Days 115

Peoria IL, - Valley City Anchorage

• Start 6:30 AM
• End 6:43 PM
• Underway 11:12 Hours
• Distance 89 miles
• Total Miles on Trip 2057
• Av Speed 7.9 knots
• Locks 2
• Weather Sunny 82 Degrees

What a day! We planned to start at 7am, and travel around 60 miles. When I called the Peoria lock at 6:15am, to see when we would be able to get thru the lock, the lockmaster told me they were just finishing up with a upbound barge and for us to be there in an hour (The lock was an hour away), so off we went.

We arrived as the barge was preparing to leave they lock. We had about a 20 minute wait.

So far all of the locks we have traveled through have either been to change the elevation of the river, or to produce power. The Peoria Lock & Dam are used to raise the water level in the river to allow traffic to pass. When the water flow is high, the wicket dams are lower into the water and you can pass without using the lock. When the water levels are low, they raise the wickets, holding back water to raise the water levels upstream. This lock only raises or lowers you by 8 feet.

In this lock we did not come along the lock wall as we went down. The lockmaster told us to just float in the center of the lock, as he dropped us. It was a very easy lock to go through. Larry & Mary (Living The Dream) were in the lock with us. They told us, they wanted to go past Beardstown (Where you tie up to the barge for the night) and get through the last lock on the Illinois River. They were concerned if they did that the only places to stop for the night were anchorages, and they had not anchored out over night before. We decided that we would go with them, and anchor with them.

It turned out to be a good choice, as neither Angel or I like the looks of the barge we would have docked at for the night.

When we got to the anchorage, Larry found a free wall that we might be able to tie to, but was not sure if the water was deep enough. I went in to check it out, and found plenty of water, but lots of rocks right at the wall. Rocks and props do not go together so we went anchored out.

If it were not for the river briefing that Jeremy at Heritage Harbor gave us, I would not have anchored where we did. (He told us where it was.) We anchored in the river, right outside of the channel. We were protected from barge traffic by a railroad bridge, but it still would not have been my first choice.

Since Larry had not anchored out before, I set my anchor and they rafted off me. One of the concerns anytime we anchor out, is will the anchor hold. After the anchor is set, I back the boat up hard to make sure it will hold. I was very happy with how it set. (Remember this later!!!) Nothing To Plunder has an anchor alarm, that once set will beep very loudly (Think dump truck backup alarm) and will wake us up at night. The anchor alarm also shows me a map of how much or little we move while it is set. I check it often at night. This alarm is also set to alert us to passing barge traffic. The alarm did go off twice as we slept, but it was only passing barges. We did not move more than 30 feet from our original position all night long.

In the morning, Larry and Jane pulled off, then Angel and I went to pull the anchor. I got about 25 feet of the anchor chain pulled and the windlass started struggling, and then stopped working. The circuit breaker tripped. The anchor was really stuck. I had Angel drive the boat forward to break it free, so I could pull it up by hand. I got it up far enough that the anchor was out of the water, but I could not pull it any farther. I looked down and the anchor was fouled in and old anchor chain. Apparently someone else got their anchor stuck, then cut it loose. We got caught in their chain and I had to pull the chain off.

Off to Grafton Illinois, the end of the Illinois River. Grafton is where Illinois River meets the Mississippi River.