Day 48-50 Ottawa, Illinois

Today was the most interesting and stressful day so far. We had to go through three locks today which was about 40 miles. It took us 15 hours and finally docked around 9pm. And I learned a new thing about power management. This sounds simple- keep the batteries charged. The thing I didn’t realize, was by not doing this, you can wear a battery down so much it will not re-charge. The electronic equipment still worked and the lights worked, but the refrigerator was starting to defrost a little. We thought this was due to a loose door, which I tightened up and thought was fixed. Let me digress and explain this a little more thoroughly…

We awoke to the sound of engines being started…We had agreed to a 6am radio call, and as of last night we were going to have to go in two groups as the lock-master requested we stagger our arrivals. We had overslept a little as we had decided we would go with the second group. I poked my head out about 6:10am and asked our neighbor what was going on? “We’re all going!” he replied. Me: “What?! I thought two groups?” “Lock-master said we can all go!” he explained. “Crap! I mean Great!”. Lauren and I hurried up, got dressed and prepared to cast off. There was a process which the boaters up river had decided due to the debris being set loose as boats pulled out. We were in the middle of the pack so to speak, so we could get out of the way of others departing. I turned the key and the engine didn’t turn over. Hmmm…I went down in the engine room and used jumper cables to jump the starting battery from the generator battery. This worked and we departed without another incident. I din’t give it a second thought…

As the flotilla departed, we ended up at the end of the pack due to our slow speed. We were now in a group of 26 boats as a couple more had arrived overnight. There were a couple of boats that were the clear ‘leaders’, as they were in contact with the locks and organizing everything, and this was fine with us. The lock-masters supposedly prefer this as it expedites the process and they don’t have to repeat themselves to everyone calling in on their own. We were buddied with another boat to raft off of due to our sizes. The flotilla arrived to our first lock of the day: Brandon Road Lock and Dam. We were told there would be a delay due to commercial traffic, so we all floated around and waited. Once we were given the green light to enter, it went smooth, with us rafting off of a very nice, newer 45 ft boat without incident. Since there were so many boats in the lock, someone was calling out for us all to shut down our engines. I understand this because no one wants to breathe in exhaust fumes for the time we were in there. We shut down and the lowering took about thirty minutes. Once we were down, we all started our engines. Except ours wouldn’t start! I ran downstairs and tried to jump it. Nothing. Here we are, tied up to another boat floating in a lock, dead on the water. I am dumbfounded and confused and embarrassed. The boat we were rafted to looks over and says “start your engine! let’s go!”. “It wont start! I’m not sure why!?” was my reply. “start your generator to charge the batteries! I’ll pull us out, but can’t go far with you”. Ok- this makes sense. I run down to start the generator, forgetting about the issue we had a couple of days earlier. I fire it up and start to come topside to check the water flow and hear the guy yelling “FIRE! FIRE! You’re on FIRE!- I’m cutting you loose!!” Holy Shit! I run down and kill the generator and pop back up topside “We’re not on fire! It was the generator not getting water!” I yelled as the black smoke clears. He is looking at me and the side of the boat to ensure there is no more smoke or fire. He slowly pulls us off the wall and heads out the gates of the lock about 100 feet. He turns to us and says “I need to let you go, I can’t pull you far”. My response was an “ok” and we certainly were grateful that he was even able to get us out of the lock. As we were being let free, his wife missed a line attached to their boat, so instead of drifting to the side of the channel, we got yanked back in the middle.

