We have a long day planned for today with reservations at the Illinois Valley Yacht Club (the IVY Club) for tonight. Unfortunately the start of the day is rather stressful for me. Our lock today is 11 miles from Heritage Harbor Marina. When we arrive at the Starved Rock Lock the first half of a down-bound tow has just started through. There is also an up-bound tow waiting. The lockmasters original plan is to lock through both halves of the down-bound tow, lock through the up-bound tow (he’s small so won’t need to be split) and then lock us through. As the first half of the down-bound tow is finishing, the lockmaster decides there is room and we can lock through with the second half of the tow, we’ll just tuck into the lock right behind the barges and the tow. This seems like an excellent idea as it should cut over an hour off our wait time.
That’s where the stress comes in. There is no floating bollard in this lock, so we grab lines tied to the guardrail at the lock wall and manage the lines as the lock empties. This seems simple, but when you are in a full lock with a tow and barges it is anything but. The tow is constantly keeping himself in place by using the engine and thrusters and there is lots of turbulence in the lock during the ride down. Then, the tow has to ease out of the lock and re-connect to his barges that locked down first. Again, there is tons of engine and thruster work to make this happen. Over and over again, we are pushed hard into the wall and then sucked off again by all the turbulence. It is extremely difficult to hold the lines and keep the boat safe and it seems to last forever (although I’m sure it was only 10 or 15 minutes). The tow is finally on his way and we exit the lock. I am thankful that is the only lock of the day, but we still have over 63 miles to go before we are at the IVY Club and it is already after 10:00am.
We get to the IVY Club just before 6:00pm and are very hot and tired. The temperature today has been over 100 degrees with high humidity. Rita on Brandy IV cooked a pot roast while we were traveling and the four of us enjoyed dinner on Boreas in air-conditioned comfort once both boats were secured at their docks.
Miles: 66.6 (on the log, 74.4 according to the charts)
Bridges: 12 Locks: 1
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| interesting ledge along the river |
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| sandstone cliffs in Buffalo Rock State Park |
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| sandstone cliffs in Buffalo Rock State Park |
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| interesting rock formation along the river |
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| more trees with their exposed roots |
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| Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge - 14 or so miles south of Ottawa |
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an old bridge pier left in place when the new
bridge pier was installed |
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| rock formation next to the Starved Rock Lock |
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