Day 11: Joliet to Ottawa, Il

Another 0700 start in order to get through a drawbridge in Joliet before the city's morning rush hour could mature, and be set up to enter our first Lock for the day. Preston confirms with the bridge tender and we ensure two blooper boats that are with us on the wall are aware of this early opportunity.

We set off, and passage through the Brandon Rd Lock & Dam is straightforward, as is that at the Dresden Island Lock & Dam (where we pause briefly to allow an upbound tug-and-barge to exit and pass). At this latter point, we have just passed the confluence of the Kankakee River, so we're now in a waterway officially called the Illinois River, which will take us to the Mississippi at Grafton, Il. By this means, we'll have voyaged across the entire breadth of the state of Illinois.

At the Marseilles Dam ('Mar-sails') we enter the short Marseilles Canal that leads us to the Lock. Here we encounter some barge traffic; one coming up and soon to enter the Lock, and one downbound which will enter when the upbound exits. We three non-commercial vessels sneak over and lurk near the stern of the stationary downbound tug and barge to allow the upbound to exit the Lock and pass. The 3-wide barge groups fit width-wise into the Lock like a hand into a glove. We are fully expectant of a 3-hr delay here (a 'pause for the cause', as Preston puts it), and so it turns out. The upbound tow exits and the downbound ahead of us then manoeuvres away from its holding point and enters the Lock. This chamber is too short for the tug and its grouping of barges, so the tug pushes its load into the chamber and withdraws. We watch as the barges drop out of sight while the tugs waits with us. But how will they get those barges out of the chamber without the tug being attached?

Barges can be moved out of a Lock chamber without a tug by using a cable and hoist system known as a tow-haulage or tow-rail system at the Lock, to pull them through once the water levels have equalised. Elsewhere, the water flow itself can be used to propel unpowered barges through Locks. This is done by opening the Lock gates and allowing water to flow from the higher to the lower level, which propels the barge forward. At the Marseilles Lock, they have a tow-rail system.

Eventually, the chamber was free and we were permitted to enter with the waiting tug and be Locked-through along with it. Once the gate opened for us, we just manoeuvred past the tug and the barge group outside, and continued on our way downstream. Within 2 miles we were at the entrance to Ottawa's Heritage Harbor Marina, our stop for the night. We ate Chicago pizza and watched the TV news of the release of the Israeli hostages. I fell asleep watching a history of King Henry VIII but awoke in time to go to bed 😀.

Some notes about these Locks & Dams. The Rock Island District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains 314 miles of 9-ft navigation channel on the Mississippi River (including operation of 12 lock and dam sites) and 268 miles on the Illinois Waterway with operation of 6 lock and dam sites. On the Illinois these dams render the river as a series of lakes--most of them long and skinny--creating a a series of pools that enable navigation for commercial and recreational boats, but most importantly, commercial. At some of the dams, the opportunity is taken to generate modest amounts of hydro-electric energy.Baca lagi