Day 95
Sunday, August 24, 2008
6:15 AM CDT
Location: Grafton, IL.
Weather: 73* with 61% humidity with light SE winds...87* and humid, 20% chance of rain predicted today.
Very overcast this morning here in Grafton, IL...but not much rain anywhere around. I’m sitting in the helm area looking at a beautiful view of where the Illinois River meets the Mississippi River (see picture). A picture does not do it justice and it reminds me of the White Cliffs of Dover in England. Beautiful white hills. Most people would not believe this is really Illinois.
Yesterday we untied the lines a little earlier than normal (6:25). The sun was not up yet...but it was light enough to travel and see the buoys. One issue was there was a very heavy dew and it was hard seeing through the windows and isinglass, so I ended up opening the isinglass in front of me and just let the water drip in the boat in order to see properly. I also used the wipers to help...but that was a pain. In about an hour or so the sun was up enough...and hot enough...to burn off the due. We still had to wipe the isinglass every few minutes, but in a hour or two it was fine.
About 9 miles from Beardstown was the LaGrange lock. I called the lock at 7:20; we entered the lock at 7:31; floated in the middle without lines; dropped 8 feet; and left the lock at 7:40. When we left the lock we could here a barge (Bob Smith) calling for any South bound traffic because he was coming North bound up the narrow channel and wanted to be sure no one was around. I called him on the radio and said I was leaving the lock and he told me to pass him “on the two whistle side”. (Note: When you are traveling on the rivers or narrow waterways boat captains keep track of all traffic near them...by announcing their position on a very regular basis...and then communicate with one another to decide how to safely pass. Many times they push their barges into the bank and try to move over and wait while another barge passes them because it is so narrow. They agree to pass on “the one whistle or two whistle side”. One whistle is my port (left as I face forward) and two whistles is the starboard side.) You can see the picture of the barge and how close we are. Many times we are only a few feet apart...and it really makes it safer and easier if you communicate with the barges...which I do.
From Beardstown to Grafton is 89 miles. Most of the time you feel like you are out in the middle of nowhere...which you are. Occasionally you pass a small town...but there were no docks or services of any kind until we got to Grafton. There was also no boat traffic...except for a few fisherman around each town. When we got a few miles from Grafton things changed considerably. Lots of boat traffic...many people anchored on each side of the channel and swimming, and a couple of sand bar areas with 40 or 50 boats around them. A beautiful (and hot) day and the boats were taking advantage of it. A nice cruise all the way at about 9 mph and we arrived about 4 pm. I was too hot and tired to clean the boat...so we got all the air conditioners turned on and relaxed for a while and then I cooked steaks on the boat grill. Great day.
Today...after washing the boat we plan to do a little exploring of Grafton. It looks like we can walk to the town, but who knows, we may get the folding bikes out. At this point we plan to stay here until Tuesday and then only go 18 miles to Alton, IL on the Mississippi and spend a couple of days there checking out the town.
BK.
From Beardstown to Grafton we saw lots of houses on stilts. Look at the windows and you can see how high the water was this sping. Almost all of the houses we saw had water lines similar to this one.
Here is the barge heading toward us as we leave the LaGrange lock
Here is the same barge...as we pass on "the two whistle side"
You can see how close we get in the narrow waterway
This the view out the back of our boat as we sit in Grafton Harbor (where the IL. River and the Mississippi Rivers come together.
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