GL: Joiliet to Grafton by 9/4/07

[Bill and Birute]

Once clear of the river congestion below Lockport, we received a response
from every tow we contacted.  They usually wanted you in sight and were very
polite and explicit about where they wanted you.  We traveled with 5 other
loopers in a sort of convey and I learned a lot about VHF communication from
listening to the experienced looper in the lead who usually communicated
with bridges and tows.  When we finally took the lead with just one other
boat behind us, I always waited to have the tow in sight and identified
myself by our boat's appearance (downbound/southbound cat in front of you)
and always got a clear response on a pass.  And thank you Coleen Barger for
your information on hailing tows.



Traveling with 5 or 6 other trawlers seemed to help us get through locks
faster, but the flooding on the Illinois has stacked up tows all the way
down the river. You can see them "parked" on the banks waiting for the
current to slow down.  Being able to just motor over the lowered wicket dams
at Peoria and LaGrange also sped up our progress and we were able to cover
100 to 120 miles in an 11 or 12 hour day.  There is still a lot of debris in
the Illinois and it varies from entire trees to just chopped up twigs.  We
stayed at Starved Rock Municipal and Tall Timbers near Hardin which had a
narrow entrance, but no current once inside.  We are at Grafton Harbor
Marina in Grafton with diesel at $3.20 per gallon and the slip rate at $1.25
per foot per night.  The wifi here is great and secure.  If you come in
here, beware of the current inside the marina: it is swift and changes angle
of direction as you move inside it.  We got in late and tired and will
explore not only the marina but the town of Grafton as we wait for storms to
pass by over the next few days.



B & B

TC36 trawlercat