The World Cruise of Veleda IV

Peoria to the Mississippi River

Getting into the IVY club on October 4 was difficult as we were ploughing a furrow for about 30 yards as we went out of the channel over to the yacht club buoys and into their channel. We had called ahead and were assured there was enough water, so in we went. We were directed to a vacant slip by the manager and assisted alongside by a fellow boater. The hospitality of the club was very pleasant and congenial. They were well equipped with excellent showers, laundry facilities, bar and restaurant. The dockage was only $25.00 a night. They provided me an office from which I was able to send off some E-mail, and of course Judy had a chance to call home. We were offered the use of their crane to put up our mast, but it was too small.

The next day we went over to their gas dock for fuel and pump out, then were helped to back into our original slip by Bill Zeithammer so we could do some work on the upper section of our mast while it was still down (changed the upper mast steps and put in a new roller furler bearing, as the one we replaced in Beaver Island had a crack in the main washer). Bill also took us into town to his ACE Hardware store for some SAE 30 oil and propane. When we returned another lady took us up into town to do some grocery shopping. Our experience there was very positive Thank you IVY club.

When we left on October 6, the weather was still grey as it had been for the past week. We went through Peoria Lock and down to anchor that evening at Bath Chute at the side of the river at Mile106.9. We started at Chicago at Mile 327.0. However their mileage on their river charts is in land miles, not nautical miles. While here we did an oil change and changed the oil filter. This was only our third oil change for this new engine, which has now 400 hours on it. We only had 13 hours on it when we left THSC on July 3.

Grey again the next day! We had to wait at anchor at La Grange lock for one of those double tows to go through. It took two and a half hours until we got through. We continued down river and anchored for the night just below the highway bridge at Florence. It was disconcerting to anchor in the river with a 1.5 knot current going past. The boat doesn't move much once anchored in a current. Usually any wind isn't strong enough to push it perpendicular or upstream of the current. A bit of information we had in order to avoid any swinging in a current was not to put out a stern anchor, but stream a bucket astern as a sea anchor to offset any wind effect. We have not tried this yet, but it sounds plausible.Tow on Illinois River

October 7, Judy had a nice conversation with a tow skipper on MISS DIXIE. She called him up to identify which side of the channel he would like us to take as he passed us. After he passed he called up to ask where we were from and where headed. She had a pleasant chat with him for a couple of minutes. All the tow boat skippers seem to have a southern accent (just like truckers on CB have Arkansas accents). Women are always called "Ma'am" and men "skipper" regardless. We have not heard a female tow operator yet, but we understand there are some. All of the skippers are all very polite and wish: "Y'all have a good day now".

Tow operators communicate on channel 13. When meeting a tow going in the opposite direction, you have to determine which side of the tow you will pass down. This is not just a rule of the road situation, as the tows may be rounding a bend giving you minimal room, or they may be maneuvering their tow into a "barging" area. They or you could use sound signals, but they communicate readily on 13. I doubt if they know the origin of the sound signals, but they use the term "one whistle side" or "two whistle side". One whistle side means you will pass port to port. The one whistle means "I am altering my course to starboard" which then would put you on a port to port passing situation. Similarly the two whistle side is a starboard to starboard pass, as it means "I am altering my course to port" thus causing a starboard to starboard pass. So when we call them, I suggest which side I would like to pass if that is O.K. with them. I would call and say something as follows:

" Upbound tow at Clark Island, this is the downbound pleasure craft VELEDA. We will pass you on your one whistle side if that is O.K. with you."

They will usually come back with: " That's fine skipper. Y'all have a good day now."

They do not use full VHF voice procedure, and so the repetition of your boats name three times plus your call signs and channel being used would be time consuming and confusing to the tow operators. You are either another tow or a "pleasure craft". They do not care whether you are a sail boat or power boat or what your name is. I have found and been told by other boaters to try to pass a tow on port to port unless coming up to a bend. At bends it is best to pass a tow on the inside of the bend to give him and you the most maneuvering room.

As we neared the end of the Illinois River, we stopped at the Illinois River Dock Restaurant for lunch. It was recommended to us by a couple of other boaters we met in one of the locks. It had a small barge along the shore with a walkway to a parking lot and the restaurant. The food was quite inexpensive and tasty. The owner came over at least three times with a plate of his specialty for us to taste We enjoyed the food so much we ordered a brisket and a spicy chicken to take with us and to heat up for supper.

We planned to stop at Pere Marquette Park just before the Illinois River empties into the Mississippi at a town called Grafton. There was a camber with docks inside it. However when we tried to enter we got stuck on a mud bar. We were told there was sufficient depth to enter, so we backed off and tried again a few feet farther downstream from our first attempt. No go! We grounded again. This time we had a harder time backing off. Finally, we launched our dinghy, but kept it hooked on to our dinghy tow arms. I started up the dinghy and put it in full ahead while Judy had Veleda's engine hard astern. The combination of the two engines got us off.

It was now 4:30 and it got dark by 6:15 or so, and here we were at the junction of the Mississippi and the Illinois river with no anchorage in sight. We motored down to Grafton which is just on the Mississippi and refueled at a small barge dock there. The river mouth was very wide with a stronger, dirtier current, and one which carried down a lot of debris, including logs and entire trees. We wanted to find an inexpensive place to leave Veleda for a week as I wanted to fly out to Salt Lake City to visit a Mormon friend I had met in Japan, and Judy wanted to visit her family in Toronto. However, dusk at the juncture of these two rivers was no time to start shopping for marina storage. So we asked at the fuel dock where there was an anchorage, and were directed a mile downstream on the Missouri side off the main channel between some islands.

So off we went down the Mississippi and over to a set of islands in the growing dusk. The current was something else! Rather than the gentler 1 to 1.5 knots of the Illinois, we now had a 3 or 4 knot current pushing us down. We crossed over to the Missouri side and went below one island into the recommended anchorage area. We grounded! In a four knot current just after sunset! Again we couldn't get off until I lowered the dinghy and did the tow and reverse routine again. That dinghy tow system was a very good investment for us. We can tow the dinghy astern of us, with the motor on and the gas tank and life jackets strapped into it for rapid deployment and use. But - now I found myself in a dinghy attached to Veleda and having to climb out of it back into Veleda in a four knot current! I made it O.K. and then we had to decide if we would try again to get into the island group to anchor. We saw another sailboat over by the islands, but we were not sure if it was under way or at anchor.

We tried again, but leaving more distance from the island upstream in case there was a long sandbar down stream of it. We felt our way through, not relying on our depth sounder, and a couple of times feeling our keel plow a furrow in the bottom mud, and hoping that we would not ground ourselves deeper in it. We finally got between the islands and started heading upstream We lowered our heavy 35 pound plow anchor with 50 feet of chain and twenty feet of rode in what we thought was about five or six feet of water. We draw four and a half feet. It held firmly in the muddy bottom. Anchored at last!

It is a strange feeling to be anchored and see a four knot current flowing past your boat. Then the thumps! We were startled. The debris floating downstream was hitting the boat and we could do nothing about it. A few branches would catch on the anchor rode. We would hear a thump, then a series of clunks as a log bumped down the side of the boat. The other sail boat weighed anchor and left shortly after we anchored. Did they know something we did not? Was there going to be a down rush of water as they opened some of the dams further up, or would the water level drop as they closed the dams to reduce the water flow below the Missouri River which entered the Mississippi just six miles below us? Would we ground? We spent a night filled with uncertainty and clunks all night long.

We survived and will set forth our journey down the Mississippi in our next log.