This is the leg of the cruise that seems to be the most dreaded. I was thrilled last year when we left the boat in Green Bay for the winter – one more trip back her,e but I had at least avoided the ol’ Miss.
But, all good things must come to an end; our stay in Chicago was over. At 6:45 on Friday we left the docks at DuSable, went out into Lake Michigan one more time and around to then into the Chicago Harbor Lock. The river part of the cruise had begun. We knew there would be challenges ahead.
Before we entered the Chicago Sanitary (who are they kidding?) Canal and the Calumet Sag Channel we had gone under 53 bridges. One of the bridges, the Amtrak Rail Road Lift Bridge, at 10’ does not open during rush hour. Kelley had called and asked when that was and was told from8 to 10. We were there at 7:15. After a phone call the bridge was lifted and we continued on. With such a long trip ahead of us having to wait hours for a bridge would have been frustrating. Going through Chicago was a treat. We had toured the city on land and to see it from the water was interesting. We had traveled 24 miles in almost 3 hours.
The next section was filled with tows preparing barges for their next journey. It is very industrial and kept us on our toes watching for tows coming towards us. This is where the Asian Carp Barrier has been set up. (It is only 7/10th of a mile and there is an electric charge in the water. One must call the Coast Guard and announce you are there and ask for permission to pass. (We called; they did not respond. We put our life jackets on and followed the posted rules). We have not seen any carp; we did not have any issues there.
Our first lock was the Lockport lock. We called and we were pleased that a tow was exiting the lock and we could enter once it had passed. There were many more drawbridges to pass under and two more locks (Dresden Lock and Marseilles Lock – both ready for us) to pass through before we stopped. We had planned to stop at Harborside Marina (mile 273.5) but we passed it at 1:30 and it seemed too early to stop. We stayed at Heritage Harbor for the night. Although there were anchorages along the way, a marina seemed the best choice for us.
Illinois Waterway: Mile 327.4 (Chicago Harbor Lock) to Mile 242.3 (Heritage Marina)
Miles covered: 85      Bridges: 71 Locks: 3
Left at 6:45 am        Arrived at 5 pm