This blog marks a huge transition in our trip thus far. We have always boated in the Great Lakes but we said good bye to Lake Michigan and started our journey through the inland river system which would take us from Chicago, Illinois to Mobile, Alabama. Travelling on the rivers is a lot of back to back travel days so in this section we will cover four days including Chicago to Wilmington, Wilmington to Ottawa, Ottawa to Henry and Henry to Peoria Heights, all in Illinois.
Chicago to Wilmington, Illinois
The picture above is shortly after sunrise at 6:40 AM as we entered the first lock in Chicago to access the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. This canal eventually took us to the Illinois River. One of the very interesting things about this canal is that it was built to reverse the flow of the Chicago River which previously drained into Lake Michigan. The purpose of reversing the river was to deal with a sewage problem, since sewage was dumped into the Chicago River while people were also drawing their drinking water from the same river and then getting sick! It opened in 1900 and now Lake Michigan drains into the Chicago River system.
You'll note in the photo above that our boat looks shorter. We removed our radar, radar reflector, cell booster, satellite and anchor light to bring our air draft, or height, from 18'2" to 15'11.5", at the top of the radar arch, so we could get under the bridges going through downtown Chicago. This picture was taken by our buddy boat, Off Leash. You can view our video of our journey through Chicago to Wilmington. Besides Off Leash, we were joined by three other boats in the first lock: Blue Moon, Sunset, and Island Wanderer. We continued with them all day through Chicago. We were nervous about going under the Michigan Avenue DuSable bridge at 18.6 feet, but Chris from Blue Moon was behind us and let us know that we were well clear. We had to wait for the Amtrak Railway Bridge to lift and there we fell in behind Looper boat, Baker Street Blue. They turned out to be great leaders on the water as their captain, Dave, formerly worked for the Coast Guard.
We easily cleared the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad Bridge (mm 317.5) at 18.6 feet. It is an old swing bridge that does not open. If you can’t get under that bridge, then you can’t take the route through downtown Chicago and you'll need to take the Calumet Sag Channel instead. The lowest bridge on the loop that does NOT open is the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Bridge (mm 300.5) with a vertical clearance of 19.7 feet on the Sanitary Canal. There were four bridges marked as 17.1 feet but they were actually 16.5 feet due to water levels and we cleared those too instead of asking for a bridge lift. It was a little bit daunting to say the least! The downtown Chicago bridges only lift about 40 times a year so sailors have to pick their days or unstep their masts before travelling. Also, on the Sanitary Canal, we went through an electric fish barrier or fence that was meant to stop the Asian Carp from getting into the Great Lakes. You will see a couple of pictures of the warning signs in our gallery below.
As we were approaching the Lockport Lock, we were told that there would be a two hour wait and we were instructed to go slow and then tie up to the Ninth Street wall to wait. This was a very crumbly wall to tie up to and it was challenging. It’s possible that we weren’t in quite the right place. We finally got into the lock and tied up to a barge! It was funny seeing our tiny lines on their huge cleats. We continued straight from there to the Brandon Road Lock and they locked us through quickly. From there it was a 13 mile run to Harborside Marina in Wilmington, Illinois, which marked the end of a 10 hour and 20 minute day on the water! We dined out with our buddy boat, Off Leash, and two of the boats that we travelled with that day, Blue Moon and Sunset. It was a great evening of celebration after 65 bridges, 3 locks, and 47 miles!
Wilmington to Ottawa, Illinois
The next day we woke to a thick fog in the marina so we assumed that we were waiting it out until the fog lifted. Cam sat down to work and Heather started topping up the water when we suddenly heard an engine start! That’s when we realized that we hadn’t been getting text notifications due to a “do not disturb” setting. Apparently, Baker Street Blue had gone by after already having done a lock and everyone decided to go. We quickly joined the pack, but we were out of sorts for a while with no breakfast, tea or coffee, and we hadn’t done our checklist. We had it pulled together by the first lock at Dresden, and even ate some cereal while we descended in the lock. After that lock, the fog became so thick that we were running with our radar on and we almost missed a green buoy! The fog started to lift by our next lock, which was the Marseilles Lock, and we went through with 11 boats in total! They gave us two lines which we each hooked under a cleat, and we just held ourselves in position against the wall, letting out a little bit of line at a time. Two miles later, we all arrived at Heritage Harbor Marina around 12:30 PM. That marina was incredibly well organized in bringing us all in! It’s hard to handle 11 boats at once and so they staged us and called us in a few at a time.
