A REALLY BIG DAY

We left Hammond at 8AM on Sunday morning along with Trawler Akasha. Several other Looper boats left even earlier.  Down the Calumet River we go. Lots of bridges, railroad bridges, car bridges and industry.  The first lock was the Thomas O'Brien lock which we got through pretty quickly.  

Then continuing down the Calumet, Akasha motored ahead and we traversed the river alone.  Saw some fairly nasty looking boats but then there were pockets of man-made waterfalls and lots of wildlife too.  Egrets and herons galore!  Made us feel like the river is pretty healthy to see all those birds.

Our kitty Molly came out and was checking out the cockpit.  We were so glad to see her come up by us and get out from down below.  She's doing just great!

Then we reached the confluence of the Calumet with the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal and the waterway became the Cal-Sag.  Very skinny water and LOTS of barge fleeting areas.  We did run into a half-hour delay when we encountered a couple of tugs loading up a towboat near Lemont.  Then through the Electric fence which is supposed to keep the Asian Carp of our the Great Lakes.  It was a non-event, just cruised through the electrified water and we were done.  No big deal.  We got to Lockport Lock about 3:10 and 2 boats we sitting on the wall waiting.  Once tied up, we heard that it would be a couple or more hours before we could get through.  There were barges coming up and they said they had a hazardous load that needed to get through and nobody goes with them.  So we welcomed other Looper boats as they arrived and joined us on the wall.  

Rosemary and Kathryn on Akasha invited me aboard to do yoga on the back deck of their boat.  We had a great practice in the sun right there tied up to the lock wall.  We got to meet fellow boaters and enjoy each other's company while we were waiting. 

Wouldn't you know that when I went down below to make dinner about 6:00 the call came over channel 14 on the radio.  The crew of the Towboat MALLARD was going to let us lock through with them.  Our Looper group had blossomed to 8 boats and 2 more we approaching quickly.  So 10 Looper boats and the Tow MALLARD took a drop of 40'.

New friends John & Karen on Sundowner

 Going down - down - down...

Then it was this mass exodus of boats racing into Joliet.  

 

Several bridges had to be raised as we all paraded down river with our running lights on.  It was really kind of neat. Coming into tie up however was craziness! All of us descended on the wall at the same time, a crumbly wall at that.  Thank God for the crews of Seamont and Pimaro for helping all all get in safely!!  They were running back and forth grabbing lines left and right.  We had met the the crew of Seamont - Silvi and Simon, a French Canadian couple on a Rossborough on our dock back in Sturgeon Bay.  They spent a few days on our dock and were even at the Manager's Appreciation party. It was wonderful to see them and reconnect again.  I think we will be doing lots of that as we continue our journey.

Well, I know there were 10 captains and crew that were very happy to get to port.  It had been a long day for us all and it was almost dark when we arrived. Once in, we got off our boats and looked at each other like "Did that just really happen?"  We enjoyed some docktails with John, Karen, Tom and Cassie recounting our adventures of the day and what a day it was!

It is now Monday morning and we are trying to decide if we want to travel today or just stay put.  It's chilly and a little rainy so we may just take the day "off".