Illinois River Junction

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Short day today, a long tow went southbound at 5 in the morning while we were at anchor, not good. Sure enough we left at our usual 7 am and ended up waiting 2 hours at the lock behind that tow. No hardship, we had a nice breakfast fixed our anchor light problem and other little boat chores. It was really hot with hardly a breeze and a hot sun.

We have reached the junction of the Illinois River and are back in Looper territory, a road travelled before when we did the Great Loop. We are anchored behind Slim Island just off Grafton Illinois. We got here early so lots of time for relaxing today. Played the guitar, listened to music and watched the Redneck fishing. Three boats making the Asian carp jump while they catch them with nets, no fishing poles required. They tell us they got 20 in all. The Asian folks eat these and consider them a delicacy. These fish eat plants unlike our Canadian Carp who are bottom feeders. Tow boat U.S. has published recipes, they think the only way to keep them under control is to eat them. These fish eat all plant life and make the other species starve. Last time we came this way, we kept having to clean our decks because of all the carp jumping aboard, we anticipate the dMe scenario this time.

Our beautiful rock bluffs are back along with rolling forested hills, just love the scenery. There are mansions everywhere as well as modest dwellings on stilts. There is more debris floating around, stirred up by the increasing barge traffic. Large dead trees litter the shoreline and the shallows waiting for flood season when they will flow down river looking for an obstruction to get caught on.

We only locked through once today and only have 2 locks to go before the Ohio River at which point we will go north and lose our downriver current. We travelled 56 miles for a total of 618 miles thus far. We passed a tow today and reached a speed of 22.2 miles an hour. We were smoking…never have we had such a fast boat. We used to call the tow Captain and ask what side he would like us to pass on and half an hour later we were still passing, poor North Star she just had no speed.

We have two locks to go through tomorrow so I will enjoy the sunset and call it a night.

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