Sept 16 Joliet to Ottowa

Sept  16


It is our 5 month Looperversary!!.  Been at this now  for 5 months and 2750 miles.  In some respects, we feel like old seasoned salts, but every day is a new adventure and this was another day we’ll probably not forget.    Just a long exhausting day with another nighttime arrival.    We got stuck in Joliet for an extra day as the locks simply could not take our large and growing group at Joliet into their system due to backed up northbound traffic.  Rain overnight brought a barrage of debris, logs and tons of grass downstream giving everyone something to do as we manually spun boats around heading them upstream and continued to unjam logs caught between boats.  The river finally settled down late day so we took sometime to do a little exploration of town.

Rialto Theatre

We have 3 locks going downstream that we need to get through to hit our next destination – Ottowa and Heritage Harbor Marina.  After our groups leaders had conversations with the lockmasters our flotilla headed out at first light – 6:15 AM - for the Brandon Rd lock. 

The Flotilla gathers at first light to head south

Our record breaking looper locking group of 28 boats managed to get through this first lock as one group with boats rafted up 4 across on both sides of the lock.  Quite a site. 

We were center of the  lock - more boats rafted behind us

Unfortunately, the Bradenton lockmaster wasn’t as comfortable with locking that many boats together and broke us into 2 groups.   We were in the second group and got held up at the Marseilles Lock for several hours resulting in another lock through as the sun set. 

The sun sets as we continue waiting to lock through

We pulled into the marina in total darkness  at 8:30.    After a morning radio conference with all the loopers  several groups of boats decided to keep moving but we decided we needed a breather and stayed another day.  The marina has a courtesy car  we used for a trip to Walmart for much needed reprovisioning. It also gave me time to do a much needed full wash down of the boat including the hull. Since we had finger piers sticking out on both sides it  provided great access to all surfaces. Almost made me want to stay here a few days to give the boat a good wax job but we need to keep moving as our next lock – Starved Rock - goes to a full shutdown starting Friday for repairs and we absolutely need to get past it.

Journey for Sept 16