Day 91 September 19, 2022

Day 91 Monday September 19, 2022

Hammond Indiana to Joliet Illinois

7am start, engine off at 4pm. 9 hour travel. Sunny upper 70's.

 Sunrise start.

Today was filled with lots of barges  and bridges.  The Calumet River route is very industrial. We traveled the Calumet River for 30 miles before it joins the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and Chicago city route.  We chose this route due to bridge heights but still needed to request bridge openings.  

 Entrance to the Calumet River

  Our first barge encounter was at a bridge opening.  Made for a bit interesting pass in a narrow space.

  

We see more than wild life along the way!

The first lock on the Calumet is the O'Brien Lock.  Joe had to cut his line -- it was tied to the boat while he went inside the boat for a minute.  The water level in the lock started to drop and the tied line prevented his boat from lowering too.  We would do 2 locks today and 48 miles, traveling with Grand Wazoo.  7am start and out of the 1st lock at 9:48 - only 8 miles into our trip. Slow going....

After the Chicago and Calumet River routes we must clear the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Bridge - a hard 19.7 foot clearance.  If you can't make this then you are now doing the "Great U-Turn", instead of the Great Loop.  

Three miles later we passed through the Electric Fish Barrier, preventing the Asian Carp from entering Lake Michigan.  No fish jumping, no excitement.

In Lock #2, Lockport Lock we rafted to Grand Wazoo.  We were out at 3:30pm. We were relieved because the next bridges don't open from 4:15 to 5:15 during rush hour commuter traffic.  Nine boats traveled as a caravan through the 4 bridge lifts.  

The bridge tenders were grateful we were together so they could do 1 lift.  Grand Wazoo, Water Witch, 2nd Chance, Liming, After Hours, Crew Lounge, Blue Yonder, Hele Aku, and us all headed to tie to the Joliet Wall -- a free tie WITH power!! There was enough space for everyone even though 4 boats were already there.  No one had to raft together; a total of 15 boats by evening.

Joliet Wall has gotten a reputation although we didn't have any issues with security or mischief.  Supposedly locals have untied boats during the night.  Local police have increased their patrols. To prevent that we had double lines tied back to the boat and Jerry used a cable with a lock threaded through a cleat back to the boat.  We weren't the only ones!

Introductions were made at docktails.  Greg from 2nd Chance volunteered to contact the Brandon Road Lock at 6am to check barge traffic and wait time.  We are hoping for a 6:30am departure.