Sept 13-14 Illinois River

Sept 13 Our next destination is Tall Timber marina about 40 miles away near Havana IL. I called to make a reservation for tonight but Bob the owner said they were full up with loopers. I made a reservation for the next night, but about 5 minutes later the phone rang. Bob called me back to say someone cancelled and he had space for us. The girls were doing laundry on our on-board washer/dryer combination. It is small but you can do loads in the evening or the morning while onboard. We left on about noon for our 4 hour journey. We are traveling about 10 mph aided by a 2 mph current going down river. The fuel Flowscan meters read 2.25 mpg at this speed. We are sipping fuel and the Yanmars are just almost idling along. They really like to work harder but they must be content to sit back and enjoy the ride as we are. The river was calm and the air temperature was in the upper seventies. We were the sixth and final looper boat to arrive. A looper cocktail party was held at 5:30pm which was attended by all boats. All new people that we had never met before except one boat that we had met briefly the night before. A simple meal tonight--chicken on the grill and bread!. Weather forecast for tomorrow-cool and windy-slight chance of rain. Picture is a view from the flybridge cockpit of a nearby tow

Sept 14 Cloudy to start the day and no sign of rain. Plan A destination was to tie up to a barge at Beardstown about 40 miles away. Plan B was to anchor off channel 2 miles beyond that. The reason for plan B was that water at the Beardstown barge was reported to be at 3.6 ft by previous loopers. Our boat drafts 3.8ft. Traveling this route with us today was Sea Knight (Tom & Gerry Clare Amelia Island Fl), Baums Rush( a sailboat with John & Anita Baumgartner from NC) & Tom Kat(another Mainship from Rochester NY with Bob and Sue Hogeman aboard). We met many tows in this stretch of the river and conversed with the tow captains so we would always be in the right place at the right time. The tow captains also conversed back and forth so there were no surprises as they met on a river bend. Sea Knight volunteered to be our scout and ventured forth very slowly from the channel to the Beardstown barge. He tied up to the barge and reported 4.5 ft of water. Tom Kat tied up behind him. I ventured in against the 2 knot current and tied up to the end of the barge. My depth sounder read 4.0 '--2" to spare. I kicked up mud as I was docking. Baums Rush arrived a short while later. He only draws less than 2' with his keel removed and he tied up on the other side of the barge. We all caught up on some email correspondence and then we took off for town which is beyond the floodwall. Our mission was to get groceries at the Save a Lot. On a previous scouting mission into town, I found a neat little museum. I told the curator I would return with my cronies. I did take them there on the way to the grocery. It was great. This is where Abraham Lincoln became famous (according to the curator). He defended a man by the name of Armstrong, who according to all accounts was guilty of killing a man during a brawl, but Lincoln got him acquitted. The courtroom is in the process of being replicated as it was when Lincoln was there defending Armstrong. This is also where the Lincoln Douglas debate took place. Have you heard of the Beardstown Ladies? The investing ladies?. Anyway their office is located in this same building and we signed their visitors journal. They are still active today but their main focus is helping other investing groups get started. It was a chilly day(high of 65 and a north wind) and the 5:30 cocktail party was held on the enclosed flybridge of The Silver Foxes where we accommodated all 10 people comfortably. We then adjourned to a local Mexican Restaurant where we had a great meal. Tomorrow Sea Knight and Tom Cat are departing for Alton IL which is the rest of the way down the Illinois and a short way down the Mississippi, a distance of about 100 miles. Baums Rush and the Silver Foxes will probably only do about 40 miles tomorrow and anchor out for the night. We need to get in practice as we will be anchoring out several times as we travel the Mississippi and Ohio. 1079 statute miles traveled. 114.9 engine hours