Great Loop & Cruising Adventure Blog

We are Grafton bound for our first mail pick up day and a stop at the end of the Illinois River. The last seventy miles of this river are remarkably beautiful with abundant wild life, rock bluffs and small river towns. Once in Grafton we made a trip to the local post office where our son, Bart had sent our first batch of mail.

Art and Nancy, a couple we met through our blog, came to meet us while we were in Grafton. After giving them and their friends, Bill and Linda, a tour of our boat and talking about our mutual boating passions we all went to dinner at Fin Inn. We have never seen anything like this restaurant. It is very unique in that each booth sits next to a large tank full of catfish and other colorful fish.

After two nights anchored out at Bath Chute the Coast Guard finally opened up the last portion on the Illinois River so we pulled up anchor mid-day and headed down stream for a short 42 mile day. Progress!

We anchored off the side of the Illinois River with the Norfolk Southern Railroad Bridge as the backdrop. This makes three days without being off the boat. Here is Jim fending off a huge log from the back of the boat.

Today we went over our second wing dam. When a lock is flooded they lower the wing dams on the side of it and boats then just drive over it. It was an odd feeling. We saw many houses raised up on stilts with lots of water still beneath them.

Monday morning finds us, along with seven other Loopers, still anchored here in Bath Chute. We are all waiting for news that the river is finally open -  as of 10:00 am it is still closed. Six inches to go before they open this section of the river. If we get word of it opening mid-day we could leave and move a little bit south.

Early this morning we had a thunderstorm and a downpour of rain but it appears to be clearing up now and we can see blue sky returning.

Looks like game day for Jim and I unless something changes soon.

We got up early to assess a minor engine concern and after changing fuel filters we departed Peoria for our anchorage 61 miles south called Bath Chute. The waters in this stretch are still in flood stage, however very navigable. When we came upon the Peoria Lock and Dam we could see that it was mostly underwater as we had heard. They had lowered the wickets so we floated over the dam area (to the right of the lock), it was a new experience for us. The water was still high enough that some river side homes were still flooded, stationary day markers only had a few feet exposed and some of the town docks were still sunk, mangled or washed away.

After a long hot day we tucked into Bath Chute (we had anchored here during our first loop) and had the anchorage for the night all to ourselves. A friendly local fisherman, Roger, stopped by in his boat to visit, he lives in a nearby town with a population of twelve. He educated us about all the fishing, asian “Big Head” carp and nearby town functions.

We will have to stay here until the rest of the Illinois River opens up as we are as close as we can get without going into the closed (to recreational boats) area. This should be interesting but we have to say that we are in a river paradise and the brief solitude is enchanting and welcome.

We were the first boat to leave Heritage Harbor on Friday morning after we heard that more of the river opened up down stream. We left for Peoria and our first mail pick-up on the trip.

Today was a special day as it is our Anniversary (sixteen years). Three years ago we celebrated this day on this very same stretch of water at Hamm’s Holiday Harbor, a very rustic marina. We were happy to be going to IVY Marina in Peoria Heights as they have a nice, on location restaurant for us to have dinner. It was another great boating day made special by being able to spend a day that is so special to us doing what we both enjoy. Isn’t love grand? We really went all out on gifts too. Lisa’s was a bag of potting soil for her herbs and Jim got some rubber washers to fix the water hose. You know… it’s really all about the simple things.

Every year on our anniversary day we call, or are called by, our friends Jeff and Denise since we share the same wedding day and time. We found this out just in passing a few years ago and now part of our celebrating is to reach them by phone and acknowledge the passing of yet another special day.

Our trip to Heritage Harbor in Ottawa was only 46 miles and took us eight-and-a-half hours. The weather has continued to be hot and sunny. We went through three locks total. The first lock was a piece of cake, easy in, easy out and no waiting. Locks two and three were another story. The tug and barge traffic had backed up some because of the lock and river closures we caught ourselves right in the middle of barges locking through in both locks. Between the two locks we spent at least three hours motoring around waiting for our turn. Although the flooding set some new river height records the debris on the water was not as bad as we thought it would be. We still had to be cautious, move slow and maneuver around logs and debris.

We enjoy talking to the lockmasters while waiting in a lock. They are always helpful and have a lot of information to share. Today we had a great chat with the lockmaster while we waited for the boats behind us to enter and get tied up.

We arrived at Heritage Harbor just in time for Happy Hour with a gathering of Loopers from twenty different boats. Because of the river closures Heritage Harbor had become a temporary home for this large and growing Looper group. Some had been here as long as two weeks. The river was still closed south of us so we decided to spend the next day getting the boat cleaned, making a trip into town to the hardware and grocery store and listening for updates on the river conditions.

After the Illinois River subsided some, making boating down the river safer, the U.S. Coast Guard opened up enough of the down stream waters enabling us to leave Joliet. We departed the free dock along with Good News leaving three boats behind, Foreign Exchange, Toronto; Amy K, NY; Shore Thing, CT and Markelle of FL. We left early and headed down river to Heritage Harbor in Ottawa, Illinois.