At 8am we passed a ship moored in the mouth of the Cal Sag canal (mile marker 343)... we were leaving the Great Lakes and entering the waterway. Boy - were we in for new experiences. The first few miles were so heavily industrialize that you thought you were driving down a flooded street - if it weren't for the barge traffic. Barry was constantly on the radio as the southbound (privileged) vessel, "Towboat Carrie Lynn, this is southbound sailboat Another Adventure, one whistle captain?" "That's one whistle, affirmative" was the answer. We'd be passing port to port (like cars do). The whistle talk? A wireless form of boat whistles! After about 10 miles traffic fell off dramatically.

We made our first lock, the Thomas S. O'Brien, a 1 foot drop, with no issues - sharing it with a Coast Guard vessel.

We joined the northern channel (Des Plaines River) at mile marker 303 and traffic picked up like we'd hit a freeway!

We caught up with the same Coast Guard boat that locked through with us but for some reason they were on our side of the river coming right at us.  We gave them two whistles for a starboard meeting, confused by their position. After we got closer the reason was very apparent.  A deer had fallen in the water and could not climb back up the 5-6 foot high limestone banks that stretched as far as we could see.  Hope they were able to escort the deer to safety! Looked like a long cold swim! 

 It's amazing to watch tows pass with the barges skimming along at 4 knots with only 6 inch clearance from the limestone edges of the canal. We had to keep one ear on the radio and the binoculars focused on the river to avoid meeting tows in narrow places. The Nightmare at Lemont (mm300) was unbelievable. Moored barges narrowed the waterway to 3 barge widths. Okay, what do we do with the 3 wide tow approaching. Several times Barry radioed tows to advise them that "AA" would duck into a hole between moored barges to give them a clean passage. The tow captains were very appreciative with a big "thanks captain" or "that would be great!"

Our second lock, Lockport, a drop of 37 feet. We arrived just as a 3 wide tow was leaving. We caught up with 4 power cruisers waiting for the tow to clear and shared the lock with them.

Joliet came up at mile marker 286. The cruisers had run ahead but were waiting at Brandon Road Lock, a drop of 34 feet. We all tied off at a bar and burger stop, The Riverside, where a burly Russian short order cook dished up tasty "real bar" cheeseburgers as we watched the evening news with him in Russian while waiting for the lock to be cleared by a large tow. When the lockmaster advised it would take another 3-4 hours we all headed  the couple of miles back to Joliet and tied along the wall at the Veterans' Memorial Park across from Harrah's Casino boat? (more like a building). Not our first or second choice, and against the pre-trip advice of our map provider. No-one wanted to chance running the 9 miles to Harborside Marina in the dark while large black shapes crept up the waterway. At least in Joliet we were off the channel dictated by two bridges in a well lit section of the canal, with power and the price was right - free. Not looking forward to the barge traffic as I slipped between the sheets.

Our first day on the river was a real experience! Ruth is becoming quite the river navigator!

10/15/04- Friday was our second day on the Des Plaines river. During the night at least 2 large tows slipped by - there may have been more, Barry's snoring drowned them out. At 6:30 we got the word, Brandon Road lock was available in 30 minutes. We hustled in the dark and light rain and made it - only to wait 2 hours when a large tow got stuck leaving the lock. We'd still be there if a towboat dead-heading downstream hadn't graciously nudged the lead barge into deeper water. In the cold (high 40's) the river was covered with a foot of swirling white wisps of fog - just enough to hide the buoys until you we right on top of them.

We caught up with the powerboats at Dresden Island lock, a 22 drop. We entered after a short wait. When we exited a large pleasure cruiser, Corpuscle, passed us while coming up on plane - rolling us almost 40 degrees. The mast stayed firmly on the deck.

We traveled through what felt like forest land with the herons, shrikes, and ducks enjoying the river. Traffic was almost non-existent - we passed only 2 tows.

We came to what looked like an abandoned RR bridge with the bridge tender's shack all boarded up. Not unusual - we had encountered a few along the way, except there was an Illinois Central train creeping onto the open bridge. We watched as the engineer leaned out and looked up and downstream, waving at us as we passed under the open span. Then he reached to a switch and lowered the bridge to cross, raising it after he had passed.

By 2pm we were ready to find a haven for the night. At mm253 we found Anchor Marina (Seneca, IL) and a tie on the river wall again as the marina couldn't handle our 5' 3" draft. We inquired about their travel lift to swap propellers (our feathering prop wasn't opening in reverse but decided to tough it out as the water depth and concrete slabs along the well didn't hold much appeal in 20-25 knot winds. For $43 we settled for a place to tie and power. We watched several tows and a few pleasure craft go by, noting that in our limited experience the tows gave off minimal wake while higher speed cruisers turned the mooring into a washing machine.

Ruth created a pan of hot hot! chili for dinner. Buddy begged until he got his share (see right) and we settled down to e-mails, phone calls and finally an evening of reading. By 7:30 it was bedtime. 7:30??? Our days are pre-sunrise to an hour after sunset - the fresh air, cold and constant activity wears you out.

