Heading downstream.

It is hard to imagine it has been over a week since I left Chicago and headed downstream.  I left the Illinois River yesterday and am now in the Mighty Mississippi.  There is more than four knots of current in the river, which will make it go by quickly.

I had a very, very blonde moment one morning.  I was checking and emptying my strainers.  I had shut the through-hull, which allows water to come into the engine to keep it cool.  In my blonde moment, I forgot to shut the through-hull.  I started the engine and within a few minutes it overheated.  I turned the engine off, and shut the through hull, hoping I had not done any damage.  It appeared everything was alright.  After about 8 hours of heading down the river, my engine didn't sound right and I had black smoke coming into the cabin from the engine compartment.  My temperature gauge was at a normal level.  I pulled to the side of the river and dropped my anchor.  I also noticed the rug next to the engine compartment was wet... and there was black everywhere.  I called my son, Dean, who suggested it was the exhaust.  I then called our Towboat captain, John, from Southport.  I explained there was a hole in the muffler.  He gave me suggestions on how to patch it.  I was able to head downstream to a marina, about 16 miles further down river.  The closest repair facility was about 136 miles down river.  The duct tape and hose clamps kept the exhaust out of the cabin until I could make the repairs.

Hole in muffler, probably weakened when the engine overheated.

It was a Sunday night, and I thought about the different ways I could patch the muffler to get down the next 120 miles.  After a good night sleep though, I ordered a new muffler on Monday morning, to be delivered on Tuesday, at the marina.  I had my work cut out for me.  In addition to fixing the muffler, I also needed to replace my impeller, which can be damaged by overheating the engine.  Changing the impeller proved to be more difficult than the muffler.  I also had to clean out my air filter, as it was grimy with oily, black soot.  I was fortunate to have great help at the marina.  Bob, the owner of Tall Timbers marina, helped me pull out my impeller.  Ted, another boater, took me to the farm store to pick up bolts and cleaning supplies.  Steve, from Atla, showed up on time to help me get the muffler in place long enough to put on the clamps.  The weather has been brutally hot at over 90 degrees, with about 95% humidity.

Sometimes, we stay in places we don't expect and we meet awesome people along the way.  This is another one of those times.  Tall Timbers is one of my favorite stops on this loop. The little town, Havana, is within walking distance from the marina. I was able to ride my bike to the hardware store.  Bob wanted to be there when I left, so he could make sure my exhaust was working correctly.  I left Wednesday around lunchtime, after cleaning up my boat.  I had black smudges everywhere, from my engine work.  As I headed down the river, I checked the engine compartment a couple times, and everything appears to be working well.

Everyone talks about the Asian Carp.  I have been fortunate so far,not to have them flying into my boat.  I see them jump every once in a while.  There are also pontoon boats, who take people out to shoot the carp with spear-gun bows.  I have also heard they are "good eat'n".

The engines stir up the Asian Carp, which jump.  Then the guys on the back shoot at them.

Wednesday night, I anchored out at Big Blue Island, about 60 miles south of Havana.  Yesterday, I came to Alton.  I was able to meet up with Ted and his wife Christene again, who I met at Tall Timbers.  I plan to leave this morning after a run to the grocery store and keep heading down the Mississippi.  Per Steve, on Atla, the barges are bigger and throw large wakes.  In going down the Mississippi, I might not have much cell phone coverage.  There are not any services for 225 miles after fueling up at Hoppies, which will be later today.

The Mighty Mississippi

Chicago - halfway home.

The weather has been very difficult for boating.  Thunderstorms for this week have been more common than not.  We had storms through last weekend, it was clear on Monday, storms on Tuesday, clear until Wednesday night, then more storms for Thursday and Friday.  On Monday, I decided to head to Chicago, from Hammond, Indiana.  It was a two hour ride.  Approaching Chicago, I couldn't even see the city, until I got there because of the fog and smog.  My timing was good, arriving just as everything cleared up.  It was a beautiful afternoon, I was able to walk around and took one of the architectural boat tours.  The boat tour enabled me to scope out where I would be heading on Wednesday.

Approaching Chicago

Arriving at Du Sable marina, downtown Chicago.

Du Sable Marina

The size and number of skyscrapers can be overwhelming!

On my way back to my boat, I saw another Looper boat, Knot So Fast, which I had first seen in Saugatuck.  I stopped by and met Jeff and Lolly, who are from Alabama.  They are on the last leg of their Loop journey.  We decided to head to Navy Pier and Millenium Park Tuesday morning.  Despite rain in the early morning, we had a clear morning for walking around Chicago.  This was followed by a downpour around noon.  It cleared again in the afternoon for a few hours, then we had more rain that evening.   We ordered Chicago pizza from Lou Malnati's, and I get it... Chicago Pizza is the best!  I don't think I could have left Chicago without having pizza first.

Wednesday morning, I took Lolly with me, to head through Chicago. I dropped her off at a marina/condo complex, a couple miles from the marina.  We took the same route as the architectural tour.  We left the dock at 6:15, entered the Chicago lock around 6:30ish, and it was a peaceful morning, without much traffic on the waterway.  We saw a few water taxis, but the tour boats had not started yet.

