1-15 August 2005
Frankfort, MI to Quiver Island, IL
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| Date | Destination | Log and Pictures | |||
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As of 1 August we've traveled 2,516 miles since starting the trip 106 days ago. 78 days have been underway and we've averaged 23 miles per day and 32 per underway day. By our plan we are above 1/2 way through the trip in both miles and time. It's a great adventure and we'll loving it. We have our favorites and can claim some segments of the trip as more enjoyable, but all in all, glad we're here. |
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| 8/1 | Pentwater, MI | Underway from Frankfort, experiencing the seas from yesterday's winds that crashed green water over the break wall. We started with 2-4 foot seas. Luckily the weatherman was correct and the seas subsided to 1-2 feet by noon and made our 70 mile run to Pentwater ok. The Michigan ports are frequent and nice, but we've yet to have a great day on Lake Michigan. Pentwater harbor is too deep to anchor so we moored at the town docks. The town has a great waterfront park, unique shops and interesting architecture in most of its buildings. | |||
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| 8/2 | Muskegon, MI | Wash the boat and do the laundry then underway for Muskegon, a 50 mile run. The Lake was relatively flat, but it is getting to be a bore. The Lake Michigan leg of the loop is the longest single segment with similar topography. It is clearly the destination that one enjoys, not the travel on the Lake. Up until today we experienced great destinations. Muskegon is different. We anchored and ran the dinghy into the Town marina and asked the manager which way to the main part of town. He said, "the town fathers bull dozed it last year and haven't decided what to do next." We walked in anyway seeing empty streets and railway tracks. The best description we found of the town was in one Mayoral candidate's campaign slogan, "Muskegon, Coming Soon!" We're looking for our next ports to be more like the earlier Lake towns. | |||
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At left the main street of Muskegon at 5 pm. | |||
| 8/3 | St Joseph, MI | Weather report indicated we were in for 1-3 foot seas today and 3-5 tomorrow, so we got underway at 7:30 for St Joseph, an 80 mile run that skipped Holland, our planned port. First half was teeth jarring but weather finally settled down and we finished the trip to St Joseph at 4 pm. We're taking a 6 day rest here. I'm flying to Colonial Beach to see Carey and my daughter Lauren. Barny will relax on the boat in a nice Michigan town. We'll leave next Tuesday for Calumet, our entry into Chicago and the Illinois river. The Lake run has been interesting, but it is the towns not the trip on the Lake that has made this part of the trip ok. | |||
| 8/4 | St Joseph, MI | A relaxing day, shopping and completing necessary maintenance on the boat. The town of St Joseph is vibrant and has a nice touch of a merry go round horse on each street corner. |
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| 8/9 | Hammond, IN | Underway at 8 am after a six day break at St Joseph we traveled 60 miles to Hammond Marina, just east of Chicago, IL. Hammond Marina is a 1,000 slip municipal marina on the southern part of lake Michigan. It has a large Casino Cruise boat at its east end. We'll enter the Calumet River tomorrow and start our trip down the inland rivers (Illinois and Mississippi) that starts with the Chicago Sanitary Canal, appropriately named as it was created to take Chicago's sewage south diverting it from entering Lake Michigan. Wes Cornett, a friend of Barny, joined us in St Joseph and helped crew the boat here today. He'll be with us for two more days and we credit him for bringing good weather as our trip today was the best day we've had on Lake Michigan. | |||
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| 8/10 | Joliet, IL | Up early to leave Hammond Marina, the worst facility we've stayed at for the entire trip. But the trip to Joliet was fantastic. Not scenic beautiful but fascinating. The barge traffic kept us busy and the waterway was captivating in its difference from past segments of the trip. Heavy industry interspersed with nice homes on the water. We really enjoyed the 50 mile trip today through 2 locks and under 40 bridges after viewing the Chicago skyline in haze. | |||
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A low bridge at left we cleared by just 12 inches as we passed underneath. Upper right we passed a barge pushing 6 barges. |
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| 8/11 | Grist Island Bend, IL | Wes departed this morning for AMTRAK and his trip home. Barny, Durango and I waited out an early morning thunderstorm and got underway at noon for the Des Plains river that leads to the Illinois River. The transit was great. We are seeing beautiful scenery and a lot of industry that is unique. The picture below at right is a view from our anchorage this evening at Grist Island Bend. | |||
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| 8/12 | Ottawa, Il | Underway at 8:30 am for our next stop. We planned an anchorage but Ottawa Town Docks, near the anchorage, was recommended by the lockmaster at the one lock we passed today, so we stopped here. A great city with lots to offer and the docking was free. We put the 42 foot Apolonia in a 20 foot slip! Passed a tug pushing 9 barges; 2 barges wide by 4 long, with an additional one barge out front. Amazing! A tow boat uses about 2,400 gallons of fuel a day that equates to one ton of cargo being moved 500 miles on 1 gallon of fuel. Towboats generally have 4,000 HP in their engines. Each barge is generally 35 feet wide by 195 feet long ... eight or nine together is a huge thing to see. Thanks to these barges the per ton cost of transporting corn is the lowest in the world; understandable when we found out that fifteen barges is equal to two and three-quarters miles of railcars. | |||
| First picture at right, tug pushing 9 barges, then views of the river. |  |
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| Ottawa has world's greatest sandwich, short docks, and was the location of 1st Lincoln and Douglas debate in 1865. |  |
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| 8/13 | Chillicothe IL | This morning brought heavy rain. We walked to town to pick up some cleaning supplies than got underway late in the morning for Hennepin, just as the rain slacked off a bit. Hennepin docks were small so we continued south to Chillicothe. It is going down as a top stop as we were able to tie up to free town docks and just 100 feet from the docks was Banana Beach Bar serving free hamburgers and hot dogs with $1.25 per glass draft beer. A pretty trip today, even with the rain. During our one lock today we locked through with a tug and tow. The picture shows us sitting off the tugs port quarter. Hidden on the tugs starboard quarter were more pleasure boats, visible only after the tug moved out of the way. | |||
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| 8/14 | Peoria, IL | A nice walk in Chillicothe this morning showed updated 1860 buildings and a building that we seldom talk about but use frequently, a Laundromat. We have a combination washer and dryer aboard but it only handles small loads and takes a lot of water so every 10 to 14 days we find a local Laundromat and do our thing, as we did this morning in Chillicothe. Underway at 11 am, we headed for the large city of Peoria and it was closed! The waterfront was beautiful and looked like it had received a very recent and without a doubt a $50 million renovation. The problem -- no one was around. We anchored and took the dinghy to the new and very upscale town docks that had electronic pay by the hour parking for your boat. We paid $1.00 for an hour for the dinghy, then started to walk the town. We say no more than 100 people and many of the new restaurants were closed. A local resident said, "everyone is unemployed in town due to the Caterpillar strike and other things." Hopefully things will turn around. We headed back for the boat and a quiet evening in the rain at anchor. | |||
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Chillicothe updated buildings and local Laundromat at left. Below is a view of the Peoria waterfront from the water and the empty streets once we got ashore. | |||
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| 8/15 | Quiver Island IL | A trip to Wal Mart started today. With a full refrigerator we headed south, stopping at Quiver Island. Easy run and pretty scenery including an old paddle wheeler trying to be a restaurant. We met several barge/tug combinations. An amazing profession. The tugs usually have 12 people on board and move on the waterway 24 hours a day to their destination. They are friendly and professional. We've enjoyed limited but pleasant VHF conversations with them, the last Captain a product of two ex-wives who kept him on the waterway. |
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