Chicago

We successfully finished our trip to Chicago. We pulled off the dock before 5:30am to make a short day of it to Chicago. But as usual, the locks got in our way. We arrived at the first lock at 6:15 and wanted to get through it and all the bridges in Joliet before they went on restricted openings for the morning commute. The lockmaster held us up for an hour because he "thought" another tow and barge were headed his way. After we waited an hour, he finally locked us through. No tow came in either direction. What a waste. As my wife likes to say, "You can't teach stupid".

So we get through the first lock at 7:30 and have to wait another hour for the bridges to come off of their restricted schedule. Finally at 8:30, the first bridge opened and we proceed through a series of 5 bridge in Joliet. We have been on the water now for 3 hours and have covered a whopping 16 miles. At this point, all we can do is laugh because we are punch drunk and it sort of summed up the adventure from Mobile.

From there on, the rest of the run up the Illinois River and the Calumet Sag Channel went as expected. We came out onto Lake Michigan a few minutes after 1:00pm and ran the 10 miles to the 31st Marina in Chicago where Mike's wife Lynn was to meet us.

We pulled into the marina at 1:40 and began to top off the fuel tanks. I moved my stuff off while Lynn moved her things aboard. We wished each other well for our coming trips and I jumped in Lynn's rental car and headed to the airport bound for Toronto.

We covered 70 miles today in just over 8 hours. Mike and Bob were both gentlemen and it was a pleasure to help Mike bring his new Tiara onto the Great Lakes. I'm sure the rest of his voyage on to Detroit and the DYC will be a good one. Cheers.

Total miles traveled from Mobile to Chicago: 1,314
Total fuel consumed: 2,297 gallons
Total hours on the water: 85.5

Internet is slow, but I will try to post some pictures later.














Mike, Lynn and Bob

Almost Finished

Another day in the books. The dreaded locks got us again. I don't understand how one day I can make over 220 miles on the river. Then on the next day in the same river, I get hung at a lock for 4 frick'n hours. But that is just what happened today.

But wait, it gets better. So last night, I try and bribe the girl at the Illinois Valley Yacht Club to stay and help us pump fuel. No dice. I offer her $20 bucks to find someone to stay. Not happening. The fuel dock closes at 4:00pm and no one is willing to stay until 5:30 to help us fuel. However, she says that the dockmaster is willing to come down to the dock at 6:00am to fuel us up instead of the normal 8:00am opening. I figure that is a reasonable compromise and it will allow me to catch a few extra minutes of sleep. So at about 5 minutes to 6:00 we move the boat from our slip over to the fuel dock. As we are starting to tie off on the fuel dock, the dockmaster arrives. I'm impressed and thinking that we will be on our way pretty quickly. Boy was I wrong.

The fuel pumps are slow. I mean really slow. I mean I could have eaten an entire box of saltines and I could have spit in the fuel tanks and filled them up quicker than these fuel pumps. We started fueling at 6:00am promptly and we finished putting 417 gallons of fuel in the boat at 8:00am. Again, 2 frick'n hours to fuel the boat. Someone must hate me.

FINALLY, at 8:00am we start the engines and get underway. The sun is finally out and my teeth are not chattering, so all is well. That is until we get to the Marseilis Lock. We arrive at the Lock at 12:00 on the dot. The lockmaster says that it will be an hour and a half wait. No problem. That is not unreasonable and we only have to make about 150 miles today, so a short delay is not a problem. Except we waited 3 and a half hours to enter the lock. At 4:00pm, we finally emerged from the other side of the lock and got underway again. Now no one on board is happy. It is not likely at all we will meet our goal of getting to Chicago tonight.

But wait, it gets better. We run an hour to the next lock with the outside hope that we can still make it at dark to Chicago. At 5:00 on the nose we arrive at the Hardin Lock where we are told once again you will need to wait for commercial traffic. So we wait another hour and 45 minutes at the lock. At 6:45pm we emerge once again from the lock and get underway. By now we are spent, we are in need of some food and a cold beer, so we make our way to the nearest dock. Luckily the dock that is close also has a 5 star restaurant on site that has rave reviews from ActiveCaptain. The reviews were spot on. Big Fish Bar & Grill at Harborside Marina was just great! Actually worth the stop. Lemonade out of lemons again. Some things happen for a reason.

