21 August, 2021. Long day down the Illinois River

 

68 SM; 9.2 hours, one lock

Last night might have been the most peaceful anchorage in a very long time.  Boat never rocked after sunset.  Peaceful morning.  No rush, goal only to go down the river safely.  We checked central Illinois weather; cloudy, hot with chance of showers and thunderstorms.  Good to go. Fired up the diesel and hoisted the anchor at 0750.  Smooth waters as we headed about 2 miles to our first lock.  Surprisingly, the lock master let us lock ahead of a tow/barge complete that was an hour away.  I figured we would have to wait.  Very friendly lock master, who came over to visit as we were securing.  Easy lock down of 14 feet then we were on our way.

Looking aft while secured in Starved Rock lock

Gates opening exit soon

 Starved Rock State Park forms the eastern boundary of the Illinois river.

Cliffs of the state park

Continuing down the river, much to my surprise the current not as strong because the dredged portion of the  waterway  floods a lot of the river valley results in decreased overall current. Only doing about 7.5-7.6 mph over the ground.  Lots of pleasure boats out today along with many tows pushing large barge complexes.  Only a couple of pinch points where we slowed allowing the commercial traffic the right of way.  Starting to see more homes along the waterway, mixed in with the commercial areas.  

Not sure what is going on here

Frequent sight along the waterway

Common sight; barges waiting for the tows

Decent anchorages are few today as we passed up a couple in order to travel another couple of hours down river.  We have anchored north of a point, about 50 yards off of the channel in shallow water.  We checked with a passing tow if this spot would be ok and keep us clear of traffic.  Tow Captain confirmed and would relay our position to the next  up bound tow.  So we called it a day and dropped the anchor at 1710 in 7 feet of water with the stern drifting into about 3.5 feet.  (Map). Winds forecast along with the slight current will keep us well clear.  Kim’s anchor video. Swim call again.  Water warm and I guess clean enough.  Saw plenty of folks today swimming.   After a mostly cloudy and drizzly day with thunderstorms remaining distant, it has cleared off nicely.  Beautiful sunset.  Fully moon will probably wash out the stars tonight.  If we can stay awake long enough to look.

Passing tow/barges near Serenity

5830 SM journeyed; 2017.5 hours hobbs.