The good luck of traveling on Labor Day weekend

August 31 – September 2, 2019 – For months, we’d been dreading this part of the trip. Two of the big locks on the Illinois River have been operating on reduced schedules (6 at night to 6 in the morning), so that critical preparatory construction work can be completed that will allow them to be ‘dewatered’ (emptied) next year for a months-long project of repairs that will essentially preclude a ‘conventional’ Great Loop trip in 2020.

Although commercial traffic does move 24/7 on the locks, and they probably think nothing of locking through in the dark, most pleasure craft would much prefer to operate in daylight. However, the accommodation that the Army Corps of Engineers (who operate the locks) has made during this period is for pleasure boats to lock through at 5:30 AM at Marseilles and Starved Rock locks.

For Marseilles (pronounced ‘mar – sales’, lest you think you can sashay up with your fancy French pronunciation), that entails leaving from the closest staging marina at 4:00 AM, and traveling in the dark, to arrive by 5:00. So then you can wait, in the dark, if you are lucky enough to be taken down at 5:30. Many boats are not, due to some problem or another at the lock, and are sent back to try later in the day, or the next day. We have been following this on the AGLCA forum for weeks, as we have gotten closer and closer, and the trepidation grew, as we realized we’d be getting there on a New Moon (lunar cycle where the moon is completely dark), to boot.

And then, while chatting with The Lower Place at Joliet, we heard the good news – the construction work was going into a pause over the holiday weekend, and the locks would operate 24/7. So we’d get to pass them both in daylight – whew!!

We left Joliet park dock with our new friends, the crew of The Lower Place, Charlie ( law enforcement guy) and Robin (stockbroker). They are almost done their second Loop and know all about rivers.

We made it through the Lockport and Dresden locks pretty smoothly, especially after a tow captain who was next in line at Dresden offered the lockmaster to let us go ahead of him, because he wasn’t going to be able to get through Marseilles anyway…

And then we got to Marseilles. We arrived, and were told it would be just a half an hour, and to go ahead and tie to a mooring cell.

OMG. Gigantic round stations for the big boys to tie to. How do you fender up to tie to something that is curved with a 15′ diameter???

We maneuvered around to approach it from downstream (as the current, rather than the wind was the main factor here). Chantale had the line ready to throw, around a large post on top of the cell, and Ben inched the boat closer and closer. We wound up tapping the rub-rail between the fenders, but Chantale looped the lines and we were secured! We repositioned the fenders and stood by to wait, while discussing just how we’d dismount this beast.

The Lockmaster lets us through after only 30 minutes; we chatted with him, and he was wearing an LSU hat, and an Army shirt. We remarked on the Army connection, and by the time he got back to The Lower Place, Charlie had posted a big Mississippi State flag. Uh-oh! A bit of SEC rivalry there…

We were through the first dreaded lock, and ended a great cruising day arriving at Heritage Harbor, a very nice marina resort; nice new docks, a big party barge with live band, and onsite restaurant and vacation homes – very cute.

Everybody we met was very nice, but the acoustics in the restaurant were awful. It would have made a nice multi-day stop, but we had to take advantage of the Labor Day respite at Starved Rock the next day, so it was early to bed.

As we were preparing to leave the Heritage Harbor marina , Chantale met a lady walking her dog (twice!) and she was sooo nice. She heard we were headed to the Starved Rock Lock and said “I know the lock master – his boat is actually kept right here and his family is on it. I’ll call him and tell him you are coming.” She returned saying that the lock was expecting us and then helped get us off.

There was no answer on the radio when we arrived an hour later, but a nearby tow heard us on the radio and said we could tie up to his forward barges as the out-coming tow would be headed to his stern (where we were holding station). So, we idled up beside him, and tied up to huge cleats two feet long – an easy tie up.

The Lockmaster came on the radio then, and said it really wasn’t such a good idea to tie up to a red-flag load (hazardous cargo – a fuel barge in this case); instead he told us to just hold station over to the left and he’d have us in in fifteen minutes.

All good! We had a very nice talk with Bryce, and gave him a couple slices of Chantale’s banana bread as a thank you.

We went for about another 40 miles, and checked out a couple prospective anchorages; two turned out to be too shallow, but The Lower Place finds a good one, and we pull in ahead of them. Very quiet and peaceful, inside an island that separates us from the main channel. The Lower Place crew comes over for a celebratory drink – through the two problem locks – and we settle in for a long 75-mile run the next day.

The next morning, Labor Day, it’s foggy, but it burns off quickly, and off we go.

On this section of the river, we start seeing why they had erected the electric fish barrier back near Chicago. Chantale shot this from the flybridge.

Oh. My. God.

We heard later about a formal program they have to help reduce the number of these unwanted fish; see YouTube video of “Carp Cowboys”. We did see some of these boats on the river, but had no idea that’s what they were doing.

And some number of years ago I saw this video; a bit silly, but the fish really jump like that – crazy!!

While crossing Peoria Lake, we started seeing large flocks of migratory white pelicans.

At the Peoria Lock, we lucked out and got to tie up right at the lock, waiting for it to fill.

At the end of a long 75-mile day, we found a good anchorage outside Havana, Illinois, next to a coal-loading dock (that fortunately, was not still in use).

Ben took the opportunity to fly the drone off the foredeck, and get some nice perspective shots of the river and surrounding topography. Running down the river, all we can see are the trees on the levees, and never much outside that, so getting this peek was quite interesting.