hold the presses

because i'm able to work on the blog offline and because i have much more formatting control, i've decided to move my blog to:  web.me.com/rhumbliner/september_song/

day 4

peoria city dock, 8 hrs, 60 mi

day 3

photo (left to right): mike callahan, scott campbell, mac moore, john kuber, tom reinertson

2 hrs, 18mi to starved rock marina

today was the big day.  since we had successfully negotiated the lemont 19' bridge, it was time to reassemble the radar arch.  but first i have to mention how pretty the mornings are around here in fall.

and yes, mac had us up pretty early for this project.  basically, the arch had to be lifted from it's lashing on the fordeck up to the upper deck where it will be bolted into place and all the wiring reinstalled.  this is how it went.

the reassemble went smoothly and by 1:30pm we were on our way.  we only had a short way to go to reach starved rock marina where we were able to stop and enjoy our surroundings.

day 2

photo (left to right): mike callahan, scott campbell, mac moore, john kuber, tom reinertson

12 hrs, 71 mi to spring brook marina

we rose to a beautiful morning and shoved off as quickly as we could get dressed.  we were anxious to get underway.

now this is living.  even though we were passing thru a heavy industrial section of chicago, we were surprised at how much vegetation was along the banks.  sure, we saw lots of coal and gravel piles but we pass a lot of serene country too.

that pole and flag you see on our bow is our "bridge whip".   the intent is to hit the low bridge with it before we hit the top of the boat.  the whip is set to the same height as the highest point of boat because although most of the bridges are 24' high, there is one bridge in lemont, illinois, the burlington northern railroad bridge is only 19' and since september song is 18'7" high, this is going to be a tight squeeze.

as you can see, it was close.  but we made it and now the rest of the trip would be easy, at least as far as bridges are concerned.

because the cal-sag is a narrow canal, in spots, we had to spend a little time waiting for barges to pass.

and let's not forget about the asian carp.  the army corps of engineers has installed an electric barricade to try and stop the carp from entering lake michigan.  this barricade essentially electrifies the water for about a half-mile stretch of the canal.

this was also the day of locks.  we had 4 to transit:  lockport, brandon road, dresden island, and marseilles (pronounced marsales).

it turned out to be a beautiful day and there was plenty of time to relax.  we gave scot the day off since he saved us the day before.

because september song can throw off a pretty large wake, we attracted all of the jet skiers on the river.

when we finally made the spring brook marina we hit the only rain of the day so we had to wait outside the marina for a bit until the cell passed.  then mac brought us up to the fuel dock, holding our collective breath since the depth sounder was reading 5', our exact draft, but we made it in and celebrated the day with dinner.

day 1

photo (left to right): mike callahan, scott campbell, mac moore, john kuber, tom reinertson

10 hrs, 103 mi to marine services marina

ah, this should be fun.  cruising mac moore''s boat "september song" from it's home at the milwaukee yacht club to it's new home in naples, florida.  3 crew members have signed on for the entire trip: mike callahan, john kuber, and the author, tom reinertson.  mac, of course, will captain the entire cruise and scott campbell has signed on for 2 days as our electronics guru.

preparations for this cruise have been extensive.  mac has been planning the route and our stops while his beautiful wife, tricia, has been packing food, drinks, and all of our supplies as well as organizing and labeling where everything has been stowed.  because of the 19' clearance bridge in lemont, il, september song's, arch had to be removed and lashed to the fordeck.  this was a difficult job because of all the electrical wiring running thru the arch from the equipment on high to the instruments on the bridge.  scott was in charge of the wiring disassembly and was on board until the lemont bridge was cleared and the arch could be raised and reassembled.

spending sunday night, sep 19, aboard, mac, john & tom were joined early the following morning by mike & scott and we set sail around 7am monday morning.  i've often said that without bad weather we wouldn't appreciate the good weather and it seems the weather gods wanted to insure that we appreciated any good weather that came our way by starting the trip with low hanging, gloomy clouds  accompanied by a brisk easterly breeze that mixed with the overnight northeasterly wind to create a confused 3' chop almost the entire day from milwaukee to just south of chicago.

i for one, was pretty happy to turn the corner and leave the lake chop for the pleasant calm of the cal-sag canal.

during the cold, rocking and rolling of the open water we were pretty much confined inside but once we entered the canal we were able to get out onto the deck and enjoy "ditch cruising".

as we were serenely cruising thru the canal we received a radio call from a friendly tug boat captain who asked where we were headed and we thought "wow, people here sure are friendly".  we proudly told him "florida!" and he responded "well then you've missed your turn".  yep, we had managed to get lost in a canal.  more than just a little embarassing. 

we quickly corrected our mistake and transited our first lock, the "thomas j. o'brien".   continuing down the canal we reached our destination for the evening, marine services marina.  it was a nice marina with a large entrance and we had an easy tie on the face of c dock, but during the approach we wrapped a line around our port prop and suddenly we were locked in reverse and headed for a row of docked boats.  mac shut down the engines and we all scrambled and managed to tie off another boat which stopped us short of demolishing a few unsuspecting boats.  

scot saved the day by diving under our boat, with no mask, tank, or fins and managed to find the line and remove it from the prop.  

problem fixed, the day was saved and we enjoyed a quiet evening.