Barges on the Illinois Waterway

We woke up about 515a and decided to get up and try to be ready to leave early to get through bridges before work hour traffic shut them down for cars only. The only day they don't run the car traffic schedule for the bridges is Sunday.

Mark on Second Wind had found out that the bridges we would go through today all open on demand... kinda nice letting that boat and also Golden Hawk go ahead of us as they are slightly higher and made all the bridge opening requests for us.  Mark also talked to the lock master at the next lock who said it would be about 30 minutes before we would be allowed in the lock as he was taking a barge down first.  So it was decided we would all leave about 730a. Here we have pulled away from the dock and we are waiting for their boats to go ahead... they usually run faster than us anyway.

On our way we passed these cute houseboats with what looks like nice green lawns!  But it is actually algae!

Here we are right on time to move into the Brandon St. Lock at Joliet.

View from Miss gg in the front of first lock.

All was going well until we called the second lock, Dresden. They said not only would it be at least a 2 hour wait but their wait docks were filled with barges...... we would have to tread water and wait! So we cruised in circles for a while and back and forth. Then we put anchors down but ours kept dragging so I had to pull it up and wash it down.  Just hard to anchor in a river with the current.  But when Walter turned off one engine our Miss gg seem to hold almost still.  The only thing we could figure was that in doing this  somehow the wind, current and the circular motion of an eddy all balanced out.

Finally, we were called into the lock.

Then Mark and Jay from Golden Hawk got the idea to find that barge that made us wait so long and pass it and beat it to the next and last lock of the day, Marseilles Lock.  The Captain told them to go ahead.   We decided it was not worth burning all that fuel to charge down the river looking for this barge... however, both of the other boats had AIS which is a electronic device that let's you “see” other boats on the water.. I want one!

So they knew exactly where the barge was and how fast he was going.  They could figure where they would over take him... we were monotoring channel 72 to talk to the other boats and so we heard them say where the barge was and we could also calculate when we would overtake it.... about one hour even at our slower speed.  So we let them rush ahead and sure enough at a particular time they passed this barge and later we did also.  But guess who saved the most fuel in this catch up game? :-)

Here are the photos of this barge. The tug's name is Cody Boyd. It is easy to see why it took over two hours to lock him through... his load had to be separated.. tied up at other end and then the next load of barges put into the locks, etc.  Remember each barge is 30 to 40 ft wide and a 100 feet long.

It was 4 barges long and 3 barges wide!!!  12 Barges!

So now we were all ahead of this monster and still the other boats speeded along... maybe because they knew the possibility of the lock taking the commercial barge first if he was close behind them.  But Miss gg just plodded along at the usual 8mph and guess what?...we still arrived at the lock before it was ready for all of us due to having to waiting on a barge & tug already in the lock and locking up river.  

While we were waiting I saw a little deer all by himself on the other bank...... he was really too far away to get a good photo but I took it anyway... he was eating a few overhead leaves and drinking the water in the river.

Waiting on the third and last lock of the day to empty all we could see was the tall bridge of the tug boat.... we could not see what he was pushing....THEN the gates of the lock opened and we all had our mouths open as this was the first time we had seen a barge/tug IN a lock... it completely filled the width with the sides nearly touching and scraping the lock walls as it exited.

Now notice the work men on the front top of the barge... gives you an idea of the size.

After we got out of this last lock we said good-bye to our friends for the night who were aiming their boats into a nice marina while we went down stream a bit and took a spot on the Free city dock.... and free electric also. There is only room for two boats our size here so the others could not have all made it in here. We were blessed that no one else was here yet and it surprised us because it was after 5p...usually you need to grab these spots early in the afternoon.

Today started off nice and cool but got up in the low 90s! We do not have air conditioning on the bridge so it was stifling up there. We don't usually run the generator while on the move anyway. I gave the captain a break and piloted for a while today.. and NO, Miss gg was not on auto-pilot which is kinda hard to do on these winding rivers. Do you believe he let the first mate do this??!! Okay, so he was never very far away sitting in the first mate's seat. Ha!

It was so interesting today watching the barges.... I wonder what tomorrow will bring?... I already know it is suppose to bring cooler weather... so hoping that forecast was right.   

Uh Oh!  Guess what just went down river in the dark?  It sure looked like Cody Boyd!  Should be an interesting day tomorrow!  :-0