Life's Good on Our Boat

A post by Mark

One of the most surprising aspects of this trip so far is how much I’ve appreciated seeing ‘old technology’ and realizing how it really makes America ‘go’. Barges, towboats, freight trains, grain elevators, coal depots, dams and locks, oil and gas pipelines, etc. It is amazing how big and powerful all of these things are…  

Passing a tow pushing a 15 barge block (3 wide by 5 long) has not gotten old – and I don’t suspect it will. It is pretty amazing to watch a barge getting filled with grain from an old, rusty-looking (but in perfect working order) elevator.

 Its also pretty cool watching cranes lifting cargo out of railcars and into barges. The raw power of river towboats is awe-inspiring – and its fun to talk to the tow captains on the VHF radio (I even have most of the lingo down). Dropping 40’ in a gravity fed lock is nearly unbelievable. 

 The most impressive thing (for me) is realizing that the technology that designed all of this stuff is ‘old.’  These things were created by teams of  smart people using slide-rules, drafting tables, and statistical tables – not high-powered computers and other modern tools.  

Almost makes me wish I were a better engineer. 

A post by Mark 

One of the questions I was often asked when describing our trip was “Aren’t you worried you would get bored?”. I’d always say ‘no’ – but didn’t always know why. Well, one week in, I can enthusiastically say that the trip has been anything but boring. 
By car, it takes about 5 ½ hrs to get from Racine to St. Louis. As I write this, we’re a little more than ½ to St. Louis – so, about ‘3 driving hrs’ into our trip (7 boat days so far). In those 3-hours of driving, we’ve encountered 6 to 8 foot seas on Lake Michigan, played Frogger with barges on the Chicago Sanitary Canal, waited out a good ‘ole Midwestern tornado warning and string of pretty good thunderstorms, dealt with the river flooding, ran through strong currents and standing waves on the river, and were kept awake most of one night by debris floating downstream and banging into our boat. While each of these experiences has been exciting- we were never scared or in danger , as we had through out each situation, we took our time, figured out plans A, B, C, etc, and were ‘in control’ each time. 

There was, however, one glaring exception two nights ago (spoiler alert – turned out to be completely harmless – but, at the time, it scared the bejesus out of me).   

Here’s the situation – We were tied up at the public dock in Ottawa – a nice, small town in IL. It’s a neat place with a small downtown, a few restaurants, and some cute shops. The founder of the Boy Scouts lived here – and there is a neat little museum dedicated to scouting (both Boy Scouts and all similar organiztions). Lastly, it was the site of the first Lincoln / Douglas debates. All in all, a pretty neat place.

Friday night, as the day was winding down, we finished dinner and were settling in for the evening. We were listening to the marching band at the football game across the river from our dock. Around halftime, as we discussing what we wanted to have for desert, we heard incredibly loud banging, followed by frantic splashing in front of our boat. About 5 seconds later, there was more loud banging and splashing under the center portion of our catamaran, and a few seconds later, a huge splash behind our boat and finally, something banging into the bottom of our dinghy that is suspended about 3 or 4 ft above the water. Julie and I leapt up from the table and bounded outside – not knowing what we were going to find – but figuring it wasn’t going to be good. Had someone fallen into the water and was struggling to get out? A person, a dog? (Sounded more like the size of a cow).  Did the boat in front of us break loose and crash into us? Something worse? We had no idea what it could be. We get to the deck and see nothing. We hop onto the dock to keep looking and still see nothing. On the dock, we run into our neighbors (a couple of “Loopers”* from Cape Cod). They too were thinking something bad happened – but then chuckled as they quickly figured out what happened. Turns out, we had just witnessed a school of Asian carp flopping around – first in front of our boat and then underneath and behind it. Apparently, every once in a while, schools of these huge, (10 to 30 lb) carp start jumping – excited by a certain frequency in the water, usually from a passing boat motor. I had heard of Asian carp – but didn’t know much about them. Still don’t know too much – other than that they can be the scariest part creatures on Earth when they plan a ‘sneak attack’.

So… a week in, our trip is anything but boring. Or warm… today, I was wearing long underwear, 2 shirts, a fleece sweatshirt and full rain gear (it wasn’t raining – but it was in the low 50s and the wind was blowing ~20 mph right at us).

I’m having a great adventure, but there is a little part of me that can’t wait to be a bit too hot and a little bored 😊. Those days will be here soon enough (although, I still don’ think I’ll be bored – there will always be challenges on this trip).

Until I get Wifi again…

Mark

 
Until next post…
 
Mark
 
*Loopers are folks doing the ‘Great Loop’ – a 2,600 mile journey on a loop that passes through the Great Lakes, down the inland rivers to Mobile AL, around the tip of FL, and back up to the Great Lakes via the Erie Canal (or a few other inland paths back to the Great Lakes). We’re traveling ~ ½ the Loop

It has been an interesting – and at times, difficult – few days. Note – I’m surely not complaining, as difficult doesn’t equal bad – just difficult…

It all started on Friday – my last day of work. After nearly 16 years at Diageo, it was pretty difficult to walk away. Lots of mixed emotions. While I know I’m doing the right thing for my family and me – it was hard to take that final step away from my ‘comfortable’ life.

Saturday was busy – final preparations on the boat. Nothing major, just a ton of last minute jobs. All was going well for a Sunday AM departure until we re-checked the marine forecast. Small craft advisories with a lot of wind and waves in our face the entire trip to Wilmette – where we were planning to spend the night and meet with many of our friends. After a near-sleepless night with big winds in our marina, we awoke to no change in the forecast. We had to make the hard decision to stay-put and cancel our get-together. Bummer… but, the right call – as we will always put our safety and wellbeing ahead of our planned schedule.

On the positive side, Sunday was a great day – we took Willie on a long walk to the beach and let him play with his friend Rosie (and our friends Spencer and Martha).

We got an early start on Monday – leaving the marina at 6 AM, allowing us to view the sunrise over Lake Michigan. It was spectacular – definitely worth the early rise. We had a very calm, flat, and enjoyable (although a bit chilly) ride to Belmont Harbor in Chicago. The highlight was seeing our neighbors Bob and Laura waving a big red flag for us as we passed by Wilmette Harbor – it was great to see them. We picked up a mooring In Belmont harbor for the night – and were in bed by 7:30 (I was probably asleep within 2 min).

Tuesday morning, we had another tough decision. We were about 15 miles from Crowley’s boat yard where we had our mast taken down. The forecast was iffy – not great in the morning (rough, following seas), but set to deteriorate significantly over the next two days (winds up to 30 kts, 8-12 ft waves, etc). We decided to leave at daybreak and had a bumpy ride to Calumet harbor on the south side of Chicago. While it was a more exciting ride than we would have liked, we all made it in one piece (the girls slept through most of it). Pulling into the marina, we had our first encounter with a barge. We had to pass in front of one as we tried to dock (I have to say ‘tried’ as I came in a bit too fast after motoring in front of the barge and had to do a ‘redo’). Oh well… based on the reaction of the guys on the dock, we weren’t the first boat to have an issue here. Anyway – the rest of the day went well. The mast came down without a hitch and Lucy, Sally, Julie and I did a good job packing up the mast for its trip down to Mobile. Heidi did a good job keeping Willie calm (he had a tough morning – as he’s still getting used to the sounds and vibrations of the engines). It is now dark and raining, and we are spending the night at Crowley’s. Unless the Lake Michigan marine forecast changes significantly, we’re going to head down the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal vs heading back out to the lake to go through downtown Chicago as we had hoped. We’ll see (here’s hoping for better weather).

Anyway – that’s all for now – 5 busy days. Not all easy – but all good days.