Now we are sitting in the middle of the channel, feeling helpless. I was prepared to drop anchor, but didn’t want to do this in the middle of the channel, which would block any traffic from coming and going to the lock. I had asked Lauren to call the towing company. We had signed up for TowBoat US membership, which is like AAA on the water when we purchased this boat. They have an app (of course!) or a phone number you call, then they assign a towboat to come and get you. I’m sure it is the best $85 yearly membership spent in the big picture. Tows can get very expensive very fast, but this covers us for ‘free’ since we are members. She was calling them when I got the idea to jump in the dinghy and possibly use it as a towboat to at least get us out of the way. Our little dinghy vs. 40 thousand pounds was no match. The little dinghy engine was smoking under the strain of trying to pull it, but I felt like I was making a little progress. In the mean time, another boat that was in the flotilla circled back and asked if we needed help? “Yes!” I have never felt so grateful on the water than this moment right now. “Whats the problem?” he asked. “I’m not sure- it won’t start or turn over” I replied. “Sounds like you have a dead battery or something- Toss me a line and I’ll pull you out of here”. We tossed him a line and he secured it to a bridle he had on the back of his boat. He starts pulling us forward and we start making some headway. Lauren in the mean time has made contact with the towing people, and they are inquiring about our location. I inform them we are being towed currently and not sure where I will end up. He asked me to keep him updated, and he will head our way in about an hour if we still need him. We ended up cancelling the towboat. I am now on the radio talking to Rick and Kim on SeaBatical, the boat that is towing us. He asks about the generator and I explained there is no water coming out. He gives some recommendations and I go down in the engine room to see if I can figure this out. I disconnect the hose from the seacock and no water is flowing. I use a screwdriver to poke down through, and I get a stream of water shooting out! Great! I turn off the seacock and re-connect the hose. I then try starting the generator. I come topside to see black smoke spitting out, but I also hear the sound of flowing water. Yay! That is music to my ears! the smoke goes away and water is flowing out of the exhaust. I relay this info to Rick, and he tells me there is a marina a little ways up he will get us to. He advises us to let the generator run a while to charge the batteries. We call the marina and advise them of our situation and they are good with it. We get to the marina and it is a bit shallow, so Rick gets us in the general area and lets us loose. We drift in to the docks and grab hold. Whew. We now are at least secured, albeit sideways along a couple of docks, but we are safe. The marina manager assists us in tying off and says we are fine for now, but if we stay we will have to figure out how to move us. We agree, and Lauren takes Frank for a walk while I sit on the boat listening to the generator run and hopefully charge up the batteries. Lauren and Frank returned and we had let the generator run for about and hour or so. I decided to try starting engine, and it started up! We look at each other in amazement and decide we should go ahead and leave and continue on our way.

At this point we are hours behind the group. We pull out of the marina and head down river toward the next lock: Dresdan Lock and Dam. We had another boat text us while we were charging our batteries at the marina and they advised us they were all there, but the lock was not letting them through due to commercial tug traffic. We were far behind, but not missing the lock through, yet. Now that we were running again, we were hopeful we would make it back to the group. We did make it there while they were all waiting. Again, all ending up at the same place at the same time, no matter when we left. We let the ‘leaders’ know we were back, and it was nice to hear encouragement from others. We all had to hang out again and wait, so we just motored around in slow circles, staying out of the way of traffic until it was our turn. This lock-master wanted two groups, so one half of the group went first and we waited until we finally got the green light. Since this lock was smaller and there were half as many boats, we were teamed up with a boat on either side of us. We rafted off of one boat, and another boat rafted off of us. Once in, we were advised to again shut down the engines. I was a little hesitant, but figured if it started after charging, and we’d been running this long, we should be okay. We decided to leave the generator running but turn off the engine. Wrong. Once again the lock gates started to open so we all fired up our engines. Ours would turn over a little, but wouldn’t start. Then nothing. Flabbergasted I ran downstairs to jump it. This did not work. Now the boat on the outside of us is leaving and it should be our turn next. Lauren is explaining the situation to the boat we’re rafted on, and basically preparing to get pulled out of a lock. Again. Twice in a day. FML. I am still trying everything I can to get juice, including grabbing our winch battery to try using that. One last try before we have to depart- rumble, rumble- It starts! I almost had tears of joy! Lets get out of here now! We undo our lines and we pull out of the lock on our own power. It is about 28 miles to the next and last lock of the day. Here we go.

The last 28 miles were a stream of boats in single file order, the slowest at the rear. We were the rear. There was another boat with twin engines having engine trouble, so he was running on one engine at low RPM’s and was actually a little slower than us. We had informed the leaders of the pack we would not be shutting our engine down in this lock. We of course had to get ‘permission’ from the lock-master, but there was no way I was shutting down before we pulled into a marina. Even if this meant waiting longer and locking through solo. No way. Just after this last lock is a marina called Heritage Harbor Marina. It is known as a “Looper Stop” and has lots of amenities, including courtesy cars for shopping, a pool, restaurant and many other not listed here. We had called ahead and secured a spot for the night or two.

