Another early start to the day after a long, but great, river briefing from Jeremy at Heritage Harbor last evening! He does a 2 hour+ slide show with info on the river system and where you can anchor between Ottawa and Paducah, KY. Warns you about shallow spots not on the charts, and gives general information to keep you safe and for a more enjoyable ride down stream.

Started the day again before sunup, with a run for Memphis and some pictures of the harbor. Our boat is the one straight ahead with the back lights on!

Started down the river early and Amy got a great shot of the sunrise. It was light out before we pulled off the dock, but just barely!

First, and only, lock today was Starved Rock Lock and Dam. It was about 11 miles downstream and we arrived just as they were closing the doors with only 3 boats in the chamber. We arrived with 10 boats, as our official flotilla is over.

Great pictures of Starved Rock Park behind the lock and across the river dam.

I know I need to shave! Maybe tomorrow?

We continued down river past many small towns.

There was more barge traffic today than any day so far, but I hear it will be a lot heavier when we hit the Mississippi.

Sometimes it is a little tight between these guys and the shallow spots! We did have to stop a couple times today so they could clear a corner without taking us out. It is their highway!

As we traveled down the river today, we must have seen over 50 large Bald Eagles. Door County has some work to do to catch up with this industrial river area for eagles! We also had a stretch where the Asian Carp were jumping on the side and behind the boat. We did not move fast enough to get pictures of either. We will work on that for you!

Short post today, as I am tired from the 79.7 mile day. We did run the engines up to 1800 RPM’s for 15 minutes today but keeping her inside the channel markers at that speed was no fun! Total travel time today was 8 hours with the lock and the mileage.

We were supposed to be at the IVY Club in Peoria tonight, but he harbor master called and told us that they only have 4’6″ of water in the opening. We draw 5′, so we had to continue down stream to the Peoria public wall. Keep your fingers crossed, as there have been some issues with locals in this area. That’s what we have this furious watch dog for!

Pulled into the small public harbor, with a wall that is 100′ long. There was a 37′ boat tied so that no other boats could get on the wall. All the other slips are 25-35′ max. I had to get creative on backing into the harbor and how to tie the boat! Let me know what you think!!!

That’s it for today, time to walk into town and find a place for dinner. Tomorrow we head down toward Beardstown where we will have to anchor for the night. This will be the first time for Memphis to have to use the dinghy to go out only 3 times in the day! Wish her luck.

Hope everyone has a great evening and enjoy the Packer Game!