a week late but never mind!! Good crossing from Michigan City, arrived around 2:00 p.m. Tied up on a mooring buoy at Monroe Marina, right on the waterfront. What a beautiful vista. The four of us went walking, found out where we could get a Chicago River boat tour the next day and got caught up in some excitement on Michigan Ave. Oprah's show was being televised live from the middle of Michigan Aven and the crowds were enormous of course!!! I never did get to see even a glimpse of her but John said he did. I did see her on the jumbotrons though that were set up over about 2 or 3 blocks down the avenue.
We ate deep dish pizza at Uno's for supper - yummy!!!!

Day 38, September 9th, 2009
Left the boat at 8:30 by tender and walked up Michigan Ave. to the River. Paul and Sue joined up with us there and we took the Architectural River Cruise on "Chicago's First Lady". It was excellent. The guide gave such an interesting talk on all the beautiful buildings. To name a few we saw the Wrigley Building, the Tribune, Trump's Tower, the Sears', to name a few. Chicago is doing a wonderful job of revitalizing its waterfront. Many of the old wharehouses are being converted to residential condos. Its all beautiful and buzzing with excitement. The four of us split up then. John and I went for a ride on the "El" out to Midway Airport and then back around "The Loop". We didn't see County General but sure felt like we were going to bump into Dr. Carter any minute!!! From the El we walked through Millenium Park and all the way to Navy Pier. We had to have an ice cream and a bottle of water to get from one end to the other and back again!!! With our feet burning and bathed in sweat we returned to the boat!!!
Too bad we didn't have longer to see more. One of these days we'll have to go back. The evening was spent taking the sails down and getting the mast ready to take down the next day.
We were totally exhausted as we crawled into bed.

Michigan City, IN

Day 36, September 7th, 2009
Arrived in Michigan City early afternoon and went straight to the municipal marina - big!! On entering, a couple on the dock happened to notice our port of registry, Thunder Bay. We hadn't tied up for 5 minutes when they came over to chat in their dinghy. Apparently had met a couple from Thunder Bay during their winter vacation in the Caribbean. Guess what - we knew them, Jim and Carol Aitken!!! We used to be neighbours at the Thunder Bay Marina!!! Small world. Anyway, this very nice couple, Carl and Shelby, took me to the grocery shop to get stocked up while John stayed at the marina and did the laundry!!!! It was much appreciated. The evening was pretty much taken up with chores but we were pleased to get these jobs done before heading out to Chicago.

St. Joseph, MI

Day 35, September 6th, 2009
Tied up on the free wall in St. Joseph. Just as we were arriving we heard the band playing Star Spangled Banner in the bandshell immediately adjacent to us. John and I walked up to the park and enjoyed a wonderful free concert by the St. Joseph's Municipal Band. They were excellent.
Afterwards went walking through the downtown area, including an antiques flea market!! Another lovely warm evening. After supper on board we listened to the Band's second concert from Twice 's Nice and then watched a fabulous fireworks display!!!! We had the best view!!

Saugatuck, MI

Day 33, September 4th, 2009
Arrived in the gorgeous little resort town of Saugatuck!!! Lovely anchorage right in the thick of it!! Before we knew it, it became quite crowded but it was so protected, no worries. This was Labour Day Weekend and it was buzzing. Gorgeous homes, gorgeous boats, great marinas wherever you looked. Fabulous Jass music came live from one of the restaurants very close to us, so after a walk around the town and supper at a Chip Shack(!) we retired to the boat and enjoyed the music. Lovely! The next day we had fun enjoying the town. Visited the little museum and hiked up to a lookout on Baldhead Mountain!!!! Had supper at The Butler with Paul and Sue and then had an entertaining evening watching the boats around us. It ended up with 10 power boats rafting up close to us. Their stereos competed with the fabulous jazz but we enjoyed it all.

Muskegon, MI

Day 32, September 3, 2009

Beautiful sunny days of very little wind and warm sunshine, flat water. Came into Muskegon. It seemed a bigger place and we anchored on the inland lake just through the access waterway. On passing through the waterway we saw an old coast guard boat and submarine permanently moored there as part of a museum. John and Paul decided to go and have a look while I and Sue just chilled out at anchor! They found the submarine interesting but wondered how on earth those poor guys didn't go crazy with claustrophobia - 72 guys living in such a small space.

It was a pretty good anchorage except we must have been close to one of the access ramps where the fishermen put their boats in the water. They kept whizzing past us as they headed out on the lake, coming home very late at night. And we were woken early in the morning again as they whizzed past us. Lumpy!!! I must admit that we didn't feel all that sympathetic the next morning as they sat in the channel with their lines out. One good turn deserves another, I didn't slow down as I passed by their fishing lines at Periwinkle's ramming speed of 5 knots!!!

Pentwater,MI

Day 31, September 2, 2009
Arrived in Pentwater, 30 odd miles down the shoreline. Another lovely little town with sandy beaches and beautiful homes. Again, the town has its own inland lake - Pentwater Lake which is connected to Lake Michigan by a man made waterway. I had no idea that Michigan is such a beautiful resort area. They really seem to have the best of both worlds, either you can travel on the big lake itself or play on the sheltered small lake in land. Its a boaters dream. Not so many fishermen here but we were entertained by the Wednesday night racing in the pretty sunny evening. All racers were using "Ensigns" - pretty little sailboats about 20ft long, sleek and gorgeous with lots of sail area. Each have a little wee cabin but big cockpit - some had as many as 6 crew on board, others only 2. All painted different colours. They were a pretty sight and big cheers could be heard from the yacht club when the winner came in!! It looked great fun. Paul and Sue joined us for a drink in the cockpit while we watched the fun. Had, of course, enjoyed a walk around the town first and the inevitable ice cream cone. Its pretty chilly travelling on the big lake but it was lovely and sunny and warm at Pentwater.

Manistee,MI

Day 30, September 1, 2009
Able to make a quick trip to the Post Office in Frankfort first thing in the morning. An important parcel despatched to our grandchildren in London!! Then it was anchors up and off we set at 10:00 a.m. Clear skies, light winds with a little chop. Wouldn't you know it the wind was right on the nose! So we had the main up but motored all day the 23 miles to Manistee, further south down the east side of Lake Michigan. The sand dunes extend all the way and are really gorgeous. Got into Manistee shortly after 2:30 p.m. There's a connecting waterway between Lake Michigan and Lake Manistee just in land. After getting fuel and a pump out at the municipal marina we anchored in Lake Manistee. Lovely peaceful little spot, well protected.
Enjoyed a walk around the old main street. Old town where the buildings have been beautifully restored giving an attractive down town area. We walked the length of Main Street and then returned to the boat for supper.

When we first arrived John spotted a huge fish jump out of the water quite close to the boat.
When we got back to the boat we noticed that there were a whole lot more fishing boats and the fish were jumping all over the place. We are told they are salmon and get "real lively" once the sun goes down!!! Thats exactly whats happening right now. There are at least 27 fishing boats trawling around the lake, some with at least 4 lines in the water. The fish are jumping everywhere where the boats are not!!! Its cool!! John reckons I should be comforted with the fact others don't catch anything either!!