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We met up with Big and Endorphin Voyager to go through the Peoria Lock in downtown Peoria.  We had to wait for an upbound barge, but we were out of the lock by 8:18AM. 

We all decided we would try to get through the next and final lock on the Illinois River.  As we traveled south, we went by the remains of an old lock that was hand built in the 1800’s.  We saw more bald eagles also! 

We arrived at La Grange at 4:15PM and had to wait on a barge who was splitting his load.  He allowed us to travel down when they emptied the lock for his second load.  We decided to anchor out just below the dam and it was nice because the river flow kept everyone straight.  BIG unloaded his dingy to take his puppy to land to do its business.  We grilled out and enjoyed the cooler air once the sunset.

The next morning we saw some looper boats heading south about 7AM.  They had chosen to make the 5:30 AM lock through.  We followed them for the day to Peoria. 

You can see the Illinois river becoming more rural.  We saw a number of bald eagles.  We are not use to seeing this many during one day.  It was neat! 

We also encountered migrating pelicans.  They were collecting on  a small lake off of the river.  Probably decided who would be leading during the next flight south. 

We had no locks to go through today.  We had heard that any marina in Peoria would be a bit shallow.  We went into Peoria Boat Club and had to dig our way into the marina due to lack of instructions by the dockmaster.  However once in they were very helpful getting us into our slip.  The dockmaster even took us to the VFW for “Taco Tuesday”! 

Heritage Harbor Marina was nice.  They had a restaurant on site so we ate out after a long day with another Looper couple ( Karl and Mackie on Endorphin Voyager). 

We did not feel like getting up early and traveling the 6 miles to Starved Rock Lock for the 5:30 AM pleasure boat lock through.  This lock is also under repair and is closed from 6AM to 6PM.  We chose to try to get through at the 6PM lock through.  We found a marina that would take us that was 10 miles south of the lock.  As long as we made it through right at 6PM we would be Okay to get in before dark.  Heritage Marina allowed us to stay until late in the afternoon.  We fueled up and began a slow cruise to the lock.

 As we traveled south, we saw many tugs and barges that were waiting for the lock.  We were amazed at how far away they parked to get in line for the lock.  The lockmaster will be busy tonight.   

We had to wait for the barge with the crane to move out of the way and then we were waiting on this barge to pick up his crew. The lockmaster advised us to go around this guy and we were able to get in right at 6:00 PM to lock through.

As we got out of the lock we saw this neat cliff, or rock. We then saw the Peoria Riverboat. It was at a nice park along the river. We then saw quite a few tugs and barges waiting in line to go through the lock.

We arrived at Spring Valley Boat Club at 7:45PM just as it was dark.  No one was around except a bartender for the bar/restaurant. We startled her when we walked up to pay for the night.  She was very nice and let us have a couple beers before we retired for the night.

The challenge for us moving down the Illinois River is that two locks are closed during the day from 6AM to 6PM. We were trying to decide what strategy to use to pass through them. The locks had one lock through for pleasure boats at 6:00 PM and one at 5:30 AM. We do not like to travel in the night so we thought maybe we should plan on the 5:30 AM but we were worried that we could get turned away for the day if they were running behind. We found a marina within 2 miles of one lock and another one that was 10 miles from the second lock. We decided to try to lock through the locks at 6PM – one per day.

It was going to be rainy day, but the winds were not going to too bad.  We called the next lock, Brandon Road, to see when we should leave the wall. They said they would be ready for us in 45 minutes, so we and 5 other boats took off to get through the lock together.  When we arrived, we had to wait for the lock to fill which took 55 more minutes so we could have gotten a later start, but we were ready when the lock was. 

We then had to travel approx. 10 miles to the next lock – Dresden Island. When we arrived, there was a barge in the lock dropping off three of his 5 barges.  The process took longer because the tug pushes in the three by two barges then backs out.  The lock tenders hook cables to the barges and once the lock is filled then they pull them out to a staging area.  The staging area was just in front of the lock.  Instead of having to wait for the other two barges to come up.  The lockmaster and the tug captain allowed us to lock down in between the two loads.  This was very helpful for us because we had already waited 1.5 hours.  It was a bit tricky to get into the lock because we had a narrow area to pass between the staged barges and the lock.  We all made it in, and all was good.  

The next lock was Marseilles.  It is 27 miles from Dresden Island.  This lock is under repair and is one of the ones closed from 6AM to 6PM.  We called the lockmaster and he advised that we could be locked through at 5:30 – 6:00PM.  We and two other boats decided to go ahead and make this lock through.  We had already called and made reservations at a marina just two miles south so we could get there before dark.

