October 15th Update

During our stay at Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa, we attended a Looper briefing the marina puts on every evening. It covers the remaining route to Kentucky Lake. Brice, the gentleman giving the briefing, warned us it was NOT brief. And he was right. Three hours and many pages of notes later, we had all the updated information we needed.

There are several published cruising guides out there and we chose Skipper Bob’s. It’s been around a long time and it’s updated yearly. What the yearly updated guide can’t give is current details. Water levels are very low this year and many marinas and places to anchor are not accessible. In the briefing, they went over which places are still accessible. This has caused us to update our schedule. Some days we may only go 40 miles, other days 70. It’s because we have to know we have a place to spend the night. The briefing alone was worth the price of the slip for the night. By the way, I did hit bottom coming into Heritage Harbor Marina.

After leaving Ottawa, we traveled down the river 40+ miles to Lower Henry island, in the town of Henry. It was one of the deeper anchorages still accessible to sail boats. The next stop would have been Peoria City Dock, which was another 40 miles. Too far to make in a single day for us.

Nice anchorage with plenty of room. Lots of Asian Carp banging the boat, but none made it aboard. Room for many boats but we were by ourselves.

The next stop was Peoria. I called several marinas and none had enough water for us to get in. The only option we had was the free City Dock. The city dock is built for smaller boats but we managed to squeeze ourselves in.

After Peoria, we went through the towns of Goofy Ridge, Liverpool, and finally anchored in Havana. Yes, there is a town in Illinois called Goofy Ridge, look it up. In Havana we anchored behind Quiver Island. Again, one of the few deep water anchorages still accessible to sail boats. Mostly because there is a coal power plant in Havana. Behind the island is where the barges unload the coal every Tuesday. They end up dredging every time they come in to drop off a load of coal.

The next stop was at Logsdon Tug Service in Beardstown, and is were we are as I write this. Even though they charge for rafting up — this isn’t a marina, and there are no docks, power, or amenities. The owners of the tug service realize there are not many options for Loopers to pull over on this part of the river and they allow us to raft up to their barges for the night. Very grateful for that otherwise this would have been a 90 mile day which would require some navigation in the dark (as the days continue to get shorter). And, Beardstown isn’t a bad walking town.

Next stop will be Willow Island. They day after we hit the Mississippi and stop in the town of Alton IL. We have a 3 night stay scheduled in Alton. We need fuel, water, food, laundry, and a break. More to come.