Monday September 29th

Finally made it to a marina--with WiFi--everyone must have thought we had sunk to the bottom of the old Mississippi!!  We have had a great trip--with incredible weather--sunny, blue skies, and no wind.  It just does not get any better..........  but it was hot!!   Inspite of the dirty water--we hung onto the swim ladder in all three rivers and got cooled off--I didn't say we got clean--just cool!   The Mississippi is big, swirling,  muddy, but still interesting.  Lots of barge traffic and varied landscape--from big cliffs to sand dunes. 

 You never knew what was around the next corner.  We found great anchorages off the channel--one we tied right up to old barges--had a great quiet nite

Passed by St Louis but no dock to tie up to, so just had to keep going.

We actually enjoyed the Mississippi better than the Illinois--there seemed to be less logs and debris in the water, but you sure had to stay in the channel and watch out for the 'wing dams', which might or might not be underwater.  Because there are no marina's along the way, gas was a concern.  At one town we were able to tie up to another boat and go uptown with our gas cans for a refill.  Thankfully a city employee came along and said he would take us to the gas station after he was finished work.   What a relief--as the station was a mile away and we needed to fill up 8 cans!!! We arrived at the junction of the Ohio at noon on Saturday---now we were heading up stream.  Coming down stream on the Mississippi we were cruising at 11-12 mph---now we were going up stream--and at the same rpm's we were going 6mph!!  Once again we found great anchorages--just along the sandy shore--and out of the tug boats way

at nite we had a fantastic sunset

 This morning we left the Ohio and travelled up the Cumberland river for 33 miles, before arriving at the Lock that would take us into Barkley lake in Kentucky.   This is a huge lock and I think we were raised about 45ft before heading out into the lake.   The pictures got out of sequence but you can see the height of the wall in the dam, in the picture above.  So now we are in Green Turtle Marina--and yes they have lots of green turtles, which they feed every evening.  We will stay here for a few days and rest after having conquered those last three big rivers!!!

Tuesday September 23rd.

Got the first 20 miles of the Mississippi under our boat--and it was very pleasant.  Not nearly as much flotsam as the Illinois.  Big rock cliffs along the shore, but we have to be careful and not gawk too much as there are 'wing' dams that come out from the shore into the water--used to divert the water away from the shore to lessen erosion.   These are under the water--and you never know for sure what depth they are---just another little obstacle to watch out for.   I had forgot to mention in earlier blogs about the 2 last locks we went thru on the Illinois.  Always there is a dam at a lock, holding the water back--well, these 2 were what they call 'wicket' dams, and in high water they can lower the dams down [somehow] and then you just drive right over the top!!   The lock is still there, over to the side but you just motor on past it!!  Rather strange the first one we went thru!!  We are now in Alton at a wonderful marina.  The whole thing floats--even the office, bathrooms, swimming pool and hot tubs.  There are roofs over the dock and you can see by the pictures that everything goes up at once when as the water rises.  The long black posts are anchored into the river floor and everything just rides up and down on them.   Rather an interesting design.  The roof is keeping us cool and of course if it should rain, you stay nice and dry.  The weather remains sunny and warm--so tomorrow we will head out once again.   It may be some time before I can do another blog, as we have over 300 miles to go and only 1 marina where we will stop, but only for fuel.

First view of the Mississippi--that not really the colour of the water---its brown!!

heading into the Alton marina

everything rides up and down these posts--even the roof

see how the docks slide up and down and this is the colour of the water

the floating office etc--at times the water is much higher than the pile of rocks on the left.

Sunday September 21st

Hard to get internet from the middle of no where--but finally arrived in port this afternoon.  Now for all those who have worried about us on this trip--here is my good luck shirt!!!

--so you need not worry any longer.  Today we have finished the Illinois River-and we are not sad!!  It was running very fast, in a flood state, with logs, debris, mud and dirt.  Miles of just water and bush, with an occasional corn field thrown in, and sometimes if we were lucky we might see a bald eagle.  Most times we were the only ones on the river so when we met a tug--that was fun.  And calling the tow captains was interesting--their response might be "pass me on 2"  Huh???   We soon learned that 'pass me on a 1' meant for us to go to the right and 2 would be go to the left--1 and 2 are horn blasts--or as they call them 'whistles'.   Its a whole new river language.   Now we have this all figured out--we hope the tugs on the Mississippi talk the same talk!  We anchored out last evening behind an island but still in big currant--and this morning this huge tree came sailing down and caught our anchor line.  After much reefing and hauling the guys hooked a rope around it and Ralph had to tow it off the front of our boat.  Another good reason for boating together, or we might have still been sitting there!!    We are now just at the Mississippi river and will head downstream tomorrow---and as you can see I'm all ready for this adventure.!! 

