September 29, Day 108 - Hardin, IL to St. Charles, MO

We were all up bright and early this morning so we could go for breakfast at the local restaurant. Talk about your good deals. The works for around $5. Just what we needed ….. more food. If we stayed here much longer we wouldn’t be able to make it through the cabin doors.

As we were departing the dock, Gerry realized our bow thruster was not working. Guess the excessive use of the thruster yesterday to get the boat to the dock had caused a problem. After we were underway heading down the river, Linda took over at the helm and Gerry went down below to see if he could find the problem. After a couple of hours of sweating in the engine room and the forward stateroom, he had determined it wasn’t the fuses, nor was it the actual motor. As we approached the Mississippi, Gerry decided to return to the helm and wait until we were docked to troubleshoot some more.

We arrived at the Port Charles Harbor Marina at approximately 1:00 p.m. Pulling into the fuel dock and then into our slip was a bit of a challenge without the bow thruster, but the Captain managed nicely. Once we were settled in, Gerry returned to his troubleshooting and finally determined it was the switch in the forward cabin. We walked up to the ships store at the marina and they had an exact replacement. We purchased a few other items, including charts of the Upper Mississippi, and returned to the boat where Gerry promptly replaced the switch and …. YES … everything worked great.

We were very pleased with this marina. The fuel and slip fees are the cheapest that we have seen on the trip. The water was a bit thin getting in, but once here, things have been great. They have Boat US discounts on everything which lowered the cost even more. The staff has been terrific and the pastries in the morning – very good. We highly recommend this place (Port Charles Marina – St. Charles, Missouri).

During the rest of the day Gerry did a few chores on the boat and Linda did laundry. Later on in the evening, we took the courtesy van and went to Sams and Walmart for provisioning and Chevy’s for dinner. We were certainly glad we had a GPS on board. We don’t think we would have found our way back to the boat without it.

We unloaded all our stuff and then to bed. Sorting and putting away will have to wait until morning.

A stilt house in progress


and a finished slilt house. I'd hate to carry in the groceries.

The town of Grafton, IL

Cute decorative lighthouse on the shore

The Grafton Harbor Marina in Grafton, IL. We bypassed this marina and instead stayed at the Port Charles Harbor Marina in St. Charles, MO.

September 28, Day 107 - RR Bridge, MM 61.6 to Hardin

We woke up real early this morning – we had a pirate flag hanging from our boom and when the wind picked up during the night, it started making a racket. Linda tried wrapping it around the line to keep it quiet and Gerry finally got up and took it down around 1:00 this morning.

About the same time, a huge tug went by us in the darkness – it was hard to count the barges, but it looked like it was 3 wide and 10 long, by far the biggest one we have seen on the rivers. We thought we were quite a ways off of the channel, but it didn’t look far enough for this guy to get past, but he made it look easy – even with the wind blowing hard.

We got up for real about 7:30 and got ready to leave the anchorage. It wasn’t a peaceful night for any of us, but we still got off to an early start. We had a relatively peaceful trip down the river until we got to our planned stop.

We were going to stay at the docks for the Illinois Riverdock Restaurant and the Vineyard went in first. The current was flowing southward about 1 knot and we had 25 knot winds blowing us off the dock. The attempt to dock with the current didn’t work too well, so we headed into it. That didn’t work too well because the wind kept blowing us off the dock. We eventually were able to tie up when Linda was able to lasso a cleat and hold us to the dock. It took us a while to put her where we wanted to, but soon all was OK. Then, we helped the other 3 boats dock. Each had its own challenge, but those with twin engines had a much easier time of it.

Once everyone was tied up, we headed to the restaurant to pay our slip fee ($25) and have a little lunch. The owner teased us with a sample of his smoked brisket and pork chops. It was terrific, so we both ordered the brisket philly cheese steak. We also had some alligator fritters as an appetizer. It was all very tasty. Then it was back to the boats to do a little planning for our jaunt into St. Louis and clean up before going back to the restaurant for dinner. The dinner menu looked very interesting and the desserts even better.

We spent the afternoon doing a few chores and then Linda took a walk to explore the town. Later we met up with everyone for dinner at the restaurant. The proprietor, Mel, can really cook up some great food. His specialty seems to be anything smoked … brisket, ribs, chicken. All got rave reviews. Also, the desserts …. all homemade and delicious. Everyone left with doggy bags.

We plan on leaving mid-morning for Port Charles Harbor in Missouri. We are going to stay there a couple of days and rent a car and run into St. Louis




There is a lot of debris in the river. Here is a tree adorned mark. The marks really take a beating here with all the stuff floating around.


Here's the gang on the road again .... on the way to Hardin

We started to see a few houses along the way ..... here's a house on the hill

A couple of deer along the shoreline

A ferry operating on the river. It's a tug attached to a barge. The cars drive onto the barge, the tug starts up and off they go. It only took a few minutes to load up and cross the river and then they do it again.

