Up at dawn to leave the dock at 6:45 am to get thru the McDonough Bridge (17’) before the restricted time of 7:30 - 8:30 am when it will not open due to rush hour traffic. We proceeded to the Brandon Gate Lock and were there at 7:00. We had to wait for them to fill it and then going down only one valve was working so it took 35 minutes for the 34 foot descend. The channel is wider now, no traffic so far but still a lot of ‘NO WAKE’ zones. At 10:15 am we left Lock 4 - Dresden Lock. We arrived at Lock 5 - Marseilles Lock at 12:00. There was a whole slew of tows ahead of us ~ Saint Boomin’, City of Joliet and Windy City. After an hour and a half of just drifting in the channel we finally received permission to tie up to a mooring cell. I had to lasso the lines on. We were finally called into the lock at 5:00 pm. A five hour delay. Just two miles to Heritage Harbor Ottawa. The entrance was very shallow 3.2 - 4.5 feet. We were churning up mud. This is a very nice now marina and docks. After a cold shower we had supper at the ‘Red Dog Restaurant’. We met our first loopers Mike and Cyndie Dyer aboard ‘Imagination’, a 50’ 1979 Chris Craft. They are almost done the Great Loop. Their home is Nashville, Tennessee. They had a lot of interesting stories for us which we enjoyed over a few cold beers.
 |
| Marseilles Lock - Our 5th Lock going down |
 |
| Tied up to a mooring cell |
 |
| Heritage Harbor Ottawa Marina Dock |
No comments:
Post a Comment