Cam and Rob took turns helping each other put the radar back up on our boats, including all our other various equipment. We visited with other boaters we hadn’t seen for a while, enjoyed a swim in the marina pool, and went to a “Jeremy” talk. Jeremy and his wife own the marina and Jeremy gives a talk to Loopers daily on what to expect all the way to Paducah, Kentucky. He boats that stretch regularly and knows it well and enjoys sharing his expertise with other boaters. It was about 2.5 hours long and very informative. Cam and I had a quiet night with leftovers and setup for a better start the next day.
Ottawa to Henry, Illinois
We were up at 5:15 AM, expecting to leave at 6:15 AM. Baker Street Blue called the lock and they said they were locking a double, so we could come around 8 AM. Locking a double, means that the load that the tow is pushing gets split in two and takes two trips in the lock. It usually takes a couple of hours to lock through a double. We all rendezvoused near the entrance around 6:45 AM and headed out with the sunrise. There was no fog that day, but there were beautiful tendrils of mist on the river. As we got closer to the lock, they said there was still an hour wait. When we arrived, we tied off to the “cells” or “mooring dolphins” to wait. We rafted to Off Leash after they did the hard work of tying off to the mooring dolphin. In the lock, we were rafted three wide, and four for one group. We were eleven boats in total. Sea Clef had to be the first boat out because the right lock door would not be able to open until we were out of the way. That meant that we took the lead for a while, which allowed us to take some better pictures.
Bald Eagles were migrating at this time of year and someone told us to watch for golf balls in the trees. Their heads look like white balls in the trees as you approach. As you look through the photos below, look carefully in the trees or on the shoreline for some of our Bald Eagle sightings. We arrived at Henry and topped off our fuel. Then we tied up to the old (crumbling) lock wall. This lock was from the first lock on the Illinois River, circa 1850. It is a heritage site so they can’t change or fix it. It’s surprising that they are allowed to use it. There is a small marina on the inside, but it is quite shallow. We were tied up in front of Blue Moon and behind Off Leash. Karen couldn’t even get off their boat as it was a long step to a rocky wall! Gypsea was rafted off to the owner’s boat in front of the fuel dock, and Sunset went to the inner marina. Cam got our bikes down and we went into town for some groceries. It was a cute town and we enjoyed riding around. We had cocktails on the rocks beside Off Leash, who joined us from the comfort of their boat. It was a quiet evening and we were off to bed early with the sound of tiny fish eating off the bottom of our boat. Yes, you read that right! The fish feeding sounds like a gentle rain but it comes from below.
Henry to Peoria Heights
Blue Moon pulled away at 6:15 AM as they had planned to go much further than us that day. We got to sleep in but we pulled away from the old lock wall before 8:30 AM. We were enjoying the white geese on the old lock wall before we left. We also saw lots of White Pelicans that were also on their migration south. We followed Off Leash on an uneventful run to the Illinois Valley Yacht (IVY) Club. The water in Goose Lake and Peoria Lake was a bit roughed up, but very manageable. When we checked in, Cam got the packages we were waiting for. Hallelujah! Did we mention that when we were half way across Lake Michigan, an alarm on our dashboard started sounding about every two minutes? The longer we boated, the shorter the interval until it was sounding almost constantly. All we needed to fix it was a small circuit board. We had FIVE very long boating days with this constant alarm so we were thrilled to receive our packages!
The marina was having an end of season steak and lobster dinner at the IVY Club and Cam managed to get us tickets. We headed up to the bar in our "nice" clothes and had a drink and visited with many other Loopers. We even met Kim Russo, Executive Director of the America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association. We enjoyed visiting with so many Loopers and taking the night off from cooking.
We have a video that covers our travels from Ottawa to Peoria Heights, Illinois.
Comments