We started the day out a little later this morning. Up at 6:00 and out by 7:30 AM. Scott did some routine maintenance prior to us leaving. The boat is getting pretty dirty and it drives me crazy. No time to clean. Even though you sit and watch while you drive it is a constant watch for any debris so no clean up gets done. With our days of driving so long and then dinner and bed early there is no off time, so to speak. We headed out with the next stop being Illinois Valley Yacht Marina for a last diesel fill up before heading through the flood areas. Some are still in the red zone but recreational boats are able to pass through. About 2 miles into our journey, going with the current, the starboard engine starts to heat up. Scott instantly knows what the problem is. Thank goodness he watches the gauges so often. Scott had forgotten to open one of the stopcocks for the water to cool the starboard engine. He didn’t want all the crap water sitting in the bilge and so he closed all the stopcocks. Normally he uses the water to rinse but if you see and smell this water you would know why. We fried the impeller. So shutting off the starboard engine we head back to our overnight spot. The tough spot is that it is narrow being an old lock but the current here is pretty quick. Not sure the speed but its moving. On one engine he comes back to our wall. No problems but a lot of drama to get the 3 of us in position and ready to go. Scott has extra impellers so he worked on the engine for about an hour. I don’t know how people drive boats without knowing about them. There is always something. Then we were off again but with the time to drive back, change out the impeller and then get going again we lost about 2 ½ hours of driving time.
We start to head down the river to IVY with no more issues. We pass a lot of barges and their tows. It has become common place for us now to pass these monstrous walls of metal and power. We have seen several asian carp jumping behind the boat. One very large one jumped about the height of the dingy. It’s very amusing to watch but knowing what they are doing to the waters here it is also a sad reminder of how careless us humans have become. The folks here are constantly fishing them out, killing them and trying to help with their population numbers. I think it is a never ending battle that us humans will lose. Sitting in Henry we saw thousands of baby minnow ones jumping constantly in the shallow waters.
Getting to IVY to diesel up for the next trek, not needing much but it is security, we realize it has become mid afternoon. The decision to press on to do another 60 miles quickly passes. By the time we gas up and move on it would be too late in the day to find an anchor spot and rain is forecasted. We decide to make it a work day. Catch up on overdue laundry, grocery items, and fix our master head. I forgot to mention that the master head stopped working about a week ago so we used the other head.
IVY is a beautiful facility in the middle of nowhere. A reprieve for Loopers (people who decide to do this portion of our trip then continue to Florida, up the Atlantic Ocean coast to New York City, up the Hudson River, through the Erie Canal to Lake Erie and then around the Great Lakes). In fact, it is considered a Looper Refuge during the journey south. IVY has all the amenities like showers, laundry, gas and diesel, and a bonus of a swimming pool. It is very interesting to see how the folks along the Illinois River deal with continuous flooding. Their docks are attached to a barge with finger docks coming out and holding boats. The entire unit floats up and down as the water levels change. This last flood went up at least 14 feet and they didn’t loose a boat.
Just before dinner while the laundry was being done and the toilet fixed, we went for a swim. It felt so good after pressing on for so many days just to get to a spot and then prepare for the next part of the journey.
This will be our last stop on the way to St. Louis area as there are limited areas for boats of this size and depth. Tomorrow we anchor out but we aren’t sure where just yet. Our plan is to make it to Beardstown, IL where several choices await us.