As we traveled south we began to notice river markers for the first time. We also began to see grain silos which is big business up here.

We found another Boondocks – they were playing music and then we saw this guy down on the bank of the river. Not sure if he is practicing or getting ready for the next show at Boondocks!

The wait was tedious.  They took their time getting the workers off the lock and prepping the lock but just before 6:00 we were allowed to enter the lock to go down.  We were out of the lock by 6:30 and at the Heritage Harbor Marina by 6:55PM.   We have one more lock that is under the same restrictions to pass through.  We will see how tomorrow goes.

The Illinois River is full of bridges.   We were able to travel under most of them but had to have a few raised for us to get under.  The bridge heights were a bit less because of Lake Michigan being high.  Once we pass through O’Brian locks, we could trust the published bridge heights because the river was at normal pool and the lake did not affect the water level after the first lock.

We began our trip down the Illinois River.  It was a mile to the mouth of the river, and we followed a cargo ship into the channel.  We thought we would have to following it for miles, but we were able to pass it before the 6^th bridge. 

This river was full of bridges.   We had to travel under 50 bridges today and 2 locks. There was a lot of barges and industry along the river at the beginning.

Once past the O’Brian Lock the river was more park like for awhile. There were marinas and boat clubs.

We tried to have Chad take photos of our boat, but he had to go out on a call so was not able to meet us at his ramp docks.

We pass through the Sanitary canal which is a place where many barges are stored and moved around by tugs. The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was constructed to connect the Chicago River with the Des Plains River and was completed in 1900. We saw that the walls on the canal were made of what appears like hand laid stone. We met two tugs, who were sideways pushing barges into place and we had to wait until they cleared the way to pass because this part of the river was very narrow. 

This area had many barges lined up and you had to be careful for on coming traffic because the canal is very narrow.

At the end of the canal is an Aquatic Barrier that has electric pumped into the water to prevent any invasive species of fish from getting into Lake Michigan.  We could only have one boat at a time go through the .6 mile section.

We ended up at Lockport Lock which was 4 miles from our destination for the day at 3:50PM however we had to wait for three barges to travel the lock first.  We waited 3 hours before they allowed us to enter the lock with the third barge.  It was dark when we landed at the Wall in Joliet at 8:00 PM.

We reviewed the weather and decided it might be a bit risky but doable to cross Lake Michigan directly to Chicago. We had 95 miles to go to get to Hammond Marina. We idled out the 2 mile channel to the lake. At first the winds were light and the waves were 1 foot or less. As we went further into the Lake, the winds picked up to 12-15mph and the waves were 3-5 footers with a 6 footer thrown in here and there. It felt like we were surfing a few times.

It was neat to see Chicago begin to appear on the horizon. You first saw just a couple sticks out there and then more and more buildings began to show up.

We made it across just after lunch. We refueled and got our slip assignment. When we went to the slip we found a work barge in it so we had to move to the next open slip. It was windy and the marina did not have staff to help with docking. Luckily, another looper boat was there and they helped us get docked. We had stayed up top on the boat during our cruise knowing it would be bouncy, but we realized just how bouncy when we went downstairs!

The next day Chad and Melissa came by on their boat to visit. We had intended to take a cruise with them through downtown but it was too windy to do this. We got a rain check from them so we will be back to make that cruise later.

We will stay here at Hammond Marina for two weeks so we can return to Boone’s Landing and help out over Labor Day Weekend.

We said goodbye to Bubba and Anne, because they were going to have some maintenance completed on their boat. We wanted to keep moving to try to get to Chicago before we had to head home for Labor Day Weekend. We got an early start again and had 80 miles to travel to Saugatuck.

There is a two mile no wake zone to get back into Saugatuck. There were many boats going in and out of the channel. There are resturants right on the water and they have a people ferry that take you across the water to Douglas, MI. It was a fun area.

We stayed at Tower Marina. This was a well run facility. Our boat was a bit large for the slip we were placed in, but it worked. We were in need of a new battery cable for our front thruster and they were able to make one for us. While Chris was replacing the cable, Janis found a Tiki Bar!! It has been a long time since we had seen one so we had to check it out!

Next stop was Pentwater, MI at Snug Habor marina. We headed out at sunrise.

Nice Marina right at the end of main street. The dock personnel were right on the job. We had to go bow in per their instructions and they got us an extension cord so we could have power.

The next day was nice. We headed out early and took a slow pace. We had a nice sunrise.

We began to see sand dunes on the coast as we went south.

The entrance to the marina was well marked. In general, you travel into an inlet that leads to a lake and then marinas are inside on the lake or river you enter.