What a difference a day makes.... Although we woke tired, everything seemed more manageable with those 3 notorious locks behind us... And with only 9 boats under out care - all of whom are helpful, kind and fun. Everyone left Heritage Harbor at their own pace, with instructions to meet at the Starved Rock Lock (can you starve a rock, though??) - 90 mins away. We knew we might have to wait, since the locks really only want to lock pleasure boats through once per day and the early group had already gone - but when the lead boat approached, the Lockmaster waved him in. And then the lock HAD to wait for the rest of us stragglers! I think it took us about 30 mins to get there and tied up, but we sort of felt the locks owed us a bit of wait time... I gave him the rest of the Halloween candy! Then the sun came out, so we felt nothing but love, baby!
We felt more and more cheerful, as the short day continued... We had a short day - which is all we had the bandwidth for anyway...
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Probably hard to see, but there were bald eagles everywhere! Until I put my big camera lens on, then they were scare...
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| Fall color! |
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A barge 3 x 5-yikes! We gotta put our big boy pants on before MS, where they will be larger.
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Henry Harbor Marina is nothing to write home about - but I found the family that owns it really charming. They bought it 3 years ago, and had never even heard of Loopers. Well they have now! They are a critical stopping point for those too late in the day to do the long run to Peoria. It's rough - the marina itself is too shallow for most Loopers, and the wall they use for us big boats is the original lock wall in the system - built in 1870! So we needed LOTS of bumpers to keep us off the rough rocks.
It was hard to stay composed on the approach, as the famous invasive Asian Carp were, as advertised, jumping out of the water at the boat. They aren't small and it's pretty startling to have the air suddenly filled with them, but at least they didn't hit me or land on the boat - as others have talked about...
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Tied up to the old lock wall.
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I think some people felt it was a bit rough, but I liked the authenticity, and the grit of the new owners.
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Somehow they got power to every boat, even rafted two deep! Not sure this is up to 'code', but WHATever...
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This is our goofy new friend Mary coming in.
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The red arrow shows where the big boats are, on the outside wall (the marina is too shallow). It's impossible for the owners to do anything to improve the property because every year it floods all the way up to the place where the grass begins - 50 feet. It's a catch basin designed by the Army Corps of Engineers,to keep up and down stream from flooding - so the entire marina is underwater during the winter rains. The water gets so high that the barges have trouble getting under the bridge - and that's a 59' bridge!
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We all made it, so it was time to celebrate. No Worries ran aground , but Respite pulled them to safety. We enjoyed docktails for a bit, but were pretty tired and called 'Looper Midnight' at around 7pm!
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So happy to be tied up to friends - and NOT on Lake MI!
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Good night!
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