Coal, Carp and Barges

Down the Illinois.

After leaving Chicago we will travel down the Illinois river until it meets the Mississippi at Grafton. We passed many barges mainly tied up being Sunday. We also passed through the permanent, underwater electronic barrier put in place across the bottom end of the Chicago river to prevent or slow the Asian Carp from entering Lake Michigan & waterways north. It is a very invasive fish that is pushing out local species. It is quite a large fish and gets very excited by boat motors in shallower water. They leap 1 to 2 metres out of the water around the boat often landing in smaller boats & hitting people & spraying slime & blood everywhere. Further down the river they have a Red Neck Carp fishing contest. The boats go out fishing armed only with a net & many wearing helmets to see who can land the most carp in their boats!

Our first stop at Joliet was on a free town dock and we were joined by other Loopers; Salty, Patriot, Coeur de Lion,Chimera 11, Camelot & Sea Horse. Coeur de Lion had asked us earlier in the day to accompany him & lead as his English was not good enough to speak with locks, bridges or tows. Tows are the tugs (they don't like to be called tugs)that usually push & sometimes pull the many barges connected together along the rivers. We have seen 13 (3 side by side & 4 long) as the biggest so far. Apparently the Mississippi has up to 60 & regularly 30 – 40. You have to communicate with them to know what side to pass or overtake on.

Next day the group travelled together through the locks – this is an advantage for the lock masters enbabling them to lock through many at one time. We often had to wait for barges because they take up most of the room in the lock – we also lock through with tows if they can fit us in. The waterways were very industrial and the predominant smell was chemicals & fuels.

We stayed at a small free dock at Ottawa – us, Patriot, Knot So Easy & Salty (the 22ft C dory). We walked into the very close town for a very good pizza. On our way up the ramp to the village there was a large fish jumping about – an Asian Carp. Apparently they are not bad eating & a young guy was down on the dock fishing – he had put his catch up there to prevent it leaping back in the water. One of the female loopers was upset to see this distressed fish & picked it up – blood, slime & all & tossed it back into the river. The fisherman wasn't too concerned - there were plenty more but her partner told her the 'Carp Police' would be after her for saving a carp. The ultimate plan is to rid the waterways of them. He also told us a story of another boater who had stirred carp up & they were jumping all around his boat. They were up on the bridge driving but had left a side window into their cabin open. They came down at the end of the day to find that the carp had landed on their bed and spread slime & blood everywhere in it's last dying efforts. We have since seen the madly jumping fish behind our boat & others – one hit us but didn't land inside (I did have the doors & windows closed though) and left some slime signatures on the back deck.

The 3 of us (Knot So Easy & Patriot) had a good run down the Illinois river until we reached Lake Peoria where we pushed against 25 knot winds but the waves were only a 2 ft chop. We saw huge flocks of Pelicans. We reached Ivy Marina (Illinois Valley Yacht club) a shallower & tighter fit than normal and had docktails that evening on the yacht club upper deck with about 14 loopers.

We met Jammin Jane a younger couple with a 1978 42 ft GB who are taking it south to sell & then picking up their next boat another GB 1998 model.

We all left together for the next lock which was not going to be open for another hour so we tied up at a restaurant dock 'Kuchies' (which are quite common -where you can tie up if you're having a meal usually). The owner came down (the restaurant was up a few flights of stairs on a cliff side) & invited us up for free coffee & told us tales of the flood 2 years before when the river had risen 27ft covering their outside deck & lapping on the steps into the restaurant and taken away most of the dock. The most interesting pass that day was negotiating a dredge straddling the channel who couldn't stop working as it was costing $100 a minute so could we please follow his instructions enabling us to get by – which we did with very little room to spare. We anchored that night behind an island where coal was loaded on to the barges close behind us. We didn't see the problem coming until later in the evening – we were too concerned about anchoring depths. The 2 boats closest got covered in coal dust – inside & out & had to move. We didn't escape it either.

The next morning we left amongst jumping carp & covered in coal dust for Beardstown which is actually just some barges to tie up to because the original dock had been swept away & not replaced. It is a tow base & the tow master proudly gave us a tour of his newly delivered tow. The tows we met & passed today are becoming much bigger as we move further south. The smells changed to the more pleasant yeasty aromas of the grain silos. There was a lot of evidence of the floods – watermarks on the sides of houses which are on stilts, huge trees uprooted, & scoured banks. Most of the few little towns we do stop at are dying. Tomorrow we head for Grafton.