Thursday, September 15

Warren and I

After a good sleep, we departed Tall Timbers Marina at 8am.  We were parked in a very squeezed  section of the marina so when it came time to leave we did some very fancy 'warping' to get The Belle out safely.  Kerm did a good job. 

Weather was so cold that Kerm piloted from the lower helm station rather than the fly bridge (which has no curtains) for a long time today.  For breakfast I had nice hot coffee going and Kerm requested chicken noodle soup.  I'm the ship's cook so I don't comment on the captain's unusual dietary/culinary demands.

Breakfast on The Belle

 

On this section of the Illinois and Upper Mississippi Rivers, marinas and fuel stops are few and far between.  In addition to this, there are many locks which give preference to the large tow boats and their long barges.   Consequently, the Loopers are sometimes forced to stay at whatever safe harbors are available...that's what our plan is for tonight.  We are tied up to a barge at the Logsdon Tug Service in Beardstown...no electricity, no potty, no nothing.  

This is the closest to a barge that I've ever been

It was slippery, so the rule was no stepping outside the cabin without a life jacket

You can see one of the tug boats in this picture

 When I clambered over the barges to the office to pay for our overnight stay I asked what the combination to the hot tub/fitness area was....causing very subdued merriment.

Tomorrow we want to make it to Grafton which will be a long day...so it's early to be.  After all there is no free cable TV here at Logsdon Tug Service to keep us up.


Friday, September 16


Despite being rocked around somewhat by tows going back and forth during the night, we both slept well. We were up at 5:45 anxious to get going.  Our 'barge partners' on Passport called the lock and were told that if we hurried we would probably get through.  So we both warmed up the diesel motors and took off.  When we got to the lock were were told that it would be an hour and a half wait due to a bid tow that had come in.  BUMMER.
 
I made a big fried egg and potato skillet breakfast to fill the time.  It was good.

After a 2 hour wait we finally got into the lock.  This delay blew our plan to reach Grafton so we had to re-adjust.  We made it to Hardin at almost 6pm and we were exhausted.  It was a 68.1 mile day but it seemed longer.  Hardin was another 'no services' tie up place but there was a restaurant so I went over and got us each a piece of pie...turned out to be the best pie ever!!!

We went to bed after watching a big tow boat almost slam into the Hardin Railroad Bridge.  Those guys are amazing.

Saturday, Sept. 17

Woke up and Kerm was ready to go...no pictures of  Mel's Illinois River Restaurant or our humble tie-up.  It was panic stations to get out in the river in front of a tow/barge.  After a hasty but successful departure we merged in front of the tow and I could settle down to a cup of coffee and wake up properly.

Headed for Alton today.

Hold on...change of plans.  The city of Grafton is having its 175th birthday and we decide to pull in to  Grafton Marina instead of pushing on to Alton.

I went into town and enjoyed the small town parade (good but not as good as Afton's).  All kinds of activity, patriotic boat parade, softball, speeches, a re-enactments of the opening of the river road, car show, bands and...

A pirate ship

and a shark boat

There are going to be fireworks tonight.  I'll try to get pictures

 Signing off for now.
Will post again soon...love to all

Christie

 

Back on the Journey
September 13

We were anxious to leave - note the moon still out in the morning

The lock house at Starved Rock Lock

Tuesday, September 13

We left the marina at 6:20 am and were joined in the Starved Rock Lock by two other Loopers, Harem and Wilhemina.   After the lock they left us in the dust as we are much slower.

Beautiful Krogan Express from Michigan

 We found the scenery on this section of the Illinois River a little boring but I did see a bald eagle.  We traveled 59 miles and docked at EastPort Marina in Peoria.  We got stuck in the mud getting into the marina but the folk from Harem, who had already docked, helped us to warp in. (use lines). Here is Kerm in the glow of the sunset...   

My Captain

Wednesday, September 14

Slept well and enjoyed a WONDERFUL shower at the marina's new facility.  Got back to the Belle and Kerm was ready to get going right away because he had heard that the lock in Peoria was going to be opening and we wanted to make that opening.

Quick snap of EastPort Marina

Capt. Al and Julie from Harem

Peoria's waterfront

More Peoria Waterfront

Single-hander heading down to Florida for the winter

We didn't make it to the lock in time because a big tow boat came along and commercial traffic gets priority.  We were held up for about two hours and cleared the lock at 10:09.  Delays like this can happen on busy rivers... we have been pretty lucky so far...no complaints but it did shorten our travel day.   

Harem blasting by us after we cleared the lock

At 10:59am I was in the cabin and Kerm was driving upstairs on the fly bridge.  I heard loud noises and thought he had fallen or something.  Concerned, I blasted out of the rear cabin door to go up and check him out.  I was shocked to almost step on a big asian carp flopping around in the rear deck.  I admit I screamed!!  That's what all the noise was.  This fish jumped out of the river and into the Belle. The carp problem is really bad here and I had seen some jumping the day before but this was too close for comfort.  Here are some pictures of him before I poked a boat hook through his mouth and tossed him out through the transon door.

