The river adventure begins: Calumet River entrance to Henry IL

We are shiny and clean!

 In hindsight we should have stopped in Chicago on Friday night but we went on to Hammond Port Authority to position ourselves to get off Lake Michigan as fast as possible. Turns out Saturday was beautiful. Cold but beautiful. It would have been a great day to see Marissa and my cousins John with his little ones, James and Mallory. But they could not come out to visit us in Hammond. It is way too far away.

Hammond Port Marina

Turns out the weather was clear and beautiful that Saturday although it was cold.  So we busied ourselves on Saturday with final preparations for the river journey. Hammond Port Authority is a very nice marina. The bathrooms are clean. We saw only a few people. There are two boats that look like likely targets for the river journey. We would meet them later.

First priority was the grocery store. We needed just a few things before we left. The fine folks at the marina office offered up their security guy to take us to the Walmart which is close and has a grocery store. Kermit wanted to buy a hat and gloves because it is cold!

Hammond IN

Mike, the security guard / driver, was talking about the Loopers he has hosted. He indicated that some folks are already talking about selling their boats. I mentioned that the folks who bought our old Good Karma have already put their boat up for sale when they return. Turns out Mike met that couple! Isn’t it a small world?

And so it begins - entering the Calumet River

Sunday morning October 14, 2018, we folded the frozen water hose and power cord onto their spots on the front deck and made our way to the gas dock for a pump out and to top off the fuel tanks. Remember our lesson from Milwaukee, never turn down a chance to have a pump out! I did the pump out while Kermit finished fueling. My first pump out!

We headed toward the entrance to the Calumet River on a clear and cold morning! Lots of bridges and river traffic nothing like it would have been during the week.

approaching the 19' bridge at M300.5

 We mark our progress by counting miles. The entrance to the Calumet River is Mile 333.4. That means it is 333 miles away from the Mississippi River.

seen at the side of the water

The first lock, Thomas O’Brien Lock at 326.4, is only a 2’ drop that pretty much turns the entire river to flow away from Lake Michigan.

will we make it?

It seemed like it took forever to make that little drop. We didn’t have to tie up, just float around like crazy people which the water dropped a tiny bit and the water flow did its business.

Lots of traffic on the Calumet River

yes we did!! Plenty of room to spare!

Electrical Barrier at M296

EMile 300.5 is the lowest bridge we go under on this journey at 19.1’. It is the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Swing Bridge. Only the bridge does not swing. With the high water we were concerned about getting under it. In Sturgeon Bay we took the radar arch down. In Milwaukee we measured and we are 18’4”. We held our breath. I went to the upper deck. We kept all the doors open and Kermit stuck his head out the window and drove very slowly while I watched from above. All is well! We had plenty of room!

See the apparatus on the left?

We went through the electrical barrier designed to prevent Asian Carp from getting into the Great Lakes at Mile 296.

The confluence of the rivers to
create the Illinois River

We went through 1 more lock that day. We had no problem at all at Lockport Lock and Dam Mile 291.0. As we were approaching the lock, Kermit called on the radio to get instructions and the Lockmasters said, “We are closed.” Our mouths dropped open. After a beat, she came back on the radio and said, “Just kidding!” It was much less funny to us!

Not just sight seeing - these folks are really working - that is
Dry Martini navigating around barges (tows) at the
electrical barrier

Finally we made it to Joliet, Mile 288 at about 4pm. It was a long day, especially considering we only traveled about 40 miles. We would need to do a lot better in upcoming days. Nothing much happened that nigh except docktails with Butch and Eva from Dry Martini, a 3788 Bayliner, just like Karen and Jim Sigman’s Wanderer!

Tied to the wall at Joliet with Dry
Martini and Harbor Lady

Kermit at the 2nd lock

Dry Martini was one of the boats that we saw docked at Hammond Port Authority! We were traveling with them without knowing who they are. We started talking with them on the radio because some very rude Sea Ray cruiser passed us both at top speed causing a huge disruptive wake that cause Dry Martini to heave like crazy! Funny thing is that we were in a lock with them that day. After the lock, the Sea Ray left slowly keeping up with Dry Martini very respectfully until it threw down the power and purposely caused another huge wake! We were all squawking on the radio so the Lockmaster could hear. No pictures because we were so upset

At Joliet getting ready to leave in the morning

Butch is from International Falls and Eva is from NYC by way of Atlanta. They met while living traveling the US on RVs then decided to buy a boat. They travel around until they find a nice place to stay. When they need money they get jobs until they earn the money they want for the next part of the journey. I would say they are living an adventurous life! We will see them again.

