Yesterday after we reached Joliet Darrell put the mast back up. We had gone under the very low bridges. He had just finished when we got a thunderstorm. It rained very hard for a couple of hours.
Although it is very nice to be in the river system and off the big water, you trade one set of problems for another. The wait at the locks can be quite long. Tows take priority to pleasure craft in locking through and some of the tows are so long that they have to separate and go through in 2 lockings.
Our first lock of the day was just a few miles from Joliet. There had been a southbound tow go past us early this morning and Passport called the lock to find out how long it would take that tow to get through the lock. We would plan our departure based on that. We found out that there was also a northbound tow and that would tie up the lock much longer. While we were waiting, another southbound tow went past us. Luckily, the Lockmaster said we could lock through after the northbound and before the southbound that had just gone by us.
We cast off at 9:30, got to the lock and waited about 45 minutes and were able to lock through. We got out of the lock at 11. Half the day already done and we had gone 2 miles!
We saw these little floating houses at a marina. Vacation rentals?
We got to the second lock at 12:45. We found two tows waiting to go south and one tow in the lock going north. The Lockmaster had us tie up on the cement wall and told us he’d get us into the lock in about 2 hours. In further discussions it was discovered that the marina Footloose and Passport expected to stay in tonight had low water and they probably couldn’t get into a slip. There was also heavy rain expected to start any time today and over the course of the next 2 days there was supposed to be 5” of rain.
The Lockmaster had told us we could stay overnight tied to the wall and, after considering everything, we all decided to stay here. Footloose and Passport are tied to the wall and we are rafted to Passport. We have a wonderful view of the tows locking through. We saw the towboat James L. Oberstar. We assume it was named after our Minnesota Congressman who chairs the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
So, our travel day today ended at 1 p.m. at the Dresden Island lock. We traveled 15.6 miles.
1 lock today – total of 78 locks
