Lady V - Great Loop Voyage: DAY 30 - HERITAGE HARBOR OTTAWA TO ILLINOIS VALLEY YACHT CLUB, PEORIA (74.4 MILES)

Heritage Harbor Ottawa to Illinois Valley Yacht Club, Peoria (M 167.9 - M 242.3 = 74.4 miles)

Another early morning up at 6:00 am. We called our next lock to check the traffic situation and they were not busy. Out we headed for Starved Rock Dam which was an hour away. We were in and out quickly. The channel now is much wider and you can see how low the water level is on the sides. Depth in the channel often went down to 8.1 feet. We overtook and passed tows going in both directions. There is proper protocol when interacting with commercial traffic.

When overtaking (both vessels heading the same way)

‘See you on the one’ - means we overtake him on our port

‘See you on the two’ - means we overtake him on our starboard

When passing (vessels going in opposite directions)

‘See you on the one’ - means we pass port to port

‘See you on the two’ - means we pass starboard to starboard

At about noon the Lower Peoria Lake, a part of the Illinois River became very wide for the last half hour of our trip today. We were able to open up Lady V to 24.5 knots.

We received excellent guidance into the Illinois Valley Yacht Club via the radio on 68 because the entrance is very shallow. We had a reading as low as 2.2 feet! Yes, again lots of mud was churned up! After we were safely docked it is beer time! It is really hot today 33 C, feels like 45 C. We were invited to have dinner at the yacht club and that sounded good to us. It was very good with very friendly staff.