Monday October 15, 2018. The day dawned cold and clear again. We started the morning with kind of a comedy of errors. We called the Brandon Road Lock and Dam at Mile 286.0 at about 6:30am as we were getting up. They said, “No problem. Come on down.” We got out to talk to Dry Martini and the other boat, Harbor Lady, that pulled in late on Sunday night. This was the other boat we noticed at Hammond. No sign of life on Harbor Lady.

By the time we got the boats untied and on the water, the 16’ bridge that stood between us and the lock notified us that they would not open until 8:30am after rush hour traffic. We turned around and went back to the dock. As we passed upriver to wait, the railroad bridge between us and the street bridge announced that a train was coming. We were trapped like rats with 2 bridges between us and the lock now! We finally got through both bridges about 9am, 2 hours after we originally planned to leave. It was all preventable too. We will be more careful next time!

We got through the 3^rd lock, Brandon Road Mile 286.0 and the 4^th lock, Dresden Lock and Dam Mile 271.5 without incident. We had Dry Martini rafted off of us in the lock which provided some nice stability.

This is a cell 

The problem came at the Marseilles Lock at Mile 244.6. A huge tow was going upstream through the lock. A tow is the word used to describe a tug boat that is pushing or pulling a series of barges that are tied together.

Waiting at Marsailles Lock tied
to a cell

On the Illinois River the tows are as small as one or two barges tied together to as large as three barges across and six barges long all tied together. This was a really big one. Really big tows have to go through the locks in pieces. If they can, the Lockmasters let pleasure craft sneak in when they send the water back down to get the rest of the barges.

We are called into the lock - check out the
first part of that huge tow in the background

Good Karma tied to that cell out of
the channel but near the lock to take action
when called

Check out that tow leaving the lock!
It is getting darker

In this case, the three boats (Good Karma, Dry Martini, Harbor Lady who caught up with us) and a fourth boat, a sailboat on the loop were told to tie up to these huge cement round things called “cells” until he could get us through. It was so windy that he decided not to allow us to cut in line when he sent the lock water down to get the rest of the barges that were part of this huge tow. So we were tied up to those “cells” for about 3 ½ hours! By the time we got through the lock it was about 5pm and getting dark fast.

Harbor Lady had reservations at Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa Mile 242.3. We were originally planning to keep going but there was no alternative but to tuck in to Heritage Harbor with them. So we did. They fine folks at Heritage Harbor were wonderful! They found places for all of us!

By now we have traveled only 80 miles in two days but we were exhausted!

Slipping into the Marsailles Lock
before Ottawa at dusk

Heritage Harbor is one of the prettiest, nicest marinas we have been to. It truly puts our home port, Venetian Marina, to shame and at a lower price point too! People travel here from Chicago, which is actually only an hour or two away.

We had dinner and drinks at Red Dog and got to know Butch and Eva better. They are really nice people!! I hope we run into them again. Dry Martini and Harbor Lady left Ottawa on Tuesday morning early. We decided to stay one more day so Kermit could do an oil change. Jim Shimandle advises us to do that first oil change after only 10 hours of running time following the major repairs in Milwaukee.

That meant we needed to find oil and oil filters. We had one of those kinds of mornings where we wandered around and didn’t get much done until we did. You know what I mean? We had a wonderful adventure in a Farm and Fleet! Kermit found seven gallons of 40W diesel oil at Farm and Fleet then he found oil filters at a Napa Auto Parts place. We got lunch at a local place then Kermit decided to change something about the oil he just purchased. I took that opportunity to go to the Kroger across the street. We didn’t need anything but I wanted a little distraction.

Finally we made it back to the boat with our oil change supplies. Kermit spent the afternoon doing our first ever oil change on this boat. It went well although the process needs a little smoothing out.