A shot of the river. It really is quite pretty in spots.

The sign at the Riverdock Restaurant in Hardin

The restaurant .... not much to look at, but it was good home style cooking

I guess Hardin is too small for a town hall .... instead they have a village hall

A small park in the village
.... and one of the main streets

The boats at the dock

and the gang of loopers at the restaurant

September 27, Day 106 - Bath Chute to RR Bridge, MM 61.6

We got a little earlier start this morning – 8:45. We had a good run to the La Grange Lock, but then things went downhill. We had to wait about 2 hours for a tug to lock through two groups of barges.

Then the lockmaster wanted us to “float” through the lock. That would normally be OK, but the winds were gusting to 25 and “floating” became “rock & rolling” and a real challenge to keep the boat from crashing into the lock walls. Two of the boats were able to tie to the lock wall, but two of us (including Monk’s Vineyard) rode it out. It was a very entertaining experience, one that Linda did not enjoy.

Along the way today, we spotted a couple of bald eagles and hundreds (maybe thousands) of white pelicans. There were also a few owls, and other sorts of hawks along with the ubiquitous herons and sea gulls.

We checked out our first potential anchorage – McKee Creek, and that didn’t look too promising the way the wind was blowing. Shortly after passing this area we reached the westernmost part of our trip (didn’t take the exact coordinates though). We pressed on to the recommended Railroad Bridge at mile marker 61.6. We had a current of about 1 knot downstream and the wind was blowing 25 upstream, so anchoring was a bit of a challenge. The current finally won out and we settled in for the night.

We had come about 45 miles today and passed through one lock. We only had 3 barges to deal with today, so that was a good thing.

Gerry cooked some sausages on the grill while Linda made fried potatoes, peppers, and onions. Tasted pretty darned good after a long day.

No “Happy Hour” with the rest of the fleet today. We are all anchored over a mile long section of river front and well spread out.

Gerry put the mast up, so we will have the anchor light up high tonight and get the radar running again. Our buddy boat with the Automatic Identification System (AIS) that is able to see the tugs and big boats (along with their name, course heading, and speed) will be leaving us on Tuesday to go back to Colorado for a few days, so we will feel more comfortable having the radar back in action. We ordered an AIS online this morning and hope to pick it up next week when we get to Green Turtle Bay in Kentucky. It will come in handy for the rest of the Loop – we were pretty spoiled having it available for the run down the Illinois River.

It will be an early night to bed and short run of about 34 miles tomorrow. Then, it will on to the Mississippi and a new set of challenges.


It was a misty morning in the anchorage. Here is Second Star and Christina Diane


The fog cleared quickly and we were soon ..... rollin' down the river

This is Beardston. You can tie up at the barge, but we hadn't been traveling long so we pressed forward


A bit of industry along the way

More pelicans ....they were standing in the very low water and seemed to stretch for miles

This is the very large barge we had to wait for at the lock

The LeGrange wicket dam

Floating in the lock .... well, not really floating. Gerry got quite a workout trying to keep the boat going forwarding and in the center so we didn't bang into the lock wall.

This is where we anchored. Right next to the railroad bridge. It will not rate very high on our list of all-time favorite anchorages.

Another view of the anchorage

September 26, Day 105 - Peoria to Bath Chute at Snicarte Island

We had planned on leaving early, but we woke up to dense fog and had to delay our departure. By the time the fog cleared and we got a necessary pump out and another in our traveling group got diesel, we finally got underway around 9:30. We had 60+ miles to travel so we were hoping for a quick lock through and a minimum of barge traffic. We were lucky with the lock through. We only had to wait a short time and, then once in the lock, we didn’t even tie up. They just had us free float while they locked us down. It was only a short drop of around 10 feet and there was no wind or current so they told us not to tie up. That worked pretty well.

There was a lot more barge traffic today. Seems like we were either overtaking or passing oncoming barges all day long. We also had periods of rain off and on most of the day. We were really hoping that the anchorage listed in the book turned out satisfactory because we were definitely ready to stop. We are finding that the water level of the river is quite low and some of the marinas and anchorages listed in the guide books are not accessible to us. Fortunately, when we arrived at the selected anchorage, the water depth was 8+ feet and there was plenty of room for all of us and, as a bonus, it was peaceful and beautiful.

Christina on Christina Diane had made a big pot of seafood chowder and invited everyone over for big bowls of chowder. It was yummy!! We were all tired from our long day so after an hour or so, everyone headed home via Monk’s Vineyard dinghy taxi service (it appears our dinghy is the easiest to get down). It was time to call it a night.

It was off to bed where we were serenaded by the various critters on the nearby island.

We had stayed on the outskirts of Peoria, so early in the day we passed the actual town of Peoria. Most of the marinas were too shallow for us to enter so we had opted to stay elsewhere.



The industrial side of Peoria

Arriving at the Peoria Lock and Dam

The Lock Building

The other boats in our group floating in the lock -- we did not tie up to the wall

This is the town of ..........


