JOLIET, IL TO OTTAWA, IL

Monday, September 14th, 2015

Day 406

Miles Traveled: 46

Total Miles Traveled: 6286


  We left the Joliet free city wall at about 7:15 am with six other boats following along.  Dan called the Brandon Road Lock, which was just 2 miles downriver, to get a status on lockage.  The lockmaster advised that the lock could be ready for all of us in a little over an hour.  We untied the lines right away, in order to get the nearby bridge to lift before the restricted openings between 7:30 am and 8:30 am.  We were glad to be getting an early start since we had three locks to deal with on today's travels.  

  Just before entering the second lock for the day, the Des Plaines River junctioned with the Kankakee River and formed the Illinois River.

Des Plaines River on left and Kankakee River on right

now traveling on the Illinois River

  After the second lock, we became the caboose on the Looper flotilla.  In the lead (and not seen in the picture) was Gold Looper "Salty" - a 22' C-Dory who runs just a bit faster than the rest of the group.  Following along was "Patriot", "Coeur Lion II", "Movin' On", "Chimera II", and "Camelot".

Looper Flotilla running down the Illinois River

  The third lock was more challenging for us.  The first two we were able to tie off to a floating bollard that goes up and down with the water.  Because there were so many boats, we did have another boat rafted alongside.  In the third lock, there were not enough floating bollards even with rafting up.  As a result, we had to use lines dropped down from the top of the lock wall to hold the boat in position.  Although this doesn't sound too difficult, the boat does not behave as well with this set up.  Especially in 20 mph winds (which we had).  The boat kept wanting to pull away from the wall and shift back and forth.  Holding an 11 ton vessel in place with a line takes a lot of muscle.  To make matters worse, the line at the bow (front) of the boat where Angie was stationed was almost too short.  Since we were going down, we had to let line play out.  In the end, it was a successful lockage, but not without some explicatives and sore muscles.

  Fortunately, the distance to our final destination was only about three miles away.  We had a slip reservation at Heritage Harbor Marina.  This is a marina that is located in a basin off of the river.  Although there was no current to contend with, we still had wind.  We got plenty of help getting into the slip and were glad to be tied up for the evening.  

  We treated ourselves to dinner at the Red Dog Grill, which is on site.  Dan had a great burger and Angie had a tasty tenderloin.  We spent the rest of the evening (after working on the blog) relaxing.