We learned how to use the
windlass while at Ottawa

While Kermit was recovering from the oil change I went for a really long walk around this beautiful facility. Heritage Harbor is building a resort around it with beautiful, colorful cottages and some condos with a great view of the river. I highly recommend it!

Tuesday Oct 16 was our 24^th wedding anniversary but we were too tired to do much of anything. We did attend a river briefing by the Dockmaster, Jeremy at about 5pm. He was born along the rivers and spent 10+ years at Alton Marina before coming to Heritage Harbor. He gave us a marker by marker update all the way to Hoppies in Kissimee MO on the Mississippi. I have scribbling all over my Skipper Bob’s book which gives me all the options we need to make smart decisions.

Jeremy said the Mississippi is really high with very high currents right now because they are coming off some heavy rains in the last 2 weeks. The currents are as high as 12 mph with lots of debris including trees and stuff from the storms. The debris can become like missiles. There are dozens of Loopers stuck in Alton and Grafton Marinas waiting for the water to go down and the debris to clear. That means there is no incentive for us to go quickly to Alton or Grafton.

Wednesday Oct 17 was REALLY windy. With Jeremy’s words ringing in our ears, we decided to stay one more day. It is a wonderful place to hang out. We cleaned the boat, did laundry, took showers and generally tried to use up all the water on the boat because Heritage Harbor has REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER ON THE DOCK!! Unbelievable. This place is WONDERFUL! If we were closer we would dock here!

 

Really cold and frosty at Ottawa

Thursday morning Oct 18 was frosty and foggy, not a great combination. We needed a pump out but the gas dock didn’t open until 9am. Just fine because of the fog and frost. At 8:30am we folded up our hoses and headed over to the gas dock. This marina has dockside pump out (of course they do!) but the hose wouldn’t extend to our boat in our slip so we had to go to the gas dock.

Ottawa is the burial place of the fellow
who founded the Boy Scouts of America -
cool huh?

The dockhand was a little less than competent so the pump out took 45 minutes, way longer than it should have. That is almost Venetian speed! We didn’t leave Ottawa until about 10am, a late start.

The Starved Rock Lock was an adventure. By the time we got there one of those huge tows was halfway through the lock. We waited 90 minute then they snuck us through on the down bound lock through. They were so nice!

Katherine in the lock

Nice fellow working on that tow in Starved Rock Lock

Lots of debris everywhere

We see all sorts of stuff - not sure what this guy is doing

Pelicans? 

Lots of pelicans? In Illinois? In fall? 

Good Karma tied up on
the lock at Henry Il 

Isn't the old lock pretty? 

Our target on Thursday evening was Henry IL. In this spot we tied up to a rock wall that was part of a old lock. It was a very challenging tie up. Thank goodness a nice bystander, Mark, drove over to help us tie up! I am not sure what we would have done. We probably could not have stayed here.

Ever wonder what Katherine does all day? On the phone
with clients!

Katherine with Natalie in Henry IL!

Another boat, Oriental Hula, followed us most of the day and tied up on the wall right by us so we are not alone.

Kermit and I went to a nice Mexican place, Rio Vista Grill, to meet up with a former client of mine, Natalie. We had a great time. It was nice to put a face to a name!

Next up: Based on our discussions with Dockmaster Jeremy at Heritage Harbor, we created a plan with four options depending on the weather. The weather is supposed to kick up bad on Saturday. We will play with our options and see what happens next. I am attaching a picture of our planning so you can see how we do this. It is not pretty!

We are taking option A or B right now. We stopped in Peoria at the Illinois Valley Yacht Club, known as IVY Club for Friday night 10/19 and Saturday night 10/20 because a storm will hit on Saturday (tomorrow). We don't want to be anchoring out. Then I suspect we will follow option B with 60, 50, and 40  mile days before hitting Alton IL on the Mississippi. Play along at home to see what happens!

Engine repairs complete – we are on the road again!

At least the view was nice at
McKinley Marina in Milwaukee

Gertie the Duck

Jim and Scott Shimandle from Shimandle Diesel arrived on Sunday with Sheri Shimandle for a combo get together and repair experience. Mostly repair work. 

