Sept 14
After day number one on the river system I am currently not a fan of this portion of the trip. It was a long day with arrival at our final destination – Joliet – in the dark. Thankfully the wall was already full of loopers awaiting the arrival of the group of 7 boats in our pack who went through the Lockport Lock together and were waiting to have us tie to them for the night. And so ended our 11 hour day to travel 50 miles.
A beautiful morning as we leave Chicago in our wake
It seemed to start well enough. We had a 10 mile run from Burnham Marina to the entrance of the Cal-Sag channel. Open water, light ripples, clear skies. But on our way we heard radio transmissions that the 106th street bridge was stuck in the down position. With our air height over 18’ we needed for it to open to pass. We hoped it would be repaired by the time we arrived at it in 2 hours. In the meantime, we got held up at the first bridge where the bridgetender just seemed in no rush to open. After a ½ hour delay he finally let us pass.
No idea why , but this bridgetender took his time opening for us at the first bridge
Clearance under the lowest fixed bridge of the Loop - plenty of room to spare
Tied up and waiting... and waiting ...
After several hours of waiting and watching the process of loading and unloading a split apart tow, we finally entered the lock as darkness approached. Keep in mind we are on Central time here and it gets dark a bit earlier. When the lower gates finally opened, it was dark. Luckily just a few miles and 5 bridge openings and we were finally at Joliet with it's free wall along the city front for transient boaters. . The entire wall was filled so everyone had to raft up to one of the boats already there. Thankfully our fellow loopers were ready and waiting to assist our group on arrival.
Getting dark out
Approaching Joliet city lights - even more confusing
Boats lined up the next moring
A "Tow" (don't call them barges) - passing our group on the wall
Journey for Sept 14
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