He was slimey and he bled all over the boat...ick

After that excitement we settled down and put on a good 41.3 miles and docked at Tall Timbers Marina. along with Passport, Old Glory and our friends from Harem.  We got in early 3:03pm so I walked into the town, Havana.  It was a cute little town and I bought some supplies at the Dollar General store. 

Tall Timbers Marina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We're back home again on the Southern Belle

Hello, everybody!!

We are back on the Southern Belle after a wonderful time in Minnesota visiting family and friends.  We had a great time but we are also glad to be back on board.

To catch you up on some of our 'missing time'...

What I did on my summer vacation...

We drove to Minnesota from Ottawa, Illinois, leaving Warren in charge of the Southern Belle.

 We stayed with sister, Linda, and enjoyed the St. Croix River, which is our favorite chunk of water in the world

Sunrise on the St Croix from Linda's back yard!!

St. Croix Morning

While at Linda's we did some jobs around the house...my favorite was the gardening.  We ripped out some straggly plants from the front island and brought in some black dirt, grass seed and a new light post with her house name. 

My beautiful big sister

Front lightpost and new grass growing

New entry lights

 

Artsy view of Linda's new light in the side garden

Kerm's birthday was celebrated in July and I bought him what every man needs...

'The Kerminator'

Also, Kerm and Graham (brother-in-law) were official photography boat for the St. Croix Sailing Club's Labor Day regatta.  Look at these guys having a great day...

One day was really windy and they got wet!

Patrick and Katie running the Committee Boat

Dan came up from St. Petersburg and we had a chance to meet his girlfriend, Carrie. That's her in the green jacket.

Sailing Regatta from Linda's house

Hot action at the mark

Shenanigans' Crew at the awards banquet- good job!!

Fast Lane's crew at the awards banquet- Congrats, Mary!!

Kerm's Dad has a cabin up by the Canadian border.  Kerm took his Dad up there for a week.  Pelican Lake is beautiful in a rugged, northern way.

Eagle

My 'other' boat is there...

1964 Lund 'Resorter'  

It's heavy duty, pre-dented and well used.  It came complete with a coffee-can cement anchor!  The side of the boat has a worn out, barely legible, hand-painted sign from Cabin O Pines Resort, an old fashioned resort on the other side of the lake.

On Labor Day there was a family gathering at Mary and Graham's house.  It was wonderful to see everyone again.  As sometimes happens when I'm the having the most fun,  I forget to take pictures.  This explains why there are no pix. Sorry!

Starved Rock Marina
On September 9th we said good-bye to Minnesota and headed back to the "Belle". When we opened the door we were welcomed home with a flower arrangement from Linda...so nice.

Daisies are my favorite

Warren did not do a good job of taking care of the boat...the outside was covered in spider webs and spider 'schmutz' when we got here.  But a good washing and spray down with the pressure washer brought her right back to beautiful.

Kerm has done lots of maintenance and refitting.

1. Installed a search light on the mast
2. Rewiring
3. Installed new lee cloths on the fly bridge
4. Replaced a big starter battery
5. Lots of other miscellaneous stuff

On Saturday night were were invited to a Lobster boil and Steak grilling extravaganza here at the marina by a fellow boater, Bonnie.  We had good food, dancing and a chance to meet some really nice people.  Bonnie won the raffle so there was excitement at our table. We also met Laura and Jack from CarolLee who spend almost every weekend on their boat and who want to do the Loop some day.  Hope to see you out there!!!

We are leaving tomorrow morning ...Tuesday, Sept. 13th.

Capt is anxious to get going and the boat is ready...

 

 

On hold but the work continues

We're in Minnesota for awhile but I'm still working the list.  The books say that  getting stuck out at night on the Mississippi is a possibility due to waiting times  at the locks so we've decided to add a good spotlight.  I did make a nice aluminum bracket for the bow pulpit but have changed my mind and will put it on a platform on the mast.  I figure that the height should help to cut down glare and will give a better view out the sides and even aft which wouldn't be possible with a front mount light.  The new light comes with a FM remote that will reduce the wiring bundle which would be a real bugger threading it through the boat. 

The rear door has a small teak strip to open and close the door from the outside which is a real PIA so I went to my teak collection at the warehouse and found a nice grab rail that I will install on the out side of the door.  Of course the rail was too long and I had to modify but hey,  it didn't cost me a nickel.  This will also be nice as we are a little light on something to grab onto in the back of the boat. 

We pulled the lee cloths off of the boat to bring to the cities for laundering.  They cleaned up just OK but quite a bit of the stitching came out and after looking at them they probably are on their last legs due to wear and fading.  Torment du jour I think Chris would say.

