A Little Loopy

We completed this portion of the trip in two days. It’s long; the only things changing are your thoughts and spotty podcasts. Peoria to Peoria Lock: 7.7 mph; 10 miles; 1:18 hours Peoria Lock to Snicarte Island: 8.9 mph; 51.1 miles; 5:53 hours Snicarte Island to LaGrange LOCK: 8.5 mph; 26.6 miles; 3:07 hours LaGrange LOCK to Buckhorn Island: 8.6 mph; 33.6 miles; 3:55 hours Peoria to Snicarte Island LOCK: Peoria Lock 10’ Have all your stuff ready. The Lock Master will give you free-hanging ropes to use for locking on. When the horn blows, just drop the line to leave the lock. Carp really jump 10' out of the water - It was crazy! The engine motor scares them and they jump. It was funny watching the Looper ahead of us. It looked like a fountain of carp with one landing in his boat! Snicarte Island: South of Havana in Bath, IL: ANCHORAGE Snicarte Island is the Southern portion of Grand Island , called Bath Chute . There is only room for one or two boats with 4’, or less, drafts. We pull...

Ottawa to Henry: 8.5 mph; 38 miles; 5:30 hours Henry to Peoria: 8.8 mph; 25.2 miles; 2:53 hours Ottawa/Buffalo Rocks to South of Henry/Lower Henry Island LOCK: Starved Rock Lock 19’ Floating bollards; Easy lock, an additional stern line is available if needed. Option: Henry Wall The FREE-ish Wall is structurally a crumbling hot mess. Once upon a time, it was part of a lock built in the 1900’s; I think the cost was $40 with some forma of electric/no water. Don’t let the condition of the wall taint your ideas of the marina behind it. To be fair, the marina was just bought by a young couple with big plans for reconstruction. Their enthusiasm has me wanting to see what they do next. Optional: Lower Henry Island ANCHORAGE We read on Waterways.com and Navigational Notes that this was a safe anchorage. We gave the south point of the island a wide berth, then take the channel into safe harbor. We are here during low water levels; so, NOT kidding about the wide berth. When you think you hav...

Joliet to Ottawa: 8.3 mph; 54 miles; 9:00 hours Great Loop Navigation Notes by Captain Alan Lloyd is a reference tool you should have handy at the captain’s bridge for the entire river system. It is full of Captain-like information. The Illinois River is very quiet and beautiful. The trees are already changing colors and it isn’t even the end of September. The King Fisher is back and I'm ignoring him. LOCKS:  Brandon Road Lock 34’ At 6:00am our designated Looper called the lock and asked when would be a good time for 10 Pleasure Crafts, PCs, to lock through. We were told that, if we could be there at 6:30 AM, we could lock now - so we left the Joliet Wall. I am sure that was a sight to see. Once we arrived, we needed to wait a few minutes for the green light and horn to signal when it was safe to approach. HOW TO WAIT: You just idle in place; seriously, I needed to write that. The Sofia Chong (not the vessel's real name and NOT a Looper) didn’t understand this and weaved aro...

Hammond to Chicago: 12.3 mph; 14.6 miles; 1:11 hours  Chicago to Lockport Lock: 8.2 mph; 32.3 miles, 3:56 hours Lockport Lock to Joliet Wall: 6.3 mph; 3 miles; 0:28 hours Departed Hammond at 8:00AM; Arrived Joliet 5:00PM Heads Up: Waiting for the lift bridge, lock, and drawbridge adds time to the trip. CHICAGO Boating through the center of Chicago is like nothing I have ever experienced. The smile on Jim's face was priceless. It was breathtaking, spectacular, pretty damn cool.  If you can handle the bridges, I suggest you try it for yourself. I was able to sit up top to watch for clearance and take some great pictures. THE CHICAGO RIVER BRIDGES: RESTATED FROM PREVIOUS POST PLAN AHEAD: For real, there is serious math needed. The day of travel, you need to find out if the river is running high or low and by how much. Call the Chicago Lock for this information or go to waterdata.usgs.gov for gage height, discharge (cubic feet per second), and water velocity (feet per second)....