The Rivers - Chicago to St. Louis

We left Chicago on Thursday 9/8 and headed down the river system. This section of the Loop is a collection of rivers, canals, and lakes that will take us from Chicago down to Mobile, Alabama. We hope to be in Mobile sometime in late November.

 

Ok – Ok – I know we have been quiet for a while but it’s all good.  We’ve been a little busy lately.  Moving down the rivers is a pretty time-consuming adventure – at least the way that Chrisy and Roger approach it.    We research all the available anchorages, free walls, and marinas and see which ones fit into the schedule for the distance that we want to travel. The research consists of multiple cruising guides and a few on-line sources.  While we’re underway we’re pretty dialed in to any hazards like shoaling or random logs that might be floating down the river.  The bad news is that the river is down which means that shoaling is a bit more of a problem.  The good news is that the river is down which means that there isn’t as much debris floating down the river. 

 

And there’s the business of the barges.  These things are absolutely massive.  They’re several hundred feet in length and can be eighty feet wide. When you see one coming at you – you get the heck out of the way. Fortunately, we have a navigation system called AIS – Automated Identification System – which tells us the name, location, speed and direction of travel for all of the barges.  Little icons appear on our chart-plotter that we click on to give us all the information we need.  We then hail the tug captain on a special VHF channel and ask for instructions as to where he wants us.  The tugs don’t use the traditional port and starboard. They use a system of 1’s and 2’s.  If he says, “I want you on the 1,” that means turn to starboard and pass port-to-port for an oncoming tug or on his starboard side if we are overtaking him.  Either way, a request for a pass on the 1 means a turn to starboard, which makes life very easy. The tug captains have been really nice, and they are always looking out for the cruisers.  They obviously know the rivers incredibly well and always ask us to pass on the side that will be the safest for us.   

 

The locks have also been a bit of a challenge. The Brandon Lock was closed for a while for maintenance. Then they opened early but then the Peoria Lock needed to test a bubbling system to ward off the carp.   They decided to close 7 AM- 7PM M, Tu, Th, Fr – yikes – how do you squeeze through that?  Day 1 of the Rivers we had hoped to get to the Joliet Wall – 35 miles no problem.  Sadly, the Lockport Lock did not want to play fair and would not let a fleet of loopers down. We stayed on a crumbling wall that was an adventure to get Millie to shore.  Day 2 we made it through Lockport and Brandon Locks after a 90-minute wait then the Dresden Lock and the Marseille Lock – long day, 4 locks and a bunch of miles.  We were both pretty tired and Chrisy called a “Chrisy Day” at Heritage Harbor.  Great call – they have a pool and a restaurant and we were able to take a breather after two pretty long days on the rivers. 

 

Day 4 – remember that Day 3 was a Chrisy Day – Sunday 9/11 we went through two locks and covered 85 miles on a day that most of the loopers decided to stay put because it wasn’t the best weather.  We wanted to get through the Peoria Lock on a Sunday because of the bubble testing restrictions. Day 5 Monday 9/12 - a few more locks and 63 miles– we’re really pushing now.    Day 6 Tuesday 9/13 – 51 miles – no locks easy day.  Day 7 Wednesday 9/14 – 32 miles and no locks another pretty easy day.  After Day 7 we landed on Alton, Illinois just 20 miles north of St Louis.  We’re done with the Illinois River and have started down the Mississippi – now that feels pretty good. It’s time for a break so we have a three-night stay in Alton so we can visit St. Louis. 

 

That’s it for now – more posts to follow on a super fun day in St. Louis and the Mississippi.

 

Chrisy connected with someone on Facebook who volunteered to take our picture as we came through downtown Chicago.

One of our Looper friends saw us while they were strolling downtown.

We had a pretty amazing day for our trip through Chicago.

Your basic Looper parade leaving a lock.

Your basic tug on the Illinois River. Don't let your engine stall out in front of one of these.

Sunrise at Mel's - last stop on the Illinois. The only fog we've had for months.

The brisket omelet was falling over the side of the plate.

Ready for the floods.

 

Goodbye Chicago

We've been looking forward to Chicago and having Egret at the Dusable Marina downtown, and it did not disappoint.  We walked all over the city on a daily basis and we were really impressed.  It's a clean, active, safe, and easy-to-navigate city.  There are tons of things to do and we tried to fill each day.  We went to Wrigley Field twice - first for the Lumineers concert (and Caamp/ James Bay as openers) and then for the Cubs-Reds game. Both teams are pretty bad, but someone had to win and it was the Cubs, 9-3 - but it was an exciitng game with several home runs.  We saw a comedy show at Second City which is the training ground for SNL - really entertaining.  We got Millie groomed so she's much happier.  We took the architectural riverboat tour of downtown and went up the Skydeck at the Willis Tower and creeped out onto the Ledge - yikes 1,730 feet to street level. We had a fabulous dinner in Old Town and a wonderful walk back to the marina. Chrisy got pampered with a manicure/pedicure deluxe (thank you Janna and Eric)  and we had a bike ride on the Lakeshore bike path up to the Lincoln Park area. And, we both took a hot yoga class at Corepower. Plus, many walks with Millie throughout the Millenium Park.

