Adventures (and Misadventures) of Elliott and Mary

Issue 18 - September, 2005: Through Illinois from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi



 
 

Out of Lake Michigan

There are two ways to get out of Lake Michigan at Chicago. One is through downtown Chicago on the Chicago River. Unfortunately for us, there is at least one fixed bridge with a clearance of only 17 feet. At our best, after I have taken the dingy hoist down, we can maybe clear 17' 7" - not good enough.

The other way is via the Calumet River through East Chicago. Part of this route is the Cal-Sag - dug decades ago to send treated (and maybe not) wastewater from Chicago to the Illinois and then to the Mississippi. 

As you can see from the first chartlet, they come together above the Lockport Lock & Dam. Below this point we will come to the make/break part of the 'Great Loop'. There is a fixed railroad bridge with a clearence of 19'1". If you can't get under it, you can't go!

We came out of the Hammond, IN municipal marina and up 2 miles to the entrance to the Cal-Sag. Just around the first bend of the river was a bridge with an 18'4" clearance, the shortest until Joliet. I had been worried about whether we had reduced our height enough.

Not to worry! It was already open!

 
For the first hour of so we passed through a pretty industrial area, although it was Sunday and we didn't see much activity. After that the waterway passed through miles of rural landscape, almost unoccupied in places.

Then we came to the junction of the Chicago River and things got interesting again!
 

We went through about 10 miles of a barge fleeting area that looked only 5 barges wide.

All this in the first day!!!
 
 

Stops

We stopped at the city park wall in Joliet for the night at the end of a long day. The city has built a nice facility and it was a good stop. We met folks we would see on the water from time to time for the next month. We had originally planned to leave Letitia at Harborside Marina, about 15 miles below Joliet, while we drove to Texas to get our stuff moved from storage into the condo in Austin. However, Katrina came along and we changed our winter plans. We had a mail drop scheduled there so we stopped for a couple of nights.

We also stopped at the Chillicothe city dock. It was a 100' floating dock at the foot of a boat ramp - no power or water but a convenient stop. We were really fortunate here. Dick Gamble, a transplanted Louisianian, saw us starting out to the grocery with the little red cart and said 'take my pickup...the good Kroger's is that way about 2 miles'. What a gift!! We were to provision well enough to get to Alton, Il, our next big stop.
 

...and Locks

We often planned our days around distances to the next lock(s).  The lock chambers on the Illinois are 100 ' wide by 600'  long. A standard barge is 33' wide by 150' long. Thus, those of you who are mathematically inclined will have already calculated, you can get a barge string 3 wide and 3 deep (leaving room for the towboat) in the chamber.  If the towboat was pushing more than that or was not configured 3 wide, he had to rearrange his barge dpmfiguation and/or break it into strings that would fit.

As an example, at Lockport, the first lock we hit, the upbound tow had pushed 6 barges into the chamber when we got there headed down. He then backed out of the chamber, the lock doors were closed, and the barges were lifted up. The locktenders attached a cable to the string and pulled it completely out of the lock, plus about 50 feet.

We were lucky. The lockmaster then instructed us to come around behind the last barge that had just been lifted up and enter the lock.. The water was drained out to lower us down to where the tow was waiting with the rest of the string. We had about a 25' gap between the lock wall entrance and the front of the first barge. We were off, the tow pushed in, he was lifted up, reconnected and was off.  This evolution took probably about 1.5 hours of the tows time. If we were to showup at the lock at the wrong time it could cost us that 1.5 hours as well. It is not unheard of to have to wait 2 hours or more at a lock. On the otherhand, I called the LaGrange Lock about 20 minutes out and said I was coming their way. They opened the lock doors as we were approaching, we motored in, they closed them, lowered us down, opened the doors, and we were gone. The entire lockdown took 15 minutes.

Anchorages along the Illinois

We spent 3 nights at anchor along the River. The towboats work 24/7 so outside the channel gets to be important. The whole anchoring 'thing' works on you too.

Our ideas about the ideal place to anchor seem to be (for now):

  • Just the right amount of water (10 feet for my taste)
  • The right kind of bottom (sand seems fine because we don't have to wash it off as we bring it in although we I like thick mud  too)
  • A space big enough to swing on the anchor (although I'm beginning to like about .5 knots of current so I don't swing at all),

    • I don't want to have to put out two anchors
  • Easy to get to (no shoals on the approach, etc.)
  • Big trees all around so we're protected from the wind.
    • Other than these, I'll take almost anyhing - Oh, wait!!  Quiet and no structures on shore either...

    Well, the anchorages we found have many of these attributes.
    Behind Sheenan Island
    At the South end of Bath Chute at mile 106.5
    At the South of Willow Island

     
     
     

    Till Later!!
     
     

    The Captain and Mary

    September, 2005
     
     
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