Travel Time: 10 hours
NM Today: 40
NM Total: 1569
Locks Today: 3
Locks Total: 75
Clark talked to Sea to See, and we agreed to lock through the Brandon Road Lock together. We planned to leave Joliet at 8:00 but knew that our actual departure time would be dependent on the lock just a short distance downstream from us. When we called them this morning, they recommended that we start down their way in about 20 minutes so that is what we did. We had a short wait while they prepped the lock and then we were allowed to enter the lock.
We traveled with Sea to See until we reached the marina where they planned to stay tonight. Our destination was considerably further down river. At the time we waved goodbye to Sea to See we didn't know just how much further (time-wise) we had to go. We reached the Dresden Lock at 11:30, and that is where we sat for the next 3.5 hours waiting for the lock to be clear for us to travel through to the other side.
A "double" tow was coming up and another "double" was going down. When the lockmaster told us it was a double each way, we thought that meant double wide. What it really meant was that it would take two full fill-empty-fill cycles on the lock to get just the one tow through the lock. So we sat, and we sat, and we sat in the hot, humid, sunny boat waiting and waiting and waiting for our turn with no idea how long it would take. We never imagined over three hours of sitting there. I played a lot of rounds of Alphabetty and Candy Crush Soda on my cell phone while I waited.
Initially Clark had the boat running. When the lockmaster said, "It'll take a while" that didn't sound like an over three hours kind of answer to our request for a lock through. We saw no place to tie up, and when we called the lockmaster on the VHF to ask if we could tie to the lock wall while we waited, he didn't respond to us. After a while, Clark decided to turn off the engine, let us drift downstream for a while, restart the engine, re-position the boat, turn off the engine, drift, repeat ad infinitum ...
Finally we got the call that we could lock through. It took 30 minutes from the time we entered until we pulled out the other side, so all told Dresden Lock took us 4 hours to traverse. I was never so happy to see the backside of a lock in my life. We learned our lesson on that one - always call ahead to an upcoming lock to find out what commercial traffic they are dealing with. A phone call could have saved us hours of drifting as we could have found somewhere to pull over had we only known.
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| Dresden Lock - locking through with tug |
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| Caboose at a Trailer Park |
It is rather sad to say that the caboose in the picture above was just about the most interesting thing we saw on this leg of the trip. The caboose appeared to be used as an office for the trailer park along the water's edge. It may also have been related to the marina on the same site.
Since we had spent all of our expected travel time for the day just getting through two of the three locks, we started to wonder if we would need to find alternate accommodations for the evening, i.e. could we make it through the third lock before dark. The Marseilles Lock measures 27 statute miles down river from Dresden. At 8 knots, which is measured in nautical miles not statute miles, our rough estimate was another 3 to 4 hours travel time. Sun set is at 7:30, so not looking good.
We decided we needed to call the Marseilles Lock to find out the prospects of locking through in daylight. While we were looking into that, we got a call from the car rental place asking to confirm our reservation for tomorrow. We told them we'd get back to them when we knew the answer to their question. We also decided that if we wanted to make it to Ottawa, IL tonight, we better speed up, so Clark pushed the throttle up to planing speed to make up lost time.
When we spoke to the lockmaster at Marseilles, he said that no commercial traffic was clogging up the lock so we should just come on down. We told him we expected to arrive about 5:45. Then we called the marina to inquire as to our slip assignment and how to handle the fact that we might arrive late. They had us coming in starting tomorrow night so that added a little excitement to the situation as well. Finally we got it all sorted out with a slip for tonight and the car rental confirmed for tomorrow morning.
We arrived at the Marseilles Lock at 6:00, and the lockmaster said he needed 5 minutes to prep the lock. True to his word we just about sailed right in, locked through by ourselves i.e. no other boats in lock with us, and sailed out about 15 minutes later. Piece of cake after Dresden! We had been warned by multiple boaters that the Marseilles Lock was the worst in terms of treatment of recreational / pleasure boaters. We found none of that and were happy for it after the earlier experience.
The Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa is only 2 more statute miles down the river from that lock, so we were there in no time. As we were tying up our lines I heard someone whistle. I looked up and around but saw no one so went back to what I was doing. Then I heard, "Hey Sea Moss!" I looked up and around again and finally spotted someone way up by the pool waving at me.
I have met only one person on this trip who I know would yell all the way across the marina to say hello. I looked around for the green kayak on top of a tall boat to confirm that, yes indeed, Kaye from Knot Home was way up by the pool. Once she saw she had my attention, she yelled, "Dinner at 7:00!" I yelled back, "Where?" She pointed at the restaurant on site. We had planned on cooking on board, but after the long day on the river, I was happy for a meal cooked by someone else. I yelled back, "Okay!"
We were a little tardy to the party as she had yelled to me at 6:45 and we had not yet checked in to the marina, gotten the restroom code, wifi info, paid for the stay, etc., all that good stuff which takes time. Four other couples traveling the Great Loop joined us for dinner - Knot Home, One Day at a Time, Chester B, and Reflections. The owners of Reflections are Gold AGLCA members meaning they have completed the loop already. They are going around for the second time.
George from Reflections sat next to Clark and gave him lots of interesting input during dinner of what to look for on the rivers and what to expect in Florida. The more I hear about Florida, the more concerned I become. George is the second experienced person to tell us we may be too late already to get reservations at most marinas in Florida. People book months in advance to get into the places they want. Once they get some place, they stay there with no hopping around from place to place sightseeing. I think they must rent a car for that. From all that I hear, it sounds to me like Florida must have a terrible overcrowding problem in the winter months. At this point I am seriously wondering how much I will like being there.
Tonight is our last night in Illinois for a little while. We are renting a car tomorrow and driving back to New Jersey to visit the house, neighbors, and friends. It is a long drive, but I am glad we planned on driving instead of flying. Over the weeks we have been on the loop trip, I have compiled a list of things to take off the boat and return home and things to bring back for the next leg of the journey. We need a car to transport all the stuff each way including the pile of laundry I have to bring both ways. I figure I might as well wash it there as anywhere.
If I post any blogs over the next 10 to 12 days (I'm not sure I will), they will be related to the trip to NJ and back. Route 80 is pretty boring, so I'm not expecting anything too blog worthy but one never knows. I expect to be up and blogging again on a regular basis on or about 9/14.
The harbor master at the marina here told me to expect highs in the 70s when we get back as opposed to the hot, humid 80s - 90s we had today. Sounds real good to me!
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| Sunset in Ottawa, IL at Heritage Harbor Marina |
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