We only covered 109 miles today, but we made the best of the cards we were dealt. Tomorrow we only have about 50 miles to go and should make Chicago early where Mike's wife Lynn will join the voyage. Mike, Bob and Lin will continue the voyage on to the Detroit Yacht Club where Mike's new boat will call home. I will get off in Chicago and head to Toronto to pick up Dave's Meridian 441 and start heading to Pittsburgh. I will be right back through this same piece of water in just a few days.


At 8:30am the sun was out and we were finally underway. It was worth a picture after the start at the fuel pumps we had.


A very bad picture of a cool looking old paddle wheel boat.


Finally in our first lock.


Commercial traffic like this is what holds us up all day as they need to break apart the tows to get the into the lock.


Some other "pleasure craft" waiting to get into the lock.




Tied up at Harborside Marina as the sun is setting on another day on the Illinois River.

The Arch of St Louis

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the comments.

Today was a hard day. I didn't have enough warm clothes. It was absolutely freezing today. High was only about 46F. We departed off of Hoppie's barge this morning around 6:00am as usual. We continued to make our way up the Mississippi past St Louis. I have been wanting to see the St Louis arch for some time and I was glad I got to see it today. I always thought it would be bigger, but it was still a cool sight from the water.

We finally finished our travels on the Mississippi about 10:30 this morning when we finally got to make a right turn at Grafton, IL and begin our way up the Illinois River. We ran 226 miles today and arrived in Peoria, IL tonight around 5:30 after another 11 and a half hours. Because of the freezing cold temperatures and the constant rain today, we had the water all to ourselves. There were no small boats on the water and only a few tows and barges as well, so we made really great time. All of the locks and bridge were pretty much right on time today.

Because of the rain and frickin' freezing cold temperatures, there was not much picture taking today. I can say that the Illinois River is very nice and much more to my liking than the heavily industrial flavor of the Mississippi.


The St Louis Arch




Alton, IL


The city of Alton, IL


Coming into Grafton, IL


Grafton Marina


Downtown Peoria, IL

The Muddy Mississippi

Our luck has finally changed. We departed out of Green Turtle this morning at 5:40am and hit Barclay Lock at 6:00. We were the first ones there and went through very quickly. We ran the 30 miles to the Ohio River. Once on the Ohio, we had a good run to the first lock, Lock 52. We hit the jackpot as there was no one waiting at the lock and the lockmaster let us right through. So on to the muddy Mississippi River we went. It was a good day and we ran 249 miles today and finished at Hoppies Marina just below St Louis. Another 470 gallons of diesel fuel and we will be on the Illinois River tomorrow. We are getting closer to Chicago. Not a lot of great scenery today, but a few pictures. We did pass one tow today that had 35 barges in tow. It was massive.


This was an old steam engine at Lock 52 on the Ohio River. They were picking debris off the dam wall before they lowered the wall.


You can see the fire in the furnace to create the steam on the ship.


Lock 52


This is the new Olmstead Lock & Dam that was supposed to be completed this year to replace Lock 52 and Lock 53 on the Ohio River. It won't be operational until 2025 at a cost of $4 billion.


Hard to see from this picture, but this tow was putting out a wake that was over 4 feet high. The current on the Mississippi runs at least 3 to 4 kts.

I hate Benezene

So let me bring you up to speed on the last two days.

I have set all kinds of records on this trip. The first record is not a good one. So yesterday, Sunday, I had the fewest miles I have traveled on a given delivery day with the most hours behind the wheels. I did a whopping 81 miles in 13 hours on Sunday. Mad at the world would be an understatement. We got behind fricking Dixie Express again, a tow and barge carrying Benezene. We tried with all our might to get around the Dixie Express, but no dice. We ended up waiting over 3 hours at the Whitten Lock to finally go through. We arrive at Whitten Lock at 2:45. We came out Whitten Lock at 6:30. Now that is a long frickin wait.

Then after all the time we got to cool our heels waiting for the darn lock, God decided that it would be best if we went through the lock in the worst down pour he could sum up. It rained sideways! Then it rained some more and then the wind blew about 30kts. It was probably the worst storm I have been in on the water. Once we got tied up in the lock, things finally calmed down to just a heavy rain. We wanted to continue on to Pickwick Lake, but we all had enough fun for one day and decided to head for Bay Springs Marina which was just on the other side of Whitten Lock. We tied up, ate a cold sandwich for dinner and went to bed. We were glad to get this day behind us. We could only hope for Monday to bring us a better outcome.

