Illinois

9/22/18 Saturday:   We slept well last night in our secure spot on the lock wall.  At about 8:45am, we cast off our lines and led the parade of boats back out onto the Mississippi River.  Gemini II joined us, as we all had the same destination in mind for today.  It rained off and on all night.  Just a light rain, so the hatch over our bed was open a bit most of the night and we didn’t even get wet.  But when you add the speed of traveling 13-14mph to that, the rain comes in and gets you wet when you drive from the flybridge.  We started out driving up there for awhile.  We didn’t see much debris in the water today – YAY!  And no disappearing marker buoys that we know of.  And we didn’t see any tows.  We were cold and getting wet.  COLD?!  Yep, believe it or not.  We went from sweat buckets to wearing fuzzies – just like that!  So we moved downstairs.  The visibility isn’t as good down there, so it isn’t Captain’s preference.  But I love it when we drive from inside, because I can do all sorts of stuff in comfort without climbing up and down the ladder – and still keep Captain company.  😁 Read more →

9/21/18 Friday:  Remember that I told you that the water level had dropped here in the marina?  We left our slip and the marina very, very slowly, but not so slow that the mud could grab us and not let us go!  Doug from Misty Pearl yelled out “Don’t Stop – Keep going!”  We churned up some mud, but got out just fine.  Whew!  You can see where the water line was just a few days ago.  We heard from other southbound boats that were headed here that the marina called them and told them not to come due to the shallow water issue.

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9/20/18 Thursday:  Yesterday afternoon after we got back from the city, we saw a few familiar boats come in.  Unfortunately, Misty Pearl drafts 5 feet, and after getting fuel, she got stuck in the muddy bottom of the marina on the way to her slip!  WHAT!?  We have not paid much attention, but the water level has dropped significantly since we got here a few days ago.  Fortunately, with the help of a man in a dinghy, they were able to get her swung around and finally tied up to a dock.  But the bad news is that the water level is still dropping.  They are going to be literally stuck here for awhile until the Army Corp of Engineers decides to hold some more water behind the Mel Price dam, just 2 miles downstream of the marina.  Apparently this marina suffers from the ‘draining bathtub effect’.  It is so close to the dam that the water level drops more than upstream, just like the water closest to the swirling drain is the shallowest in the bathtub.  Wow- we did not expect this!  Some of the docks are starting to lift up out of the water.  Not good! Read more →

9/17/18 Monday:  Nowhere we must go, nothing we must do. Ahhh!  A nice sleep in day!  And we were docked under cover at the marina, so the sun was not blazing hot on the boat.  So even with the 90+ degree day, we weren’t being broiled alive.  We had a nice leisurely morning, then got to work cleaning.  Kenny cleaned outside, I cleaned inside.  Boy did Island Girl need it! You can’t see us in this picture, but we are out there, under this roof – almost the only boat on this particular dock.

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9/16/18 Sunday:  We slept in until 8:00 – what a luxury!  When we got up and looked outside, the visitor dock was nearly empty.  All of the pontoon boats, go fast boats and day boats from last night were gone!  Wow!  It looked deserted on our dock!  We weren’t in a hurry to leave, since we were only going 15 miles to Alton today.

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9/15/18 Saturday:  We were anchored just about 5 miles upriver from the last lock on the Illinois.  Magic Jeanne gave us a wake up call at 6:45, and said she could not get ahold of the lock.  She tried the phone and the VHF.  But she said a nice voice came on (must have been one of the tows) and said there was a big tow going down and a big one coming up.  We could see that same info on the Lock Queue report.  Hmmm.  SeaJamm waited until about 7, and gave a call, and he got through.  The lockmaster said if we could get there ASAP, he’d put us down.  Woo-Hoo!  I was up and dressed, and making coffee already.  I went out and started getting the anchor ready to lift, with my wiener dog hose ready to do any necessary rinsing.  Captain was up and engines running in just a couple of minutes and we had the anchor up and we were going!  The anchor came up really clean, which was a bonus.  It was a very pleasant night on the hook.  With the river current running about 1-1.5 mph, we stayed nice and straight all night.  There was no swinging on the anchor in the river, which was nice.  There were a couple of tows that went by in the night, but they hardly made any wake at all.  It was the engine sound in the water through the hull that woke me up.  And then there was bright lights, too, because they are like a little city going by.  But nothing terrible, and it didn’t last long.  The temperature was bearable, in the mid 60’s, so we slept good.  I like nights like that on the anchor! Read more →