Illinois River August 23 -29, 2019

We have been anticipating (and Barbie has been worrying about) cruising on the inland rivers with the tugs and barges.  One barge is 200 feet long and 35 feet wide.  The barges are tied together, making a tow of 5 barges long and 3 barges wide, being pushed by a tug that is 65 feet long and 35 feet wide. Since they are so big they have very little maneuverability.  When Jeff found out about AIS  (Automatic Identification System) he immediately wanted to get it so that the tugs could see us and we could see them around the corner.  All commercial vessels are required to have AIS.  Pleasure Craft (PC) are not required to have AIS.  The AIS gives the name of the vessel, the width and length of the vessel, and the speed over the ground and other information.

Example AIS plot -- approaching hidden barge

In the 1800's, as Chicago grew into a large city, they had a problem with the garbage and sewage that they were dumping into the Chicago River.  It was polluting the source of their drinking water, Lake Michigan.  In 1892-1900  the Chicago River was dug deeper, reversing the flow of water so that it no longer drained into Lake Michigan. This formed the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and opened the way for ships to navigate from the Great Lakes through the inland rivers.

On Friday, August 23, we left our marina in Chicago and within just a few minutes we were in the first lock that lifts you from Lake Michigan into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Lock from Lake Michigan to Chicago River

Chicago New East Side

Lake Street as we continue through Chicago

Going through Chicago was very interesting and luckily uneventful.  Within two hours of leaving our slip we were out of Chicago and going down the Illinois River.  We started at mile 319 and would travel all 319 miles to the Mississippi River.

About 2 hours down the Illinois River we saw a tug and barge.  We passed our first tug and barge with no problem.  Then we saw that the river was blocked by a barge going across the full width of the river.  Since we had AIS, Jeff knew the name of the tug and called them.  The captain told us that two barges had gotten loose and he'd have them under control soon, so come on down.  We started down and then noticed a tug coming in from a side harbor.  Jeff called this tug.  It turned out there were a total of three tugs involved. Eventually a tug captain asked us to duck in behind a space between barges on the side of the canal and wait until the barges and tugs got sorted out.  It took about an hour, but finally we were told it was safe to pass.  We untied from the barge and followed a tug.  However, we noticed a PC (Pleasure Craft) coming towards us at a fast speed.  This reckless PC  passed us causing a big wake.  Barbie steered through it, but was not happy.

Tied up to a barge to escape danger -- see video below

Video of the tug and barges passing

The US Army Corps of Engineers is currently in the process of upgrading several of the Illinois River locks. These locks are being worked on during the day which stops ALL traffic, but the locks open during the night for barge and pleasure craft to lock through.   Since barges have priority, the pleasure craft are given only two times to lock through -- 7:00 PM and 5:00 AM

Therefore, we had to be ready to navigate the river at night, in darkness.  We had often navigated at night in previous boats but never in Aisling Gheal.  We got through the first lock by 9:00 pm. Jeff sat on the bow with a strong flashlight looking for the channel buoys and Barbie was at the helm.  We used our "ears" (walkies talkies) to communicate to each other.  It was a anxious but uneventful passage.  We anchored out of the channel just before the next lock that would open at 5:00 am.  Jeff kept awake most of the night making sure we were out of the channel and that the anchor (or chain) held us.  At 4:30 we got busy pulling up the anchor and getting to the lock.  When we exited the lock it was still dark.  Again we had to navigate with Jeff on the bow communicating to Barbie at the helm.  We had a beautiful sunrise.

Night-time locking was necessary because of construction

Dawn after navigating the river at night

A third lock was also having construction work done. We called the lock keeper and he told us to wait over in the pool away from the lock.  We got over there and anchored, not knowing how long the wait would be. We waited a total of three hours while a tug and tow had to be locked through separately.  A second tug had to be called to help stabilize the tow while its tug was locking through.  When we finally were called to enter the lock, there was a loud noise of jack-hammers demolishing some of the old concrete and the lock grounds were a total mess with construction materials.

We had pleasant docking in Joliet where the town dock was free and close to the Mygrain Brewery.  In Peoria we rented a car and got the laundry done and found three very nice brewpub restaurants. 

After the 319 miles on the Illinois River, we arrived at Grafton, Illinois where we entered the Mississippi river. We stayed at Grafton Marina one night then we moved 15 miles to Alton, Illinois where we stayed several nights. We rented a car to visit St Louis since there are no marinas there.