So we get up Monday morning at 5:00am trying to get underway and make a dent in the time we lost on Sunday. God decided that He was not done with the rain. So we untied the lines in a another downpour and got underway. Again, it rained so hard you couldn't see more than 100 yards ahead of you. Luckily the radar was working well and we knew their wasn't anyone else on the water this early except for commercial tows.

After about an hour, the rain backed down to a drizzle and things got manageable again. We picked up the pace and ran to Pickwick Lock on the Tennessee River. Of course, we were met with another 2 hour wait at the lock while we waited for "Baffin Bay", a tow with another load of Benezene. Finally, around 10:00am, we made it through the lock and we were underway on the Tennessee River and making our way towards Kentucky.

Our luck finally changed... for the better this time. With the overcast skies and light drizzle, no one was on the water. We ran hard all day and covered 227 miles and ran all the way up to Green Turtle Bay at the very end of Kentucky Lake. It was a much needed good, long run. We sucked down 525 gallons of diesel when we got in and went to Patty's for dinner. All I have to say that you need to stop here if you can. By far the best pork chop I have had in my life! Excellent doesn't begin to describe this meal. Who would have thought in Grand River, Kentucky you could get an amazing meal! I'm a believer and I will be back.




Dixie Express, my foe, with her load of Benezene.




Tied up in Whitten Lock in a total downpour.


This picture doesn't begin to show the rain. That little, red tug got spun around twice in the lock.


Grand Harbor Marina this morning.




We saw this toe with 12 barges as we pulled out onto the Tennessee River this morning.






The first person to correctly identify this boat (Make and year), I will send $5 bucks to. You only get one guess. Who thought this was a good idea?




Tied up in Green Turtle Bay Resort

Tenn-Tom Locks

Almost.... a perfect day on the Tenn-Tom. We left Bobby's Fish Camp this morning at 6:00am sharp. We had a great run. We had a short stop in Demopolis for fuel at $2.69/gallon, but otherwise, we kept it moving all day. We ran 217 miles to Stennis Lock, the 4th lock of the day when the boating Gods put the halt on us. We were literally just one mile from the marina where we planned to spend the night, but we had to get through the lock first. We arrived at the lock at 10 minutes to 5:00pm. But the dreaded Delta Express, a tow boat with two barges full of Benzene, a hazardous material, kept us from our final destination of the Columbus Marina.

So we arrive at Stannis Lock at 4:50. We didn't go through the lock until 6:45pm. Almost a 2 hour wait for one stinking barge. That is just how it goes sometimes. We finally tied up at Columbus Marina at 7:00 pm. It was ALMOST the perfect day running the Tenn-Tom, but it wasn't meant to be. Be rest assured, that first beer that Mike, Bob and I had once we got tied up never tasted so good. So we finished in 13 hours, 218 miles on 400 gallons of fuel.

The worst part is we will somehow have to get around the Delta Express tomorrow. We could end up only going 50 or 60 miles if we don't hit the locks right. Stay tuned...


The first lock of the day.




Mike, the owner is driving while Bob enjoys the view.


This is one of the floating pins in the locks. It is a little different than what most folks are used to seeing in a lock.

Bobby's Fish Camp

Day one is in the books. The owner Mike and his Step Dad, Bob, showed up today around 11:00am as they made their way in from Detroit. They weren't on the boat 5 minutes before Mike was ready to untie the lines and get moving. Which we promptly did.

We were underway by 11:10 and heading north. The goal today was Bobby's Fish Camp which is just like everything you could imagine. We traveled through Mobile around noon and started the 137 mile journey up the Tenn-Tom waterway. We had a nice day for the most part. Sunny and warm, but with the threat of showers all day. Of course we didn't see any rain until about 30 minutes before we hit our first lock in Coffeeville, AL at 5:00pm. It rained steady for the rest of the trip up to Bobby's. It was still a good ride and the boat is performing great.

I know Jeff Harris and Dan Morlang wish they were hear to enjoy the ambiance of Bobby's and the great whole catfish fillets. Yum!


Getting ready to leave Fairhope this morning.


Some big tankers in the port of Mobile


An oil rig


Downtown Mobile


The Coffeeville Lock with one other pleasure boat heading up.




The "famous" Bobby's Fish Camp


And here it is... Bobby's where you will get the best fried catfish in the south.