 A couple of other pictures--some interesting grain elevators, tied up to an old barge along the river, and finally a lovely sunset at one of our anchorages.

Tuesday Sept 17th

Big news!!  We now have covered 1000miles!! --What I will not tell you is how much gas we have used!!!  And something else we have not done before--at least not in a boat--we anchored in an abandoned gravel pit!  We are seeing the odd Asian Carp leaping out of the water, but mostly we just catch the splash and then see the waves.  So far one hasn't jumped into the boat--good thing or I would probably go out the other side!  The pictures are of this mornings very quiet water with some slight fog--the others are of the white pelicans.  Huge flocks of them that look like a big ice flow.

Monday Sept 16th

All this time and we only made it as far as.......... Ottawa!!  But Ottawa just happens to be in Illinois.  Came in here Saturday--beautiful harbour--even supplying a courtesy car to travel up town.  We haven't had to wait too long to go through the locks--some have had to wait 5 hrs--waiting on tugs.  We've travelled past varied scenes--from cottages to corn fields to industry, so keeps its interesting.  The last picture is outside the lock, well off the channel, waiting for this big tug to exit.  Rained all day Sunday, and still chilly, but this morning there is a bright blue sky so the river road awaits

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Friday 12 of September.

So  now we are officially heading south!!  Thursday morning we went through the Lock right in Chicago 1st pic--and right though downtown [2nd pic]--hoping the guy with that big tower was going to throw us some money out the window--but no such luck!  Then we were in the Sanitary Canal--and I'm afraid it lives up to its name.  Lots of garbage--didn't smell very good!  Lots of barges hauling mainly sand and coal.  We had to radio these big guys and ask them if we had safe passage past them.  They were all very friendly and helpful--they were probably saying 'dumb Canucks'!!  Most of the canal was very industrial but we went through a few miles of just river cruising.   Then on to the 2nd lock--there's about 140 more to go before we reach the gulf!! [no charge for locking thru-thankfully]  We had to wait our turn going down,  as we come 2nd after the barges  it would have been 11pm when they put us through, so spent the nite at the top of the lock.  Early start

at 7 am this morning--dropping 40ft --ending our time in the Sanitary Canal--now we are in the Des Plaines River and docked at the city of Joliet.  The last pics are of a tug that went by us just now--it had 15 barges in front--3 abreast, 5rows.  We have no idea how he steers the thing!!  1st pic shows him coming thru the raised bridge--2nd Neil and Ralph watching in awe--and the last pic is the tug itself.   We were really glad we did not have to hail him and ask him were to pass.   Each of those barges are about 500ft long--you do the math!!!

Septmber 10th Chicago

Finally arrived in the 'windy city' on Monday.  Left New Buffalo on the east side--45 miles---first part quite calm, but the last 18 miles was a bit rough, but not scary.  1st pic shows the beautiful colour of the water---I guess that's thanks to the zebra mussel!   I think we are all glad to be off this lake.  The skyline of Chicago is pretty impressive from the water--you can see the twin towers from about 30 miles out. 2nd pic.  Chicago is BIG--noisy and expensive.  We walked around the Navy Pier yesterday--and enjoyed the 'tourist' sites.  Went for a ride on the big Ferris Wheel--getting wonderful views of the city--can you find out boat in the harbour?  Last evening we walked to Giordano's for a 'Chicago deep dish pizza'--when in Rome!!!  Wouldn't say I would go out of the way to get another.  Today we are sitting in the pouring rain--hoping that tomorrow will be a bit calmer and we can head into the canal for some in-land cruising.

thursday Sept 4th

Two wonderful days of cruising--sky blue and water fairly calm--perfect.  Passed miles and miles of sand dunes and incredible beaches!  The whole east coast seems to be nothing but one huge sand dune.  Stopped most afternoon for a great swim-  backed the boat up until we were in 3ft lovely sandy bottom-water temp near 74--so not bad at all.  We really have enjoyed all the small town that we have visited--you enter off the big lake into smaller, well protected lakes. One of the pics shows us heading out of port and the other heading into the next one.  Hit some great farmers markets so have enjoyed lots of fresh fruit and veggies.   We are now in South Haven and will be here for at least one more day--as we are sitting in the rain and T-storms at the moment--we are nearing the end of the 'mitt' and will soon head west over to Chicago.  I know I have mentioned the nasty waves we have been in--but the last picture shows you that it could have been a lot worse.   Funny place to park our boat--right!!!