Havana !!

A house on stilts. Most of the homes along the river are built on stilts ... not much flooding this year though

The river and clouds ahead

and the river and boats behind

At the anchorage. It was very nice and peaceful.

More of the anchorage

A flock of pelicans flying south

A gorgeous sunset

September 25, Day 104 - Henry's Island to Peoria

During the night, we would see the tugs on the river with their big spotlights illuminating the river banks. It was sort of “spooky”.

We awoke to small boat engine noise and stuck our heads out to see watermen pulling up nets full of Asian Carp. We tried to get a video of this, but it didn’t work out real well. Basically, they have these traps that look a lot like big minnow nets and they bait them with cotton seed millet. They are dressed in rubber fishing gear and it takes three guys to haul them out. It looked like they were catching between 30 and 50 carp per trap and they laid out two traps in a row. They separate the carp into “delicacy” and “pet food” and sell it to the fish markets. The dark, or black carp are considered a delicacy in Asia, while the silver ones are trash.

We ran into heavy rain right after we left the anchorage, but had an uneventful trip down the river. Peoria Lake was very shallow and the channel had a lot of twists and turns. Fortunately, we had no barges today, but we felt a bit naked without radar (the mast is still down – a couple more low bridges tomorrow).

As we were underway, if we noticed fish on the fish finder, we would look to the stern and watch the carp jump – amazing how they would leap out of the water right after we would pass over them. The boats behind us reported that they were hitting the side of their boats after we would “wake” them up.

After calling several marinas in Peoria, we decided on the National Marine Services Marina that was next to the Yacht Club. The water coming in was a little thin, but we all managed to make it in. This is a relatively new marina, so it wasn’t mentioned in several of the guidebooks (docks have only been in for 2 months). They only sell Gas, so we will have to top off our diesel tomorrow morning at the yacht club next door.

The owners are terrific folks who offered to take us to the grocery store and left us a Hummer to use if we needed anything else in town. What a country!!!!

We had happy hour aboard Second Star to celebrate Michael’s birthday. However, everyone was pretty tired so it was a much shorter celebration than the night before. After that it was back to the boat where we had a quick dinner and then off to bed. We plan to leave a little earlier than normal tomorrow because we have over 60 miles to go to our next anchorage. We have a few of these long days coming up because there isn’t much available for marinas or anchorages between here and the Mississippi.

There are many white pelicans in the area


You can just barely make out the three boats that are following us. It was very rainy.



Speaking of pelicans ..... how many can you count?

September 24, Day 103 - Ottawa to Henry's Island

We took our time getting organized this morning and finally left Ottawa around 10:00 and arrived at our anchorage at Henry’s Island about 3:50.

Rain was forecast for most of the day, but the “Michel Affect” occurred yet again. The clouds parted and we had a rain free day after a short “spritz” just after we departed Ottawa.

We (Monk’s Vineyard, Emotion 3, Second Star, and Cristina Diane) went through the Starved Rock Lock today and sang “Happy Birthday” to Michel while we were in the lock. The echo provided an interesting effect and the lockmaster’s joined us on their speaker system. (Note: It is Michel’s birthday today and Michael’s birthday tomorrow).

After we were all settled in at the anchorage, Gerry took the dinghy around to the other boats to arrange the taxi service to the birthday party on Emotion 3 for Michel. After all the participants were aboard, we had a great happy hour and lots of munchies. The happy hour continued until about 9:00 when one of the admirals decided that it was time for the captains to get back to their own boats.

We have another birthday party tomorrow for Michael, so we all needed to get our rest. We hope to be in Peoria tomorrow evening, but the weather is calling for heavy rain all day. We will (as usual) adjust accordingly.

The boats at the Ottawa City Dock before departure


Arrival at Starved Rock Dam. Legend has it that in 1760 a band of Illiniwek Indians were under attack by rival Ottawa Indians. The Illiniwek retreated and were planning to defend on a 125 foot sandstone bluff. However, the Ottawa put the Illini under siege and starved them to death. Hence the name, Starved Rock.

A rock formation at Starved Rock


There is a wee bit of color on some of the trees ..... the very beginning of fall folliage

This is the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge. It was in very good shape. Looked like it had been freshly painted.

.... and this is a privately owned railroad bridge .... functional, but not in particularly good shape. It was very rusty.
We passed many small towns on the river. This is the town of Peru.


Egret in flight. Many parts of the shoreline are bird sanctuaries.
Another small town .....

.... along with the town bar, which was named Friday's.

This is the town of Hennepin ... again, very small

There are many duck blinds along the river, many so elaborate they even have a covered area to park a boat.

This is a duck blind in progress. Still needs to have the camouflage added

A picture from the birthday party for Michel and Michael. Michel is from Montreal and Michael is from Colorado. That's Michael in the blue shirt.

Another birthday photo. Michel is the one in the black shirt.


Birthday celebration for Michel and Michael