This is where I dropped off Lolly, as I headed out of Chicago

This was the start of my very lucky day!  Every day should be as good as yesterday.  Of course, it could have been partly due to poor planning as well.  Heading south from Chicago, on the Illinois river, is an electric fish barrier.  The barrier is meant to kill or deter Asian Carp from getting into Lake Michigan.  It is a mile or two long, and the voltage is high enough to kill a person if they fall overboard.  There are warning signs and rules about going through the barrier, which really isn't a big deal, and only takes a few minutes.  However, they are doing maintenance, Monday through Friday from 7 a.m until 4 p.m.  I had forgotten to call and check on the electric barrier.  When I arrived around 11:15, I was told I needed to tie up to a wall upstream until they finished at 4 p.m.  The wall was not exactly easy to tie up to!  The rocks on the side of the wall crumbled, so I had to tie to shrubs along the wall.  As I was getting settled to read, I heard the discussion between the security checkpoints that the divers were out of the water and taking a break, so they could let boats through.  I radioed to the security checkpoint and they let me through at 12:05.

Tied up to a crumbling wall north of the Electric Carp Barrier

Just south of the electric barrier is the Lockport Lock, which drops 39 feet.  The lock had been closed on Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. for maintenance.  I had called on Monday and they were backed up with barges needing to go through.  On Wednesday though, there was no traffic going through.  I entered the lock by myself, tied up, and took the gentle ride down, which took about a half hour.   These locks are huge, and can hold a tow with 9 barges attached.  Some of the barges have to be split to go through the locks.  Commercial traffic takes precedence over recreational traffic, so there can be major delays in getting through the locks.  The third lock of the day, Brandon Road lock, went just as smoothly, dropping 34 feet.

Just south of Brandon Road Lock,  I stopped at Big Basin Marina.  The waters are fairly shallow here, but work fine for my boat.  The dockage fees are inexpensive at 75 cents a foot, but the woman running the place decided to let me have the night for free.  I am not sure if she was impressed with me being here by myself, or it was the end of a long day and she didn't feel like running my credit card.  I am sure she will run it today, because it is raining on and off all day, and I will be staying here another night, waiting for the weather to improve.

Here are some pics from Chicago.

The amphitheater at Millenium Park

At Navy Pier they have a stained glass exhibit.  I took this because there is another looper, whose name is King Cole.  The stained glass exhibit was my favorite part of Navy Pier.

"The Bean" in Millenium Park

The Civic Opera Building, which my sister and mother would appreciate.

Taking a picture while looking up into the middle of "The Bean"

The water used to flow from Chicago into Lake Michigan, but they changed the flow of water due to pollution.  Every hour, this fountain shoots from one side of the waterway to the other depicting the strength of the current and the water having changed directions.

The face does change... this is in Millenium Park.

On the tour boat, heading under the many bridges of Chicago.

Sculpture in Millenium Park by Jaume Piensa

Heading through Chicago on  tour boat.

Chicago? Almost.

My goal this week was to make it to Chicago.  I didn't make it there, but I am close, in Hammond, Indiana.  I spent four days in Saugatuck, which was a great little town to spend a few days in.  I had planned to stay there, while waiting for a storm front to move through.  I was bad about taking pictures.  The marina was a ten minute walk from town, but having my bicycle made it very easy to get around.  The weather was unusually cold.  Even the dockmaster made a comment that it felt like October weather.  The news was reporting that it was September weather.  After a couple days of rain and gray skies, the weather cleared up, but there were still high seas in Lake Michigan.  NOAA reported 6 ft seas, the dockmaster heard it was closer to ten foot.  So, there was another day for waiting.

I noticed that the waves and winds were tending to die down at night, so I planned for my next leg to St. Joseph in the middle of the night.  My hope was to get further, weather and waves permitting.  I was up before 1 a.m, and I undocked and left Saugatuck at 2 a.m.  By 7:45, I arrived at St. Joseph. I had following seas from the north, which were very uncomfortable, but better than heading into them.  Other people that came into St. Joseph, later that day, said they were miserable out there on the lake.  My decision to leave in the middle of the night, is probably the only reason I was able to make any distance at all.

My plan for Friday, was to head across Lake Michigan to Chicago, 50 miles away.  I called on Thursday to reserve a slip, but there were no slips available throughout the weekend.  An Air Show was scheduled right over the waters, and I imagine the Du Sable marina was the prime location to be.  However, this was the one day that I had to cross.  Instead of heading to Chicago, I went with my secondary plan of Hammond, IN, which is 10 to 15 miles from the Chicago marina.  Another storm front was moving in for the weekend, with thunderstorms.  My crossing of Lake Michigan was uneventful.  The waves got higher towards the center of the Lake, but had died down to nothing by the time I got to the western shore.

Waiting on good weather days seems to be a theme for me on this trip.  When the weather is good and the lake conditions are calm, I run with it.  On the Chesapeake, I remember having a very calm day, and while most of my friends stopped at Soloman's Island, I headed north to Annapolis.  I feel like I am doing the same thing here.  I have a small boat that doesn't go very fast, so I can't bump up the speed to get through quicker and I can't take the larger waves that my friend's boats can take.  It makes it difficult to plan much of anything or being anywhere.

My friend Jane remarked that "looping" is different than "cruising", in that we have to keep moving forward.  We don't always have the time to stop or spend the time where we want to. I think we just have to enjoy seeing what we see, wherever it is, and continue to take this journey a day at a time.

Seeing Chicago from the distance.

Despite my lack of pictures, I really enjoyed Saugatuck.  They have a river boat for tourists, as well as a chain ferry running across the Kalamazoo river.  They also have an inter-urban bus system, which will take you from your door to where you want to go for a dollar in either Saugatuck or Douglas. It was a great place to spend 4 days, even if it was cold and rainy.

Saugatuck Chain Ferry- operated by a young man, who cranks the chain to take passengers across the river.  The chain is attached at both sides of the river.

Star of Saugatuck Boat Cruise - they passed my boat a few times each day.