Thursday September 2, 2021.
Temp: 78/54, Humidity: 54/100%, Top Wind: SE9 mph, Precip: none- sunny all day 😎, Miles Traveled: 85 in 8.5hours, Number of Locks: 1, down about 5’.
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Another early get-up day, but that’s what runnin‘ the rivers is like for us – start the day early so we can go far. Sometimes the Lord blesses me with an extraordinary sight as a reward for getting up before I want to. This morning was one of those days. This place where we are anchored is in a bend in the river, so our bow is facing east. Just soak this view up for a minute. At 6:00am, the moon was just barely less than half, so a bit of a crescent shape. The river was surprisingly calm, and the colors were amazing how they still showed the dark blue of the night sky above, and the bright orange of the promise of a beautiful new day on the horizon. WOW!
We didn’t know what the other four boats that were anchored here were up to today, so we just went about our plan. I checked the lock queue and didn’t see anybody waiting. Sweet! All systems GO! I hooked up the weiner-dog-hose and took it forward to be ready to wash down the anchor. We had about 80’ of chain out, including the Y bridle. That’s a Y line that hooks on to the anchor chain and comes back to tie off to both the port and starboard bow cleats. It takes all of the stress off of the gypsy and the windlass. (Lotsa anchor tackle talk right there!). I brought in the bridle, got it all put away, then brought up the chain and the anchor. I was really surprised at how clean the chain was! There wasn’t any mud coming up at all until the anchor came up. It was piled up, so I got it all washed off, everything put away, and we tootled on down the river before the sun popped up. This was sunrise at 6:45.
It was just five miles to the lock, so we were there by 7:00. It looked like there was a tow there, so when Captain called on the radio, we expected to hear that we’d need to stand-by. But no! What we could see was just the wall with a bunch of work vehicles parked behind it, with a small work tow. The locktender said to ‘Come on!’ and he’d open the gates for us. WOO-HOO!
We only slowed down enough to approach and enter, but never had to stop. Wow! We must be livin right!! This whole lock looks like it’s brand new. It’s a fairly shallow chamber, and they don’t even have ropes. If you want to tie off, you have to use your own. But since we were all by ourselves, the lock tender told us we could just float through – so that’s what we did.
Here’s our little Nebo tracker showing us in the LaGrange lock at 7:14.
This was interesting! I looked back to watch the gates close behind us, and I noticed the measuring scale on the wall….. and that the water line is ABOVE the lock walls!? 😳. Remember I told you that the Peoria lock will stay open if the water is high? Same thing for the LaGrange lock, and this shows why. If the water is that high, there is no locking to be done because it’s all under water!
This was just kind of fun…. the shadow of us going through the lock. And this shows that our water level drop through this lock was only about 5-6 feet.
Thanks LaGrange! You ended our Illinois River locking adventures on a very positive note! Now we are free to fly on down to the Mississippi River!
It was a beautiful sunny day. Last night cooled down SOOO nice, and we slept pretty well. The temperature was great, and the water was calm. We only woke up a couple of times with gentle wave rocking and the engine humm of tows going by. Our little thermometer said that it was 54 degrees outside when we left this morning. It remained a little cool for quite awhile, and we both had our fuzzies on to stay warm. The wind was calm, so we just had our own 10mph breeze hitting us. We’ve been cruising at a little lower rpm than usual, and with the river current, we’re still going over 10mph. Good fuel mileage!
This was a HUGE parking lot along the river banks!! There were at least 100 barges just parked here by this big grain silo. We’re pretty thankful that we’re transiting the river BEFORE all of the grain starts moving!!
At this facility, we saw a barge being unloaded, and big boulders being loaded into rail cars. I was flabbergasted at how small the rail cars were compared to the barge. We’ve been seeing so many barges that we’ve lost perspective of how huge they really are, and I missed getting a picture. So then I saw this. I circled the fire truck sitting on shore. Look at how small it is compared to the barge! The barge was parked on shore right behind the fire truck, so there really isn’t a lot of distance creating the size difference. 😳
As we meandered down the river, I was surprised at how little development there is along the shores. There were some RV parks, and a few houses. Check these out! These houses are actually IN the trees, the stilts are so tall. But there were very few towns. Probably because the flood plain is so high.
Oh – surprise! Looks what sneaks around the corners if you aren’t watching!
Fortunately, we can see these guys on the chartplotter with our AIS before we can see them visually with our own eyeballs. This bugger was three wide and five long. We actually saw several of these 15 barge monsters today.
By 3:00, we had the cliffs of the Mississippi in sight! We had wind on our nose, so we still had our fuzzies on to stay warm!
Grafton Marina was our destination for today, since it is the first marina in civilization, right at the confluence of where the Illinois River flows into the Mississippi River. We’ll stay just one night here. It’s really just a spot on the river with a floating breakwater and floating docks. EVERYTHING on the Mississippi needs to float, since the water levels can change so drastically and frequently, depending on rainfall, both locally and for hundreds of miles upstream.
Here is a Google look at where we are. The Illinois River is flowing in from the left/west. The Mississippi is flowing in from the southwest/bottom. They meet right where we are, and continue on to the right/east. This is Grafton.
This is just a portion of the marina, showing the floating swimming pool. Yep – the buildings, docks, and swimming pool are all floating on the river. The pole on the left shows how high everything can go up! And it has! We were here in 2018, and the water levels were similar to this year. In 2019, there was flooding and the docks were way up at the top.
We had dinner at the restaurant here at the marina, then walked around town for just a bit. We aren’t staying here long, and we’ve been here before, so I didn’t take many pictures. Although, I was nearly eaten by a giant prehistoric turtle.
This was our pretty sunset.
In 2018, we were here on a weekend in mid-September, and this place was rockin’ all night long with local time-travelers. That is one reason that we don’t want to stay here this Labor Day weekend. It’s gonna get crazy here! Tonight was pretty calm.
There was some live music in the park, and then after sunset, there was the weekly Thursday night fireworks! I don’t know why… but it was a pretty long show, like you might see on July 4!! We just sat inside Island Girl and enjoyed the show from the comfort of our own home. 😊
The marina has a nice little store and apparently they sell a lot of bourbon. Who knew?! Kenny bought a bottle of Weller bourbon for $42. 🤷♀️. It’s hard to find at any price, but that was a price he couldn’t pass up. Grafton marina is a popular stop for most loopers because it is the first marina after a long couple of days. Coming down the river where there are no marinas for over 100 miles, it’s a welcome site to see. Tomorrow we’ll move just 15 miles down the river to Alton. They are also an AGLCA sponsor marina, and they offer loopers “pay for three nights, get three free”. I’ve been looking forward at the weather. Saturday is supposed to rain all day, and Tuesday is going to be near 90 degrees. When we leave Alton, our next three days will be long, covering 250 miles. The first two nights will be without power, so we want it to be nice weather, and not too hot at night. Our navigator says we don’t want to leave Alton until Wednesday at the earliest. 😏