Today is Chrisy's birthday so we are off to a celebratory dinner before we make final preparations for our departure down the rivers tomorrow.  The rivers are a new set of challenges.  The weather is not as big of a concern as it was on Lake Michigan, but navigating our way around massive barges on narrow rivers and squeezing through locks will be our challenge.  We've done lots of research and we have had lots of conversations with fellow loopers so we think we are up for it.  We are looking forward to taking Egret through downtown Chicago tomorrow. Look for videos in future posts.

The skyline from the riverboat tour.

Yikes - the view from The Ledge at the Skydeck at the Willis Tower.  That's a plexiglass floor suspended out over the edge of the Willis Tower at 1,730 feet above the street.

Egret is almost in view to the left of the mooring field.

Another picture from the Ledge.  I was out there long enough to take these two pics and that's it.

The girls on one of our walks.

Chrisy in the rose garden in the park next to the marina.

Before

After

Chicago welcomes Millie

Wrigley Building

Out on he Ledge

Godd thing Roger isn't scared of heights every bit as much as Chrisy

Birthday dinner at Mortons

Home Sweet Boat

You know you’ve been on the boat for a while when you hear, “Let’s go back home and have dinner.” 

OK – We have been on the boat for a while – three and a half months to be exact and the boat is starting to feel like home.  Here are some statistics:

 

·      Miles traveled – 1,478

·      Hours traveled – 146.7

·      Miles/hour – 10

·      Gallons of fuel – 1,030

·      Miles/gallon – 1.4

·     Total nights on board - 107

·      Anchorage – 23 nights (21%)

·      Slips – 64 nights (60%)

·      Free dock/wall – 20 nights (19%)

·      Locks transited- 86

 

After spending one night on anchor in Saugutauck, we decided to head south to South Haven ahead of the forecasted rough weather that was to arrive in a few days. One of the highlights of our visit to South Haven was seeing a 4th-grade classmate of Chrisy's, Mark - who she has not seen since 4th grade - for dinner at Admiral Jack's. Mark is a collegiate tennis coach and has coached in a lot of places (even the Penn) and is currently coaching at Kalamazoo. He's a super guy who has fabulous stories to share. Looking forward to our next reunion, but we both promised it would be a lot sooner than the last time!

Incidentally, Mark was having his morning cup of coffee on his deck and just happened to video this blue hull boat on its way to South Haven. At dinner, he shared the video with us and could not believe it actually was us, on Egret. He still didn't believe us until we took him to see Egret after dinner.

You need to zoom in a little - but that's Egret

We were stuck in South Haven for four days which is not a bad town to be stuck in.  A pretty massive cold front (even made the news in New Zealand) came through and churned up the lake and made a mess.  After the front came through, we still had 20kt winds.  Fortunately, we were tucked into the last row in our marina which provided us with a bit of protection from the surge that rolled in off the lake.  Some of our other looper friends weren't as fortunate and rolled around quite a bit in their slips. One stressed dock line even broke a cleat.  The sailboats which are normally more stable in anchorages had a particularly difficult time with the surge that flipped them around like a Bozo punching bag that you might have had as a kid.

Here's the entrance to South Haven during the cold front.

After our 15-mile ride on the Kal-Haven trail.

Taking a break from our pretty quick pace down the Michigan coast hasn’t been the worst thing.  Roger was able to get a haircut, we took a couple of bike rides, and we had lots of walks with Millie. Fortunately, we had some cushion in our schedule.  We are booked into a marina in Chicago starting on September 2^nd. We have tickets to the Lumineers on the 3^rd and the Cubs

on the 6^th.  We know – schedules are dangerous, but that’s why we have a cushion.  The forecast is for the wind to let up around Wednesday night giving the lake a chance to calm down before we travel on Thursday to New Buffalo – then on to Chicago on Friday. 

 

Update: the weather held as forecasted, and we made it to Chicago on schedule Friday 9/2.  There is a real sense of satisfaction with getting to Chicago.  When we started our research on the Loop we read lots of warnings about Lake Michigan and how it can be some of the most dangerous cruising because the lake gets really rough – really quickly.  It feels good to basically be off of the Lake with only one rough passage.  

Chicago on the horizon

 

We’re also looking forward to the Lumineers concert, the Cubs game, and getting Millie groomed.  As soon as Chrisy heard that we were going to Chicago she announced, “I want to go to a Cubs game and Wrigley Field.” Roger said, “What?” He’s not sure he’s ever heard the words “I want to go to a baseball game” cross Chrisy’s lips. But here we are going to a Cubs game. 

 

There’s a route convergence going on in Chicago.  Some of the loopers came down the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan and some came down the Michigan side, but everyone needs to join up in Chicago to go down the Illinois River to the Mississippi River. Making the congestion worse has been a lock closure on the Illinois River. There’s a backlog of well over 50 loopers in the Chicago marinas waiting for the end of the lock closure. 

 

So, “What do you do all day?”  We sit around and talk to other loopers about the weather and strategies for timing our trip down the river system.  Do we get the jump and go early? Do we wait for all those who are in a hurry to go through first? There’s only so much space on the lock-walls to tie up to for the night and only so much space in anchorages. It’s certainly better to not have a massive cluster of boats with us going down the rivers.  The good news is that the lock opened a little early so while Chrisy is enjoying the Cubs game there will be loopers headed down the rivers.  Stay tuned for our decision.

I'm ready for a real grooming - not a shearing from Dad.