10/16/04- Saturday started early, 6am wake-up for a 7:30 departure. It was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey (look it up, it's a nautical term, referring to cannon balls and their brass holder). Ruth's giving me that tell it like it is look! It's a mutiny!

Well, here we go, we're saying it's about 40 degrees with a 20-30 knot breeze.  yah, right it's freaking colder than what...  okay, it's time to sail, I'm sorry, power to our next lock.  Marseilles Lock had a little surprise for us.  Either the lockmaster was PO'd that we called so many times or he was going to find out what kinda brass big ones we had... he locked us downriver with a tug with massive barges in front of him. (Normally, this is NEVER done, but he was trying to save us the 4 hour wait for the up-bound locking of a large tow)  We figured, no problem, we can handle prop wash etc. we're seasoned sailors and Barry did a lot of kayaking with rapids in his earlier life.  Surprise, not only did the 30 knot winds play with us but Ruthie had soooo much fun on the bow of the boat.  We were okay with the lock dropping down but when our partner "Audrey Fouts"  threw us about, Barry was yelling at Ruthie use her boat hook to keep us off the wall.  Unfortunately the tow boat's stern thrust was sooo extreme that Ruthie (with a previously broken shoulder) was fending off the bow so hard that the boat hook almost bent in half and she thought she would poop her pants pushing off the wall.  Okay, we can handle a little poop but when Barry kept yelling "FEND OFF" Ruthie was ready to put said boat hook somewhere else.... just use your imagination to fill in the blanks on the conversation that was exchanged. Okay, we made it - on to the next spread of easy, freezing, spraying on your dodger stretch. 

Actually, even though it was freezing and Barry had socks on over his gloves, (yes they were khaki so they were cool) it was neat seeing all of the wildlife (mostly birds) and the fishermen.  Red Alert, the fishermen on the shore all had fires going so THEY wouldn't freeze their butts off.  I'm sorry this is getting kinda of negative... this is suppose to be entertaining as you're reading it in front of your fireplace cuz you guys have the same Canadian front. 

Further to our proceedings, we did not proceed in 2 different places.  We ran aground 2 different times.  Thank god for sand.  Once making room for a tow to leave Marseilles Lock (narrow channel / wide tow). Later we beached in 2.4 feet just before we came to this strange, wonderful harbor we're in.  As if named for Wisconsin's past time, it's Hamm's Holiday Harbor.  My god, we pull in at dusk and encounter a ghost town for old and probably never to be restored river boat queens and other tug wannabees (sorry, they're past their era).  We finally docked in the dark after another few adventures...dock lines falling in the water, no visibility, the hazard of grounding again, etc. 

We're finally warm now and WOW we have a positive phone signal for our cell phones so we can write to you and pick up messages from yesterday.  We're in Chillicothe, IL and proud of it.

P.S. The Starved Rock lockmaster said that he had a call from Florida for us wondering where we were (try to say Starved Rock Lock 3 times with frozen lips). Oh, I also forgot to mention the 200 white pelicans we saw coming into the harbor tonight that were wondering why they were freezing their short feathers off.... love

Ruthie

Continue to Lower Illinois Waterway.

Return to the Loop Route.

Heading west?

Looking back...

12/17/04- In retrospect this was the hardest part of the trip. We didn't know what to expect and had no experience with towboats. Other boaters we talked to refer to this section as the place where they earned their doctorate in river talk.

This leg was also the toughest weather-wise as an unseasonably cold front pushed into Illinois bringing winds and freezing temperatures. There were days we wore sweat socks over our gloves to keep our fingers flexible.

The tows were very courteous and accommodating - I don't think we met one that wasn't. The main issue was that in many places on the waterway there wasn't room for up-bound and down-bound traffic - someone had to move back to a wider spot and it sure couldn't be the towboat. How do the tows handle this? As we got wiser we learned that they communicated on 14 or 17 and decided who would pass long before they got to these spots. Once educated, we followed the same procedure.

One big issue with the waterway is the lack of places for pleasure craft to safely overnight. When you can only make 30 - 90 miles a day dependant on lock flow you often find darkness approaching with no safe harbor in reach. Travel at night is not wise. The tows do it, but these are professionals with radar, BIG searchlights and the toughest boats on the waterway. They eat pleasure boats for a midnight snack! We'd been warned not to tie up or anchor along the channel. Easy to say, almost impossible to observe. Every trawler and sailing vessel we talked to had spent at least a night tied to a sea wall or anchored behind (outside) the channel buoys - nervously. The marinas that were available usually were shoaled in, hence unusable by boats drawing over 3'.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat, in summer, in a boat capable of planing. Well, maybe in a sailboat. We hope you find this log interesting and informative - let us know.

The trip begins...

Calumet entrance to the Cal Sag branch of the Illinois Waterway... can you say industrial?