Ottawa, Henrys Island, IVY - Peoria, Tall Timber- Havana

 Big guy heading our way. We are headed down the Illinois river. As we go south we run into new "Loopers" and previous Looper we have met. We generally team up so we can manage the lock through better. The locks require a little planning. You can get stuck waiting at a lock if you don't call the lock master ahead of time and pay attention to the online lock logs that let you know how may barges are waiting. So far things have worked well and the folks at the lock have been very accommodating. The river is a roadway for industry. It is amazing how much product travels on the waterway. The Asian Carp are the most interesting part of this leg of the trip. The sound of the props causes them to jump out of the water. Today when we backed into the slip at Tall Timbers marina in Havana, the carp were jumping onto the dock. The dock hands were kicking them back into the water are they managed our lines getting into the dock. We are at mile 122 on the Illinois river. So in about three days we will enter the Mississippi river. After a few days on the Mississippi we will hit the Ohio river.

 Cottages on the water

 This was cool. As we waited for a lock all these cows came down to drink. The little guys were cute. The bulls came in at the end and moved the herd along.

 We did a slow pass to these guys in a duck blind. Ben, they are warming the geese up before the hit the eastern shore!

 Passing on the "ones". The lingo for navigation takes a little getting used too. The barge captains speak in a different language. If you pass on the "one" you turn right. If you pass on the "two" you turn left. The rule applies if you overtake the tow or if they are headed at you. Its kinda funny listening to the other pleasure craft who haven't figured it out yet. They want to talk in port and starboard terms. The "ones" and "two" is much simple when you figure it out.

 The admiral got me off the wall and now we are headed for a pass on the  "one" for the tow that was in the lock with us. It gets a little snakey going down stream of a lock because there is a dam associated with it and the dam current pushes the boat around on the down stream side. You just have to pay attention.

 This is a first for us in a lock. Fryedaze is tied to the lock wall and two other boats are rafted (tied to us) for the lock through. The boat on the end is a 49' DeFever and probably weighs 10 tons more than Fryedaze. Fun, fun, fun!

 All up and down the Illinois river there are barges that are grounded and tied to trees on the shores.

 This is an example of a big tow. They are huge. When they go up the river they actually suck the water off the banks.

 Bow fishing for Asian Carp. You can see one just at the stern of the boat. We didn't get a good shot but for a short period there were 5-10 fish in the air at one time. There are four guys with bows shooting fish.

 Multi-taking, using the heavy morning dew to clean the boat and getting our hair done. " I am in big trouble for this shot"!

 Flying carp

 Our traveling partner Sea Moss at Henrys Island pulling the anchor.

 14 barges in a tow

 Spirit of Peoria

 This young buck crossed the stream at Henrys but jumped into the high grass when he saw me. I waited and he came back for a few good shots. This was an awesome place to anchor. Eagles, Asian Carp and lots of quiet.

 People get confused and think that young eagles are hawks. They are brown when young and eventually turn black with white heads. Bets did a great job get shots of this guy.

 We have seen dry docks for ships before, well here is one for a barge. There were welders under it repairing the bottom.

 We got luck and Kay on Plan to Sea sent us photos in the Peoria Lock. Look at that mustache from the dirty river silt. That wont get cleaned for a while. If we did clean it it would be back the next day.

 

 This is another first for Fryedaze. All 5 pleasure craft locked through at the Peoria Lock but we didn't tie up.  We just floated in the lock controlling position with engines. The lock is only 11 feet so we all just drifted in the 600 X 100 foot lock.

 Mark Twain Hotel, for us river rats!

 We had to call to have this rail road bridge opened. The chart height is 19' 8" ( we are 20'). The river is down over a foot so Bets and I slowly went up to it to see if we could squeeze under. We chickened out and waited for the train to pass so we could clear it. We wouldn't have made it!

Peoria waterfront