I'm going to Greg's race shop today and see if I can't find a new screw on filter nipple for the Lehman as the old one is a bit worse for wear.  It's a standard 3/4-16 as used on allot of British cars so if there is one in MN chances are we have one.  Also,  I've got some o-ring washers stashed somewhere that I can use to stop the oil leaks on the fuel injection unit.  

I did bring a fuel sample back to the cities and will have someone look at it as the black flecks are driving me nuts.  Also, there seems to be a aqua layer of something on the top when after the sample sets for awhile.  Go figure.

Coming back to the Cities has also been great for replacing our stock of maintenance consumables such as electrical connectors, lubricants, batteries, bulbs, etc.  If there is one thing that I would tell people that are considering the loop it would be, don't count on hardware stores or marine supply places anywhere.  Plan like you are circumnavigating the globe nonstop.  

We have also purchased new electronic charts for one of the Garmin chart plotters.  Snagged a great deal on e-bay and saved about 60% off of the list price.  We're also looking for paper charts for the next stage down to the Gulf.  The paper is better for planning as you can see the big picture and some of them show all the anchorages and have notations for all the must see areas. There is a stretch coming up called Pickwick Lakes that is supposed to be one of the best parts of the loop so we don't want to miss a thing.

Just because we're not at the 'Belle' doesn't mean that we are away from water.  We are staying with Chris's sister on the beautiful St. Croix and have managed to get some boating time in.   These are our home waters and is my personal comfort place.  I wouldn't be a bit surprised if  we also managed to get a couple of sailboat races in before the month is out.  Either that or help on the sailing club committee boat that is commanded by our nephew Patrick O'. 

Saugatuck, MI to Chicago to Starved Rock Marina

Friday, July 15

 This is where we stayed the night in Saugatuck.  In addition to their motel, they had a dock right on the River in the midst of all the tourist activity.  It was a good place to overnight.

Goldfish were traumatized by Warren...see them huddled together?  We left them in peace after the photo opp

We left Saugatuck Harbor at 7:11am.  This can be a difficult harbor to negotiate in bad weather but we had fair seas

Lake Freighter, Missaggi, crossed our path at 4:18pm,  otherwise we had Lake Michigan to ourselves

Spotted the Chicago Skyline in the distance at about 3:00pm

Wilson St. Crib cleared at 6:04pm

 Our crossing of Lake Michigan was very calm and uneventful and it was great to see Chicago from the water.  We docked at Belmont Harbor at 7pm after a crossing of 80.9 nautical miles.  That is our longest passage so far out of the sight of land.

After docking, I jumped ship and went to visit my God-daughter, Molly and her husband Bryan who have a cute house near Wrigley Field.  My sisters, Linda and Mary, drove down from Minnesota and are going to join us on the Belle for a couple of days.  Bryan is competing in the Chicago-Mackinac Sailing Race and we are going to watch the start aboard 'The Belle'.

Next Day...Saturday, July 16

Vayu, with Bryan aboard, is the boat with the yellow spinnaker...they had a great start

All the dots on the radar screen are hundreds of sailboat competitors and spectator boats

Coast Guard cutter Mackinac, earlier in the day it was on station at the starting line

Pretty sight...tourist sailboat

Attractions at Navy Pier

We all had a great day on the water and at the dock.  The next day Molly picked up Mary O'Donnell (who was on a layover in Chicago) and they were able to join us for another day of fun and relaxation.

Chicago seems to do a really good job of maximizing their lakeshore.  There were lots of parks, attractions, marinas and people enjoying themselves everywhere you looked.


Monday, July 18

Mary Ashby and Linda O'Donnell are joining us for the trip up the Chicago River through The Loop.  We departed Belmont Harbor at 6:44am and had cleared the Chicago Lock by 7:35am.

It was amazing to go under all the bridges at rush hour with people streaming off to work...some waved at us and some didn't even notice.  The bridges came hot and heavy and I didn't have time to get many pictures but Mary was busy snapping so I hope to add some of hers to this blog at a later date.     

Looking back at Downtown

Mary had to get back to MN for work so we dropped her off at 18th Street.  Then we continued up the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.  There was an electronic fish barrier to prevent the intrusion of Asian Carp into Lake Michigan...never experienced anything like that before.

Warren was agitated about this electronic thing so we covered his eyes

Volunteers monitoring the fish barrier

 

The Canal was very tight and there was lots of commercial traffic...I liked the name of this tug boat.

The Des Plaines River

Linda enjoying the scenery of the Illinois River

Some homes along the Illinois

We negotiated several locks and finally arrived at Starved Rock Marina near Ottawa, Illinois.  This is where we are going to keep the Belle for a few weeks while we go to Minnesota for a visit with family.  We are anxious to see friends and family again but it is a little disconcerting to leave your home behind.  Warren is in charge until we return after the Labor Day Holiday.

Signing off for now but will be back soon!!!

Love to all,
Christie