We all got to the last lock, Marseilles Lock and Dam around 7pm. The first group was locking through, and there was a tug with a barge waiting to come up. Then he had to couple to another barge and pull them both out. This meant we would be waiting another hour and half at least for this to happen. Some dropped anchors out of the way. Some tied off to a wall. We just floated in place, engines running, and did large circles when we had to get out of the way or were drifting. We had been given the approval to keep our engines running, but we were to be the last to enter the lock. This was fine with us, we didn’t have to raft and our exhaust would be in the back. As we were waiting to enter a large tow boat showed up and the lock-master inquired if he wanted through? He replied he would wait for us all to go, or come in with us if there was room. We all agreed it would be fine to allow him to lock with us. We entered the lock, and with us being the last, there was nothing for us to tie up to. They dropped a line from the top of the wall to the bow and stern, and Lauren and I hung on for dear life. Due to the turbulence of the water draining, and the tug keeping its engines on too, it was everything we could do to hold a 19 ton boat to the wall. We could not tie the line to the boat because we had to pay out line as we dropped depth. Our hands were hurting holding on so tightly and the boat pulling farther and farther out from the wall. Mercifully this came to an end after about 25 minutes which felt like at least 4 hours!

The boats were pulling out of the lock one by one, and we could hear the lead boats making contact with the marina. We were on the list, and the marina reached out to each boat staying there. They were awesome, and even sent out a guide boat to guide us all in to the harbor. At this point it was pitch black dark, and no one was familiar with the area. We had to enter one by one, while their team met each boat at the dock to assist with docking. We were called to our spot and was met with dock hands on each side, ready to help us tie off. We were advised there will be a meeting in about 30 minutes for the loopers, and they had kept the kitchen and bar open for all the new arrivals. This is hospitality at its finest!

Once were secured and plugged into the shore power, we made our way to the meeting. The harbormaster did a run down of every stop, anchorage and good marinas from Ottawa to St. Louis as well as what to look out for. We took notes and ordered a bite to eat and chatted with some others in the group. I received some advice about the batteries and Rick loaned me his hydrometer to test the battery fluid in the cells.

Once all was done, we retired back to the boat. I took Frank for a last walk and met up with our rafting partner along the wall at Joliet. Rob on Captain Willee invited me over for a nightcap, which I accepted. We were drinking some bourbon with another boater and friend of his, when one guy looks at me and says “Dude, your dog is gone.” I had tied him up to a cleat on the dock, but he is like Houdini sometimes. Off I went to track down a dog in the middle of the night. I was thankful Lauren was sleeping, as she would give me hell for this. Rob gave me his flashlight and I went searching. I circled the yards and was looking on the docks when I heard someone yell out “I found a dog!” I ran over there and found he had wandered into a newly constructed neighborhood next to the marina. Thankful for the return, I took Rob his light back and called it a night.

We knew we would face some challenges, and this was one. The next morning Lauren woke me up asking if Frank ran away? I asked how she knew, and she told me a neighbor boat “heard a commotion” and someone calling for him. I was caught. I had told Frank not to tell, so I knew it wasn’t him, but was leary of the cats ability to keep secrets. We spent 3 nights at the marina, using the courtesy car to go to town to stock up on food supplies and auto parts store. I purchased a new hydrometer and returned the borrowed one to Rick. I also dropped them a bottle of wine and a thank you note in appreciation of their assistance. We cleaned up the boat and relaxed for a day. Now we have to get through one more lock that is scheduled to close, Starved Rock Lock and Dam, then we can slow down and meander down the river at a leisurely pace or else we would probably stay here for another day or two. We have two days to get through it. We will still have a couple of more locks to go through, but we can also separate from the pack and go on our own time. At this point I think we’ve solved our battery issues. I’ve ‘equalized’ them and I checked all fluids and the readings were great. They are brand new batteries, so I was lucky I didn’t ruin them. We also have a better idea about power management, and will run the generator nightly if not plugged in to ensure the batteries are topped off.

I’ll keep posting, and it’s great to hear from people reading. Please leave comments for us, as it is good motivation to keep blogging!