Great Experiences on the Water

Boating is all about experiences. Take tonight for example; I got to meet a new bride that rode into the marina on a Harley Davidson motorcycle in her wedding dress. You don't see that too often. To take it a step further, Clair and I saw another bride and groom on a 50-foot Sea Ray on the river in Peoria getting pictures taken. The experiences you have on the water are second to none.

We had another really great day on the water today. Today was actually more like a typical yacht delivery day. We pulled off the dock at 6:30 this morning and ran until 6:00 pm tonight. We covered 197 miles. We passed a lot of barges and plenty of guys out fishing. We saw pontoon boats, open bow-riders, skiffs, express cruises and several large yachts that were on the Great Loop. We had a really nice conversation this morning on the VHF radio with a couple from Myrtle Beach, SC that were on a 55-foot Fleming doing the Loop. We heard about their trip and their experiences for the past year. We also had an extended conversation with one of the barge captains today on the radio. He asked if I was a delivery captain and when I told him that I was, he had all kinds of questions. He had wanted to get into the business at some point, but wasn't sure how, so I tried to answer some of his questions. Again, the folks you get to meet on the water are like minded and just great folks. We are all fortunate to be in the positions we are in.

Clair is feeling more comfortable every day on the water now and is doing a great job helping to drive the boat. We were both a little nervous today when we arrived at the Beardstown Railroad Bridge. There was no height marker on the bridge and the bridge tender did not know the clearance. When we asked for him to raise the bridge, he informed us it would be at least 45 minutes since there were two trains approaching.

Clair and I decided to see if we could fit under the bridge. It was really close. I had Clair drop the antenna and sit up on the hardtop to see if we could make it. We approached very slowly so if Clair felt we couldn't fit, we would back the boat up and wait the 45 minutes for the opening. As we got closer, Clair yelled down I think you got it. I asked are you sure. Yep, he replied you got it by 4 inches. We VERY SLOWLY proceeded under the bridge and by gosh we made it without a hitch.

We are sitting in Henry, Illinois tonight. The marina doesn't have any 50-amp service and we don't have a splitter for 2 30 amp cords. We will be running the generator tonight, but all is well. We walked up to the bar and had a burger and met some great folks; many of which we passed on the river during our final hour. We got a lot of nice compliments on the boat. Tomorrow we hope to run through 5 locks and get to the rim of Lake Michigan where we will have our final 100 miles to go.