We have known Jim and Sheri for years from the days when they docked at Venetian D dock and through All Ports Yacht Club, our little drinking society. We are so grateful that they found our predicament interesting enough to drive to Milwaukee to help!

 

We saw different vistas at
McKinley Marina

 The plan was to host these three friends on the boat so it could be a combination vacation (mostly for Sheri) and work camp but in a boating setting. What could be better?

We spent the weekend (Oct 6 and 7) cleaning everything and setting up the cabins to be comfortable for our guests. We moved all the crap that accumulates when you think you have extra space. This was a particular problem in the forward cabin where Scott would stay because literally no one uses that space.

The Art Museum

We moved stuff into other hiding spots and consolidated things like bags and luggage into the smallest possible space on the lower bunk, freeing the upper bunk to be a clean, comfortable cabin for Scott. We added blankets to every bed because it was starting to get cold. We cleaned all bathrooms and hooked up all TVs. We were ready and excited to see our friends.

NOTE: We will be equally excited to see you if you want to visit!!

Saturday night during midnight bathroom breaks, we noticed that the toilet in the middle and aft bathrooms were not flushing properly. Then came the sound every boater dreads – water overflowing! We leaped from the bed, grabbed a red solo cup and started to bail. Toilet water backed up in the aft and (we soon discovered) the forward heads. OMG and TOTAL YUCK!!

Cleanup completed, we got the bleach out and repaired the sanitary damage. Kermit got out the owner’s manual and discovered we probably needed a pump out. But we’ve only been on the boats a few days since the last pump out! Actually, we must have been living on the boat more than we thought. Unfortunately we were stuck on N dock with no way to get to the pump out on the other side of the marina.

We couldn’t stay on the boat after all! We could still cook and drink but not pee.

We made arrangements for the whole gang of us to stay at the Astor Hotel about 1.5 miles away. More about that later. First, let’s bring you up to date on the engine repairs.

After 3 ½ days of work, Jim and Scott are still not sure why the engine broke. But we do know what Jim and Scott repaired.

A little background about these engines. The starboard engine and transmission were removed from the boat and completely rebuilt in 2006. When repairs were complete, the engine and transmission were assembled on site and the boat redecorated. Great, right? Unfortunately, the rebuilt starboard engine was not assembled properly from the beginning.

No one noticed. The fellow we bought the boat from purchased the boat in 2008, 2 years after the starboard engine was completely rebuilt and the boat was remodeled. He didn’t notice any engine problems because he did not travel in the boat so the engines didn’t run enough to notice. We don’t think the previous owner put 10 hours on the engines in the 10 years he owned the boat. We put 10 hours on the boat in the first day.

Two things happened simultaneously:

A water leak in the starboard engine head. A bad water line allowed water to leak into the head which caused a seizure in the number 2 cylinder which then corrupted the liner on the number 2 cylinder.

Number 1 cylinder. The liner was too loose and must have been vibrating the entire time. The liner cracked which bent the connecting rod which forced the rod to knock the injector loose and spray diesel into the oil pan. When that happened a piece of the liner flew off the crank shaft and hit the bottom of the liner on the number 2 cylinder and broke it, adding insult to injury. Remember the number 2 cylinder had its own problem to begin with.

So we ended up with 2 broken liners, a bent connecting rod, a bad injector and 4 broken fuel lines that feed the injectors.

What we learned was that if we hadn’t shut down the engine immediately we would have destroyed the entire engine.

The moral of the story: when you hear something funny in the engine, shut it down immediately and investigate. Don’t restart the engine. Don’t hope the noise goes away. It never will go away. It will only get worse.

Another moral: Don’t pass up the opportunity to get a pump out. You never know when it will come in handy!

The Astor Hotel

The Astor Hotel is located a little over a mile from the marina in the Yankee Hill East Town neighborhood, just east of downtown Milwaukee. It is a 9 story beauty built in 1920, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I love staying in these kinds of hotels. I love supporting hotels that are a little funky. This hotel did not disappoint.

