Waiting to leave Joliet
Tied up at the beautiful River Club while waiting for the Brandon Roads lock.
Today's plan was for us to transit 61 miles to Starved Rock Marina, but the lockmasters' plans on the 3 locks we had to transit changed our schedule. A miscommunication with the Brandon Road lock-tender caused us to sit at the park wall longer than we should have.
He told us to hang back because he had commercial traffic coming through. Then he changed things, and allowed some recreational boats through, but it was now too late for us to catch up and go with them. We then made our way to the lock with another boat which was tied up at the Park. However, we ending waiting at a wall near the lock until noon before we could get through. This caused a three hour delay in our schedule.
The scenery was still highly industrial - not attractive at all. We then transited the Dresden Lock pretty quickly, since there was no commercial traffic there. Now the scenery began to change and the river widened and became more rural with only an occasional factory, grain elevator, or barge dock.
We then arrived at the Marseilles Lock and were informed by the lock-tender that we would have a 45 minute wait as a 10 barge tow was coming through the opposite way. This actually took about 2 hours! We then scrapped our plans to reach Starved Rock and headed instead for Heritage Harbor Marina only 2 miles past this lock.
We arrived around 7:15 p.m. and received a warm welcome from Captain Moe (the dockmaster) at this beautiful new marina. Captain Moe is known among "Loopers" as the "savior" of 26 boats who were caught for two weeks at this marina in the Illinois River flooding last year. During that time he arranged transportation, field trips, and, in general, made everyone as comfortable as he could during that terrible time. He couldn't do enough for us tonight, and we were sorry our schedule did not permit us to stay here longer. Again, we were exhausted after our long day, and we brought dinner from the on-site restaurant back to eat aboard the boat. We were also able to spot the infamous carp whose mouths we could see while using flashlights on the water.
He told us to hang back because he had commercial traffic coming through. Then he changed things, and allowed some recreational boats through, but it was now too late for us to catch up and go with them. We then made our way to the lock with another boat which was tied up at the Park. However, we ending waiting at a wall near the lock until noon before we could get through. This caused a three hour delay in our schedule.
The scenery was still highly industrial - not attractive at all. We then transited the Dresden Lock pretty quickly, since there was no commercial traffic there. Now the scenery began to change and the river widened and became more rural with only an occasional factory, grain elevator, or barge dock.
We then arrived at the Marseilles Lock and were informed by the lock-tender that we would have a 45 minute wait as a 10 barge tow was coming through the opposite way. This actually took about 2 hours! We then scrapped our plans to reach Starved Rock and headed instead for Heritage Harbor Marina only 2 miles past this lock.
We arrived around 7:15 p.m. and received a warm welcome from Captain Moe (the dockmaster) at this beautiful new marina. Captain Moe is known among "Loopers" as the "savior" of 26 boats who were caught for two weeks at this marina in the Illinois River flooding last year. During that time he arranged transportation, field trips, and, in general, made everyone as comfortable as he could during that terrible time. He couldn't do enough for us tonight, and we were sorry our schedule did not permit us to stay here longer. Again, we were exhausted after our long day, and we brought dinner from the on-site restaurant back to eat aboard the boat. We were also able to spot the infamous carp whose mouths we could see while using flashlights on the water.
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