Chicago to St. Louis
September 6th - 13th
Brent Fuson, Larry Hawks, Mike Rose

9/6    The entire crew arrived together on Southwest from KC to Chicago, Midway.  Stops for provisions at Bakars Polish Grocery, wine and batteries, plus a cleanup of SeaBird on arrival made short work of the afternoon.  We walked and taxied to Tom Marnell's, an old business friends, condo for a Scotch tasting before and excellent dinner at Bistro Zinc. at 

9/7    Departed early for a short 12 mile run down the Lake Michigan coast to Calumet Harbor and the entrance to the Calumet SAG Canal, whence we began our journey on the rivers.  The Calumet Canal is a very commercial waterway, with a lot of heavy industry and barge (tow boat) traffic.  There were also a lot of low clearance bridges, the lowest of which, at 19 1/2 feet brushed the top of our lightening rod.  We stopped for the first night at Joliet where we tied up at the town wall and walked downtown.  Dinner at the ?? was excellent.  At about 8PM the Lydia Campbell, a 1100 foot tow barge passed within 50 feet and believe me it was awesome!!  There are many large "tows" on the Illinois River and they are something to behold.  The guys that pilot these vessels have to be among the best there is, as the task would seem quite daunting.

9/8     A long day on the river which included a 2 1/2 hour delay at the Marseille Lock waiting for tows to clear.  We were in a convoy of 8-12 pleasure craft most of the day.  While all of the other boats stopped short of the Starved Rock Lock we decided to make a long day of it and lock through in order to have a clear,  no lock, river ahead of us the next day.  A wise choice as it turned out because the next morning they had several tows at the lock and there was another delay for pleasure boats of a couple of hours or more.  Se anchored for the night just off the channel in the mouth of a small cut by Plum Island.  About 2230 we watched two 1000 footers navigate past each other in a narrow channel about 100 feet away, quite interesting!  We slept with one eye open that night.

9/9    No locks today!  An easy 70 mile run to Peoria.  The river has changed from industrial to pastoral - tree lined shoreline and small towns.  We engaged in a little trap shooting from the fantail which was good fun and lended itself well to the smooth waters of the river.

We berthed for the night at the Illinois Yacht Club which is a very nice private club on the river at Peoria.  Unfortunately the water was so shallow in the harbor and its approach that we had to plow a new channel with the keel in order to get to the berth.  Dinner was excellent however and the people were most accommodating.    There was a picture which included long time family friend Eddie Williams on the wall in the club lounge.

9/10    We plowed through the muck to the channel at 0840 and proceeded to the Peoria Lock 10 miles downstream.  After a wait of a little over an hour, which would have been much more but for a kindly lockmaster, we locked through and entered a 60 mile stretch of lightly populated, but with significant weekend runabout traffic and beach picnickers.

9/11    A tranquil day on the river where reading and snoozing, broken by a couple of sessions of trap shooting, were the norm.  Today we stopped just 7 miles from the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers at the Pere Marquette State Park.  While they have a small marina at the part the water depth was to shallow for us so we anchored just off the shoreline and dingied ashore for dinner at the lodge, a spectacular place and good food to boot. A thunderstorm later that night created a little interest while at anchor while we watched City Slickers.

9/12    The big event of the day was cruising on to the Mississippi for the first time at Grafton, Il.  About 3 times as wide as the Illinois, it generated a lot of interest and picture taking.  The run today was short, only 25 miles past mostly rural riverbank, past Portage de Sioux, Mo. to Alton Marina, arriving before noon.  The marina is one of the nicest we're seen, covered docks which is a real luxury, also a floating pool and two hot tubs.  Since we arrived so early the crew decided to jump ship and head for home that evening.  A. Bird spent the afternoon and next morning changing the oil and waxing the rails and foredeck in preparation for the next leg.  Had a most enjoyable dinner date with Charmaine Hall at Cafe Balafeen in west central St. Louis.