The rooms were a little different. In addition to the usual accoutrements (bed, little table, nice little chair in the corner) the bathroom was tiled in bright pink old style tile with a fascinating system of dials to shower. It took us a couple of days to figure out the shower. Plus it had a 2 inch step to get into the bathroom. Nice tripping hazard.

Each room has what is known as a dry cleaning door. I first saw this kind of door when staying at a fabulous hotel on Lake Como in Italy, Villa d’Este. The big wooden doors for each room have a rounded second door on the hall side and the room side. Each side has a lock. This allowed the visitor to hang a piece of clothing from the room side, close the door, then the hotel attendant would pick up the clothing from the hall side in the middle of the night, clean or press the clothing and return the clothing to the hall side of the closet so the tenant could access the clean clothing from the room side. Isn’t that cool?

The closet door in our room did not open. But the door in Sheri’s room (next door) stuck all the time. It required a lot of hip pitches from the hall while pulling from the room side to get that door open. But the inner closet door opened!! There was a little hanger and two shelves large enough for a pair of shoes. Cool huh?

Spending time in Milwaukee

Safe House

Jim, Scott and Kermit left the hotel every morning at 7:30am. Jim and Scott removed the wall to the engine room so they could get at the entire starboard engine. They put blankets on the floor. Scott was assigned to engine yoga, bending into a small space to get at the other side of the engine.

Kermit cooked lunch and made sure the guys were comfortable. He made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, hamburgers, and a grilled pork wrap and we brought carryout Mexican one day.

I cooked dinner: pot roast, pork chops, and chicken mostaccoli.

While the guys were working hard, Sheri and I explored Milwaukee. Sheri found a good place for breakfast and brought me carry out two days. We went to the suburbs to see A Star is Born and had lunch at Maggianos. One day we walked around the Historic Third Ward along the riverfront and had lunch at Onesto, a marvelous modern Italian restaurant. We had a wonderful pomegranate sangria!

Safe House Milwaukee

Safe House Milwaukee

One day we went to lunch at a place called Safe House, a spy themed restaurant. We entered through a sort of unmarked door into a tiny room staffed by a woman who called herself Money Penny. She made us do funny hand gestures like a hula dance before letting us in through a secret door. The restaurant used to be a jazz club in the early 1900s. The rabbit warren of rooms have different spy related themes.

We sat in the Hong Kong section in a tiny alcove with the tiniest table and benches. The food was delicious. It even had a resident magician who gave us a tour! I got to sit in a bar chair that goes up and down.

In the Soviet room we saw prison door from a real Stazi (East German Secret Police). Through the food door you could see that the prison cell was only 18 inches deep. The fellow who was imprisoned there when the Berlin Wall came down had the opportunity to keep two prison doors. He gave one to Safe House and one to the Spy Museum in Washington DC.

Bottom Line. Sheri and I had a wonderful time exploring Milwaukee, the guys did great work and we had a wonderful time together!

Leaving McKinley Marina to
overcast skies - it was about
to get icky

Friday morning, Oct 12, 2018 I returned the rental car and by the time I walked back to the marina, Kermit was ready to get going. We started up the engines and everything worked well! We pulled in to the McKinley Marina gas dock for a much needed pump out. It seemed to take forever. Kermit rinsed it three time to be sure it was completely empty.

Can you see Chicago in the background? 

We left Milwaukee around 8:30am to grey skies and a bit of rain. The waves inched up to 3’ to 5’ but you couldn’t tell inside the boat. The ride was smooth and easy from the inside although it was pretty cold. We put on layers then put on more layers. 

Ideally we would have liked to stop in Chicago at DuSable Marina but we feared the water was so bad that we would have trouble getting to the Calumet Sag entrance. We so much wanted to be off Lake Michigan that we kept going all the way to Hammond. We arrived around 3pm amidst cold rain.

This morning we awoke to icy walkways at Hammond Marina.

We took the paper off the side names
even without a naming ceremony - we need
to be visible on the rivers

The skies turned clear and sunny as the day progressed. It looks like it will be a good day on Sunday 10-14 to head down the river.

Our next step is to start down the rivers. We will get to Florida eventually. Until then, our hearts go out to the folks on the Florida Panhandle after Hurricane Michael.