Henry, IL to Peoria Heights, IL (Illinois Valley Yacht Club)

Sitting here on the wall in Illinois Valley Yacht Club after a peaceful (but a bit chilly and dull) passage of about 29 miles.

We decided on this location because we are in a very shallow pool and there weren't many alternatives.  As it turns out, this was an excellent choice!

Most of trip here was (as Chuck put it when he handed the wheel over to me for a couple of hours) "this is just another long stretch of long stretches".  And, he was right.

This part of the route had a few tows to meet and pass, but it was mostly being either in rather wild bird sanctuary territory or narrow portions of the river with a narrow channel and houses that back up on the river on both sides.

While we saw more turkey buzzards and bald eagles, our most frequent travelling companions were American White Pelicans. While we assumed that these were just birds from other areas here for migratory purposes, it turns out that they are basically midwest natives.

We called ahead and talked first to the bartender at IVY (Illinois Valley Yacht Club) who said they would definitely have room for us, but there might be a problem with our 5 foot draft.  After we talked later to the harbormaster, we decided that, while we might push a bit of silt and much entering from the river, we wouldn't run hard aground.  Plus, the actual harbor is maintained by dredging and is deeper.  So we forged ahead.

When we arrived, we did  do a bit of plowing to come in, but only perceived as slowing down a bit and no bumps.  After topping off with Diesel and pumping out the huge holding tanks, we pulled Dutchess forward manually and tied up along a 70 foot wall.  A few minutes later, we had shore power hooked up and we secured for the night.

We wandered up the stairway to find the head as directed by the dockmaster and were hailed by club members in the bar who were having a Sunday football party.  Oh, yeah, and pot-luck snacks and stuff.

"Come on in and help us eat some of this stuff.  Steve, give these guys a beer"  Before we were able to politely say "Thanks, that would be great" were were eating chili and savoring ice-cold Stella on draft.

We would highly recommend stopping here, but you have to wait for next year since this is the last day the fuel dock will be open until next April!

This view shows Dutchess as she lay tied to the wall here in Peioria Heights, IL.  Note that there seems to be gap between the wall and our boat.  That's becuase there is less than our draft available and when we pulled her in alongside, that was the closest we could get.  When people along the river refer to their "pool" they mean the average depth of the river pool nearby.  Since any river that is dammed and has locks has variable depths, a pool that is normal makes for dramatic changes when it is higher (excess water flow in or not enough out) or lower (excess flow out or not enough in).

At this point, this area is very low and that's why we had problems coming in.

On the other hand, evidence of higher than normal pool can be seen by looking carefully at the enlarged view of this picture.  In case you didn't notice, there is a high water mark just below the windows here.  It is from this past June!  The pool was high enought that everything below and including those red stairs was below water for a few days.

The dockmaster noted that this club has been operating for over 110 years and this is only the third time that this degree of high water has happened.  But, he has worked there for 12 years and it has happened twice!

This summer, the Illinois was closed to all through traffic for a few weeks in multiple chunks as the water was too high to safely allow lock operation.