Great Loop Blog | Good News

Day #55 - Ottawa, IL

Left the comfort of the Joliet wall on this bright, sunny morning at 8:30 am.  Kismet left with us. 

It was a long day as we locked through the first lock quickly and then waited two hours to lock through the second one. 

A few of the channel markers were a bit out of place from the floods. 

Someone really wishes he would have heeded the warnings and taken his boat out.

Now, it is 4:10 and we are still waiting to lock through the third lock, the Marseilles lock.  The breeze died, it was really still and the “no seeums” were biting like crazy.  After we got through, it was a short ride down to Heritage Harbor in Ottawa.

Arrived in Ottawa at 4:30, three locks, many bridges, lots of river debris and eight hours after we left.  Great people working here (Mike, Capt. Moe) as they were ready and waiting for us.  Unfortunately, the slip they attempted to put us in was only 16′ wide.  We take 15′8″, but the captain pulled us in without incident.  We decided to move to a wider slip, one dock over, and it was longer so we had a better tie up.  Docked next to Victory, out of Ft. Lauderdale with Harold and Cheryl and their kids.  We had been with them in Chicago and Joliet.  They invited us onbard to their 60′ Hatteras.  It is a beautiful boat, 29 years old and belonged to his parents.  It has been repainted and the inside refitted and pristine. 

Left there and went to the 60′ “Reception Boat” (above) that Heritage Harbor provides.  They have cocktail hour and a reception on it each night. Saw many familiar faces and some new ones.  Because of the floods, some of the boats have been here almost two weeks. They said at the peak, these rivers here in the marina, rose an additional ten feet and all of the docks were under water. Glad we were safe and sound and tied up in Chicago at the time.

Came back, had dinner and chillaxing for the rest of the night.