Ocean Breeze: Great Loop Date: 09.21.2010 (Tuesday): Oh Henry!…

I had to switch to Google Maps because there are no charts for the rivers.

Day #40: 908.0 total miles (40.0 miles 8.0 hours 9.0 mph)

Port #16 – Henry, IL

Todd and I were up and moving around at 4:30AM. We wanted to get an early start to very possibly get into our next port earlier than our latest average (near dark or dark!). We both thought it would be nice to be on terra firma in the early afternoon. Ottawa was only 40 miles from Henry, IL.

One lock stood in our way today. The locks started out being an adventure. They’ve now become a hindrance. Our average hasn’t been very good with our normal wait time being anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours. We do keep reminding ourselves the tows have the priority on the rivers. This IS their highway, not ours. We are visitors…they are frequent fliers.

Todd and I talk a lot about the tows and their business of shuttling barges from here to there…where ever here to there is. It’s a job employing many along the river. However, it has to be somewhat monotonous. The tow captains don’t chatter on the radio like the truck drivers do. And they have more hazards along the way to be careful to avoid…like pleasure boaters (that’s us).

The captains have been very courteous. Todd calls to each when we are closing in on a ‘passing’ situation. They are very good about telling him which side of the line of barges to pass on. And, so far, we’ve had no ‘events’.

Watching tows alone in the river, buzzing from barge line to barge line, is entertaining too. Todd imagines them as waterbugs. I worry more about where are they going and are we going to be in their way. But they do look like waterbugs as they scurry about.

Back to our one lock of the day…Starve Rock Lock, our 6th lock on the Illinois River and only 6 miles away. Phalarope left the Ottawa City Dock ahead of us. They called back and said a barge was in the lock. The Lock would be tied up for 2 hours.

We were already underway and had no place to dock. I found an anchorage in our cruising guide. We dropped anchor behind Sheehan Island about 2 miles from the lock. It was next to a beautiful bluff. We would have enjoyed the area, however the wind was blowing strong and the anchor kept slipping. So we pulled anchor and went ahead to the lock, anchoring upstream of Phalarope and just off of Starved Rock.

Alex on Phalarope mentioned the history of Starved Rock before we left Ottawa. Starved Rock derives its name from a Native American legend of injustice and retribution. In the 1760s, Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa tribe upriver, was slain by an Illiniwek while attending a tribal council in southern Illinois. According to the legend, during one of the battles that subsequently occurred to avenge his killing, a band of Illiniwek, under attack by a band of Potawatomi (allies of the Ottawa), sought refuge atop a 125-foot sandstone butte. The Ottawa and Potawatomi surrounded the bluff and held their ground until the hapless Illiniwek died of starvation- giving rise to the name "Starved Rock."

Starved Rock

The tow jockeying his barges around to fit them all in the lock. The process takes this side of forever!

I really haven't shown the elements in the locks. This is a floating bollard. I run a line from the mid-ship cleat around the bollard and back to the cleat. As the water lowers, the bollard floats down and it keeps us next to the lock wall.

This is the chamber the bollard floats down. There are metal wheels on each side of the bollard that keep it in the chamber. The track one of the wheels rides in is on the left wall of the chamber. There is a flood light at the top of the chamber. The locks run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The lock attendants told me they are on 8 hour shifts and rotate days, evenings and nights.

As the water is drawn out of the lock, small waterfalls develop at the junction of the doors created by the pressure of the river behind them.

The wait was 2 hours, as forecast by the lockmaster. It gave Todd and I time to shower and do other things around the boat. I worked on updating the blog and took pictures of Starved Rock.
Once we were past the lock, there was more interesting scenery to frame.

The quiet of the river.

Little rivers and creeks come in from both sides.

Another summer fun scene...there's a rope hanging from the tree.

This tow turned into a bar looked fun to us.

The Kate Hooper looks pretty super! But we didn't stop.

A reminder we are in the country.

On down the line we passed a grain barge where a huge backhoe was filling a dump truck.

The scene was kind of funny, really. They were unloading grain from this barge and further down the river...

...they were putting grain in this barge!

Then another barge to navigate around.

Oh great, a bend in the river, a bridge, a narrow channel and a barge! I just close my eyes and pray...

...and Charlie remains unconcerned!

After the barge, we passed the Illinois Power Company that is fueled by coal. They had a huge shovel loader that took coal from the barge to a conveyor belt feeding into the plant.

At mile 210.3 we finally began heading SOUTH!

We arrived at the booming berg of Henry, IL at 2:30PM…almost 8 hours after leaving Ottawa. Our average for 40 miles still demonstrated our poor luck at the locks (even though we only had one!). The water depth coming into the marina was really shallow, so we backed off and went to the outside of the old lock wall that protects the marina. The wall was in the well of the old lock and also well protected from the river and wakes cast off from the barge traffic.

At dusk, a Kirby barge and tow went by heading upstream.

Todd used to be in lease agreements with Kirby barges and tows. He was excited to finally see one.

The setting here was very picturesque and quiet. We had a lovely evening. Intermittent thunderstorms came through the area early evening but we had no problems. An easy rain developed around 3AM. I rolled over and let it send me back into a deep sleep.