Henry, IL

Oct 15 – 19

Henry, IL – Henry Harbor Marina

To make a long story short we are here in Henry, IL because we are waiting on insurance.  Not enough experience, boat too big, want our first born.  You name it it was said by the insurance companies.  We must laugh as we both have at least 15,000 miles under our belts plus all the time spent on our smaller boats over the years.  Finally we contact some fellow Loopers we met in 2017 and chatted with them.  Found the broker and waited the weekend.   Then the documents came through, signed and sealed.  Finally we can move on. 

Yes it is our fault.  No, this is not normal for us to be so unprepared.  We were caught off guard with the permit.  No excuses, just the truth.  So we spent 4 days in Henry, IL.  We caught up on the blog.  We were able to chat with family because the wifi is so good.  The only problem was that we ran out of water.  What now…..so we had 4 x 1 gallon water bottles.  After 2 attempts at bringing out Carrie, our trusty grocery getter, filling at the marina and bringing the bottles back to the boat on the lock wall we decided to go buy water at the grocery store.  We filled up our water bottles in the boat and then dumped 10 gallons at a time into the tank.  It took us all afternoon but we have a full tank.  We were pretty proud of ourselves.

Last night we ended up with lock mates.  An older woody style trawler and a sailboat that came in for diesel.  After some chat they mentioned they needed water.  So the owners brought out hoses, connected the hose to one of the marina spouts, brought the hose across the marina, through the main boat channel, draped the hose across the gravel and filled the fella’s tank.  We decided that we would fill our other tank now.  We got our steps in today, but this is so much easier.  Now full of fuel and water we are ready for the pump out in the morning before we head out. 

Our neighbours were gone when we woke so we had some breakfast and brought the boat to the pump out/fuel dock.  Then we pushed off to continue south.  Coffee in hand, engines start, lines drawn and fenders up cruising to the lock. 

We found this dock alongside a restaurant where you buy dinner and stay the night.  So we decide that will be tomorrow’s destination.  It’s a great secret spot that not too many boaters know about.  So if you are stuck waiting for the Peoria Lock just tie up at Kuchie’s on the water, enjoy the meal and sleep the night away.  Afterall the lock is only 2 miles up so getting ready in the morning should be easy.