We were up at 6am to leave the dock by 7 just in case we could lock through the Brandon Road Lock before the barges but they kept a comin’. We did get the ok for 8:30 to go downbound between the barges so 5 Looper boats, Joy @Sea, Cynthia Faye, Rose’s Pick, Old Fart and a Lady, and Baby Grand, locked through like pros by 9am. We have 45 miles to go and 2 more locks.
We proceeded down the river past industrial areas with petrochemical smells interspersed with forested areas showing slight foliage change and duck blinds on the river banks. We did the Dresden Lock at milepost 271.5 pretty easily and the lockmaster had the smaller boats on rope lines and the larger ones on the bollards. At Sugar Island, milepost 261.3, we saw evidence of the recent floods with a camper in the water and a pontoon boat tossed on its side 20 yards on shore.
We steered up top today as it was sunny but cool. We lowered the bimini and it felt like we were toolin’ around in a woody convertible.
The real excitement for the day started at the Marseilles Lock. We were told at 1:45 that there would be a 2 hour wait but when we checked later, the lockmaster told us to “come on down” and anchor to the side of the lock. We proceeded down a long, narrow channel that you would not want to encounter a barge. We were aware that there was a barge in the lock in front of us and another, coming up behind us. Bob and I did a test anchor and with now 6 “pleasure vessels/crafts” in a small area, this lockmaster plan was not going to work. Instead, we did a slow waltz in place for 1 hour wasting a lot of diesel fuel but managing to avoid being bumper boats. Then, the barge minus the “pusher” was expelled from the lock via a cable which left a slot of about 50 feet behind that Looper boats could use to enter the lock downbound.
Mission accomplished and we all proceeded to Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa about 2 miles south. We were greeted by the marina manager, Mike, who expertly handled all 5 boats docking simultaneously. Captain Moe, a former Looper, joined us on the dock and opened up the excursion boat for all of us to have a very comfortable “Captain’s Meeting”.
We proceeded down the river past industrial areas with petrochemical smells interspersed with forested areas showing slight foliage change and duck blinds on the river banks. We did the Dresden Lock at milepost 271.5 pretty easily and the lockmaster had the smaller boats on rope lines and the larger ones on the bollards. At Sugar Island, milepost 261.3, we saw evidence of the recent floods with a camper in the water and a pontoon boat tossed on its side 20 yards on shore.
We steered up top today as it was sunny but cool. We lowered the bimini and it felt like we were toolin’ around in a woody convertible.
The real excitement for the day started at the Marseilles Lock. We were told at 1:45 that there would be a 2 hour wait but when we checked later, the lockmaster told us to “come on down” and anchor to the side of the lock. We proceeded down a long, narrow channel that you would not want to encounter a barge. We were aware that there was a barge in the lock in front of us and another, coming up behind us. Bob and I did a test anchor and with now 6 “pleasure vessels/crafts” in a small area, this lockmaster plan was not going to work. Instead, we did a slow waltz in place for 1 hour wasting a lot of diesel fuel but managing to avoid being bumper boats. Then, the barge minus the “pusher” was expelled from the lock via a cable which left a slot of about 50 feet behind that Looper boats could use to enter the lock downbound.
Mission accomplished and we all proceeded to Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa about 2 miles south. We were greeted by the marina manager, Mike, who expertly handled all 5 boats docking simultaneously. Captain Moe, a former Looper, joined us on the dock and opened up the excursion boat for all of us to have a very comfortable “Captain’s Meeting”.
