For those of our followers who fear we are still in Hammond Indiana, let me bring you up to speed on the last few weeks of Season 2.
First, coming through the heart of Chicago on your own vessel is AMAZING! Cruising under bridges we have walked over while visiting the Windy City was really special. Once out of the city, we had to navigate the locks on the Illinois River that had been closed for repairs for several weeks during the summer. The first, Lockport, was backed up with barge traffic. After our 5-hour wait to lock through, it was very dark and we had 3 miles to get to our destination, Joliet. Another pleasure craft in the lock with us, Mick aboard Phantom, had been here previously and knew the way. We blindly followed and tied up at the free wall.
Since Mick has made this Loop before, he wanted to guide us downriver. So, Phantom joined our little flotilla, Stealaway, Alittle Loopy and Clearwater, to navigate the remaining locks on the Illinois. Several of these locks followed suit with 3-5 hour waits to lock through. The worst locking experience by far was Starved Rock Lock. Following our now normal pattern, Phantom entered the lock first and tied off to a floating bollard on the lock wall. We cruised up beside her to raft alongside. Between me missing the bow line throw to Mick and the wind catching our stern, we ended up broadside against the gates at the front of the lock! The winds were so strong, we were pinned; we could not power off. It took Paul in his dinghy and lots of lines and lock hands to get us off the gate and rafted to Phantom so we could lock down. No damage done (other than a bruised ego). The rest of the day was no better: cold, wet, and white capping, spray over the dodger and wind pushing the side curtains, rain, and waves into the cockpit. Very miserable 74-mile journey to Illinois Valley Yacht Club (IVY).
While at IVY, we toured the Caterpillar Visitor Center in Peoria. Very cool museum with lots of equipment to climb on and simulators to try out (I believe I will keep my day job!) During our stay in Alton, we spent a day in St. Louis visiting the Gateway Arch & Museum and the Anheuser Busch brewery with Paul, Dale & Jan. Both very educational and fun tours. Most evenings, the crew of the four boats dined together, either at a marina or aboard one of the vessels. We all pitched in or took turns preparing meals. We greatly enjoyed the group; Mick was even nice enough to toss us an extension cord so we could have heat while at anchor! While we didn’t get to visit any baseball parks this year, we did watch some of the World Series aboard Phantom (Go Nat’s!)
The Illinois River empties into the Mississippi River. The mighty Mississippi was running so fast we covered over 200 miles in just 2 days, our speed approaching 15 mph at times! (See separate blog post) We turned up the Ohio, immediately knocking our speed to 4.6 mph: like stepping on the brakes! This is where we bid farewell to Mick as he proceeded down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Stealaway, Alittle Loopy and Clearwater continued up the Ohio to Paducah, Kentucky.
Paducah has a transient dock with fuel, but no creature comforts like bathrooms, showers, or laundry. The weather was wet, cold, and miserable while in Paducah, so we took in some museums including the River Center, train museum, National Quilt museum and the floodwall with murals depicting the history of the city. The transient dock was packed with boats rafted to each other, all awaiting a weather window to continue their journey. Halloween was particularly cold, we even had snow flurries!
The morning of November 1st, we were greeted by heavy fog and 27-degree temps.Our dock lines were frozen to the cleats!Six boats left the dock together, Alittle Loopy out front with her radar.It took about 2 hours for the fog to burn off.This was our last travel day of Season 2, our destination: